Stratecomm provides professional web design and web develoopment solutions that are tailored to best fit the goals and long-term success of each of our clients. The internet is a complex environment, and having a successful web presence requires the expertise of a team of web professionals.
Our web development portfolio reflects a proven history of delivering successul web-based products and services. Learn how the Stratecomm team can help you plan, create, build, maintain and market your online presence below:
Web Site Development Outsourcing
Web design alone will not help your business so much. With a good looking website you need a good developed website. For this reason we are doing also web site design and development for HTML static pages, PHP and MySQL, ASP.NET. At this moment all websites need php and asp.net content management systems.
We can design and develop ecommerce web sites, online catalogs, real estate websites for agents or real estate agencies, company presentation website, personal websites, and all type of internet applications.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Logo Design
A logo not only establishes your company's or organization's graphic identity, it also determines the color scheme and style elements used throughout your website. The logo ties the website to everything else your company does, through printed materials, signs, and other collateral material.
Quality logo design is deceptively simple. A good logo is easily recognizable, does not lose integrity when faxed or scanned, creates a positive resonance, and stands out from all the rest. It is consistent with your industry but still unique enough to separate you from the pack.
Most importantly, it has to be a design you can commit to. Memory is visual, and a logo is a hook on which everything about your company hangs. Reputation, memories of good service, and understanding of your products are all clustered, in the client’s mind, around your name and logo. If the logo keeps changing, all of the recognition that you’ve taken time to cultivate gets flushed out and must be rebuilt.
Quality logo design is deceptively simple. A good logo is easily recognizable, does not lose integrity when faxed or scanned, creates a positive resonance, and stands out from all the rest. It is consistent with your industry but still unique enough to separate you from the pack.
Most importantly, it has to be a design you can commit to. Memory is visual, and a logo is a hook on which everything about your company hangs. Reputation, memories of good service, and understanding of your products are all clustered, in the client’s mind, around your name and logo. If the logo keeps changing, all of the recognition that you’ve taken time to cultivate gets flushed out and must be rebuilt.
Hosting & Website Maintenance
Finding the right hosting service for your Web site is one of the many important steps that you will need to consider when planning a Web design or Web development project. Stratecomm offers reliable virtual Linux, Zope and Windows Web hosting packages designed especially for small-to-medium sized businesses, non-profits, agencies, and associations who expect a higher level of support and customer satisfaction.
Many of Stratecomm's web hosting clients also require website maintenance services to keep their website up-to-date with fresh content and graphics. Based on the frequency, volume, and regularity, we can suggest a comprehensive and flexible plan that will fit your needs and budget.
Many of Stratecomm's web hosting clients also require website maintenance services to keep their website up-to-date with fresh content and graphics. Based on the frequency, volume, and regularity, we can suggest a comprehensive and flexible plan that will fit your needs and budget.
Custom Web & Graphic Design Services
Top quality professional website design is what sets Stratecomm apart from other web design firms. First impressions are as important online as they are offline. A key element that will let your visitors know that your organization is professional is the design of your site. Custom web design will set your web presence apart from the crowd.
Custom design means that the look and feel of the website is built from the ground up to project the image the client wants. While it is possible to save money using pre-made templates, a serious business is almost always better off with a look that is both unique and tightly tailored to the requirements of the market. Custom website design costs a bit more, but the result is something you’ll be living with for the long term. The design of the website is the first impression many will have of your business or organization, and it’s the way you may be judged.
Web design can be simple or complex, but in either case it can be done well or very, very badly. Simple websites may look easy to do, but keeping something clean and professional requires a solid grounding in graphic design principles, as well as experience in creating websites. Once upon a time, the internet was a place anyone could splash up a bunch of text and a few photos and look like a serious player. Now, users are more sophisticated, expectations have risen, and professional website design has become the minimum standard.
Stratecomm has substantial experience in website design. We have designed sites for clients in real estate, law, banking, and government. We have created websites that appeal to college students, we have designed websites that have reassured high-end financial backers. We have appealed to potential voters, donors, and customers. Our design can make the little person look big, the strait-laced company seem fun, and the struggling group seem confident. More importantly, we have given a sense of place, an atmosphere to businesses that are seen mostly online.
