Archive for October, 2008
BJU CpS 479 Assignment: IT & Missions
For my CpS 479 students: Missions, as defined in Scripture, should be a passion for all believers in Christ. It is the very heartbeat of the Church and is something that every one of us can play a vital role in.
Your assignment for this week – visit several mission board displays in the Student Center and find out what their information technology needs are. Then post a blog comment here on what you learned. Visit & comment on 2-3 organizations for a C, organizations 4-5 for a B, organizations 6-7 for an A.
Include related comments from your reading of The World is Flat ANDÂ Stop Dating the Church
All comments are due by 5PM this Friday.
An Event Apart – Day 2
Posted by admin in Education, Internship, Worthwhile on October 14th, 2008
presentation information: http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/
Eric Meyer
topic: evaluate HTML/CSS of various submitted websites
As Eric was evaluating the html behind various websites I was reminded of the history of computer science. I present my thoughts in an effort to open a community discussion about the role of knowing the details of html in order to be an effective developer and/or designer.
PRO SIDE:
The ability to see everyone’s source code (i.e. html & javascript) opens the door to some very interesting analysis of peoples’ work. It can be most humbling and is of course frought with lots of opinionated things. but overall it is a very useful way for an html coder to improve his/her writing ability. Good writers are good readers.
CON SIDE:
On the other hand, consider this – is it better to do the low level html or should your tool abstract away all the details of html. Is the exercise of reviewing someone’s html similar to reviewing the machine code of a C++ or Java programmer? Humm??? I wonder if html will go away like machine code and assembly language have “gone away”. They have dissappeared under the hood. Abstracting away by the tools. This is the history of computer science – building developer tools which abstract away the lower level details, thus helping the developer become more productive by focussing on higher level issues.
Will html go the way of assembly language like we’ve seen with compilers? Or will it always be necessary for human eyes to be able to see and modify web pages at the html level?
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speaker: Rob Weychert
topic: Design Lessons Learned in Chess
* he read several good books to improve his chess game, after 20 years of playing
* information architecture, design, build
* form a strategy based upon your client; what do they want; who do they want to reach; what is their message
* opening move = information strategy
* middle game = visual design
** strategy – overall plan
** tactics – steps you take to implement the strategy
* endgame = build
* limit the user’s options
* content is king! style (css) + behavior (javascript) ==> layout ==> content
* set expectations! (bobby fisher story from 1972)
* the web allows the receiver of the content to receive it in whatever way they want – this makes a challenge to the designer!
* don’t get too attached to your last move
* find balance in your view of validators (extreme: get rid of all validation errors extreme: who cares!)
* learn from your failures
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speaker: Dan Cederholm
topic: Implementing Design: Bulletproof A-Z
* author of simplebits.com
* “handcrafted pixels & text”
* tiny design company in vermont
* craftsmanship reflects the human touch behind the design
* flexibility in design
* case study: icedorhot.com
* need to be able to see/find/keep/improve design patterns
* we should use reset.css on all sites!
* his list of bulletproofing is excellent for developers (see http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/)
* designers should use XScope (shareware product for macs)
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speaker: Cameron Moll
topic: The In-House Designer
* designer for LDS church – 30 designers, 100 websites
* focus on importance of relationships
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speaker: Curt Cloninger
topic: Arts & Crafts of Web Design
website: lab404.com
* William Morris – father of modern design
* this presentation seemed to be targetted @ designers and was an appeal to create places of beauty
* we need more frilly bits on our websites so this guy will die happy!
* orchestrate things so that you do what you like
* outsource/mechanize the unpleasurable, but do as much of the entire process yourself at least once
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speaker: Jeff Veen
topic: Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps
website: veen.com
* left working for google 5 months ago
* if you want to become a speaker, write a book!
* so much data – help people with all of the data in their life to be able to manage it
* gave an example of taking rainfall data – added headers, changed fonts/styles, colored the numbers, replacd the numbers with graphics of different sizes, (becareful not to go too far), redesigned google analytics over 15 months!
* looking for inspiration – history, users,
A Worthwhile Solution to the Credit Crisis
Posted by admin in Education, Family, Internship on October 13th, 2008
I ran across this website today in Chicago @ An Event Apart and I believe it to be one of the most practical and worthwhile solutions to America’s credit crisis! It encourages people to save before spending. A very “old time” idea, one which I feel we have gotten too far away from and hence the biggest cause for the mess we find our economy in. People and governments have become drunk with credit. We no longer consider saving for a vacation or buying a car or a big screen TV or ….. Our culture encourages the “you deserve a break today”, “have it your way”, “why wait”, “go for the gusto” attitude. Credit is the fuel which drives this mentality and we have reached a fuel shortage of huge magnitude!
First we need to think about what we are teaching the next generation about money. Here’s an excellent article on how to teach our children the impact of savings vs spending.
When you are ready to start saving for that next project, check out this intreguing website that is designed to encourage you and those who know you, to save for your project. SmartyPig.com
An Event Apart – Day 1
Posted by admin in Education, Internship, Worthwhile on October 13th, 2008
Thanks to the wonders of air transportation & high speed trains we (rundle from CA and ruse and I from SC) arrived safe and sound in the heart of downtown Chicago for Worthwhile’s very first “Event Apart”. About 400 web designers have arrived from around the world. We met 2 designers from Denmark @ breakfast. When asked why they ventured half way around the planet for this event, they exclaimed “Jeffery and Eric!”. Well, I guess I’ll soon know what that means as the opening event is about to begin.
