Ease of Use

In order to make using this blog a little bit easier I have tagged every post, and I'm posting all the relevant tags in this untagged post here

Assignment 001
Assignment 002
Final
Interaction
Misc
Portfolio
Research
SPP2
Tutorial
Web

Don't Panic!

So after been in Nottingham for just over two years I may have a slight career opportunity. I have been taken on as independent arts distributor [basically means handing out magazines] for Nottingham based fashion, arts, music magazine Don't Panic. Now, this is has nothing to do with web design as of yet, but it can help me get into the web design industry by gaining knowledge and contacts within Nottingham and to also, maybe, climb up the ladder in Don't Panic.

However working 1am-4am isn't really a plus.

Finally..

I said a few months ago about creating a website for a friend and creating audio/video players for another, well, these didn't happen for a number of reasons. But now, I've been 'commissioned' to create, host and update an online photography portfolio. Exciting stuff. Especially after what I've learned in creating my social network I should be able to use similar coding.

After getting Web Designer magazine for the train journey home last week I came across a tutorial which will help create a online portfolio with a CD which includes various flash templates for portfolios...only, you need to get the next one to finish it off.

Either way, slightly looking forward to this project.

£5, Bargin!

Just a quick note for all the web designers to say that if you don't know about these books already then you should. I came across a few books by publishing company Taschen last year in Fopp, based around websites and how they were created [the books being called Web Design: Flash Sites, and Web Design: Portfolios].

I then found a few more yesterday in Zavvi [these being Web Design: Music Sites, and Web Design: Studios]. For a tiny £5 each for a hundred or so pages or sheer excellence in Web Design these books are amazing. Granted they are no tutorials, but with looks of pictures and quite a fair bit of information these are worth the money. Go grab one now!

Assignment 002: Completion

After everything, I finally handed in my social networking site. Overall I am very pleased with what I have accomplished, it was an experience to be given such a, complicated, yet very interesting project that opened my eyes as to what can be done with web design and how easy it can be.

However there were a few things that I had missed out. I didn't complete the CSS coding fully and I still had a slight problem with the navigation when it came to resizing the browser.

All in all I know I could have done better but given the time scale I am happy with the outcome, until I have my project meeting next week...

Assignment 002: "profile.php"

Now, with this been a social network I had to think about how to create individual profile pages. After looking at todays social sites I found that they each had there own unique way of showing user profiles.

Facebook seems to use the Member ID to create individual profile pages.



Myspace seems to use a unique URL defined by the user for the profile page.



With this in mind, and after speaking to Dave about how simple it was to create the Facebook style page I have opted to query the member ID. In order to create the profile page I have to enter the code on the pages that link to the profile page. As I queried the member ID to get the member name to show the member profile I reversed the code to retrieve the member ID and created the profile page by entering the query into the profile URL. Below is the code for the link to the user profile.

'http://servernamehere/iplanet/profile.php?member_id="{$row['member_id']}'

The above code then comes into play when loading up the information to show the individual profiles. By using the GET code I retrieve the member id from the URL and again, by using MySQL, query the database to load and show all information with the member id from the URL.

Simple, now that I've done it!

Assignment 002: "Invite Friend"

I'm on a roll now!! Once I get started I just can't seem to stop until I've finished.
So today I have been creating the system so that you can invite a friend to join the social network, as you can only be invited and you can only view the site if you are a member, which in todays world seems to be a good idea.

At first look the idea seems easy; sending an email which you can input the message, and sending, however there is a lot more to it. On closer inspection you have to enter the email address of who's sending the invite, which may mean disclosing certain personal information that you may not want to. I wanted to be able to send a pre-defined hidden subject and message which also inputs the name and email address of the person sending it.

After a bit of searching and a lot of cut, copy and paste I was able to produce exactly what I wanted. I created the actual page in which you were able to enter the email address of the person to be invited. After clicking on send it then sent an email, which was hidden and contained the name and email of the person sending it, with a link telling them where to register for their account. I also defined a prototype email address and an example subject, which makes the invite look more professional and realistic.

Assignment 002: "Click To Send"

After getting the login system working on my site I set about how to create public and private messages. First I created the database to hold all the information for the public message system, cleverly titled 'public_message'. Then by using a simple send and receive tutorial, alongside a little javascript [which, if I'm honest, didn't understand] and with the examples we used for the CD database I used a month or so ago I was able to create the public message system which would [eventually] be shown on every persons profile. The hard part which I've missed for now is trying to get who the message is from to show the persons name rather then the member ID or member email.

When it came to the private messages I created a separate table, again cleverly titled 'private_message'. I used the same coding as the public message system, but I changed it so that it only showed messages for the user who was logged in, which is found by querying the session of the web page. Again I had the same problem with who it was from.

Thats one more down, and a lot more to go.

