Ferlinechua’s Weblog

Chapter 12 wants to suggest:

Give it free

            A company must give a free sample for their customers in that way customers will know what products and services that offered by the company. They will try to use that since it is free. This gives the customer a way to have an introduction of using that free sample.

Easy to sign in

            This means that whenever a customer wants to log in or sign in in their account, they must face not too much details, but the things he expects. Also, whenever the customer logs out, they must not face with are you sure to log out because they want that they will easily sign out.

Don’t try to have a trick just to earn money

            Don’t have long term contracts because the customer wants that your relationship with them is for short term so that they can pay you what needs to be paid to you. For example instead of a year basis, we need to be practical and it is a month basis.

Don’t harsh your customers

            This means that if you meet increase price, you must first think the best way to say it t your client and not to surprise them. They might get angry for that issue. This will cause not to trusting us.

These are my updated summary of exercises in ISEBIZ

AS1 – my css zen garden
AS2 – my customized css
AS3 – myshoppingcart
AS4 – my fancy box
AS5 – my lightview demo
AS6 – my  ajax generator
AS7 – my quotable quotes
AS8 – my contact form

check this out!

Tnx!

click here to see my get ajax demo! tnx:)

Note: you can use mozilla firefox not internet explorer

Chapter 11 of Getting Real is about:

Don’t have much paperwork

This means that a team should not do much paperwork rather than make dummy software. Paperwork’s does not actually help the success of applications. It would be a waste of time since you can’t run it unlike making a start up application. Paper works are only for writing your ideas. Thus, the best way is not too have much paperworks.

Give personality to your product

Product is like human, they must have personality. Every feature you add in your software, you must based it with the personality of your software. The software is like the people who will face the users. Thus, you must have a good choice of personality in your software.

Don’t write too detailed

Your users want that your sentences in your software is easy to understand and must be short. Or else, they will not read the sentences of our software. Our software must be based to what the customer wants. Thus, we must follow what they really expects in our software.

Don’t make your spec as a big deal

According to what I read, we must not worry about our spec because it is useless. There are many hardware that has good specs, but even though it has good specs, sometimes your application is not fully functioning.

Chapter 10 of getting real is about:

Listen to your code

This means that a programmer should be guided by his codes. There are codes that spent many hours to let it work. That means that the programmer should pick codes which will not take a lot of his time. It is better to have a short codes rather than long codes that also acted in the same way.

Lessen your software

It is better to have less software than many because if you want to change something in the code, it will be easier and faster if you check the less software. If there are bugs, you can easily see the errors.  Also, each time you add features in your codes, it makes the software bigger and complicated to understand. This chapter 10 suggest to have less software because of the advantages attached to it.

Think of it as a debt

We need to think of our applications as a debt so that we would minimize a bad software. We will think that they paid us much money so we must in return do our best to remove the errors and make it easy to use by our clients.  In this way, we can easily have a good codes and a good design of our softwares.

To have an open doors

Getting Real recommends to have an open doors in your software. In this way, people will communicate well the problems encountered in your software. They c an easily check the updates and track made by users.

Optimizing Happiness

This means that as a leader, you should pick a person who is always happy and excited so that every time he will do his job, there would be passion in it. Thus, his behaviour will also reflects on his work. Also, let the programmer choose what he preferred language so that he knows what he is doing. We should not forced them on things they hate, but we must guide them with what they love. Because, in that it reflects in his/her performance.

Getting Real suggest that:

• Interface must be the first before coding

Do first the easy thing before the hardest thing is what this chapter is saying. I agree with this because sometimes when there is a need to change, I can easily change the design but difficult to change the codes. Also, the interfaces are the ones that users or clients will see. They need to be first to make so that you can also asked them if they like the design or some suggestions. If not, change it. If they like it, then proceed with coding. Clients will not care about coding; the important thing for them is to let it run or work.

• Start from the core of the page rather than small details

This means that the unimportant things like font colors, font, sizes, will not be first to do. The first thing what the designers must do is to answer the question ”what needs to be the content of this page?” or “what is the thing that this page cannot live?” or “what this page means?”. The small details like footer, copyrighted and etc must be the last since it is not the focus of the page. You need to focus on the important content of the page because the small details can be easily added to beautify your page.

