Some of our potential clients do not require detailed guidance text on legislation – they already understand the basics, they simply want updates on environmental legislation. They want to know what is changing, when, how and why. We have always offered updates as part of our various services, but now we are pleased to offer it as a stand-alone service. Priced at a very competitive 120$ per year per province and with all our Federal information free, we hope this new service will keep you on top of legislative changes. Sign up today and the first month is free.

Here is a sample of one our monthly updates.

This past week we made a number of User Interface improvements, you can now quickly search for ISO 14001 Impacts and Aspects, particularly important updates are highlighted with a red arrow and we improved the filters for the updates.

Old Filters:

New Filters:

Important Bulletins have a red triangle:

In Nimonik, we offer a centralized calendar with most of the important environmental dates. This feature gives you quick access to updates, reporting dates and your permits. We were not happy with the way it looked, it was not using the screen space efficiently and was just plain ugly. So, this weekend, I scratched this itch. Take a look at the before and after. Before: After:

We have recently completed a new feature in Nimonik. Our “Dates” function allows you to see a calendar of important environmental dates. Three types are displayed

1. Legislative updates are mentioned based on the date written and date in effect.
2. Important reporting dates are on the calendar (NPRI, GHG, Hazardous Materials…).
3. Any documents you upload to your facilities are posted to the calendar as expiration dates approach.

See this video to better understand the new feature. Let us know what you think!

P.S. Soon, you will be able to synchronize the calendar with your desktop application (Microsoft Outlook, iCal, and others).

We work in environmental law, but we are also web experts. Designing for the internet and it’s wide variety of users is very challenging, no one does it perfectly. That being said, it is becoming indispensable to design websites well. Users have many places to go for information, if you do not design well, they will just click on out of there. The Globe and Mail, Canada’s premier newspaper just redesigned their website and my verdict is: Disaster.

The previous version was not amazing, but this is truly a mess.

Below is a screenshot and here are a few notes. My main complaints, as a web designer and usability professional are:

1. Four!, different ways to navigate the site (see blue lines). More is not better, it is confusing.
2. Hideous banner as the first thing you see. I understand the need for advertising revenue, but this comprimises the entire reader experience – thus reducing readership and advertising. (see red lines)
3. Red headlines and Black headlines – consistency?
4. Red lines to seperate articles – drawing your attention to the lines instead of the articles
5. Confusing search options
6. Over 10 unique colours on the various design elements – 3 or 4 is the maximum.
7. Drop down menus where the top link acts as a link! It should only trigger the drop down or don’t do a drop-down.

I could go on. But, largely, this redesign looks like it was done on a small budget with no high quality designers. The Newspaper industry is dying because of bad design, see our post on saving newspapers through great design.

The best use of the internet to deliver newspapers is the recently released New York Times Reader (not the website). It is a truly well designed software that makes reading online as pleasurable as the print format.

The Globe and Mail is destroying it’s credibility with this low quality production.