Last night I decided to investigate just how bad the SEO was on my blog. I threw in my full name to see what’s what and here’s what came back:
No, it’s not me, it’s another Stephanie Francis with some pink hair. She’s at Anderson University in the USA, is 5ft 7 and likes to play golf.
Random.
Today I got to see my name in ink in the Irish Times Innovation supplement courtesy of an article titled ‘Lost Property’ by former print designer & now journalist Jason Walsh. You can read the article here on the Irish Times website or soak it up in the form of a PDF of the printed article. Jason approached me about the article about 2 weeks ago and in anticipation of giving my thoughts and reflections on the Fine Gael website fiasco, I had a look back at the website to see if things had changed. It appears to be more or less the same as when I last visited some time around the beginning of May.
I still maintain that the site is not fit for purpose but obviously, they have chosen to stick with it and try to make the best of it. There are a few important issues that should be addressed in my opinion, however:
1. Information Architecture: Finding your way around the site is currently a nightmare. There is a reliance on swapping content in and out of the same container on a single page that sits approximately 600px down the from the address bar. It is quite possibly out of the view of many visitors & many will miss the fact that the content they seek has loaded at all. At the very least a comprehensive search facility should be integrated to allow visitors to pinpoint information they need accurately and efficiently. Failing that, a detailed sitemap (if possible to generate based on the frame-like nature of the website) should be generated dynamically and links provided to it.
2. Remove or fix broken links: The ‘Help’ link on the main navigation appears to be an empty link along with the RSS link in the footer. While the ‘Register to Vote’ link in the main menu is faded out, it still appears as a menu item. Leaving it visible on the menu although inactive might be optomism on the part of FG looking to the possibility of a general election sooner rather than later but it is misleading to users and should be removed.
3. Multi-lingual content: What appears to be the Fine Gael ‘mission statement’ appears only in Irish (as far as I can see) – where is the English version? The ‘Polski’ version of the website appears to be one long page of a variety of information translated into Polish instead of the entire site being translated, something easy to achieve with a HTML website. At the very least, all content should be available as Gaeilge and more information available in other languages such as Polish, Chinese etc. Check out the brand new EU Matters website for an example of how it should & can be done.
If you’d rather keep up with all things FG via other online means, they’re on Twitter at @FineGaelIreland and Facebook and YouTube although things in the YouTube department seem to have dried up since the election fun all died down.
Want to know what heck the ‘FG website fiasco’ is/was? Here’s the story. Got any comments, thoughts or queries on the new EU Matters website launched by my colleagues at X Communications during the week? Drop them a tweet at @xcommunications or leave a comment below.
The National Concert Hall is the place to be this Thursday night if you fancy a bit of toe-tappin’ & finger-snappin’ as Conor McKeon takes to the stage rolling out the hits of the swingers including Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and The Great American Song Book. As if that wasn’t enough he’ll be up there with a 24-piece band and an orchestra with a special appearance by the wonderful Gardiner Street Gospel Choir. Conor and the band warmed up for GSGC at The Helix last month and were absolutely fab – really looking forward to hearing them tomorrow.
If that hasn’t swung it for you well then the fact that the gig is to raise money for the ’3 T’s – Turning The Tide of Suicide’. Tickets are still available from www.nch.ie. Hopefully see you there 
I’m heading home this weekend to relax, repair & shake off the weeks since I was last down there. It’s a strange place, but strange in a positive way. Peaceful, raw, beautiful, easy-going & calm while a vibrant, energetic creative current ripples quietly beneath. A place hard to put into words which is probably why it appears in art & music so often.
I’ve often taken it for granted as is easy to do when you grow up in a place & spend the best part of 17 years waking up to such scenery. I left the place 7 years ago this month & sure enough with every year that passes I enjoy getting back there more & more. Roll on Friday.
It’s been pretty quiet in terms of post frequency here this past while, partly due to busyness and partly due to trying to form this post in my head. Here goes.
SPWC – I had never heard of it before some time in March when Darragh started mentioning it & how he was going to be involved & how much he was looking forward to it. What started out as a trip to Cork to see some SPWC & visit my sister turned into volunteering for both the Cork and Dublin leg of the festival. I had no idea what to expect but was more than pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.
Out of the 2 legs, Cork was my favourite purely down to the venue (Fitzgerald Park) being able to cater better for the festival and the crowd it attracted. I was mesmerised by the sheer range of stuff I saw from fire juggling to a man going through a squash racket to a man on a 12ft unicycle. And loads more besides. My personal favourites from the festival were ‘That Man’ (Grant Goldie) and Mr. Toons, both for different reasons. The ‘That Man’ show was magical – it combined more “traditional” street performance trickery such as juggling but Grant had the very special skill of being able to interact & click with the audience down to a tee. And all without speaking a word. His contact juggling piece had me totally hypnotised, absolutely beautiful to watch & there are some beautiful shots of this on pix.ie.
Mr. Toons was amazing just for the sheer uniqueness & craziness of his show. From the 12ft unicycle to the giant balloon into which he climbs it’s just mind boggling to watch let alone wonder how on earth he came up with such an idea. Check out the pictures on pix.ie – has to be seen to be believed.
It’s rare to see such a mixture of generations all mixed together enjoying the day & that for me is one of the things I loved most about SPWC. Anything that gets families, friends, kids & big kids out, about & laughing together is a winner. Being able to do that for free & in the open air (& thankfully sunshine for the most part) was icing on the cake.
One thing that also struck me over the two weekends is how much the performers themselves seemed to love doing their shows. From time to time I’ve had chats with my dad about various professions, our own included & how most of the time you can take a step back and say “funny way to make a living!”. Certainly applies here too to all involved from the performers to the organisers and everyone in between! But I’ll bet they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks all for a fantastic experience & hopefully we’ll do it all again next year