book learnin'

Wanting to learn more about this I have been reading up at a great site; Ajaxian, as well as others. I have also been educating myself on some of the libraries that are popping up as well; mootools, GWT, YUI and more so that I can begin extending my programming skills with the most appropriate solution for my business and my clients' needs.

The first book I bought was Javascript and Ajax for the Web, by Peachpit Press. The Visual Quickstart series of books is a great library for any programmer to have on their shelf (I own about a half dozen of these) because they present the information in clearly defined steps with screenshots that corresponds the environment that the reader will most likely be working within. They were also the first, to my knowledge, that included Mac specific instructions for programmatic instruction.

The next book I picked up is O'Reilly's Head Rush Ajax. First off, the Head Rush series of books is a great way to learn some of these technologies. It provides simple explanations of complex concepts in a manner that is easy and approachable for any skill level.

The last book I picked up in my Ajax trifecta was Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax from Apress. This book, I grabbed for its reputation in the industry.

With these books, and many more I am sure, I am hoping to be able to not only develop more immersive sites, but also provide better custom solutions for my clients' needs. I will get more detailed reviews later, as well as tutorials based on this new knowledge.

Great idea, poorly executed

With the release of The Simpsons Movie just around the corner, there have been all kinds of promotions thrown at us over the past weeks. From rebranding 7-11s around the country to QuickEMarts to a couple of websites, their is no lack of market awareness. One of the problems with so much promotional material has been some of the lack of QA in the production pipeline.

The Simpsons Movie site is a great bit of entertainment, although there are far too many "Coming Soon" placeholders for my taste. A web site is constantly evolving and adding tags like that just showcase the lack of planning and foresight by the marketing execs involved with this production. I can accept that, however, because the items they have on the site are engaging and work. That cannot be said for one of the more recent additions to Springfield.

There is another Simpsons site that allows you to upload a photo and have it "Simpsonized". This site is a complete hit or miss; actually it's a miss. I have been trying to get something to work on the site since I discovered it over the weekend. Not once, in literally almost 50 attempts, has proved fruitful (those 50 attempts do not include the times the site did allow entry; either by error request or session control).

This would be an example of how not to do a movie tie-in. The site leaves the visitor with nothing but frustration and nothing of the "reason to believe" marketing folks so often use in their creative briefs. This launch date for the movie was established long ago, yet like so many ill-conceived promotions, they did not allow enough time to produce the products to the level that the market has come to expect from a global entertainment company.

For example compare the Simpsons movie site with Disney/Pixars Ratatouille. Hands down, the mouse or in this case the rat, delivers on the promise. Now, I don't want to say the Simpsons have jumped the shark, but I think the lack of attention to some of these major promotional materials does not bode well for the Simpsons (both the movie and the recent lackluster seasons).

Site analysis

Standards-Based
Standards-based design insure the consistency of the visual presentation of the design across browsers and platforms. Insuring the separation of content and presentation allows the broadest market access to information contained on the site.

A semantically coded, valid page offers the visitor to the site access to the information in the manner they desire to receive it. Cel phone, pda, mac, pc…a valid page using standards would be an engaging experience in spite of the viewing method. Absent of styling the site should revert to a document similar in style to a standard Word document.

Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible without modification. It is not to be confused with usability which is used to describe how easily a thing can be used by any type of user. One meaning of accessibility specifically focuses on people with disabilities and their use of assistive devices such as screen-reading web browsers or wheelchairs.

Usability
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an object's perceived efficiency or elegance.

In human-computer interaction and computer science, usability usually refers to the elegance and clarity with which the user interface of a computer program or a web site is designed.

Design
Design, usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavors, is used as both a noun and a verb. "Design" as a verb refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a new object (machine, building, product, etc.). As a noun, "design" is used both for the final plan or proposal (a drawing, model, or other description), or the result of implementing that plan or proposal (the object produced).

Designing normally requires considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, iterative adjustment, and re-design.

Branding on the web
Branding remains one of the most essential assets a business entity maintains. It is the sum total of all the consumer knows about a company. If the brand does not present the proper image in a consistent manner across media than the business will suffer.

Consistency
Is the experience the same across all touch-points? Does the core messaging and its presentation remain consistent across media? With various outlets to get your message across it is ever more important to think globally for the presentation of your branding across these mediums. What will the presentation look like in: print, outdoor, online, mobile, etc. If the consumer is presented with opposing or conflicting brand messages per the vehicle, they will not trust the message or the brand.

Competitive Analysis
Websites do not exist in a vacuum and we must gauge current market trends and best practices within the industry. Surveying the competitive and complementary markets allows us to measure the implementation of the latest technologies on the web. It provides a barometer by which we may measure the subject site against likely competition as well as like-minded businesses which our consumer may visit.

Speech Bubbles

Something fun, but mostly useless for commercial prospects, is Speech Bubble. Installing this into your browser allows you to add a speech bubble to any photo on the web and share it with your friends. There are some sites that will not work (i.e. Flash, larger sites like NY Times, etc.) but overall it is a fun diversion for you and your friends on a slow afternoon.

iPhone Dev Camp followup

The follow-up to the barcamp for the iPhone was quite productive. There is a list of apps available at their site.

MacUpdate Bundle

MacUpdate has started offering a great bundle of software for a ridiculously low price. This is also the basis for MacHeist 2, which begins today as well.

[EDIT]

This is not the basis of MacHeist 2, but rather a smaller bit of joy called skunkworks…my bad.

iDevelop 4 iPhone

Apple has officially launched the iPhone developer's section to their site. It seems fairly light in offerings and logging into my developer account does not offer much more information. This weekend there is a Barcamp iPhone developer meeting in San Francisco; hopefully we will learn more about developing for the iPhone from there.

Macheist 2

The time has come for MacHeist 2. The first MacHeist was such a huge success, even with the hiccups, that the directorate is back with more. Let's hope some of the issues that hindered the overall experience have been ironed out. I am looking forward to participating in this one.