Monday, November 21, 2011

When I set out to create an online project board powered by ExpressionEngine, I wasn’t sure how the project would turn out.  After seeing the setup that the guys at Panic created, I immediately lusted after it, but quickly realized that I didn’t need all of the bells and whistles that they were implementing.  My solution needed to encompass two main aspects.  It needed to be simple and it needed to be clean.

Before working on any of the interface elements I made sure this project had a solid foundation and would be able to give me the information I was looking for when I needed it.  As mentioned in my latest Thinking Out Loud post, preventing scope creep was important, but some additional items did find their way into the process.

Custom Fields are your friend.
The main reason I opted to build the project board with ExpressionEngine rather than creating my own front and backend system was the sheer power that’s under the hood of an EE system.  I can create a custom template, a custom input channel, and top it off with custom fields that will do exactly what need them to do.  In short, it’s the smart thing to do.

Making a list and checking it…many times.
After setting up the template and the channel for the project board, I needed to set up the fields that would make everything work.  After jotting down some initial ideas that I needed, I began thinking about this project down the road and had visions of where I could take it and what it could turn into.  The result was a list of entry fields that go beyond what a project board needs, but laying this ground work in the beginning will make expanding the functionality easier in the future.

Power and flexibility.
I’ve never paid too much attention to the Custom Field possibilities that ExpressionEngine offered until I began working on this project.  Once I started looking around, I was shocked at the variety of field-types I could choose from.  I had wanted a dynamic, JavaScript-driven date box to handle my project Start and Due dates, figuring I’d need to either build one myself or find a suitable option through searching.  No need.  One of the field types is a calendar-style date selector.  Here’s a brief list of other custom field-types:

• Text Input
• Textarea
• Checkboxes
• Radio Buttons
• Multi Select
• Date
• File
• Relationship

There are some additional field-types that become available when you install select plugins and modules.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I’d like you to take a look at the tools you use each day, for work and for play.  They can be computers, music players, phones, golf clubs…anything.  Now look at which tools and toys you enjoy using and what you are, for the lack of a better word, forced to use.  What’s the difference between the two? The experience or, more importantly, how enjoyable the experience is for you.

Finding tools that suit your style.
I’ve brought up the fact that I’d much rather type and do work on my iPad to co-workers on a few occasions.  Their responses are mixed with puzzlement and disbelief whenever I make that claim, but it’s a true statement.  That device gives me the best experience for viewing and handling digital content.  Why not use something that makes a job more enjoyable rather than just tolerable?  Why not find a tool or set of tools that remove themselves from the picture, if only by illusion, and let creativity and focus rule the day?

I challenge you to find tools that you enjoy using and see how they’ll fit into your workflow.  Don’t just take a high-level look at them either.  Try them out and see what works and what doesn’t.  You might surprise yourself.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

LinkedIn pushed out a (welcome) update for their iOS and Android mobile apps today. Gone are the chicklet-styled home buttons, which have been replaced with an entirely-new navigation scheme.  In essence, the header bar rules the day.  Everything you need to do and your main mode of navigating through the app is handled through this area.  While this is an interesting take on mobile app nav design (as a good majority of apps that I’ve used rely on the footer bar to house their navigation), it’s not the most intuitive option, unless you turn a blind eye to the informational hovering window that appears the first time you launch the updated app.

Once you get the hang of the navigation scheme, you can easily move through the app into the four main modules; Updates, You, Inbox, and Groups & More.  The icons for each of these sections have distinct visual traits that help you distinguish what they are at-a-glance.

Areas of the app that have multiple sub-categories or options once you dive into them are sectioned off nicely with visuals that are much larger and bolder than in the past.

Creating a new message or status update also seems to have a more polished/streamlined look.

Overall I’m very impressed with this update and plan to make more use of the LinkedIn app because of it.  If you haven’t already, go grab the update from the iOS App Store or the Android Marketplace.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

April 29 marked the one-year anniversary of my iPad ownership.  As I’ve pointed out time, and time, and time again, this piece of tech has dramatically changed the way I work, relax, and live my digital life.

It is a magical and revolutionary device.
Laugh all you want, but I believe this line of marketing fluff.  The portability and capability of this device helped me get back into the writing habit and gives me access to a few more tools when I’m on the road without needing to tote a truckload of tech with me.  Aside from this, watching how other people react to the various interactive aspects and dead-simple UI has become a slight (and weird) side-hobby for me. 

Whether it’s a friend, co-worker, my wife, or my kids, I like studying how they all use the device, watching their facial expressions and paying close attention to how they react to certain tasks.  Nine times out of ten, the result is pure joy and amazement.

If I had 1,000,000,000…
I’d be rich.  I’d also be feeling mighty generous and be handing out iPads left and right to people that could do amazing things with them. 

Instant on has spoiled me.
Not much more to say here. One push of a button and I’m into the iPad, doing whatever it is that I want to do.  Sadly, my MacBook Pro can’t pull that off (without some major upgrades).

Hand gestures
Should they ever see the official light of day, the four and five-finger swipe gestures that Apple baked into the 4.3+ releases of iOS are an amazing way to navigate around the device.  If you want to unlock this feature, here’s how.

Doing “real” work
While the apps that let me rely less and less on traditional computers are growing in number, there are still some barriers that I run into when trying to develop or lay out a site or project.  Hopefully these barriers will lessen, if not go away completely, the more I force myself to use the iPad for these tasks.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Since our lives have shifted to a heavily-digital existence, we’ve been looking for little ways to hold onto tangible nostalgia from the pre-computer age.

These little bits of tactile feedback have crept into ebook readers, digital cameras, apps, and more as our voyage to digitation has begun.  Open the iBooks or Kindle app on your iPad and you’ll notice a carefully-crafted page-turn animation when you flip through the pages of your favorite book.  Nice isn’t it? It’s comforting, familiar, safe, and not at all necessary.  The ebook would read the same if the page didn’t lift up and gently curl as you swipe your finger across the screen, but it sure looks nice and more importantly, feels nice.  It keeps us grounded to what we know, something that’s warm and baked into our memories.  If only an eReader could smell like a book.  I’m not sure if that would be a good or bad feature.

There are other examples of these “tangible features” being added into other products such as point-and-shoot cameras and their shutter-click sound effects.  The effect isn’t needed and doesn’t do anything but does supply a sense of familiarity with what you’re doing with the device. 

Camera apps for smartphones have gone backwards in their quality, but that’s an area I’ll get into later.