Archive for 'Programming'
playing with ajax
Posted on October 10, 2006, by admin, under Blog, Programming.
Since I’ve started working on weSpendMoney I’ve been fiddling more and more with Ajax. It’s no suprise because since Google started using it in Gmail and Google Maps, the popularity among developers and companies skirocketed and besides, it gives me with the means to build a gui which provides a more user friendly experience and eliminate waiting times (or at least hide them).
The RubyOnRails framework already comes with the prototype library and several ajax helpers so it’s more easy for the developer to work it them and there’s also rjs templates which generates javascript using ruby code.
There’s a nice tutorial for beginners on this subject at RubyNoob!
But I’ve also gave Rico a try, it’s another open-source JavaScript library (there’s so many of them now) that provides full Ajax support, drag ‘n drop management, rounded corners (yay!) and some essential cinematic effects. I think it’s worth trying out and the examples are simple to understand, many books also have examples in Rico.
Of course with all these Ajax effects I needed some activity indicators, It’s a good thing I found out this page which has a nice gallery of them. Someone actually made a generator for this, very neat.
Finally, there’s a great site which has many tutorials, links, discussions and resources on the subject, go on hover to Ajax Lessons for some learning.
No Comments
How to make really bad interfaces
Posted on October 5, 2006, by admin, under Blog, Programming, design.
I stumbled across this article last week when I was browsing the net and I thought I should share it with the rest of the world since it’s really funny.
Everyone talks about good design rules for good interfaces so Gerd Waloszek from SAP AG decided to do the contrary and compile a series of rules for Bad User Interfaces.
It’s easy to picture yourself in some of those situations, I particulary like the rule “You are the expert and know what users need – because you know what you need. Why should they need something else?”.
Anyway, the article can be found at “Golden Rules for Bad User Interfaces” in SAP’s design guild along with other related articles.
No Comments
Shift conference 2006
Posted on October 1, 2006, by admin, under Blog, Events, Other, Programming, Web, design.
On the 28 and 29th of September, Lisbon was the host of the Shift 2006 conference, focusing on Social and Human Ideas for Technology.
The event was held at rectory building (or the Chancellor’s Office) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and had the presence of many international speakers to discuss all about emerging technologies, whether they’re the latest internet trend or the latest social or psychological development. There were also Workshops and open spaces where people could present product demos or discuss other topics.
It was a fantastic event, an opportunity to meet some innovative products being made in Portugal like Goplan, Mingle, Virtual Sightseeing or even weSpendMoney (*wink* *wink*) and the awesome people behind all this stuff. There was also international projects like coComment, Plazes and Vizta, all awesome.
I had the chance to discuss alot of ideas, think of technology in new perspectives and gain motivation to invest and continue working on some of my less known personal projects.
Amongst the several talks (over 55 in 2 days) there was the opportunity to meet and see the presentations of Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, creator of the Reboot conference (which I’m really looking forward to go next year), Bill Scott Ajax Evangelist and Manager of the Design Pattern Library at Yahoo which I recommend everyone who does web development to check it out.
David Galipeau (Web Manager of UNAIDS) and presented a very inspiring presentation (and somewhat scary) at the future of technology and man, Kevin Cheng Senior Interaction Designer at Yahoo Local had a very funny talk about using comics to present ideas.
Luke Wroblewski (Principal Designer at Yahoo and Principal of “LukeW Interface Designs”) and Peter Merholz (Director of Practice Development and Partner of “Adaptive Path”) both aproach the topic of design in products and the web, lots of inspiration here and great fonts of usefull information, don’t forget to check their site.
There was still time for a little workshop in Ruby On Rails, teached by Joshua Sierles and with the presence of Fred from WeBreakStuff, it’s nice to see Rails being talked here in Portugal, I’m hoping next time there will be time to talk more.
I guess I’m problably forgetting a bunch of other people but there was really so much to see there that I’ll give just this small glimpse of what went through. As a last note, also check the photos at flickr, you can search for the tag shift06 and I guess I’ll see you there next year.
