Survey Says...

Sigh.

Happy Birthday to Us

It has been exactly one year since I published the first proto-TFRL post in my other blog (which has suffered horrible neglect since Tales started).

Two days later, I published the first "real" Tales from Redesignland.

I want to thank everyone who reads and enjoys this blog. You've totally made it worthwhile. I only wish that I could spend all of my work hours writing cartoons.

Also, tomorrow is the last day before Christmas break, so...

Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and Happy New Year!!

The Source of All Our Problems

Need I really say more?

PTSD

OK, I know for a fact that everyone on the Web Design Team reads this blog, so there's a high probability that someone (uh, everyone) might be offended. But can't we all be adults here and realize that our little team has had it's share of dysfunctionality? No??

In truth, I think we all knew things "weren't perfect" - thus the break we've had lately in our weekly meetings.

Honestly, I think most of our problems stem from lack of high level leadership (and, of course, by that I'm referring to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature <cough, cough>). There will be a post on that little problem coming soon.

Mirror, Mirror

I knew it was too good to be true!

Thank God for Committees

When we last left our hero, he was in the hands of the cruel and unfeeling Committee.

Tell It to "The Committee"

This is my last post before HighEdWeb. Sorry prophead, but your fate will hang in the balance all week. I actually don't have any ideas on how to save him from his well-deserved fate, so I'm open to suggestions.

OK, so seriously I'm divided on this issue. On the one hand I hate the oppression of committees in forcing everyone to do things the same way and to get approval. On the other hand, I've seen way too many crappy Web sites go out on campus that have no campus branding, are poorly designed, confusingly organized, and horribly written. Having a central body to enforce minimal standards actually serves to improve the overall campus Web presence.

What to do, what to do? Honestly, I hate to side with the forces of darkness, but I think the benefits of enforcing standards on a university Web site outweigh the value the individual freedom that departments are used to having. In the particular case at hand (which, of course, as always, NEVER EVER happened) though, I thought the response was a bit heavy-handed.

BTW, there's an obscure movie reference in this comic. Who knows what it is?

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

OK, I had a totally different cartoon to upload this morning, but I was pretty sure that posting that one would cost me my job, so I went with one that's not controversial in any way.

I just hope they wait to fire me until after the HighEdWeb conference next week!