Blog Entries

• Back from Interaction 10…into Snowmageddon

  

  More photos, posted at my Flickr account – Interaction 10 (IxDA)

  Flew into Savannah before Snowmegeddon Round #1 came around and it was goregeous. Rainy but in the 50’s and I could wear a light jacket for a few days. Great time, only to fly back home the day before Snowmegeddon Round #2 came in. It took 2 1/2 weeks before I could see the sidewalk again.

  

  As for Interaction 10, it was a blast and a real big work motivator for the remainder of the year. Some of the lectures presented some real interesting ideas and I will find some way to introduce or talk about them in my work. It also helps meeting interesting designers and other professionals that really want to make the profession better.

  As for Savannah (beyond the really nice weather) was a good host and just darn friendly (Southern hospitality does exist…). I would definitely love to come back ASAP but the conference has to move to a new site. Unfortunately, it will not go back to Vancouver next year. 🙁

  However, it will go to…Boulder, Colorado. It was announced on the last day, with a special low rate for about one week (sorry already gone, darn…) But, the excitement as already started. Especially with a really funny and interesting video promo – see http://www.vimeo.com/9395674.

  Anyways, as soon as I can break open my piggy bank, I am registering for next year.

  Interaction 11 @ Boulder, Colorado – http://www.ixda.org/i11/

  Related Links

  • For brief reprise of Interaction 10 conference, go to Johnny Holland magazine (http://johnnyholland.org/).
    • Day 1
    • Day 2
    • Day 3
  • School of Visual Arts blog – http://interactiondesign.sva.edu/blog

• Excuse me if you heard this before, but…

  I am really, really busy.

  Sorry for the month delay but new blog postings will be up in the next couple of days.

  I will also be writing two blog post for CDG again, both dealing with topics brought about during lectures at Interaction 10 in Savannah a few weeks ago.

  As for here, blog posts about Interaction 10/Savannah and the restart and final stages of Charles project.

  Later.

• IxDA Interaction 10

  

  IxDA Interaction 10
  http://interaction.ixda.org/
  Dates: February 4-7, 2010
  Location: Savannah, Georgia

  Hosted by SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), this year’s conference will be spaced among various nearby locations around downtown. Savannah, with or without the conference, is worthy of a visit due to its long and influential history in this country. The IxDA (Interactive Design Association) conference will feature talks, workshops, and lectures on design areas that range from technology to new tools/processes to important issues such as instructing/mentoring new students in the field.

  So, why is a front-end/ui developer doing here?

  Well, I deal with designers all the time, whether they are web or print based. It allows me to follow what designers are doing and find ways to compliment – in an architect/engineer dynamic. Also, I get new ideas for inspiration or use in the other areas, especially if it is useful in my career.

  Therefore, I will be spending some good quality time next month, soaking some fresh ideas and having a mini-vacation away from the same-old work routine.

  Later.

  P.S. – A little inspiration from the so-to-be conference…

• The Well-Dressed Submit Button

  (Originally published on CDG Interactive/Innate blog)

  Hello, again. This is CDG User Interface Developer Ivan Wilson with another lesson gleaned from the top of the snowy, white-capped mounds of work that keep me busy every day. As I explained in my last post, my job is about building the bridge between design and technology. I need to create things that function perfectly, look good, and are useful for users. Here’s how I tackled a recent challenge on-the-job.

  One of our clients, Mondial Assistance, is a large multinational provider of travel insurance. We’re in the midst of revising each of their national B2C sites—more than 20 sites in all, in a variety of different languages. Our core website needs to work as well for consumers in Germany as it does for consumers in Japan—and everywhere in between. And as every web pro knows, content is key.

  But what does content have to do with me, a developer who doesn’t deal (directly) with the spoken language? Allow me to explain!

  The truth is, content is inextricably tied to both design and technology. Think, for example, about the humble button on a web form, like this one. As a UI professional, I need to make sure that this button looks right from a design perspective, and also functions perfectly regardless of the browser or language.

  The simplest solution would be to just take that graphical image and turn into a submit button via HTML code. Or would it? Remember, this little button has to function across 20 sites and in multiple languages. Just imagine the following conversations…

  “Nice button. Nice style. Can you add it to the German site? Oh, don’t forget. The French site is launching next month. We need to use the same buttons there as well.”

  OK, open up Photoshop (or insert your preferred graphics program) and change the text to German. Done. Fine.

  Repeat again…this time in French.

