Leaving a trail

I’ve learned lots of obscure terms in my quest to become Australia’s oldest digital comms person.

For example, I spent a chunk of yesterday adding breadcrumbs to all the pages in the digital version of the Annual Report that I’ve been working on.

Breadcrumbs display a path from the homepage down to the current page, with each step separated by a symbol like an arrow. For example: Home > Category > Subcategory > Current Page.

Each link in the trail, except for the current page, is clickable, allowing users to easily jump to a higher-level category or back to the homepage.

Fun geek fact: the name comes from the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, who left a trail of breadcrumbs to find their way back home.

I feel proud that I built the whole digital version of the Annual Report on my own, even if less than 10 people will probably ever read it.

I am hoping to enter it in the Australasian Reporting Awards again this year, in both the General and Online Reporting Category. This year we got Bronze in the General category and were a finalist in the Online Reporting Category. I would love to edge up from that next year.

There is a very long list of criteria for the Online Reporting Category (that I didn’t have time to read last year), with the accessibility section alone including:

Is the Report easily accessed from the website?
Is the method of navigation intuitive and easy to use?
Does the Report have a table of contents/index? Are the contents and index linked to the main sections of the Report?
Can the user move within sections and between sections? Between levels? Does the user have to go through too many levels?
Does the report provide interactive links to relevant sites/documents?
Can users quickly get the information they want? Does the user always know where they are, in the Report?
Does the Report use clarifying descriptions when necessary?
Can readers copy and paste information for their own use?
Can financial information be accessed in spreadsheet form? Is it already available in that form?
Is all referenced information linked to its relevant page?
Is there a site map and help button?

Blimey, I’m not sure I can tick all those off, but I will do my best. And breadcrumbs should help ensure “the user always know where they are in the report” bit is covered.

There was no joy in going home after finishing the breadcrumbing task as Charlie the Moodle’s IBS had flared up again.

I may have thrown a major tantrum and shed a tear about the clean up operation. Having a tantrum is a bit wasted on dogs as they might understand that your tone is not happy, but they’ve really got no idea why.

And it’s not like he can help it. But I am tired of mopping up after the little bastards and I want something to change.

However, fantasizing about retiring and moving somewhere with a garden to solve the problem probably isn’t the best way to tackle it.

I wish there was a breadcrumb trail for me to follow that would lead me to my forever home and contented life.

In other cranky news from yesterday, Australia Post informed me that a package had been delivered and “left in a safe place”. However, Australia Post gave no clues as to exactly where that safe place was. It definitely wasn’t my front doorstep.

I eventually tracked it down to two entrances over from mine and also stumbled across an mis-delivered package for the neighbours in my travels, which I dropped to the correct doorstep.

Cheers, Australia Post, love your work.

But the inconvenience is pretty inconsequential when more than 100,000 homes and businesses are without power in Queensland after terrible storms last night, which ripped roofs off homes, tipped cars over and dumped enormous hail.

Check out this insane hail pic …