Displaying all posts with the tag 'blog'
UI: User interface. The means of communication between a person and some software. When designing an application, lots of question arise. How should it look? How easy is the interface to understand? What should the colour scheme and borders look like? I was having a conversation with a friend of mine recently who told me the secret to success is to give away your secrets and as it's my turn to write a blog I figured I'd give away some of my secrets!
First you need to take yourself away from the computer and sit down with a pencil and paper; even if you can't draw here's a little tip to help you get over your drawing fear. Lines. Draw a browser window on your piece of paper, but rather than draw a box, with each side of the box draw several lines on top of each other with quick strokes of the pencil. Sounds mental, but what you're trying to create here are ideas, and ideas come from sketches, and that's what you're creating.
Draw a basic layout of buttons, boxes and content suggestions with written titles inside the boxes. Being away from the computer will help you picture an innovative design inside your head. Draw down these ideas and if you come up witha few different ones then keep them. Who knows, maybe they will become handy later.
Once you have a general idea for the layout of your new software you'll need to head back onto the computer for interface inspiration and there're hundreds of websites which you can choose from. I like the websites with user submitted entries and one of my favourites is http://dribbble.com/ - its great because it only contains snippits of screenshots rather than the whole project which means you really do only take the inspiration from someone elses work rather than end up wripping it off.
Everyone at Codeworks would like to welcome you to our new office down Cardiff Bay! We moved in on Monday and are happy to say we've settled in rather well!
Our new address is 1 Mount Stuart Arcade, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5BB.
You may notice our subtly-branded shop front window whilst wandering around Mermaid Quay. Now that we are on view to the general public we've had to start dressing smartly. Feel free to come by and pay us a visit!
I've used various tools to help organise who's working on what, how many jobs we have waiting in the sides and how much of a project is left to complete. But no software has managed to organise an office in such a way, in such a short space of time than Trello has.
We started using this nifty bit of kit around 4 weeks ago now and I can honestly say it has turned our organisation around on its head! I'm a stigler for wanting to know exactly who's working on what, if they've finished yet, and how much of the job is left to complete, and Trello does exactly that - and more! It's a simple strategy, one that is pretty much adaptable to anything. It's a system that uses Lists and job cards, something that doesn't sound very thrilling, but watch the 7 minute video on their homepage and you'll become hooked!
To do lists, comments, notes, voting, colour schemes, assigning, drag and drop, unlimited lists and unlimited possibilities!
I've recommended this software to loads of my clients in such a short space of time and they've all come back to me with the same comments, it is a massive hit! The only reason I came about it was because I but out a tweet a few months asking for organisation systems and someone that lives in my apartment stopped me in the lift and asked had I tried this! Here I am four weeks down the line, busier than I've ever been, but with one difference - very organised (even if a little stressed!).
Video Below!
Firstly, everyone in the office has been feeling guilty that nobody has created a blog since before Christmas. So I've given Sarah the task of making sure someone blogs at least once a week and she's in the process of delegating to the masses. To start everyone off, here's my first blog of the year about something I came across while browsing the technology news that's set to launch imminently.
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spread sheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. The creators want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming in schools and as a hobby.
Their idea is very simple; to see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere without spending hundreds of pounds on a PC. They want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children.
I honestly think the device is an insanely excellent idea, the possibilities are endless! You could even go as far as making a robot with this credit card sized computer. I know that this probably isn’t for the faint hearted, but starting at £15 + VAT what more could you buy at that price that could offer as much fun!? Let’s all become programmers!
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity – For more information visit their website: http://www.raspberrypi.org
I recently noticed a spout of emails coming into my inbox that have background images!? As many developers know background images in outlook are non existant, unheard of, a miricle!
So as any self respecting developer would do i jumped straight onto google with the string of keywords "when did outlook start supporting background images". Well, as it turns out a backround *image* does work, its background *images* that do not.
I came accross a blog that then explains that background images do not work in Outlook (thank goodness im not going crazy!) - but what will work is one single background image that sits in the body tag! There is one little snag that you will need to deal with (as if a Microsoft product would just work!). While every other client seems to gracefully assume no-repeat for the second part of the repeat line, Outlook does not. Take a look at the css code below and boom, you'll have body background images working.
Everyone loves a good sweet, especially the classics like the drumstick lolly, the small foam mushrooms, gobstoppers and toffee bon bons! We love making people happy, especially our developers; which is why there is always a handful of sweets at hand in the office for anyone to dip into if they're feeling peckish.