  Repeat again…this time in [insert local language here]

  Before you know it, you’re creating 20 versions of the same button. And that’s just one button on the site. Take into account all of the other buttons that reside on the site, and it becomes an algebra problem: (# of buttons) x (# of languages) = massive headache.

  Let’s take a step back and look at the problem again.

  We need a submit button that is:

  1. Editable – It needs to be easy to translate and manage across sites
  2. Usable – We do not want to create problems or lock out the user, preventing them from finishing their task

  Graphical buttons are out. Sure, I could always use a linked image with a Javascript function to submit data upon clicking. But what if Javascript isn’t switched on? (Surely it won’t be on screen readers and mobile phones). Not good enough.

  The challenge is creating a default state for the button, which functions for everyone, and an enhanced state that looks perfect for top browsers.

  In the end, here’s what I did:

  1. Used an old fashionedHTML submit button
  2. Along with the button, I added an extra bit of code that displays the enhanced state:<span class=”startquote submit”><span>Start Quote</span></span>In this code, I’m using CSS to turn two tags (spans) and enclosed text to appear as the prior graphical button. And by adding Javascript, I can make this “button” act like a regular submit button.

  OK, but now we have two “buttons”. Here is where the magic comes in…

  If you load up the page (without CSS or Javascript), you are the “default” state and the standard HTML submit buttons shows up.

  Now, if you are using a top-of-the-line browser, you have Javascript and CSS well supported. That means that you are ready for the “options” state. When the HTML button loads up, you will get this functional stylized button. All along, the “default” button is still around, just hidden from sight.

  And as the topper, since the text is only text, it can be changed with a couple of keystrokes. Done right, it can stretch to accommodate different word lengths due to translation or editing. As seen below:

  Why only the Latin alphabet? What about Cyrillic? Japanese? Chinese?

  Everything works beautifully. (Well, actually, IE6 has problems with hover states…but it’s IE6, of course.)

  So, there it is. Highly stylized yet functional submit buttons – well dressed for any occasion. And best of all…useful.

• Blog Entries for CDG

  This week, my second blog entry for my employer, CDG Interactive, is up. Called The Well-Dressed Submit Button, it is my story about web development and dealing with usability.

  My first one, UI or UN? The Life of a Front-End Developer, is also up. I don’t know if this is true for all UI/Front-end developers but the comparison does kinda hold up at certain times.

  I would like to write more blog posts, especially for this blog, but my schedule really gets in the way. However, doing this will be one of many different things that I will be doing in the course of 2010.

• UI or UN? The Life of a Front-End Developer

  (Originally published on CDG Interactive/Innate blog)

  Hello.

  My name is Ivan Wilson and I am a user interface (UI) developer for CDG. I’ll be a guest author on this blog, posting every month or so.

  When I first asked about contributing to the blog (and I’m still wondering whether it was a good idea to agree), I thought it would be helpful to explain exactly what I do. After all, outside the tech industry, front-end/ui developers are a somewhat unknown breed.

  
  UI Developers, in Plain English

  UI developers aren’t full-time designers (though I had a three-month stint as one), but the best of us know enough to have a good conversation with the designers. And we can do more with Photoshop than just adjusting the image brightness/contrast.

  We don’t do full-time back-end programming (though I spend the great deal of my career doing PHP programming), but the best of us know enough to make things easier for the programmer and do some programming ourselves in a pinch.

  Basically, we’re like UN interpreters. We know how to speak multiple languages and if we are really good at what we do, very good things happen.
  Like other interactive agencies, CDG develops many dynamic, database-driven sites. My job is to build out the layer that you see and use every day on your computer or web-enabled mobile phone.

  That means I take all the graphics files from the designers, wireframes from the information architects, and build templates in HTML (or XHTML), Javascript, and CSS (stylesheets). I also have to create web-ready graphics from those same files. In some cases, I might even need to break out some Flash skills or work on other interactive features.

  
  “Well, That Doesn’t Seem Too Hard . . .”

  It sounds easy.

  Everything is easy before testing.

  And testing requires…six browsers in two platforms…or more.

  Still sound easy? (I hear a few plates dropping…)

  And it has to look good and function without a hiccup.

  Did I mention all this has to be done before passing it on back-end programmers?

  And if I move a pixel in the wrong place, the designers have pitchforks with my name engraved on ’em.

  High stakes, indeed.

  Yes, it’s definitely like being a UN interpreter.