Creating a website for a client from scratch involves a variety of skills and services, all of which we offer. We are at our best when everything is in our hands, but we have worked with clients who only wanted some of these services, using in-house or third-party vendors to accomplish the rest. Services involved in creation of a new website include:
Custom design means that the look and feel of the website is built from the ground up to project the image the client wants. While it is possible to save money using pre-made templates, a serious business is almost always better off with a look that is both unique and tightly tailored to the requirements of the market. Custom website design costs a bit more, but the result is something you’ll be living with for the long term. The design of the website is the first impression many will have of your business or organization, and it’s the way you may be judged.
Web design can be simple or complex, but in either case it can be done well or very, very badly. Simple websites may look easy to do, but keeping something clean and professional requires a solid grounding in graphic design principles, as well as experience in creating websites. Once upon a time, the internet was a place anyone could splash up a bunch of text and a few photos and look like a serious player. Now, users are more sophisticated, expectations have risen, and professional website design has become the minimum standard.
Stratecomm has substantial experience in website design. We have designed sites for clients in real estate, law, banking, and government. We have created websites that appeal to college students, we have designed websites that have reassured high-end financial backers. We have appealed to potential voters, donors, and customers. Our design can make the little person look big, the strait-laced company seem fun, and the struggling group seem confident. More importantly, we have given a sense of place, an atmosphere to businesses that are seen mostly online.
Creating a website for a client from scratch involves a variety of skills and services, all of which we offer. We are at our best when everything is in our hands, but we have worked with clients who only wanted some of these services, using in-house or third-party vendors to accomplish the rest. Services involved in creation of a new website include:
Friday, August 22, 2008
Affective interaction design
Throughout the process of interaction design, designers must be aware of key aspects in their designs that influence emotional responses in target users. The need for products to convey positive emotions and avoid negative ones is critical to product success. These aspects include positive, negative, motivational, learning, creative, social and persuasive influences to name a few. One method that can help convey such aspects is the use of expressive interfaces. In software, for example, the use of dynamic icons, animations and sound can help communicate a state of operation, creating a sense of interactivity and feedback. Interface aspects such as fonts, color pallet, and graphical layouts can also influence an interface's perceived effectiveness. Studies have shown that affective aspects can affect a user's perception of usability.
Emotional and pleasure theories exist to explain peoples responses to the use of interactive products. These includes Don Norman's emotional design model, Patrick Jordan's pleasure model, and McCarthy and Wright's Technology as Experience framework.
Emotional and pleasure theories exist to explain peoples responses to the use of interactive products. These includes Don Norman's emotional design model, Patrick Jordan's pleasure model, and McCarthy and Wright's Technology as Experience framework.
Interaction design
Interaction Design (IxD) is the discipline of defining the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact with. The practice typically centers around complex technology systems such as software, mobile devices, and other electronic devices. However, it can also apply to other types of products and services, and even organizations themselves. Interaction design defines the behavior (the "interaction") of an artifact or system in response to its users.
Certain basic principles of cognitive psychology provide grounding for interaction design. These include mental models, mapping, interface metaphors, and affordances. Many of these are laid out in Donald Norman's influential book The Design of Everyday Things. Academic research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) includes methods for describing and testing the usability of interacting with an interface, such as cognitive dimensions and the cognitive walkthrough.
Interaction designers are typically informed through iterative cycles of user research. They design with an emphasis on user goals and experience, and evaluate designs in terms of usability and affective influence
Certain basic principles of cognitive psychology provide grounding for interaction design. These include mental models, mapping, interface metaphors, and affordances. Many of these are laid out in Donald Norman's influential book The Design of Everyday Things. Academic research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) includes methods for describing and testing the usability of interacting with an interface, such as cognitive dimensions and the cognitive walkthrough.
Interaction designers are typically informed through iterative cycles of user research. They design with an emphasis on user goals and experience, and evaluate designs in terms of usability and affective influence
Standards in web development
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) maintains a set of open standards and guidelines which are generally considered best practices to follow when programming for the web. Often, web developers help contribute to these open standards and guidelines through their work on open source projects working to help enhance and debug web-based technologies.
