January 2008
Viewing 9 Posts
Jan 10, 2008

There's Always Someone Better

I'll be honest. I only started really programming two years ago. I didn't do anything at all before that. I wanted to make a website, so I went around looking at the source code of other sites, saving copies, changing things and seeing what happened visually.

Jan 10, 2008

Designing a Visionary

Aww, Steve. Much like me, Steve loves technology and sees the potential in new, innovative products. He's a visionary - not an engineer. Sure, he grew up in the technology realm, working at HP and Atari among others, but he wasn't the real "engineer" behind Apple.

Jan 10, 2008

Mobile Browsing

With the explosion of mobile technology in the last year - first with the Blackberry, then the iPhone and now a slew of touch-screen-type phones with Windows Mobile and what not - we're drastically changing the way we use the Internet.

Jan 14, 2008

Using PHP When Possible

In recent months, I've gotten in the habit of writing things in PHP arrays, using a function with a loop to actually generate HTML. This works great for anything where you have repeating elements (such as a table, lists, navigation, images, etc.). The benefit is that it's much clearer when you need to change the text - rather than looking through HTML code and brackets, you can just change the text: $arr = array( "Home" => "home.php", "About" => "about.php", "Contact" => "contact.php" ); echo '<ul>'; foreach($arr as $k=>$v) { echo '<li><a href="'.$v.'">'.$k.'</a></li>'; } echo '</ul>';

Jan 15, 2008

When Animation Goes Awry

Too many sites overuse animation. It's supposed to be a subtlety that adds to the overall user experience by making something more intuitive. For example, having something slide in and out can be very useful if you're mimicking a drawer (such as sliding comments in and out on a blog post). Other times, animation can just be unnecessary and annoying because of the time it takes.

Jan 15, 2008

Is Prototyping Necessary?

Many web designers stress the need for heavy site prototyping and planning before the actual coding happens. That is, they sit down and after outlining the information architecture, plan the design with all the images and colors, etc.

Jan 16, 2008

Design Technologists

So, in the process of finding an internship for this semester, I learned that I'm a "design technologist." What does that mean, exactly? According to Frog Design: The Design Technologist helps analyze, prototype, design, and develop an application's user-interface. He/she turns stunning ideas into working prototypes and production-quality applications — not only providing a high-fidelity implementation, but also creatively enhancing the vision of the visual and interaction designers. The DTs works closely with design analysts and business strategists to generate ideas based on their knowledge of technology platforms and their comprehensive understanding of industry-specific technology trends. He/she bridges the gap between design and technology by providing technical guidance to the creative team, facilitating the transition from design to development, and leveraging his/her design sensibilities during user interface development.

Jan 16, 2008

Mac Office 2008!

Apple announced yesterday at MacWorld the Microsoft's Office 2008 for Mac is now available. I've just installed it and it's worlds better! Why? For one, everything is contained within one window - unlike the 2004 version which put everything into separate ribbons. Word, Powerpoint and Excel are formatted the same way now - the one main window and a separate formatting palette much like Apple's Pages and Keynote.

Jan 28, 2008

Typography and Technology

In a medium where communication is key, it makes sense that understanding typography would be useful. Let it not be underestimated; typography is not simply about typing words and phrases. Rather, it's identifying why one font is better than another in one context or what sizes and colors are appropriate. Thinking about how you display text can dramatically alter the overall site experience.