My latest web conquest--wireframing!

This week found me learning about something new that I had never had the opportunity to work with before: wireframing. I liken it to mapping out and moving blocks on a CMS (content management system) with the added ability to position everything exactly as you want it (and not have to stick to the block limitations of a CMS). It's essentially another way to map out the layout of a page.

When I had done this in the past, I would use pencil and paper to map out where certain pieces of content would go, and make notations for special pieces of content. Basically, I would sketch out the page before I created it. Wireframing accomplishes the same thing, except it's a lot easier and faster to make changes to a design that you're not happy with. The program that my internship site uses is Mockingbird. Each of the items that you put on the page (text, links, drop-down boxes, etc.) are called "widgets," which I think can be a little misleading. When I hear "widget," it makes me think of an object that does something--like my desktop widgets. The widgets in Mockingbird don't do anything except act as place holders.

And that's something that I had to get used to--the idea of a placeholder for content, not the content itself. It took me some time fiddling around with links to figure out that there is no way for me to get them to link to anything--they are only there to show where on the page they will be. You can put in the text of the content to see how much of the page it will take up and how you want to arrange it, but links, buttons, images, and the like are only represented and will not work like they will when you create the final page. You're putting together the layout for content, not the content itself. If you put in a drop-down box widget, it won't act like a drop-down box--because it's not the actual box, just the representation of it. I think I had to play around with the Mockingbird program for almost an hour before I really understood that concept. Once I did, my comfort level with wireframing dramatically increased and my progress went much smoother and faster.

The whole point of this project was to put together the layout for a page where patrons would go to find out about the online books clubs offered by the library. But in the process of putting that together, I learned a whole new (and better) way of doing layout. I will definitely take note of this for my future personal and professional online web design/development projects.

Oh, and the feedback from my first project was overall very positive. But since there seems to be some bugs with posting blogs on the staff site, I had to go back and modify it to exclude those features that are still "buggy." My site supervisor and I agreed that it would be better to do so to prevent staff from getting frustrated with not being able to "do it the way the guide says."

Another semester beginning

I'm starting a new semester, and one that is solely concentrated content-wise on web work. I'm taking a class on the Drupal platform, something that I'm seeing more and more often in website design, and a "program" that I felt I should be familiar with given its rising popularity--including as the method of delivery on library websites. I'm really looking forward to this class because it will be another tool in my toolbox and will allow me to develop pages that are clean, attractive, and functional. Drupal is pretty darn cool in that there is so much you can do with it. Every site I've seen that uses it looks and feels completely different while still all starting from the same set of functions and options, a testament to the wide variability in what you can get it to do for you.

It actually pairs quite nicely with the internship I've also managed to get. I'll be doing a virtual internship with the Marin County Free Library (see their website at http://www.marinlibrary.org/) and working with their Electronic Services department. And what is a virtual internship? I hear you ask. Well, it's an internship doing real work from a remote location. I won't be on site and I get to have control of when I do the work (provided I maintain the hours per week required by the internship), which is good since I also work full-time. I'll being doing projects that involve their public and staff websites, both of which run on--you guessed it--Drupal. So I'll be able to (hopefully) apply concepts from class to the real-world scenarios I'll be encountering during the course of my internship. I'm really excited about that because it will give me professional experience and help me continue developing soft skills since I will be coordinating with my internship supervisor, fellow internee, and potentially other MCFL staff.

So, there will be more activity on my blog, as I am required to make weekly posts related to my internship--things I'm doing/seeing/experiencing/learning. So you, dear reader, will read about this as I live it. And hopefully I'll be breaking up the ongoing academic commentary with more recipes, pictures of Jaybird, and my thoughts on issues in the profession.

Until next time...

Web Creator Pro?

I feel like I just accomplished a big milestone. For my web development class, I designed a website intended to be the "new look" for a librarian organization (the Progressive Librarians Guild) I've been doing some basic web work for since the beginning of 2011. My previous assistance with their site was nothing more than what someone with a good eye for detail could learn on their own if they had the inclination. In other words, really basic stuff (HTML code for those in the know). But my web development class of course greatly strengthened my skill, and I know how to do a lot more: HTML4 and 5, XHTML, CSS3, and a little XML, PHP, and JavaScript. My toolbox has grown exponentially.

My instructor starting us thinking about our course projects early. I initially thought of something like a pathfinder (a resource providing information on a topic), but I really wasn't enthusiastic about this idea. To me, it just seemed like a ho-hum topic that would do nothing more than fulfill the minimum of the project assignments. Then one morning while I was getting ready for work, I had an epiphany: I could make a website for the PLG. It would be perfect; I would have the ability to improve the look of their site (the old site needed a bit of a make-over), clean up the code, and do something that would be personally meaningful--and get a grade for it.

Long story short, I did have to tweak the style slightly to meet the tastes of the organization's coordinating committee, as well as adjust some of the content, but the response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and they want to make me an honorary member. That gesture alone made the whole project worth it. To have something I did be useful (and I get to see it be useful immediately), and to be able to contribute at this level really made my day yesterday. I feel honored and privileged to have had this project so well received. We're still nailing down some of the details, tucking in here, adjusting a bit there, but it is close to being finished and going live. And when it does, perhaps I'll post a link to the new page so you can see it.

I already have another project lined up: upgrading and redoing the website for the library I work at. That will be my summer project, and one I hope to have completely done by the time I start my next semester again in the fall.

So once the new PLG site is up, does that mean I've turned pro?