However, because of the fairly low barrier to entry -- freely available development environments (web server environments and development languages), freely available tutorials and information on how to do web development -- novice web developers often do not adhere to the open standards and guidelines. Additionally, poorly designed or proprietary software tools that don't follow the open standards and guidelines create ad hoc and de facto standards which must be followed in order to "make things work". This was especially true during the "Browser Wars" of the 1990s. It is becoming less true as more and better tools enter the marketplace
However, because of the fairly low barrier to entry -- freely available development environments (web server environments and development languages), freely available tutorials and information on how to do web development -- novice web developers often do not adhere to the open standards and guidelines. Additionally, poorly designed or proprietary software tools that don't follow the open standards and guidelines create ad hoc and de facto standards which must be followed in order to "make things work". This was especially true during the "Browser Wars" of the 1990s. It is becoming less true as more and better tools enter the marketplace
Methods and Concerns
During recent decades, development thinking has shifted from modernization and structural adjustment programs to poverty reduction. Under the former system, poor countries were encouraged to undergo social and economical structural tranformations as part of their development, creating industrialization and intentional industrial policy. Poverty reduction rejects this notion, consisting instead of direct budget support for social welfare programs that create macroeconomic stability, leading to an increase in economic growth.
However, even the terms "developed" and "developing" (or "underdeveloped"), have proven problematic in forming policy as they ignore issues of wealth distribution and the lingering effects of colonialism. Some theorists see development efforts as fundamentally neo-colonial, in which a wealthier nation forces its industrial and economic structure on a poorer nation, which will then become a consumer of the developed nation's goods and services. Post-developmentalists, for example, see development as a form of Western cultural imperialism that hurts the people of poor countries and endangers the environment to such an extent that they suggest rejection of development altogether.
Design-driven development
Design Driven Development (D3) is an agile-based process for creating innovative requirements to build better solutions. It works closely with SCRUM and Extreme Programming (XP) for managing and implementing those requirements. Also it can work with non-agile processes such as RUP.
It is based on the following philosophy:
* Design is an art of creating beautiful, elegant, and innovative solutions, which works in the user and customer context.
* No process can guarantee a better design; creating the right environment and set of people is the only way to bring innovation.
* Design is an accident that kicks in at conception, and D3 creates maximum opportunities to make accidents happen.
It is based on the following philosophy:
* Design is an art of creating beautiful, elegant, and innovative solutions, which works in the user and customer context.
* No process can guarantee a better design; creating the right environment and set of people is the only way to bring innovation.
* Design is an accident that kicks in at conception, and D3 creates maximum opportunities to make accidents happen.
Web development
Web development is a broad term for any activity related to developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an intranet. This can include e-commerce business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration. However, among web professionals, "web development" usually refers only to the non-design aspects of building web sites, e.g. writing markup and coding. Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network services.
For larger businesses and organizations, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers). Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or contracting webmaster, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as a graphic designer and/or Information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department.
For larger businesses and organizations, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers). Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or contracting webmaster, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as a graphic designer and/or Information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Developing a professional web site Tips
If you're looking for web design tips, this section is for you.
Developing a professional web site will play an important role in your success. However, finding web design tips to assist you can be difficult.
Although HTML tutorials will provide you with an overview of HTML and web site design, unfortunately, that's about it. They usually don't provide you with the little web site design tips and tricks that are used to create special effects within your web pages.
Although learning HTML and some basic web site design techniques is very important, if you want to add special effects to your web pages, you will need to learn some additional coding techniques, such as using CSS and JavaScript.
The following web design tips provide a wealth of information to assist you in many aspects of web site design. You will find web design tips and advice, HTML tips and codes, CSS codes and JavaScript codes to assist you in creating special effects within your web pages.
However, please ensure that you use these web design tips and codes cautiously. Make sure you don't overdo it and use too many special effects, as you don't want to offend your visitors. The key to creating a successful web site is to only use tips and codes that will enhance your visitors experience on your web site.
When you're ready to begin, simply click on the links below to find the web design tips and codes you're looking for. Once you locate a special code, copy and paste it into the HTML portion of your web page where indicated within the instructions on each web page.
Developing a professional web site will play an important role in your success. However, finding web design tips to assist you can be difficult.
Although HTML tutorials will provide you with an overview of HTML and web site design, unfortunately, that's about it. They usually don't provide you with the little web site design tips and tricks that are used to create special effects within your web pages.
Although learning HTML and some basic web site design techniques is very important, if you want to add special effects to your web pages, you will need to learn some additional coding techniques, such as using CSS and JavaScript.
The following web design tips provide a wealth of information to assist you in many aspects of web site design. You will find web design tips and advice, HTML tips and codes, CSS codes and JavaScript codes to assist you in creating special effects within your web pages.
However, please ensure that you use these web design tips and codes cautiously. Make sure you don't overdo it and use too many special effects, as you don't want to offend your visitors. The key to creating a successful web site is to only use tips and codes that will enhance your visitors experience on your web site.
