Blog entries tagged frontend interface design

Alternative Joomla Administrator Templates and Dancing Bears

Jen Kramer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:17:27 +0100

Dancing Bear Syndrome is a term coined by Jared Spool and Alan Cooper (among others in the usability community). Someone says, "Look! A dancing bear!" And you are amazed! The bear is dancing! How cool is that?

Of course, bears don't dance well. It's just amazing that they dance at all. The novelty of it all is what catches our attention, not the quality of the dancing.

Alternative Joomla administrator templates are dancing bears.

First off, what is a Joomla admin template...

Preparing CMS Web Graphics Using Open Source Tools

Jen Kramer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:22:40 +0100

My video is now available at Lynda.com. Check out this free clip at YouTube!

Certificate in Open Source Web Development, featuring Joomla

Jen Kramer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100

The Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, just released its Open Source Web Development certificate in a wholly online format.

If you've been working with Joomla, but you want to know a lot more about it, this is the certificate program for you. The certificate introduces students to Joomla, as well as planning a website, understanding the code that runs it, and developing and executing an online marketing plan.

The certificate consists of 12 credits:

...

Five Fashion NOs for Joomla 1.5

Jen Kramer — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:00:00 +0100

You've got your first Joomla site running! It's fabulous! It's amazing! And now how do we start taking it to the next level?

Just like you should never wear white shoes after Labor Day, and visible panty lines are never cool, there are a few fashion NOs that you should stay away from doing on your Joomla site.

1. Why does it need to say "Main Menu"?

I am a big usability buff. But if you have surfed the web for more than 5 minutes, you can generally recognize a navi...

Lynda.com Joomla basics videos in planning!

Jen Kramer — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Lynda Weinman and I are scheduled to chat next week about some new movies for Lynda.com. She has a great description on her new blog of what we're discussing. It's the same thing I've been discussing with many of you. When I created the Joomla templates movies, my assumption was that people knew how to make a static HTML web page with an external stylesheet. Since then, I've heard from some of you at the user groups, and others at conferences and online, that this wasn...

Loading a Joomla module in the article/content area

Jen Kramer — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Got an email from someone looking for this information. I covered this in the Lynda.com Joomla! Advanced CSS videos but I'll write out the instructions here as well.

The basic instructions are:

Make sure the Load Module plugin is enabled and configured correctly
Make sure the module you want to display in the content is turned on for that page and that position
Insert the Magic Code in the article.
Voila. Magic happens. (Some styling may need to happen at this point, too.)
...

Best. Dilbert. Ever.

Jen Kramer — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Joomla 1.0 to 1.5 migrations: Should I? And why?

Jen Kramer — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

To migrate from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5: That is the question

One of the big questions we get asked these days is whether it's worthwhile to upgrade from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5. As with all web design and development questions, the correct answer is: It Depends.

There are generally two schools of thought on this.

The "If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It" school says that if you're site is working in Joomla 1.0, then why bother to migrate? It's doing what you want, so you...

Front Page Blog Layout

Jen Kramer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

Now that we've discussed section and category blogs, let's look at front page blog layouts.

Functionally, they're very similar to the section and category blog layouts. The major difference here is that instead of choosing a section or section/category to display on the front page (home page), you assign individual articles to appear on the front page.

In the Article Manager (column labeled "front page"), or within an individual article, you can choose to display an it...

Configuring Section and Category Blog Layouts

Jen Kramer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

Category and section blog layouts are essentially the same thing. For a given section, or for a given section/category, all content items will show up on the page in "blog" format.

Obviously, the blog format can be used for... well, blogging. But think bigger than that when applying this to your website. Blog, in this case, is a functionality, not a technology. We routinely use the blog format for press releases, for example. The format works for anything where a client ne...

The web is NOT like having a TV playing in your tri-fold brochure.

Jen Kramer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I am not a graphic designer. I can't draw stick figures well, and I always wear jeans, khakis, or black pants because I've been told they match everything.

But I've worked with enough graphic designers through the years to know that there are rules to working in a given medium, and there are limitations to that medium as well. For example, if you're making a rack card, those are a certain fixed dimension. You may want to make a bigger design, but you have to work within the limitations ...

If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers…

Jen Kramer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I received this as an email years ago and sent it to everyone I knew. It still holds true in 2009.

Dear Mr. Architect:

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bri...

Communicating your site's message through extensions

Jen Kramer — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:00:00 +0100

Brian Teeman, one of the Joomla founders, wrote an interesting post on the three types of extensions for a website. He's set aside the technical differences between modules, plugins, and components, and instead focused on how they add functionality to your website.

He defines these as eye candy (banners, blinking spinning stuff), additional functionality (forms, galleries, calendars), and applications (event registration, shopping carts, etc).

You can take these same divisio...

In the can: Joomla template and CSS videos via Lynda.com

Jen Kramer — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I just got back from a week in Ventura, CA, working for Lynda.com. If you don't know them, they are one of the best training resources out there for most things related to web development. Way back at Dreamweaver 3 and Photoshop 5.5, I learned these programs via Lynda.com Hands-On Training books. They've since put a huge emphasis on their online training video library. The videos are fantastic and very helpful for explaining how to do just about anything in the Adobe or web ...

Obama Launches iPhone App, Makes Everyone A Campaign Worker

Jen Kramer — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Article is here.

Leave politics aside for the moment, and just consider the beauty of this application.

The problem: You need to get millions of people to vote for you in an election.

The details: You know that personal contact is the best way to win voters. But personal contact needs to happen regularly. It's just not possible to do this when you must reach millions of people.

You also know that voters can be influenced by friends and family, and that conversati...

Launched! WineMaker Magazine!

Jen Kramer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We are thrilled to announce that we've launched a HUGE site we've been working on for the last few months, WineMaker Magazine.

WineMaker Magazine started in 1998, and it's about how to make wine at home, whether you start with fresh grapes, or whether you start with a kit. The main goal for the website is to push subscriptions and sell back issues of the magazine. The content surrounding that supports those goals.

Because the site supports a magazine, it should contain...

New browser: Google Chrome

Jen Kramer — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Yesterday, Google announced it was releasing its own open-source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Microsoft, called Google Chrome. The big links include:

The main Google Chrome web page (link not working as of this writing)A comic book describing what Google is doing with this new browserScreenshots of what Chrome will look like.

My initial reaction? Why the heck would Google want to release a web browser? If they want to support an open source web brow...

Signs of a well-developed mobile phone site

Jen Kramer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

While on vacation, I used my phone for surfing the web. Each morning I check the weather, the news, stuff like that. While away, I used my phone to do this.

So let's compare two news sites: The Washington Post and CNN, regular formats, and the Post and CNN, mobile formats.

NOTE: Yes, the Post is a newspaper while CNN is a cable news channel, so the comparison isn't absolutely perfect. But it's pretty good.

Point #1: The URLs

CNN has a short URL to start with, whi...

Mobile phone development tip #1: Everything old is new again

Jen Kramer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I just returned from vacation. I am thrilled to report that I did not turn my laptop on until the very end... but yet, I checked my email every day.

I have a Palm Treo 755P phone, and a nationwide Sprint "all you can eat" plan with unlimited calls, text messages, and data transfer. I decided to give it a workout while I was away.

The best part was that I always had a cell signal, wherever I was staying, and so I could always check my email for free. Not true for a ...

Joomla! Magazine article coming soon

Jen Kramer — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We've been asked by the Joomla! Magazine people to write an article about our MassAcorn website. It features all layouts done with a single template, among other cool features. We also used some great free extensions which we'll also discuss. We're pretty excited! It will be out in the August issue.