We are in the Chicago Sheraton, which must be quite the place as they tell us Obama was here this weekend. We do have a lovely view of Lake Michigan. Looking forward to a little downtown touring this evening. But in the mean time I’m here to understand the world of graphics designers. What makes them tick? What gets them excited? What do they need to keep producing worthwhile works of art? My ears and eyes are wideopen! 
presentation information: http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/
Jeffery Zeldman
topic: what’s a designer?
* every website is a new interface which trains the user how to use it
* teaching Excel is not the same as teaching business
* designers don’t know who they are, what they do, what they are called, how they got where they are, or how much they should be earning!
* good design is invisible
Eric Meyer
topic: debugging web pages
* use Link Checker
* use accessibility checker (not 100% accurate, but a good start)
* use code checkers
* debugging web pages
There seems to be a difference between web designers (look and feel guys) and web developers (coding and debugging guys). However I don’t believe any web creation process can succeed without both! A single person which has BOTH abilities seems FAR MORE EFFICIENT than 2 people who specialize in each. Is this an accurate assessment?
Another twist on this concept: Can a “world class” designer also be a top notch developer? Or does trying to be both make one mediocre at either? Interesting discussion on this topic.
Jason Santa Maria
topic: Storytelling by Design
* graphic resonance – I’m still not sure what this is! nor does google!!!!
* design can’t not communicate
* why are we plagued by all this sameness (all websites look bascially the same!)
* rules of thirds – a way to create tension (this & other techniques don’t apply on the web!)
* check this unique story telling website out!
Sarah Nelson
topic: how to make ideas actionable
“no matter how brilliant you are as an individual if you cannot work together as a group then you won’t make it”
* design criteria – 5-7 simple rules
* constraints give you freedom in your designs
* using frameworks to organize really complex things
* increasing conversion rates
* visual refresh – better term for site redesign
* from idea to creation: divergent stage (come up with design ideas) ==> design criteria (helps you make the switch) ==> convergence (focus on a solution)
examples of design criteria for PayCycles.com
* be human
* work the way your customers do
* set expectations
* show progress
* find efficiencies
Robert Hoekman
topic: interaction design
he took url’s from the audience and critiqued them
theideacenter.org
* set expectations
* purpose, benefit, usage
asufoundation.org
Jason Fried
Designing the Details
* anticipate what the user needs to do next – demoed 2 ways to create a list; the best was the one in which all you had to do is start typing and keep typing; the system anticipated the list items would come right after the name of the list!
* designers need to get as obsessed about words as they are about pixels
* have your prompts (request for input) answer a question
* use thick markers when you are sketching out the design
* be clear over clever
* “delete the selected person” or “delete the 2 selected people” – much better than “delete the selected person(s)”
* search by city, state, country, zip, phone or email – much better than advanced search
this is has great insights into making web apps ENJOYABLE rather than ENDURABLE!
he is the created of BaseCamp & Ruby on Rails
37signals.com – great online book
BJU CpS 479 Assignment: Web Entrepreneurship
CpS 479 students, last week you had an excellent opportunity to hear from one of my students, Steven Lee, who is the creator and maintainer of SermonAudio.com, the leading source of online Bible-based sermons. At the end of the presentation we discussed several “take aways”. Using that as a base, I’d like to start a blog topic on “Starting your own web-based business or ministry”. Share you thought, ideas, ambitions, goals, the good, the bad, the ugly about becoming a 21st century web entrepreneur. What does it take, both personally, technically, business-wise, etc.
If you can, site some examples of both other successes and failures. What can you learn and apply from them?
Here are just a few questions to “prime the pump” of getting your brain in gear on this topic.
* what is an entrepreneur?
* how does he/she differ from “the rest of the crowd”?
* what does the Bible teach about this topic (study Duet 8:10-20)?
* what steps can you take to prepare yourself to be an entrepreneur?
* do you know any entrepreneurs? if so, what do you think made them successful (or not)?
* would you like to be an entrepreneur? if so why, if not, why not?
* discuss some entrepreneurial ideas that you have for a web-based business
* is it best to try and start a web-based business on your own or would you team up? if so, what would you look for in putting together a team?
Wikipedia is an excellent place to start.
Here’s something to consider: you want to build a website in your spare time and then sell it for $25M. How would you go about deciding what to build?
New Type of Web Attack Threatens ALL Secure Websites (like your bank)
Posted by admin in Education, Internship, Worthwhile on October 4th, 2008
Cross-Site Request Forgery is a security threat which allows someone else to access your secure online resources, like bank account, stock transactions, etc. It can happen when you are logged into one website and then surf to another without logging off the secure site. The 2nd site is able to maliciously use the authenticated session and complete transactions, such as transferring funds from a checking account, all under the guise of being the authenticated user. More information is available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_request_forgery
How does this impact you?
Many of us engage in secure transactions during the normal course of our day. In order to protect our online resources against a possible forgery, it is important that these transactions be completed in one of the following ways:
* logout of the protected site
* open a different browser window using another browser software (Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera)
* close all browsers and open a new session before going to other sites
Think computationally – protect your online resources! Now what’s going on while you are surfing the Web.
BJU MBA Online – making the teaching switch
I am excited to part of the BJU MBA program which for the past many years has used a satellite delivery system. This year we are making the switch to an online environment. Part of the requirement is that we conduct weekly synchronous online sessions. I’d like to use this blog posting to collect ideas & suggestions from those who are teaching in this new environment.
What works & what doesn’t? Post your comments below. Your ideas will be shared with all who care.