Assignment 002: "Wrong Email or Password"

Just completed the [basic] design for my login system and got it working, just. So that's one of about thirty things completed. Its amazing that if you forget one space, and put an upper case letter instead of a lower case one the whole thing doesn't work.

Assignment 002: Inital Design

After explaining to my friends about this terms project and how I have to create a social network, they were more then happy to help me with the name choosing. Half a dozen pints later we came up with the name 'iPlanet'. Initially I wanted something to tie together both MySpace and Facebook, and to also steal some ideas from my friends work in progress 'yourwURLd'. But after a long list the only good one was MyBook, which sounded like the latest product from Apple. Which gave me a brainwave, iPlanet could be the latest of creations from Apple. Genius!

With this in mind the latest will be based on the Apple site.

I'm expecting the cheque in the post soon.

New York, New York

After a short weekend away in the Big Apple I found something that may be of some interest to me in my final year. I was walking past The New York Times building on Broadway, if I'm correct, and noticed two walls filled these strange black boxes. I thought nothing of it as I knew I wouldn't be able to get in because of the security at the entrance. I turned a corner to find an entrance open to the public, perfect opportunity.


Two walls filled with about 400 6" screens. All connected to a computer. This was very weird at first sight. Each individual screen seemed to be displaying a different piece of information. Then at certain intervals, some would start and then stop making different patterns, but exactly the same on both walls. I read that the piece was called 'Moveable Type' by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin [2007] and said the following on the project




"Moveable Type is an active portrait of the New York Times that is fueled by the contents of the daily paper and to the visitors to NYTimes.com who are browsing, searching, reading and commenting. The artists have programmed the work to extract fragments - words, phrases, quotes, numbers and places - from The Times' growing, living, real-time news database, and to recombine these fragments into a series of ever changing kinetic compositions."

Interesting. Just a little bit.

Amazing...

Remember the series of Honda Adverts from a few years ago [The ones with ], well they've just realised a new series of adverts. After scaling the wonder that is YouTube I managed to find the whole advert. I particulary like the first one with the Rubix Cube's. Maybe because it ties in with the pixel art I studied [and became obsessed with!!] a few months ago!



I also found out that the company [Wieden + Kennedy] have also created a large number of todays advertisements for large companies, including the latest Stop Motion Animation Advert for Cravendale.

Web Pathway: Interaction Design: Phidgets

After this lecture on Phidgets, the flash based user interface, it got me thinking more and more about my final year. After been told the set shown was near enough £400 I decided purchasing the set wasn't a good idea, so I set about looking at working examples of the Phidgets. I found this, and it looks like a great idea, and I bet very easy to create. Enjoy!

SPP2: Tutorial

So last week, we were given the task of to visit one of the following galleries;

+ 1851 [Waverley Building],
+ Lakeside [Nottingham Uni],
+ Galleries of Justice,
+ View From the Top [Waterstones]

We were told to look at the work been showed and suggest how you would/wouldn't use it in your own work. This, I thought would be easy, but, I was wrong. I chose to visit 1851 and View From the Top to look at the work showed, my reviews are as follows;

+ View from the Top
Location: Top Floor, Waterstones Book Shop.

With the gallery at Waterstones it can be pretty hit or miss as to what is been showcased, and this was a bit of both. It was a collection of local photographers' work, presented ready for an auction. I thought that I wouldn't find a lot here, but given the fact I'd gone up 4 floors to get here I may aswell have a quick look. At first glance none of the photos took my attention, then I looked a little closer and a few artists took stood out from the rest. Liam Woodgate had a small collection of photos involving scrabble pieces spelling out a variety of words. I thought this was a good idea as it would make for an interesting website if incorporated with flash correctly. Nathan Cave also caught my eye with a series of 4 photographs of different landscapes, with the colour tones been very surreal/obscure. I just liked the idea of how he'd taken a seemingly normal, dull landscape and turned it into something that was eye catching. Sarah King had also done the same with a tree on a hill, with bright orange/reds for the hill [as it was covered in leaves] and a dark green/grey for the tree. Finally I came across David Tristano who had taken 3 photos, two of Banksy-esque wall graffitti, and one which seemed to be a macro shot of a series of metal objects. I liked the fact he had a different style to his photos, but yet used both styles side by side.

+ 1851
Location: Waverley Building.

Never really took the attention to notice any of the art shown in here before, apart from the obvious cinema screen sized banner by John Burgerman. John studied in Graphic Design [if I remember correctly] and had created a series of characters for the popular game Wipeout. I like his style of drawings, and how they interlinked together.


Sorry there arent any photos, my camera refused to co-operate with me which resulted in it freezing everytime I turned it on. Damn Technology. Maybe I'll go back and take some photo's.

Just a quickie...

With the wonders of todays technology I was very pleased to find 'The Big Fat Quiz of the Year' been available on the internet after missing it on TV.



This passes some of the winter nights rather nicely.