Category Archives: School Requirement

Here is what I made, my own made simplepie. Check it out here.

There are lots of things that I’ve learned from the last 15 chapters.

In everything we do, we have to give importance and passion to it. If we have passion and importance, in return it will give us success. Valuing our customer is the number one priority in the business, we always have to listen to them. But remember to analyze all the things that they say, and sometimes we can say NO to their suggestion as long as we as the developers know what is best for the application we are making. You have to know to listen and address all of their inquires with a honest answer. Remember that customers wants honest answer from us.

There are lots of things that you will learn in this book. The best thing here is you should know is when to throw ideas that is not important and use the only thing you should. It is important that we analyze everything before doing the program. And doing the design first is good than coding first. :-) Every application that you are working on should be appreciated by your client. So value your client whenever they are asking you.

To go to my wordpress site, please click here

The following features have been implemented:

  1. Download latest WordPress at www.wordpress.org.
  2. Upload and install in your playground {yourname}.site90.com
  3. Install a theme. Google “best wordpress themes”. Find instructions how to install a theme.
  4. Install wp-Commerce www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce

The last feature (setup products to sell) was not implemented since i can’t find any walkthrough on how to do it.

Less Software

The more codes that you put into the program, the more complicated it will become and the harder for people to maintain it. To be able to fix this problem, just code as short as possible. And the best way to code short is if the features of the software is less and that only the most essential and most important features are retained. Another way is to find out alternative solutions in a problem. Find the shortest and easiest way to solve a software problem. By doing this cost and time will be lessened.

Optimize for Happiness

Keep your programmer happy. If they are happy they will be more productive. Programmer need to have fun on whatever it is they are doing. If they don’t have fun, after sometime, they will lose their focus on what they are doing. For them to be happy, they have to use tools that they are most comfortable using. If they use tools that are not familiar to them it will cost them to not be productive since they are not comfortable using it. The more the programmer is happy the more the codes become much less complicated and easier to understand.

Code Speaks

Having a long code and taking a long time to code something are signs that the code is trying to tell you something. It is trying to tell you that there are better ways of doing it. It might be telling you that there are still ways to lessen the code may be by lessening the features of the software. Always pay attention to your code. It can even tell you what the best way of designing the interface of the software.

Manage Debt

Debt here means programs that are hacked that have unnecessary or long codes and designs that are not really that good. They are debts because even though they are good, they still have room for improvement. You can still clean the long codes short and improve the design.

Open Doors

Developers should let users or customers get the information they want every time and anytime they want to. Give them the information via feeds which will let people get updated every now and then. Offer apis to people and let them develop something using your tool which may help your software to be patronized by people.

Interface First

When building a program always start with the interface because it is what the user will see. It should be user friendly. Designing the interface is a good way to start since it will be more flexible in a way that you can easily change the design every now and then to see if there is something to improve on it. If the interface is done at first it will be easier I think for the programmer to put on codes since you now have something as a guide to help you know how the program works and looks like.

Epicenter Design

When designing, always do first what is the most essential or the most important feature. Those features are those that cannot be left out. It will be faster and less time consuming also for both the designer and programmer since if the core design is finished the programmer can start already coding. And at the same time the designer can now add the extra designs like colors, pictures and others in the interface.

Three State Solution

There are 3 states that should be remembered when making a screen. The 3 are regular, blank, and error. Regulars are those which people see when the program is doing fine. The blanks are those that are seen when there is no data yet entered by the user. And the errors are those that are seen when something goes wrong on the application.

The Blank Slate

The blank slate is a state in which the UI has not much data or information yet. It is up to the people to put in information in the interface. This state is essential for it shows the core features of the interface and not the designs nor the information in the design.

Get Defensive

No matter how good the interface is, it will still encounter problems when it is deployed online. The best thing for developers do is to frequently check what are those problems that customers encounters and help and guide them through it. Another way is also to improve error screens.

Context Over Consistency

The features in the interface should always depend on what the customer want and will be using. Putting up unnecessary features in the design is more costly and more time constraining also. You don’t have to put everything there is in the interface you just have to put the things that are just right and important.

Copywriting is Interface Design

The text that the users see is also important. The texts should be easily understood and is user friendly. The label should best describe what it is labeling. You can do this by thinking what customers or users want to see. Use words that people can understand and don’t use jargons or words that only a few people know about.

One Interface

More often than not, the interface for admin screens looks bad. This is because designers take much of their time on designing the public interface or the screens in which people see mostly. This means that there is a less time in designing for the admin screen. What designer can do is to join the 2 screen together.