As a designer you can run into a lot of conflicts. What do I think looks the best? What do they think looks the best? I understand this but will they be able to comprehend? These are all valuable questions that designers face. For that, I am going into 3 common areas in which most designers either take sink or swim!

1) Assuming the User Understands
I don’t have the statistical research, but this is one of the biggest problems designers face today. As developers and designers we tend to take our own knowledge of what we understand for granted. Do all users know this type of link goes here? Is it common knowledge a house means that you will go to the index or home page?

Take into deep consideration how much your design speaks to the user. It is a safe route to break down navigation as simple as possible, add visulizations and tool-tips where needed, and to place objects where users can easily see them.

All and all - your design should tell the user what to do. That tends to eliminate the confusion.

2) Small Text Sucks. Period!
One of the biggest issues I have with design is small text. It could be the fact that I’m very close to being legally blind. Just think about it. Your site or application is used by the 17-50 year-old range. Will all of your users have the same eye sight? Will they even look at your site on the same screen resolution? This was especially an issue during the Dot Com days as Verdana with font-size 10px being the forerunner. Now, bigger text is in with the whole Web 2.0 movement.

Of course - your users could probably utilize the zoom feature in their browser. How convenient is that though? Remember folks - this is all about the user experience!

3) Your Browser Isn’t The Only One Bud
I really didn’t think it was such a problem ,but there are many designers that don’t think to test their applications in various browsers. This site is included! There are some subtle differences between all browsers that can hamper the user experience. It may seem like the tiniest fragment but trust me - it will hurt a lot more than you imagine.

Test, Test, Test! That’s the only way you can assure that your site is your site no matter the environment.

And we close…..
Those are three elements that can be overlooked, assumed, or can even lack the proper attention. Remember - every element put into your web site/ applicaiton interface dictate how your users will effectively use it. Your users can use it proudly. Yet again, they can move on to the next search result due to frustration.

Okay, out of fairness I thought I would post the same tutorial for my favorite dynamic duo - ASP.NET and C#. We will assume we are using the same database name or table name. We will work with a asp:DropDownList control such as:

<asp:DropDownList id="state" runat="server"></asp:DropDownList>

We will create a method called StateDropDown:

private void StateDropDown()
{
}

From there we will define our connection settings - typically what we have set in the web.config file.

SqlConnection Con = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MySettings"].ConnectionString);

From there, much like the PHP example, we will create an SQL query that will scope the database table to populate the dropdown. We will assume i’m connecting to a database named info and a table named state.

string Sql = "SELECT * FROM info..state";

Now for the fun of C# - creating a dataset, filling the dataset, then applying that dataset to your asp:dropdown control.

SqlDataAdapter sqlAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(Sql, Con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
sqlDA.Fill(ds);
state.DataSource = ds.Tables[0];
state.DataTextField = "state_abbr";
state.DataValueField = "state_id";
state.DataBind();
}

And now for the unmolested code:

private void StateDropDown()
{
//Define your connection
SqlConnection Con = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MySettings"].ConnectionString);
//Create your SQL query/string
string Sql = "SELECT * FROM info..state";
SqlDataAdapter sqlAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(Sql, Con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
sqlDA.Fill(ds);
//Define which control will accept this dataset
state.DataSource = ds.Tables[0];
state.DataTextField = "state_abbr";
state.DataValueField = "state_id";
//Bind the dataset to the control
state.DataBind();
}

I might be on an edge by even giving this attention, my input, or other media coverage. I do feel though this is an important subject and I would like for those of you to read through this blog before making any judgements at all.

I was scoping Newgrounds.com today and I ran across a game that really caught my attention. Unfortunately, the game itself isn’t one I’d recommend to others. It seems as though someone has tried to exploit the events of April 16th at Virginia Tech (just a mere 12 minutes from my home in Radford) through a video game entitled simply “VT Rampage”.

At first my thoughts were simple - How could anyone be this tasteless?

So then I played the game. The creator literally programmed a flash game to “relive” the events. You are Cho, the relentless psychopath that looks to send a message to the world. Your first mission through the 1st stage is to shoot Emily Hilscher - the first victim in the actual events. Events then move on as you return to the dorm to film the manifesto tape. From there Cho must “stealthily” make it past a ward of police to drop the package off to the Post Office. From there is where “the fun begins”, as the creator puts it in Cho’s words.

Norris Hall is nothing more than a glorified bloodfest. You have a time limit to slaughter as many students as possible, even with a theme song playing in the background encouraging “Go Cho Go!”

At the end of the time limit, with 32 dead and various injured, Cho is left with only one choice - to take this life. The game ends there, with credits rolling in shortly afterwards.

Personally I am all for freedom of speech. What I am not for however is the right for people to be so distasteful. It is an outrage that this online game portrays the events, let alone NAMES one of the victims in the game and allows you to murder her. This is truly a lack of respect towards the victim!

With further research I see that the media has really picked this up and has even conducted an interview with the game’s creator - Ryan Lambourn. Turns out he’s a 21-year-old living in Australia, but grew up in the United States (credit - MSNBC). With that being said, Ryan should be able to connect since most of those killed were students HIS age. So why would someone still do such a thing?

