10.11.07
forgotten feedback
i forgot to mention in my site 2 the bit of feedback that said that the info on my ’shop’ screens are way to small and won’t be able to be read on the iPhone screen. therefore instead of listing the items for sale, users will now have to use the selection from the photo (not like you wouldn’t anyway, its more fun!) and on the right will be product info your shopping basket. Mousing over the item will give you product info.
making final design prototype i.e. sudden panic attack -__-”
too late its too late its too late…. why’s everyone have to have such nice flash stuff for their sites and prototypes?! makes everyone else feel bad! well, it makes me feel bad at least! mine’s done in ImageReady but there’s nothing fancy and animated about it! its too late to try and learn it now… its due in 2 weeks…. not including that very heavily weighted 3D model due on the same day, 30% for 1005 a couple of days before that – ARGH!
i’ve used flash once in my life and that was in year 9 computing studies… we animated a car going across the screen – fantastic . yeah i know that we don’t HAVE to use flash, but still! i don’t know whether i need to use it…. maybe i won’t…. i’ll be an individual and not use it how about that? As long as i have the content there and it’s presented ok that’s all i need yeah? better be… cos that’s what i’m doing anyway -__-”
website 3
um… i will be starting on website 3 very soon… i am currently working on a (hopefully) improved header, which will be based on one used in site 2. i think i’ll also have to design a proper product logo if the thing is to be marketed…
i am reusing the css for site 2, which is basically the 3-column layout – although the links will be disaplayed inline along the top. i’m still trying to figure out whether i need to use flash… like will it be necessary to convey the info i need to… anyways, back to work, get back to you soon.
10.04.07
wrapping up site 2
well i had this issue with my site where it worked on my home laptop (obviously :P) but when i tried it at uni my links list went all wonk… i didn’t know whether it was IE or the site itself, but after much tweaking of my CSS it finally works… so it must have been the site… but still… it works according to both my home laptops and when i last checked at the uni ones… so it works and i’m happy to have been able to fix it, ok?
anyways, that just leaves me to finish writing up my evaluation/feedback and then check that everything validates (fingers all crossed!) and then i will be done for site 2! ;)
10.02.07
prototyping… again…
i think my website looks okay for now…. i also has this sudden and… uh… rather scary realisation, that up until now i had spent far too much time worrying about the website design and not enough on the product development itself… yes i know that they are both important but there’s got to be a balance right? it’s like folio and design – no good having a great folio and unfinished product or vice versa yeah?
so i spent today prototyping… by that i mean i am happy to say i have learnt how to use Adobe ImageReady to slice up my Photoshop screen shots and link them to each other. I am actually quite happy with the way it turned out – no one diss it ok?! :P – even though it doesn’t have any fancy animated transitions or anything between frames… i learnt something new, it’s good enough for me!
yeah, i think you know the drill – it’s not uploaded yet so don’t go looking for it! ;)
09.27.07
making site 2
it never ceases to surprise and puzzle me as to where time goes… i spent an entire day on the computer, doing nothing – no reading, no anime, no going out, no… well, i can’t say no internet, but still – nothing other than trying to work on website, which incidentally is due in a week…. but i haven’t seem to have done much considering the amount of time i put into it….
but i did manage to finish my CSS from yesterday – tha’s one of the harder parts done – and i did spend all yesterday photoshopping some screen shots for the “revised design”…. today i put all these together to make the ‘features’ page of my website. i didn’t really need to change the main page, so that’s there to stay… the concept page i think i might need to change or get rid of – it seems a bit pointless there… i still need to add an ‘optional stuff’ page’ and do the evaluation…. ah well…. i’m tired, so that’s it for today…. may regret it tomorrow though… we’ll see….
09.22.07
midsem break…
wow, it’s mid-semester break already… know what that means? we’ve got something like 4 weeks till end of semester and this to hand in, our 3D final assignment to hand in and one more 15page history report to hand in… oh it’s gonna be FUN!
But it’s been a while since i’ve blogged so i’ll tell you exactly where i’m at….
i think i might have mentioned that there’s been a total shift in focus since my interviews with users – my product is no longer a flight simulator – cos i found that a certain group of users will not use the product at all – it is now both a flight and driving RC sim with a bit of an RPG element in it. I have introduced a ’shop for your model’ feature to it… which i think is pretty cool and i can’t believe i didn’t think of it in the first place….
i have abandoned the idea of 3D modelling the RC vehicles… i think i may just photoshop some photos of the real things cos it’s just too hard with the number of components in them…. that’s more of a DECO1008 thing and even for that i am not going to attempt it… not with the 4 weeks till it’s due anyway :P Although i think i might model something easier like the dispay unit or something (i still haven’t figured out what to do about that – Users, decide on something!!)
oh! i’ve found out that apparently the wireless controller for the playstation 3 works on bluetooth – so it is totally feasible that my iphone thing should connect to a bluetooth device like a laptop – if users really didn’t want to use the headset…. but if they did – bluetooth’s still the way to go! :)
hmm… what else do i think…? did i mention i really am not that fond of web design? just then i was making myself read up on javascript… yay…. you know, florence and i were sitting through the one hour tute on thursday about javascript and at the end of it we realised we didn’t even know what javascript was? i do now though – it’s “script that adds functionality to an html document”…. something like that….
anyways, i believe i’ll get working on the second mini site now….
09.14.07
slightly less confused
never mind the confusion, the website’s uploaded now and it appears to work… it validates so that has to count for something right? that’s all i really needed to say actually….
09.12.07
so confused….
hmm…. i have been subconsciously evaluating everything at every step…. and now i’m kind of confused cos i can’t really separate the stages of my evaluation now… like i interview someone, they give me suggestions, i think about the suggestion and decide its a good one, i then incorporate it into my interview for the next person to get their opinion on the idea… if its good, then i include it in the prototype development…
but apparently as we understand it, we gather user requirements and get their feedback on the idea and then develop the prototype… the evaluation from the prototype then goes towards the development of the next mini site….
hmm…. i’ll try my best….
09.11.07
APEC Productivity
i suppose if anything, the APEC long weekend – which for me btw was not the 5-day weekends that some people enjoy, had to work – gave me the time to sit down and think about my design a lot more… but then last night i had to condemn myself to lack-of-productivity by signing up to facebook… probably the ultimate in procrastination techniques…
anyways, i have been developing prototypes. Firstly, rather than using index cards, a more familiar method that does the same job is a flow chart. Basically i mapped out how different options link up and lead to each other e.g. start screen -> choose fly or drive -> options… i’ll scan the good copy in for my site. i can get the original copy, when i get to a scanner – mine’s been currently replaced by a colour laser printer… give my scanner back!
i have also fiddled around with photoshop in making some prototype screencaps which i think look okay… these will also go into my site.
i’ve interviewed rc users and got some good info and suggestions e.g. don’t limit to flying, include driving too, inclusion of a virtual shopping concept…. and also some stuff about whether these potential users would use the product… i won’t put everything i found out here cos then there’ll be nothing interesting left to read in my site :P
what else… i changed the header on my site… hope i did stuff right in terms of the code… it’s still not uploaded so again, don’t go looking for it just yet ;)
