Week 9 - MySQL Database

We have our introduction to the My SQL database tonight. It's a shorter lecture this week and straight on the practical exercise. I didn't find it too difficult only when I need to figure out what syntax I need to use for the queries. We haven't go into too much detail on building and creating data modeling ourselves. There are more lectures on this in the coming weeks.

For once, I finished the practical exercise early!!! YAY!! That's a little bit more encouraging after the last few weeks of what I can probably called a coding meltdown. I have a feeling this is going to be harder later. I hope not.

Start the visual design

Last weekend, I've spent my time to do the visual design of the website. The client I am building the website for has their own logo that the would like to use on the website. I spent time to consider the graphical elements and the layout of the pages.

Overall the website would have several static pages and dynamic pages. The static pages would be pages for about the company information, company profile, etc. The dynamic pages would be layout like a blog entry page. I haven't decided if I'm to incorporate any forms in the website yet. However, while I'm doing the visual design, I decided to have a think about the style for the form page. Basically, I'm trying to finalise all the elements I need for the website. I've created my "desired" design on photshop mock-ups. The next step is to actually build them using CSS.

I have fun designing the visual layout. Once I decided the "look" that I want, everything just flows from there. I hope realising this on the website using CSS is not going to be that difficult. I can be a little pedantic about visual design. It is because that's what I do for a living =). However, I have to be careful that I didn't ignore the functionality of the website as well.

Week 8 - JavaScript

This week is week 9 already!!! I felt like I kept falling behind =(. Last week's lecture on JavaScript wasn't too bad. I manage to do the exercise by doing a little bit of searching on google. I found out that JavaScript interpret your calculation in milliseconds!!! I found that a little bit weird. Anyway, it looks like there are certain amount interactivity you can achieve by using CSS rather than JavaScript. JavaScript probably more useful in more complex interactivity such as google map, validating forms, etc.

I haven't got a chance to look more into JavaScript after the lecture. I think I might have to just dwell in and learn it as I go with the project.

WordPress saga begins...

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm also considering to build my site using WordPress as CMS site. I was a little bit concerned about it at first as I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to change my original plan half-way through the course. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to do the research. However, I realised this is necessary and I just need to do it.

I've spent my weekend to install WordPress on my Mac. I also installed MAMP (Mac Apache MySQL and PHP), so I can set up a web-server locally on my Mac.

Installing the WordPress was pretty straight forward. I followed the video tutorials of how to install WordPress site from Lynda.com. It's really helpful. I played around with it, downloading themes, set up a blog, creating pages. etc. I couldn't believe how many really beautifully designed WordPress themes out there. It's quite exciting!

I planned to create my website using WordPress. It means I would need to modify the themes to suit my design. There are still a lot things I need to learn about WordPress, which I need to go through at some stage so I'm able to build my website project. Luckily, WordPress has extensive documentations and support. There are a lot of resources in WordPress topic. I'm convinced that I would be able to find something that I need amongst those resources. The problem would be to pick which one is suitable for my needs. I think I just need to get on-board and use it. Hopefully, I will learn more about it as I go.

If anyone can point me to a good WordPress tutorials, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

Peer Feedback for Macro and Micro Analysis

Last weekend, I've spent my time to review other students draft version of the Macro and Micro Analysis. It was interesting to see what other people are planning to do with their project.

Giving feedback is harder than I thought. It's a good practice. I think because I don't know much about the technology myself to be able to give effective feedback. I felt like I was letting them down by not giving them the kind of feedback I would have been able to do if I've know more about the technology they have chosen. So, apologized to those in the group with me, if my feedback didn't really help you to make your report better.

On that note, I was also put in a group with a student name Shi Chen. However, I couldn't not find his/her Macro and Micro Analysis. Therefore, I wasn't able to give my feedback. If you're Shi Chen, and you are reading this post, please let me know if you still wants me to give you my feedback. I'll try my best.

