A Cold Blog

I have read and am in the process of reading several book and articles on desigining for the client.  I am going to post some of these ideas and comment on them and evaluate how they can be incorporated into a acadamic envrioment, my steady job.

Acadamics is weird and needs help in this area.  I believe that experts in a particular area should be the decision makers, or at the very least have the stonger voice than, say a superior who know little about the topic.  That is why you hire experts in a particular area and manage them, not force them to do something that is possible not the best course of action.

Well here we GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My quote for this series is this:  “It’s about designing the obvious.”  Robert Hoekman. jr.

This is priceless, because it really hits home.  As designers and programmers of web applications we over complicate things to  an extreme. This is bad for the client.

There are three basic componets to ANY web application.

1.  Data
2.  Interface
3.  PEOPLE

1.  Everything on the internet is data. No matter what it is.  Simple.
2.  The interface is how data is shown to the user.  It is either manageable and user friendly or a nightmare.    The interface is what stands between the end user and their desired data.  This is were designers/programmers strive to make it user friendly.  Most the time we fail in this aspect.
3.  PEOPLE.  Without people we are unemployed :)  and bored Geeks.  People want information, use it and desire more of it.  From gosep to finicial data.  Information is information.

One thought is to look at some tabloid websites and see how they present things to their users.  Who knows it could be userful.  They actual survey their users and find out how they think and behave.

————– More l8tr.  I am worn out at the moment—————

import mx.controls.Menu;// Create a new Menu
var myMenu = Menu.createMenu(null);

// Set the root Menu node
var rootMenu = myMenu.addMenuItem({label:"root"});

// Set main Menu
var menu1 = rootMenu.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 1"});
var menu2 = rootMenu.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 2"});
var menu3 = rootMenu.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 3"});

// Set items for each menu
menu1.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 1 Item"});
menu2.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 2 Item"});
menu3.addMenuItem({label:"Menu 3 Item"});

// Set Menu data provider
var mdp = rootMenu;

Converted our Wordpress theme on the Fish site into AU’s template.  That was bear.  At least it is compelte and is in compliance now.  Overall it looks nice.

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/fish/media

This is a sweet way to revamp your windows experience.  I like the gadgets and organization you get from the tabbed docks.  It has really cleaned up my desktop.  Check it out for yourself!

http://alienware.com/intro_pages/invader.aspx 

auburnwww and my self have to revamp the AWW website.  Not fun.  Especially since it is several months earlier than I wanted to even consider doing it.

We have done several site layouts and have come up with one that should suffice.  Of course with a few changes by the client.

Figured using the Spry menus wil lsave space and allwo for a cleaner over all look.

1.  WE need one main entry page for the multiple projects that they have.

I will post a link of this pre-design look just for posteriety sake.