Posts Tagged ‘development’
Joomla vs. Wordpress
Monday, March 16th, 2009
March 16th 2009
OK, so now I am almost done moving my site and portfolio from Joomla to Wordpress. It has been an interesting experience, and on the WP side extremely smooth. It has been an eye-opener on how much you can customise this system.
I am still testing things out, so the site will be in flux for at least couple more weeks.
On the upside for Joomla though, is that templating for it is extremely straight forward, and the plug ins are extremely advanced.
Wordpress still kicks ass for sheer brilliance and smoothness of plugins and template design. It can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be.
About freaking time
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
January 23rd 2009
Just a quick post to let people know that the latest iteration of the popular Joomla CMS has finally reached a stable 1.5.
I am a big fan of the content management system, and have used it almost exclusively for my projects ever since it was just a twinkle in the eye of Mambo .
I skipped fiddling around with the betas last year, so I could focus on this new version instead. Needless to say, I will download immediately, and figured I might as well update my website while I am at it. During this process, I will write a detailed review, as I go along.
Watch this space for full details.
Consistency between browsers
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
April 16th 2008
Why is it that both professional web producers and clients alike insists on comparing the look and feel between different browsers? Especially between what is considered Alpha browsers (Firefox2+, IE7+, Safari 2/3b and Opera 9+) and Beta browsers like Internet Explorer 6 – the scourge of the internet.
I understand everything there is about presenting a coherent look and feel, that presents the clients brand in a consistent way.
But let’s face it: It doesn’t matter. The target group will not sit there with 4 different browsers open, comparing the differences! Most likely they will either never update their browsers because of lazy IT staff (I mean you Simon Hill 
, and therefore never see a proper version of the site.
Or if they are relatively IT-competent, they keep their browser updated at least at home.
Now, my argument is this: intentionally MAKE sites look really good in Alpha browsers, and passable in Beta and below. Why? Because coding for deprecated browsers take a lot of time, and cost a lot of money.
“Oh but if you code correctly, you don’t need to worry about that” and “Over 90% use Internet Explorer 6″ I hear you cry!
Absolute bull! I am not talking about browser snobbery, trying to convince people to switch to standards compatible browsers like Opera, Firefox and Safari, but to simply reward people who keep their browsers and computers up to date.
If people insist on using old style browsers, then they just won’t get the full experience. Simple as that.
And also, if there is a difference of 2 pixels here and there when compared between browsers – IT DOESN’T MATTER. The user experience will not vary because of this anyway! As long as the general composition is the same, and typography adhered to, then this is a moot point.
The need for professionals
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
March 5th 2008
Since I have been around the block, both one or two times since the dawn of DTP, I have struggled to convince people that it is worth to pay for professional design. Fighting off clients’ meager attempts in Word or Publisher, to convince them that even if they CAN do it, it doesn’t mean that they SHOULD do it.
Of course, these days the same thing is happening on the web. Anyone can put together a webpage, and learn the basics of HTML, but it won’t make you a designer. Just like with DTP, the web is maturing, and surrounding knowledge of the medium is becoming increasingly important.
Where people in print realised that knowledge like typography, picking the right paper, and know how to layout a page was still a good sales arguement, in web it is just as important to have the same knowledge. And that is what set aside professionals from happy go lucky amateurs. What is the point to have a page that looks fantastically pretty if no one knows how to navigate it – or worse – cannot even find the page in the first place. Build a page incorrectly and it will most probably break, or load slowly, just to download a pretty header that takes up most of the content space above the fold.
After all, Web is just a medium and I think the content is still king – without proper content a site will die.
I will revisit this topic again in the near future.
Bite the head off a chiclet
Monday, January 28th, 2008
January 28th 2008
Chicklet… chiclet… no matter how you spell it, it is still some guys “clever” marketing speak for small buttons. You know the kind: “Digg This”, “Add to Facebook”, “Add to bookmarks”.
Some guy appearantly thought it would be clever to name them “chiclets”. For those in the know chiclet is actually a brand of chewing gum, the name of keyboard buttons as on a calculator or remote control.
Sure the buttons are as annoying as getting chewing gum on your shoes, because we designers tend to put them in the footer. Is that why it got that name?
People where I work now want these everywhere. It is painful to hear people blurting out these “trendy” names. I have two things to say to the person who minted the expression for these buttons: “Please STOP”.
If something is a button, then it is a button. Exclamation mark. Refer to things as “graphical button” or “styled button”. It is not something new and fantastic or even very hard. Most of the time it is an image or textreplaced link leading to one of the social bookmarking sites.
It is NOTHING new, and NO it will not make you sound clever.
If you want to invent a new terminology, PLEASE for the love of the gods make sure it actually DESCRIBES the function or use of the item.
Here are some acceptable replacements:
- “Social-link”
- “Styled button”
- “cross site link”
and my favourite
- “button”
