wire framing image

All this talk about wireframing…

wire framing imageSo lately I’ve been trying to get into wireframing as the first step in the process of creating an web site. I’ve gone into detail about why I think it’s important in a few articles. If you’re interested in the subject I suggest that you search for wireframing. The main idea is to remove some of the waste of designing a site with expected elements. The truth is, is that many times you don’t know what those elements are going to be, so jumping into Illustrator or Photoshop to layout your design can waste a lot of time.

I just read an article, “12 Practical Tips for Creating Better Wireframes” that seemed to Continue reading

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Balsamiq Wireframe

Learning Balsamiq: Starting the Wireframe PT. 2

At this point you should have Balsamiq installed on your computer to begin wireframing the proposed site. For more information about what I’m doing I’ve written an article and posted a video that should get you up to speed. The video is only about 4 minutes so if you’re not sure what this is about, please take a moment to watch it. The link to both the article and the video is here.

In this article and video I jump into Balsamiq and start with the layout. I make some mistakes along the way and I ended up clipping off about 3 minutes of the video because I made a very big mistake. I made the error of thinking that if I added a link that saved it to a duplicate page, that the link would be transferred over to the page Balsamiq created. Oh well, did I mention I’m learning? 🙂

The video goes over the menu, canvas, option window and adding assets. I touch on how to crop an image and changing items on different elements on the canvas.

The video is located on youtube at

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robot

The all powerful Google has spoken

robotSo the title is a little bit incendiary in my opinion mainly because of my attitude toward Google lately. When Google first appeared on the WWW stage it was a breath of fresh air. Finally there was a site that seemed to want to provide a quality service that didn’t just care about money unlike many of the search engines of the time. My pre-google favorite was Alta Vista and without any hesitation I dumped AV and ran to Google. Besides having a clean interface, accurate results, and of course who could forget the, “I feel lucky” button made me want Google to succeed. This was all back in about 1999, if my memory serves me correctly. In a very short period of time Google was the most popular search engine and in my opinion the quality of their search warranted it.

That seems so long ago now. The once playful attitude and quality search has, in my opinion been replaced with a huge corporation that feels that it has the duty to police the web. Continue reading

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Balsamiq Wireframe

Learning Balsamiq: The Brief

Alright, so I mentioned in a previous article that I decided to blog as I learned Balsamiq Wireframing. I’m not going to go into why I am just now learning wireframing, you can read the article when you get the chance.

The first step in any project is that we have a goal and a means to meet that goal. This project was given to me by a friend who wants a web site that will allow him to monitor his art project. Pretty simple, right? Well, not really. When I questioned him further it turns out that it could end up being beyond my web capabilities, but I wanted to give it a try. So here is the brief.

What I was told

The idea behind his art project is to create many (unknown the exact number, but probably about 100) small sculptures that would be cheap to make and would last a while. They would probably be made out of some tough resin so each one will last. I don’t know the exact size, my assumption is that they are about 12″ tall. Each sculpture would be placed around the US by people that he knows. An example would be that person A would place it at the corner of a street in Chicago, person B could leave it at a metro station Dallas, Texas. You get the idea, a hundred of these scattered around the US.

What he wants for his site:

He wants a site that would record what happens to each of the sculptures. A way to log the location and any other information that a person would be willing to add. Each piece would have a distinguishing mark or number to identify it and the web site url. The sculptures would not have any aids like a sensor to record where they are. The info must be added by a person.

After that there isn’t too much info about the details. He’s not sure if gps should be used or if just someone using a form to add information is enough. He did mention that there needs to be as little information about the project as possible. In other words he wants to see what happens with the pieces without interference from anyone. If the sculpture get thrown away, that’s fine.

That’s generally what I know about the project. I am leaving some info out because it’s his project and I don’t want to broadcast it without his permission.

What is needed for the site:

These are my initial thoughts and until I change them, the wireframing will be based on them. He may come back and want something different, but for now I’m going to proceed this way.

  1. There must be a way for people to enter information about a sculpture. It must be dynamic and allowed to be modified.
  2. A basic info page about the project, but not too much info.
  3. Browse ability to see where individual sculptures are located and to allow someone to see where the piece has been.
  4. Less info is better, so no explanations or hints.
  5. Allow comments

Resources needed.:

  1. mySQL database
  2. Geolocation ability based on IP (can be over-ridden by person)
  3. Map of the sculpture’s location based on the IP address.
  4. The ability to upload images/selfies with sculpture. He didn’t request this, but I think it would be warranted.

How I’m going to proceed with Balsamiq:

I think four pages are needed, remember that less information is wanted.I think that’s it. It sounds really simple on the surface but the development of the backend may be difficult.

  1. Home page
  2. Browse
  3. Add
  4. Search

Okay now that the basics are complete I hope that you follow along as I create his site in Balsamiq. Remember, this is about learning wireframing and all the other stuff is not important. What I mean by that is that it is entirely possible that WordPress (or some other program) would be able to do what he wants with less hassle.

 

 

 

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ad for paper design

Print or Digital, what others think

ad for paper designAs I get older I start to miss somethings that I took for granted a long time ago. Like getting the latest magazine as soon as it came out. Sometimes it was even  an event that warranted a cup of coffee and a quiet space for the next hour or two. Now though I get so much info fed to me through various web sites and apps that I don’t think I have sat somewhere in years and just read a magazine, digital or otherwise.

That’s what drew me to this survey in the first place. The poll questioned people about their perceptions between digital and print. The survey was commissioned by a company with a stake in printing, so I’m not sure if the survey was slanted their way. However, if you’re like me you’ll probably find the data interesting.

The following is a direct copy/paste from their pdf. You can find it here.  (I did the graphs myself though) Continue reading

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