It has also been stated that he will remove the game if the government pays him a price. Should the government fold and pay the “ransom”? How does this play into freedom of speech and freedom of the Internet?

Frankly, if the government pays to have the game removed, it will create a few scenarios in my opinion.

• By paying the ransom, you open the gateways for similar games. Oklahoma City Rampage anyone? So what will the government do then? Pay to have each game removed?
• By taking the game off, it takes away some of the freedom of the Internet. Should legislation be passed to limit what can be posted on the Internet? Who will be the judge of what is tasteful, politically correct, and eligible to be posted?

Either way, Ryan is getting exactly what he wants. He’s getting cheap press and has become highlight of chat through various media, including this blog. What he has done on the bright side has screwed any chance he had at becoming a respected professional in his field of work, let alone a respected human being.

Incase you’re interested, this video game can be found at www.newgrounds.com

I gotta say, the ability to understand programming pays off. After getting fed up with the time I was wasting logging into Ta-Da List I decided to write my own listing program.

I like to look at it as a list management system.

I really didn’t need to be super organized, such as organizing by day, week, etc. I created the list just how I would create my own sticky notes - random, jot some info down with a title and post it. The program works just the same - I have an idea, I click my bookmark, the web application comes up and I’m ready to go. Add a title, a little descriptive information and wah-la! It’s posted. I can even edit the list if I screw something up and I can delete it once the task/list/whatever is completed.

I’m still thinking about releasing it once I complete the interface to meet my tastes. Will it be open source? Most likely!

PHP and MySQL are a great marriage. What are some of the applications some of you guys are building to meet your needs?

Hey, I don’t get to say I have failed a lot. Bear with me!

As many of you have read recently, I have been interviewing with a popular technology based company here in the New River Valley. It has been an exciting process and much different than other hiring processes that I have been through in the past.

The news is - I didn’t get the job.

Some of you may be shocked. Some of you may have expected it from the start. I gotta say this - it was an eye-opening experience and is JUST the jump start I needed.

Today’s technology industry is VERY competitive and there are a lot of jobs tailored to specific areas. With this, I was going after the title “web developer” which to me sounded just like my ballpark. I was welcomed in-house for an interview after a few phone interviews and was on my way. Then, once in-house it was a whole different story:

• Web Development is just that - developing programs for the web
• Design and Development are two majorly different spectrums
• Design caters to USD - User Interface Design
• Development caters to making each module work
• Keep your mind sharp. I was given a test with logic answers. Tips or advice include:
• Be able to explain how you answer some things
• As a programmer, dabble in every language you can
• Please, under all circumstances, refresh your memory on syntax!!!!!
• Always bring a small notepad and pencil with you. It helps
• Brush up on brain teasers. These are becoming very popular in the job market

All in all, I may have not got the position. It has not though, detered me from wanting to work with the company in the near future. They really are onto something with their business model and truly care about their employees. This experience has given me incentive to improve upon and take a better interest into a sector of the web world that I have ignored somewhat over the years - true ground up scratch programming.

I gotta say I was impressed from the initial startup of the program. Immediately (although it is cluttered) the program opens with a wide variety of tools and options to assist you in your project.

Not much is left to wonder as it has on screen modules/tools for:

• Validation
• IE & Firefox Preview
• Rails Support
• Code Assistance (major plus!!)
• File navigation
• DOM Navigation is amazing and very detailed
• On the fly updates when changes are made

The libraries included with Aptana are large and quite impressive to say the least. From what I see, there are plenty of tools for you to include in your projects, ranging from element fading effects to element positioning and even Flash related scripts.

Although I’ve only been using it for a day or so it has already shown that it is a powerful IDE. I have read that Aptana can be imported into Eclipse, which should provide a better base for JAVA and PHP programmers. Don’t waste anytime, go to www.aptana.com and download this tool. It will definitely make your life a lot easier as a programmer.

Over the past few weeks I have downloaded Cake PHP, Scriptalicious, Aptana, and PHP Eclipse. Look for reviews and notes to be posted in the next few days!

I tend to find myself as one confident individual - unless math is involved. I personally have a weird way of finding solutions (they work.. just not how its schemed to be solved). Also - when it comes to programming I can’t exactly write down the correct syntax as well as I can type it out. Something about the comfort of a keyboard I suppose…

Point being, I found this recently when giving a programming and logic test. I highly recommend testing yourself and keeping sharp with brain teasers and some programming basics. When given the test I found myself drawing blanks on many questions that I KNEW the correct answers for. I also found myself literally stumped on how to correctly write syntax on various items I knew how to program.

Does anyone else have this problem at all sometimes?

I gotta say del.icio.us hooks me up all the time with awesome bookmarks.

Today I saw a link to an article on LifeHack regarding 15 cool Firefox tricks that people hardly use. I gotta say, I was delighted with a few of them as I had no idea they could be done.

Check it out now!!

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/
15-coolest-firefox-tricks-ever.html

It dawned on me today that I probably download upwards of 5-10 different open source applications a day. It ranges from a variety of things - including frameworks, web development utilities, games, and much more.

Since I come across a lot of good and bad software, I have decided to actually blog about it. Look for a section coming soon about my endeavors (such as CodeIgniter, which I posted earlier this week).