Blog

I decided to update Room 42s logo.

The old one was a simple design that worked OK, but lacked any impact.



So I work on updating it. I wanted to retain a familiarity with the existing design so that existing posters and pricelists were not out of place and also add more depth and make the logo stand out. I tried a more complicated design, which looked nice on screen, but printed out on paper, the detail is lost and from a distance looked bland. I settled for a much simpler design, with subtle use of shading that adds the desired impact.



I also decided to create a wider version of the logo, that fits better on the page as a header logo.

My brother Jon has recently put together his first website, for the band he is in. Angel of Sin.

Not bad for his first effort. Will be helping him improve things, try and get some proper hosting on the same server as this site, maybe even CMS it.

Firstly here's a screenshot of the old system that I was left to develop.



As you can see the design has evolved. I tried to keep the new system (posted below) as simple to use and as logical as possible. A large amount of code has gone into it to keep it modular and flexible as I know there is further expansion - its configurable of a CMS, as the system needs plug-in into data-sources with correct queries and parameters and formatting, but things like the tabs and drop drops are generated automatically - drop down information is percisted across different views so you can view different data on the same filters, or drill down into more detailed data and at each step view a graph of the selected data.

There is an additional view to add, a few more things like user registration to be complete, log-in system is active but yet to try out the permissions system (different user levels), but it works for the default user level fine so far.

In a push for the deadline, the code is not as neat as it could be, so I want to revisit it, optimise and factorise it where I can and also work on performance - leverage .net's built in caching.

There is mention of the Department of Health being interested in this system and if that is the case I would hope to evolve it to as much of a graph and chart management system as possible - if not I want to try and keep the system as flexible as possible - time spent on working on good framework has paid off. Also this allowed me to research how CMS frameworks (I looked at Xaraya, CMS Made Simple and YACS closely).

I feel in love with the way YACS code is structured and how it seems to keep things simple (and one of the reasons I picked it as my personal CMS), this provided with with great inspiration of how to create a flexible framework and I really must credit the YACS CMS developers for that.

I also looked at various other aspects of architecture and development like the MVC model (which I abandoned - as it seemed over complex, reinventing the wheel of what webpages actually are and also lack of flexibility, its IMHO as pure MVC not suitable for the web) and looking at Extreme Programming which turned out to be beneficial to the rapidly evolving specifications and tight deadlines and setbacks but also fit in with myself and the others involved in the project.

Finished work early today. Went to my Serow (Motorbike), tried starting it - turned over fine, not catching.

Checked it over, spotted that the HT lead was not connected, jumped off the bike to have a better look to see that the spark plug cap is totally missing.

Now, I could imagine possible the spark ht lead coming off the plug not the cap bit totally disappearing ?

I think someone stole it - they dont just drop off do they ?!?

Luckily I only work 1/4 mile from the bike shop so wandered up and got a spare lead cap (and new plug and ht lead) so still mananged to get home pretty early.

Mick Coup posted a link to his new site, www.corecombatives.com from Self Protection Dot com

Not only am I a great fan of Mick's straight forward approach to self defense (he is a fellow yorkshire-man) but the site is really well designed and structured and I belive makes great use of Wordpress.

My personal favourte sketch is the Snooker commentators (Peter and Ted).

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thatmitchellandwebbsite/characters/snooker.shtml

" Watch out for their show-stopping grand finale in episode six "

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thatmitchellandwebbsite

Should be worth waiting for, hehe.

Thought I would post a screenshot of the progress I am making on my site design.

Its not finished yet, but thought I would give everyone a preview.

Ngr78design.jpg

The Navigation is based on a key/legend I had to do for a map a year ago www.wycsa.nhs.uk/Links.htm and the header is inspired by the Molio design www.mollio.org

When it is finished I will build the design into a skin for YACS (which I will share with everyone).

" Blogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author. "

www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Having read this article I know I fall foul of a number of these, including 1. No Author Biographies, 2. No Author Photo, 7. Irregular Publishing Frequency, 8. Mixing Topics.

There's another I can add to this subject, poor grammar is one thing (which I suffer from), but non-spell checked content. There's no excuse !

Sadly as a Web Developer with many years experience, I should be doing better, but my excuse is that this site is still quite new and its gradually getting more organised every week (I can thank YACS! great flexibility for this).

Here are the websites of a couple of my colleagues.

John : www.rpgendzone.com/john

Matthew: www.buelatec.co.uk