My name is Beth Anderson. I'm a nurse, and I like to make websites. I'm also 
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Breathing New Life into OrientedX3
By Beth | May 19, 2008
If you go take a look at Orientedx3, you’ll see I’ve been performing some much needed CPR on it. It’s definitely a work in progress, as there is much to be done as far as the style and substance are concerned. But I thought it would be great if all of you out there could tell me what you think about it. My aim is to build a site that is actually useful to people. I’m going to be blogging about it all this week at PixelRN and so feel free to chime in on the discussion. Love it? Hate it? Completely indifferent? I welcome any and all feedback.
First let me tell you about my original vision:
In early 2007 I had the idea to start working on a website/blog that would serve as an aggregator for all things on the web that were related to nursing. I knew this could be done in an automated way through RSS feeds and PHP, but I just didn’t know how to do it. So instead I decided to launch OrientedX3 as a Wordpress blog, and just update it manually. This proved to be a lot of work, and then two things happened which completely sidetracked me:
1. Benjamin came along
2. NursingLink hired me as general manager.
I’ve since left NursingLink behind, but fortunately Ben is here to stay. About six weeks ago I started working less and staying at home more, and I decided I wanted to finish what I had started. In the process I came across two other sites that were doing something similar to what I had in mind: Popurls and Alltop. If they could do it, so could I. I was immediately inspired to pick up where I left off.
In the past year I’ve learned a little bit of PHP. Well, enough really to get me into trouble. Certainly not enough to build my own RSS agregator from scratch. But then I found an awesome Wordpress plugin called Simple Pie, and I was off and running.
And voila! Here it is. So what do you think?
One thing I have been wondering specifically is: Do you think a site like this could be useful?
One may ask, how is this different from using Bloglines or Google Reader to keep track of blogs and news stories?
I don’t know. I just like the idea of everything related to nursing on the same page. I like to think that this page would be a great answer to the question, “How do nurses use the Internet?” Unfortunately, sometimes I wonder if anyone is really asking this question.
Some drawbacks…
Not all nursing websites are savvy to the concept of RSS feeds, and therefore, I can’t include them on this page. For instance, I enjoy reading what the Center for Nursing Advocacy has to say. I don’t always agree with them, but I like the fact that they are doing something interesting. But there are no RSS feeds to be found on their site. Same with the ANA. Not a single use of RSS. I think this is going to change eventually. The vast majority of people’s eyes glaze over when I mention RSS but I think that feed technology is here to stay. It’s just going to take a little longer to catch on.
I’d also like to have a bigger section that tracks what nurses are saying on forums, but the big ones, Allnurses and NursingLink don’t use feeds for their forums. As you can see I’ve included NursingVoices, and Nursing Informatics Online.
Tomorrow: I’ll explain my fascination with Twitter, and why I chose to include it on OrientedX3.
Topics: Social Networking, nursing |
May 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Yes, a site like this could be useful. While not all nurses are terribly tech savvy, I’ve noticed that the ones who blog tend to be slightly more cutting edge. It seems that this will be your main audience; nurses who blog, and nurses who are internet-savvy. For the ones who aren’t into it, well, they are kind of a lost cause in this regard.
I like the nursing twitter thing. I just got an Ipod touch so I am now going to have to look into it. But on orientedx3, it provides a fun snapshot.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I am a lazy scroller. Maybe put the titles of the posts a bit closer together vertically.
I like categories. You might want to consider categorizing the feeds by nurse blogs (thank you for including mine!), the news, forums, etc.
I love the twitter, but the font is too thick. It needs to be visually different from the other feeds. Use a thinner font? When everything appears bold, it overwhelms my visual cortex :-)
Lastly, I’m not crazy about the color scheme. This blog looks so *pretty* … but Ox3 is kind of blah.
The other sites you referenced here overwhelm me as well (Alltop and the other one… like I said, I’d rather type out why I’m not scrolling up to find out the other site than actually scroll up). It would look better (to me.. I’m aware that not everyone is as overwhelmed as I am) if things were categorized. Maybe make categories as a drop down menu of sorts. Make the page itself really simple and let users make it as complicated as they’d like. So when I click on the “nurse blogs” category, the nurse blogs show up and when I click it again, they go away so I can focus on the next category.
That’s probably enough feedback for now, eh Beth? :) :) :)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:12 am
I love the idea of the site, but agree with Geena about its look - I guess colours and style are something you will look at but I think the idea of drop down boxes and maybe sidebars instead of the way it is now. Could there be a search facility for the topic you are interested in?
This is great work in progress Beth; keep at it, I think it will be a wonderful resource!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:44 am
I think this is a great concept. I just came across some research the other day that indicates that the healthcare industry overall is behind the curve in the blogging and “social networking” landscape, so it is interesting to see how many nurses are out there actively blogging, twittering, etc.
As far as the look, I like how clean it is, but maybe some more organization and category menus would be helpful.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thanks, everyone, for your feedback! I think some of you have read my mind. I am currently trying to organize this thing into categories but am having a few tech. problems with Simple Pie.
@Geena: totally agree with you, as far as it looking kind of blah. At first I was going for that kind of minimalistic look they do so well at Alltop but I don’t think it’s working for me. I’m going to make some style changes and hopefully get them implemented later in the week (in between Ben’s naps that is…*sigh*)
May 20th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
i am one of the non tech savvy nurses. actually, i’m the exact opposite of those who understand anything about the whole website thing. i actually still do not know how to post pictures on my blog, that’s the proof of how behind i am.
that being said, (i remember you hate that line, so i’ll just use it once:)) i have no technical suggestions, but i tend to agree with geena about it looking plain.
anyway, thanks for including me. i always have the honor of being on top just because it’s alphabetical. i think that’s a good thing :)
May 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
You can use http://www.feedburner.com to aggregate RSS Feeds and do many things with them
May 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Beth I have never used Simple Pie, and I am not even a nurse (I am a patient who has a considerable respect for nurses), but I do have a lot of experience with WordPress themes, and if I can help you, just let me know
donsingleton@cox.net