Finally, thanks to those who gave me their feedback on my Macro and Micro Analysis. It's really helpful. Some of the comments are exactly right and I know I need to refine the areas of how the I would use the technologies together in my project. So thank you again!

Considering CMS

After analysing the client's and user requirements, I'm considering adding some content management systems in the website I'm going to build. The client I'm going to build the website for would like to be able to update articles and content periodically. Therefore, I'm now considering to build the website using wordpress as the content management system. I need to do further research on which one is more suitable for my client's needs. It has to be easy to use and user friendly.

I'm starting to get worried that I may not have enough time to do the research and build the website at the same time. I wish I have realised this earlier, I would've been more prepared.

Anyway, I've updated the draft version of my Macro and Micro Analysis to include WordPress as one technology consideration.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. All your input would be greatly appreciated.

PHP meltdown

Am I the only one that left the class last night feeling like my brain just about explode? This PHP thing is really challenging. Even after watching the video tutorial before the class, I still left feeling that I'm more confused than before. I really need to catch up and learn more about this.

I think I know why I'm not a developer =)... I'm more a visual kind of person. I need to visualise what the code is actually doing and what results I would expected to see. I might give the practical another go and try to understand what the code is actually trying to do.

Draft of Technology Macro and Micro Analysis

Here it is... my draft of the Technology Macro and Micro Analysis. I think it still needs a lot more work on the Micro analysis parts. All feedback would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Preparing User Questions

I have decided that I'm going to apply the User Centered Design (UCD) process in designing my website project. One of the steps of the UCD process is to gather user requirements. To do that, I'll be creating a short user survey, which I hope will give me some valuable information about my potential users to the website.

I've started drafting the user survey questions tonight. I'll review them again tomorrow before I distribute them to the potential users. This exercise will teach me valuable knowledge in applying the UCD process in website development.

Writing My Technology Macro and Micro Analysis

I spent my day today to write my draft version of the Technology Macro and Micro Analysis assignment. I gather some books and online resources to get the definition of all the technologies I'll be using on my project. I found it's not easy to get a simple, easy to understand definition of each of the technologies. I'll try my best of describing each of them in the macro analysis.

As for the Micro analysis. There are a few things I'm still unsure about. I have to work on it further tomorrow so I can get them ready for review on Tuesday.

Week 6 - CSS Layout

More CSS lecture was on last Tuesday. This time it was about CSS layout: How to position elements on the page and all the different options available to get the elements laid out the way you want them to. I found it takes a while for the whole concept to sink in. Until I played around with it and experiment with all the different options available, it's hard to imagine what it looks like.

The practical challenge is quite challenging. It took me a while to get them right. I think the key points of this is really experimenting with it and see what you get out of it. Although it was challenging, it was really fun for me. I really enjoy CSS. I think I can go on all night playing with them. I can't wait to start designing my website pages.

Big, Bold and Beautiful Website Navigation Menus

As I'm doing my research for my design, I came across this post - "30+ Examples of Big, Bold and Beautiful Website Navigation Menus" by Freelance Folder. The team from Freelance folder complied a list of examples of navigation menu designs.

The navigation menu is an important element in any website design. It can be the one thing that will determine the success and failure of your website. If it's badly designed, your users would not know where to go and eventually leave your website without even thinking about coming back. On the other hand, when it's well designed and creates a nice user experience, your users would most likely keep coming back to your site. Furthermore, they may recommend it to their friends and eventually your site would serve its purpose whatever that may be.

This post is a reminder for me to carefully think about how the navigation menu in my website should be. In my opinion, a good navigation doesn't have to be fancy and flashy. I like it to be simple and easy to use and supported by its aesthetics design.

Inspiration for non-profits website design

A friend forwarded me this blog post about 22 Non-profits Looking Good, Doing Good by Mubashar Igbal from most inspired website. I found this inspiring. It proves that even a non-profit organisation using their website as an important marketing tool. Being non-profit doesn't mean cheap. It's a great service to the organisation and its contributors when the website is well-designed.