When you're ready to begin, simply click on the links below to find the web design tips and codes you're looking for. Once you locate a special code, copy and paste it into the HTML portion of your web page where indicated within the instructions on each web page.
Project Purpose
Primarily, the Design For Development Society seeks to improve the referral of debilitated patients to health clinics or hospitals from local communities and homesteads in situations where motorized transport is unavailable or inappropriate. We hope to promote the bamboo ambulance as a viable means of emergency transport, offering faster transit times and being a realistic, affordable and sustainable solution to the issue of patient transport.
Second, the project seeks to utilize locally available and sustainable materials in the manufacture of the medical transport device. Bamboo has been identified as an appropriate and affordable structural material that is available in this region;
Third, the project seeks to provide skills training and sustainable employment opportunities for HIV+ women;
Fourth, the project seeks to facilitate community health workers in transporting their clients as per their healthcare objectives, and to provide a source of local, affordable medical transport for HIV/AIDS health organizations, aid agencies, communities, NGOs and government in Kenya.
Second, the project seeks to utilize locally available and sustainable materials in the manufacture of the medical transport device. Bamboo has been identified as an appropriate and affordable structural material that is available in this region;
Third, the project seeks to provide skills training and sustainable employment opportunities for HIV+ women;
Fourth, the project seeks to facilitate community health workers in transporting their clients as per their healthcare objectives, and to provide a source of local, affordable medical transport for HIV/AIDS health organizations, aid agencies, communities, NGOs and government in Kenya.
Product Development Center
The Product Development Center (PDC) creates a design data bank based on the latest fashion information, lasts, soles and leather. These designs are kept for display at FDDI premises so that the footwear industry can avail the latest fashion information. To make this facility more effective, FDDI’s PDC uses its most sophisticated software systems, such as,
* 2D & 3D CAD Systems
* CAM Systems, NC Machining
* Surface Modelling Systems, to provide end-to-end solutions
PDC develops the designs for the industry as per their specific requirement keeping in mind the targeted market segment. The services of our PDC are not only availed by Indian industries that includes, major export houses but from various companies overseas from U.K., Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Bangladesh, etc
Facilities
* Shoe Designing & Pattern Cutting
* CAD / CAM
* Sample Development
* Prototype Development
* Last Modelling
* Sole Designing & Mould Making
* 2D & 3D CAD Systems
* CAM Systems, NC Machining
* Surface Modelling Systems, to provide end-to-end solutions
PDC develops the designs for the industry as per their specific requirement keeping in mind the targeted market segment. The services of our PDC are not only availed by Indian industries that includes, major export houses but from various companies overseas from U.K., Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Bangladesh, etc
Facilities
* Shoe Designing & Pattern Cutting
* CAD / CAM
* Sample Development
* Prototype Development
* Last Modelling
* Sole Designing & Mould Making
Bike Ambulance Project Launched in Namibia
Design For Development is thrilled to announce the successful launch of a bicycle ambulance initiative in Namibia. Together with project partners, the Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia (BENN), Design For Development will enable the manufacture and delivery of more than 60 bike ambulances to communities in Namibia.
Bambulance Pilot Project On the Go In Kenya
Design For Development Society is extremely excited to be pioneering research into the use of sustainable local materials in the design and manufacture of emergency medical transportation devices (EMTD). We are currently developing plans for a project in which we will design and pilot a bamboo EMTD for western Kenya
Monday, August 18, 2008
website or web site
Question:
How should the term 'website' be written in official documents and on the web? Should it be website or web site, and should there be a capital W?
Answer:
It always takes a little time for new words to settle to a standardized form. Our most recent dictionary, the revised 11th edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, published in July 2004, shows website as the standard form, and future dictionaries will reflect this.
We recommend capital initials for Internet, World Wide Web, the Web, but not for individual sites.
How should the term 'website' be written in official documents and on the web? Should it be website or web site, and should there be a capital W?
Answer:
It always takes a little time for new words to settle to a standardized form. Our most recent dictionary, the revised 11th edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, published in July 2004, shows website as the standard form, and future dictionaries will reflect this.
We recommend capital initials for Internet, World Wide Web, the Web, but not for individual sites.
Software Development Services
Today is the age of automated system, where most of the works are control or performed by computerized systems which has predefine functions and it give more accurate result, never tired off and more reliable.