We decided last week to extend this to our fans, clients and friends of the world; we're giving away hundreds of sweets to a selection of our fans who decide to follow us on facebook and twitter. We need more than 1,000 followers by the end of August, and if we reach our target we'll be selecting 100 lucky random winners to receive sweets! You could win anything* from a drumstick lolly to a big bag of rasberry millions! In order for this to happen though we need to reach our target! Simply retweet our tweets, @codeworks mention us and share the love with your friends, the more you share the more chance you have of winning. We'd also love to hear what your favourite past time sweets are! We'll keep you updated with progress!
@codeworks - twitter.com/codeworks
We've made a little progress bar to see far we are away from our target, it updates once every 24 hours!
Shw mae Hello
Its Jenna here, Codeworks’ latest person to fill a desk. Just writing to say a BIG hello to you all and to let you know that I will be working here this summer doing all the donkey work that Kev no longer has time for. I am sure I will get the opportunity to speak to you lovely people at some point, as my role is customer service based mixed in with a spoonful of design and marketing, sprinkled with a smile.
So who is this Jenna?
Well I have just finished studying at UWIC and graduate this coming July with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Communication. (I am now ready for the big, wide world).
Some of you may be aware that Codeworks’ sponsor a ladies netball team, Westend Ladies...well I play WD for them and it is a great way to socialise with friends as well as keeping fit. I am quite competitive however, and Kevin has already challenged me to a game of squash. (Have to confess, I have never played it).
So I will let you all know the outcome via twitter.
My role here in The Coach House is to make sure that you, (our customers) are happy with us, (the company)...So if you have any issues feel free to send me an email. jenna@codeworks.org.uk.
Chow for now
In short, no. The cookie EU law that was set to start on May 26th 2011 has been deferred for an extra year because many companies are not ready to implement the measures required to inform users visiting their website. Which i have to admit, includes us. This new law requires a user's consent before using cookies. (not the edible crumbly kind)
Cookies are text files stored on your computer while your browsing the internet, they store snippets of information. An example could be a welcome message when you first visit a site, after you close it a cookie is stored so that you don't have to keep clicking the x to remove it every time you re-visit the site. For more information about cookies click here.
The changes are demanded by the European e-Privacy directive.
The section of the directive dealing with cookies was drawn up in an attempt to protect privacy and, in particular, limit how much use could be made of behavioural advertising. This form of marketing involves people being tracked across websites, with their behaviour used to create a profile that dictates the type of adverts they see.
The directive demands that users be fully informed about the information being stored in cookies and told why they see particular adverts. However, the directive is likely to have an impact on the more general use of cookies that remember login details and enable people to speed up their use of sites they visit regularly.
It could mean that once this new law does come into effect, users see many more pop-up windows and dialogue boxes asking them to let sites gather data. It just depends how each company decides how to tackle the issue. I found a really good example of how companies could approach this task on the new Alpha UK Government Website.
For now though, we have another year to come up with solutions that comply with the law but don't make it annoying for the user, personally i believe a browser approach would be a much better way forward as i can guarantee even after another year a lot of companies still won't be ready.
"a more beautiful web is here" - that’s Microsoft's slogan for this new piece of kit, and it means exactly that. It's been a long time coming but it’s fantastic news for us development companies because it means we can start taking advantage of newer technologies which we know the new browsers can support.
On top of the announcement of today's release Microsoft have also launched a campaign to help rid of IE6 www.theie6countdown.com, the same browser which has now been superseded 3 times over yet many companies and organisations still can't find the time to upgrade their systems. I do understand why some organisations find it difficult to keep up with new technologies and updates because of security issues and compatibility worries, but if they never update we can’t create!
If you're a fan of IE, or you’re someone that just clicks the big E because it was already installed on your machine, I thoroughly suggest you take this upgrade for a spin, check out how our website looks, you'll probably notice the animations become much smoother, you may also start to notice hidden secrets start to appear on other websites that were just waiting for this new technology to be released (www.twitter.com). If you're a Firefox or Chrome user its highly likely you won’t touch this download with a barge pole, but to you I say; go and take a sneaky look (I promise I won't tell anyone), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!
Maybe one day Microsoft will decide to include an auto-update feature in their browser? So we can keep people updated, automatically, or, automagically!
We haven't had an opportunity to talk much about our sponsorship of the codeworks westend ladies that started November last year, we're busy putting the final touches to their dedicated area on our website but we couldn't let the opportunity pass to tell you about the great work some of the team are doing to collect money for charity.
Our ladies from the codeworks Westend Netball Club braved the freezing cold waters at Whitmore Bay to take part in the recent ‘Dip with a Nip’ - to raise money for CLIC Sargent.
Each person registered had to pay £5 and raise at least £50 each - seven of the team took part and raised a fantastic total of £1,500 between them.
Well done girls!
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