The soul of automated system is software services. So the importance of software development can not be underestimated. Software development services have unambiguously served in the sphere of business operations in terms of usability and efficiency in implementation. Software is playing a major role in performing operations efficiently for businesses starting from smaller one to a large corporation /company. Every business operation has its own requirements and for the successful operation of these exact needs in a cost effective and efficient manner, the importance of customized software development services can never be overlooked. The concept of custom software development originates from the specific needs of different companies / business operations. As universally developed software failed to meet the specific need of individual business organizations /companies.
The soul of automated system is software services. So the importance of software development can not be underestimated. Software development services have unambiguously served in the sphere of business operations in terms of usability and efficiency in implementation. Software is playing a major role in performing operations efficiently for businesses starting from smaller one to a large corporation /company. Every business operation has its own requirements and for the successful operation of these exact needs in a cost effective and efficient manner, the importance of customized software development services can never be overlooked. The concept of custom software development originates from the specific needs of different companies / business operations. As universally developed software failed to meet the specific need of individual business organizations /companies.
Software Development
Today custom software development services has become a trend and almost each and every company is availing software services. But a Custom software development can be effective only, if you have been approached by a right software development company. Software development requires an experienced team, to incorporate all your requirements accurately from the developing stages to deliver you quality software products. The software development company must have a great customer support cell and should provide all the maintenance and support that the customer will need in the future
web design - site structure
Good web design requires a solid site architecture based on the site's goals and target audience established in a project brief. The deliverables from this phase most often are:
1. Content Outline
2. Site Diagram
3. Wireframes
These three deliverables are dependent on each other and need to be completed sequentially.
Content Outline
Working closely with your clients, create a list of all existing content. Brainstorm content that needs to be created for the site. Review the list of content, trimming anything that does not match the goals or audience needs as stated in the project brief. Try to plan for the future and how the site content might need to grow as this will inevitably happen. Next, group your content into categories. As you categorise your content, considering getting user feedback through a card sort. Once your categories are established, create an outline of your content and review it with your target audience for accuracy.
Site Diagram
Take your final content outline and create a sitemap or site diagram. A site diagram is a visual representation of your content outline and site structure. You can use Excel, Visio or Smartdraw to create your site diagram.
Wireframes
A wireframe is a non-graphical layout of a web page. It is a simple drawing of the blocks of information and functionality for each page in your site. You will want to create a wireframe for the home page, each unique second level page and any other significantly different page on the site.
Wireframes include the containers for all the major elements of the page. Elements include navigation, images, content, functional elements (like search) and footer.
1. Content Outline
2. Site Diagram
3. Wireframes
These three deliverables are dependent on each other and need to be completed sequentially.
Content Outline
Working closely with your clients, create a list of all existing content. Brainstorm content that needs to be created for the site. Review the list of content, trimming anything that does not match the goals or audience needs as stated in the project brief. Try to plan for the future and how the site content might need to grow as this will inevitably happen. Next, group your content into categories. As you categorise your content, considering getting user feedback through a card sort. Once your categories are established, create an outline of your content and review it with your target audience for accuracy.
Site Diagram
Take your final content outline and create a sitemap or site diagram. A site diagram is a visual representation of your content outline and site structure. You can use Excel, Visio or Smartdraw to create your site diagram.
Wireframes
A wireframe is a non-graphical layout of a web page. It is a simple drawing of the blocks of information and functionality for each page in your site. You will want to create a wireframe for the home page, each unique second level page and any other significantly different page on the site.
Wireframes include the containers for all the major elements of the page. Elements include navigation, images, content, functional elements (like search) and footer.
Lite Web Design
I have noticed that many web sites are trying to portray themselves as if they were a TV network. They put top-notch graphics and sound into their web page. What these companies are missing is that their visitors are not watching TV. This works fine for those with broadband high speed connections. The fact is, most are viewing your web site on a screen that is between 15 and 19 inches wide, can only see 216 colors, and can only download at 28.8 kb per second.
What does all this mean?
You as a web site owner, designer, CEO, or any one who has control over a web site should follow a simple rule. Are you ready? Here is the rule: make sure you are on a 28.8 connection; type in the URL for your web page; hit enter, and hold your breath. If you needed to gasp for air before the page was fully down loaded you really need to cut down on the size of the page. I'm sure some of you can hold your breath for a long time. So I will give you all a suggestion that your web page should be no larger then 50K. I would shoot for less than 30K. The number one visited web site home page is under 21k. That's right, Yahoo's home page is only 20k. This might seem like very little but you really can do a lot within that size.
How can I get it under 50K? 30K?
First, all your graphic images should be as small as possible. Try to get them smaller than 4k. Going up to 6k is reasonable. When designing a graphic for the web site keep in mind the number of colors being used. I know, as a graphic designer, it was hard for me to go from millions of color to only 216. Yes, 216 is the number of colors you have on a web safe color pallet. Use solid colors when designing your image. PhotoShop has made the gradient such a popular tool. It looks good to fade things in and out. I always see a background border made up of this gradient. I always right click on that image to see the size. The 8k-12k is not worth the space. The problem with the gradient is it uses many colors and dithering. Both take up big time K. The more color you have in an image the bigger it's going to be.
Use design more, graphics less. For a web page to be successful it needs to download quickly and look good. Here is the dilemma download quick or look good? Instead of designing graphics and taking pictures and turning them into jpgs to make your web page look good, try using color schemes. Use cell colors to make boarders. Use the negative space on your web site. What is not there is just as important as what is there. Remember sometimes less is more. When in doubt think of a typical visitor coming to your web page. Would that extra graphic sell them or keep them coming back again and again. If the answer is yes, by all means keep it. If the answer is "well maybe" or "it just looks good there", yank it. Viewers will appreciate not waiting more then they have to. The web is here to make our life easier not to sit in front of a screen waiting for heavy web pages to download.
What does all this mean?
You as a web site owner, designer, CEO, or any one who has control over a web site should follow a simple rule. Are you ready? Here is the rule: make sure you are on a 28.8 connection; type in the URL for your web page; hit enter, and hold your breath. If you needed to gasp for air before the page was fully down loaded you really need to cut down on the size of the page. I'm sure some of you can hold your breath for a long time. So I will give you all a suggestion that your web page should be no larger then 50K. I would shoot for less than 30K. The number one visited web site home page is under 21k. That's right, Yahoo's home page is only 20k. This might seem like very little but you really can do a lot within that size.
How can I get it under 50K? 30K?
First, all your graphic images should be as small as possible. Try to get them smaller than 4k. Going up to 6k is reasonable. When designing a graphic for the web site keep in mind the number of colors being used. I know, as a graphic designer, it was hard for me to go from millions of color to only 216. Yes, 216 is the number of colors you have on a web safe color pallet. Use solid colors when designing your image. PhotoShop has made the gradient such a popular tool. It looks good to fade things in and out. I always see a background border made up of this gradient. I always right click on that image to see the size. The 8k-12k is not worth the space. The problem with the gradient is it uses many colors and dithering. Both take up big time K. The more color you have in an image the bigger it's going to be.
Use design more, graphics less. For a web page to be successful it needs to download quickly and look good. Here is the dilemma download quick or look good? Instead of designing graphics and taking pictures and turning them into jpgs to make your web page look good, try using color schemes. Use cell colors to make boarders. Use the negative space on your web site. What is not there is just as important as what is there. Remember sometimes less is more. When in doubt think of a typical visitor coming to your web page. Would that extra graphic sell them or keep them coming back again and again. If the answer is yes, by all means keep it. If the answer is "well maybe" or "it just looks good there", yank it. Viewers will appreciate not waiting more then they have to. The web is here to make our life easier not to sit in front of a screen waiting for heavy web pages to download.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Design integration
this second phase. commonly referred to as "Design development" has been renamed as Design integration at our office to more accurately depict the process and to avoid confusion with the film name. This stage is marked by the consulting engineers beginning their work and integrating the various Civil. Structural, Mechanical, Electrical,Plumbing, fire-sprinkler, and Specialty requirements on the project. interactions and approvals of the major engineering systems are granted by the owner, but the bulk of this intense coordination period is with the Architect and Engineers. Essentially the plan which emerged form the schematic Design phase is stretched and modified to accommodate the necessary engineering requirements
Interaction design and digital materials
The recommended use of the term interaction design is limited to products and services which more or less rely on digital materials for their realization. This is due to the significance for a design discipline of knowing its respective design materials. It is impossible to design interaction per se, even though the term unfortunately implies otherwise, but what interaction designers do is to create conditions for interaction. It is possible to make some things more likely to happen, others less likely, and the way in which this is accomplished is by shaping the digital materials into tools, props and media for others to appropriate and use. The digital materials of software, electronics and telecommunications have specific properties that interaction designers need to understand well in order to increase the likelihood of achieving intended outcomes in use. For instance, designing a multiplayer online game is quite different from designing a (non-digital) board game. The digital-material property most significantly determining the difference in this case is the possibility for synchronous and quasi-anonymous many-to-many communication over a distance.
There is also a pragmatical argument for coupling interaction design with digital materials. Both of the main interpretations above have strong roots in fields concerned exclusively with the digital, which ought to carry more weight than any fine semantic points about what interaction "actually" means.
This is not to say that interaction design concerns itself only with purely digital products and services. For instance, it is rapidly becoming impossible to separate interaction design from industrial design in digital consumer products (even though some developers of consumer products still try). Moreover, several emerging fields in interaction design research, including tangible interaction, mixed-reality interfaces and pervasive computing, address physical form and materials as inevitably integrated with virtual form and digital materials. The point is merely that the digital materials have specific properties which greatly influence the use of products and services built from them, and the knowledge of those materials and properties form part of the core of knowledge defining the interaction design community
There is also a pragmatical argument for coupling interaction design with digital materials. Both of the main interpretations above have strong roots in fields concerned exclusively with the digital, which ought to carry more weight than any fine semantic points about what interaction "actually" means.
This is not to say that interaction design concerns itself only with purely digital products and services. For instance, it is rapidly becoming impossible to separate interaction design from industrial design in digital consumer products (even though some developers of consumer products still try). Moreover, several emerging fields in interaction design research, including tangible interaction, mixed-reality interfaces and pervasive computing, address physical form and materials as inevitably integrated with virtual form and digital materials. The point is merely that the digital materials have specific properties which greatly influence the use of products and services built from them, and the knowledge of those materials and properties form part of the core of knowledge defining the interaction design community
Development style
There are various aspects to using test-driven development, for example the principles of "Keep It Simple, Stupid" (KISS) and "You Ain't Gonna Need It" (YAGNI). By focusing on writing only the code necessary to pass tests, designs can be cleaner and clearer than is often achieved by other methods. In Test-Driven Development by Example Kent Beck also suggests the principle "Fake it, till you make it".
To achieve some advanced design concept (such as a Design Pattern), tests are written that will generate that design. The code may remain simpler than the target pattern, but still pass all required tests. This can be unsettling at first but it allows the developer to focus only on what is important.
Test-driven development requires the programmer to first fail the test cases. The idea is to ensure that the test really works and can catch an error. Once this is shown, the normal cycle will commence. This has been coined the "Test-Driven Development Mantra", known as red/green/refactor where red means fail and green is pass.
Test-driven development constantly repeats the steps of adding test cases that fail, passing them, and refactoring. Receiving the expected test results at each stage reinforces the programmer's mental model of the code, boosts confidence and increases productivity.
Advanced practices of test-driven development can lead to Acceptance Test-driven development [ATDD] where the criteria specified by the customer are automated into acceptance tests, which then drive the traditional unit test-driven development [UTDD] process. This process ensures the customer has an automated mechanism to decide whether the software meets their requirements. With ATDD, the development team now has a specific target to satisfy, the acceptance tests - which keeps them continuously focused on what the customer really wants from that user story
To achieve some advanced design concept (such as a Design Pattern), tests are written that will generate that design. The code may remain simpler than the target pattern, but still pass all required tests. This can be unsettling at first but it allows the developer to focus only on what is important.
Test-driven development requires the programmer to first fail the test cases. The idea is to ensure that the test really works and can catch an error. Once this is shown, the normal cycle will commence. This has been coined the "Test-Driven Development Mantra", known as red/green/refactor where red means fail and green is pass.
Test-driven development constantly repeats the steps of adding test cases that fail, passing them, and refactoring. Receiving the expected test results at each stage reinforces the programmer's mental model of the code, boosts confidence and increases productivity.
Advanced practices of test-driven development can lead to Acceptance Test-driven development [ATDD] where the criteria specified by the customer are automated into acceptance tests, which then drive the traditional unit test-driven development [UTDD] process. This process ensures the customer has an automated mechanism to decide whether the software meets their requirements. With ATDD, the development team now has a specific target to satisfy, the acceptance tests - which keeps them continuously focused on what the customer really wants from that user story
Test-Driven Development
Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a software development technique consisting of short iterations where new test cases covering the desired improvement or new functionality are written first, then the production code necessary to pass the tests is implemented, and finally the software is refactored to accommodate changes. The availability of tests before actual development ensures rapid feedback after any change. Practitioners emphasize that test-driven development is a method of designing software, not merely a method of testing.
Test-Driven Development is related to the test-first programming concepts of Extreme Programming, begun in the late 20th century, but more recently is creating more general interest in its own right.
Along with other techniques, the concept can also be applied to the improvement and removal of software defects from legacy code that was not developed in this way
Test-Driven Development is related to the test-first programming concepts of Extreme Programming, begun in the late 20th century, but more recently is creating more general interest in its own right.
Along with other techniques, the concept can also be applied to the improvement and removal of software defects from legacy code that was not developed in this way
Web development as an industry
Since the mid-1990s, web development has been one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In 1995 there were fewer than 1,000 web development companies in the United States alone, but by 2005 there were over 30,000 such companies. citation needed The web development industry is expected to grow over 20% by 2010. The growth of this industry is being pushed by large businesses wishing to sell products and services to their customers and to automate business workflow, as well as the growth of many small web design and development companies.
In addition, cost of Web site development and hosting has dropped dramatically during this time. Instead of costing tens of thousands of dollars, as was the case for early websites, one can now develop a simple web site for less than a thousand dollars, depending on the complexity and amount of content.[citation needed] Smaller Web site development companies are now able to make web design accessible to both smaller companies and individuals further fueling the growth of the web development industry. As far as web development tools and platforms are concerned, there are many systems available to the public free of charge to aid in development. A popular example is the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), which is usually distributed free of charge. This fact alone has manifested into many people around the globe setting up new Web sites daily and thus contributing to increase in web development popularity. Another contributing factor has been the rise of easy to use WYSIWYG web development software, most prominently Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Studio (formerly Microsoft Frontpage) . Using such software, virtually anyone can develop a Web page in a matter of minutes. Knowledge of HyperText Markup Language (HTML), or other programming languages is not required, but recommended for professional results.
The next generation of web development tools uses the strong growth in LAMP and Microsoft .NET technologies to provide the Web as a way to run applications online. Web developers now help to deliver applications as Web services which were traditionally only available as applications on a desk based computer.
Instead of running executable code on a local computer, users are interacting with online applications to create new content. This has created new methods in communication and allowed for many opportunities to decentralize information and media distribution. Users are now able to interact with applications from many locations, instead of being tied to a specific workstation for their application environment.
Examples of dramatic transformation in communication and commerce led by web development include e-commerce. Online auction sites such as eBay have changed the way consumers consume and purchase goods and services. Online resellers such as Amazon.com and Buy.com (among many, many others) have transformed the shopping and bargain hunting experience for many consumers. Another good example of transformative communication led by web development is the blog. Web applications such as WordPress and b2evolution have created easily implemented blog environments for individual Web sites. Open source content systems such as Typo3, Xoops, Joomla!, and Drupal have extended web development into new modes of interaction and communication.
In addition, cost of Web site development and hosting has dropped dramatically during this time. Instead of costing tens of thousands of dollars, as was the case for early websites, one can now develop a simple web site for less than a thousand dollars, depending on the complexity and amount of content.[citation needed] Smaller Web site development companies are now able to make web design accessible to both smaller companies and individuals further fueling the growth of the web development industry. As far as web development tools and platforms are concerned, there are many systems available to the public free of charge to aid in development. A popular example is the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), which is usually distributed free of charge. This fact alone has manifested into many people around the globe setting up new Web sites daily and thus contributing to increase in web development popularity. Another contributing factor has been the rise of easy to use WYSIWYG web development software, most prominently Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Studio (formerly Microsoft Frontpage) . Using such software, virtually anyone can develop a Web page in a matter of minutes. Knowledge of HyperText Markup Language (HTML), or other programming languages is not required, but recommended for professional results.
The next generation of web development tools uses the strong growth in LAMP and Microsoft .NET technologies to provide the Web as a way to run applications online. Web developers now help to deliver applications as Web services which were traditionally only available as applications on a desk based computer.
Instead of running executable code on a local computer, users are interacting with online applications to create new content. This has created new methods in communication and allowed for many opportunities to decentralize information and media distribution. Users are now able to interact with applications from many locations, instead of being tied to a specific workstation for their application environment.
Examples of dramatic transformation in communication and commerce led by web development include e-commerce. Online auction sites such as eBay have changed the way consumers consume and purchase goods and services. Online resellers such as Amazon.com and Buy.com (among many, many others) have transformed the shopping and bargain hunting experience for many consumers. Another good example of transformative communication led by web development is the blog. Web applications such as WordPress and b2evolution have created easily implemented blog environments for individual Web sites. Open source content systems such as Typo3, Xoops, Joomla!, and Drupal have extended web development into new modes of interaction and communication.
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