• Consider the regular, blank and error

Regular means the actual screen you want that people will be seeing (if the data he inputted is correct). Blank means the outlook of the screen when the data he inputted is being processed. Error means the physical appearance when the data he inputted is not correct. As a programmer, you must also spend time in the blank and error state because your user is not perfect. They will commit mistakes even though you tell him the correct data. To avoid this, there must be an error message saying that you have entered incorrect value, as for the blank state you must also say that this page is loading or wait for a moment. That two would let the user know what the system is also doing.

• Make some solutions when blank slate occurs

You must expect that your page is slow because you have added some designs, data and codes in your page. The system is still generating all the designs, codes and etc that you have made. When this occurs, all the programmers knows that the system is still loading, while for the users, they will began to say that the page is not working because they didn’t know that it is still generating. This chapter suggest that you need to make a solution for the users to also help them if Blank slate occurs. This recommends making a help box wherein this includes some tutorials, the outcome when you clicked this or that, and have an answer that is frequently asked by people.

• Have a defensive design

No matter how great we are to program, still we must expect that there would be error. People what I said is not perfect. The question is how to handle the error made by the people in your page. Based on what I understood, there must be labels like what you will input in this textbox for example email address. There would be a chance to lessen the people who commit mistakes. For the programmer, don’t expect that users knows what data they will he put in your page. If you don’t put any defensive designs, this will make your customer not to like you until they will not visit again your page.

• Context is more important than consistency

For a web, the most important thing is the context. The users will not care if it would be consistent, what they want is the context. If the customer click the add button, he expect that this will add the product. That is what the customer wants to see rather than thinking of what is best if box or circle. It all depends on you as a programmer. The important is to have it to show the exact needs of the customers.

• Have a simple and understandable words

As a programmer, they need to have simple and understandable words to put in their page. The customer are not all intelligent as what you think, they have different levels and understanding. If you make a complex sentence, some of the customers still needs to figure out the term you used before clicking it. Your user will not love it because they need first to learn it and remember all the details of your site. If you have simple words, your user can easily visualize what to expect when he clicks it.

• Have a one interface for the administrator and users

The advantage of having this is the admin can easily manage the site or their users. He can do whatever he likes without any restrictions because he is the admin of the site. If the programmer builds a separate site for the admin, it would be difficult to manage the users who used that other site. This suggests having a joined site for the admin and users so that if there are problem, the admin can easily make an action.

This is my first ever lightview demo. I changed font, colors, pictures and etc into what I want. My lightview demo shows my pictures with my friends and etc. If you want to see my lightview demo. click here

Getting Real suggest that:

·         Interface must be the first before coding

Do first the easy thing before the hardest thing is what this chapter is saying. I agree with this because sometimes when there is a need to change, I can easily change the design but difficult to change the codes. Also, the interfaces are the ones that users or clients will see. They need to be first to make so that you can also asked them if they like the design or some suggestions. If not, change it. If they like it, then proceed with coding. Clients will not care about coding; the important thing for them is to let it run or work.

·         Start from the core of the page rather than small details

This means that the unimportant things like font colors, font, sizes, will not be first to do. The first thing what the designers must do is to answer the question ”what needs to be the content of this page?” or “what is the thing that this page cannot live?” or “what this page means?”. The small details like footer, copyrighted and etc must be the last since it is not the focus of the page. You need to focus on the important content of the page because the small details can be easily added to beautify your page.

·         Consider the regular, blank and error

Regular means the actual screen you want that people will be seeing (if the data he inputted is correct). Blank means the outlook of the screen when the data he inputted is being processed. Error means the physical appearance when the data he inputted is not correct. As a programmer, you must also spend time in the blank and error state because your user is not perfect. They will commit mistakes even though you tell him the correct data. To avoid this, there must be an error message saying that you have entered incorrect value, as for the blank state you must also say that this page is loading or wait for a moment. That two would let the user know what the system is also doing.

·         Make some solutions when blank slate occurs

You must expect that your page is slow because you have added some designs, data and codes in your page. The system is still generating all the designs, codes and etc that you have made. When this occurs, all the programmers knows that the system is still loading, while for the users, they will began to say that the page is not working because they didn’t know that it is still generating. This chapter suggest that you need to make a solution for the users to also help them if Blank slate occurs. This recommends making a help box wherein this includes some tutorials, the outcome when you clicked this or that, and have an answer that is frequently asked by people.

·         Have a defensive design

No matter how great we are to program, still we must expect that there would be error. People what I said is not perfect. The question is how to handle the error made by the people in your page. Based on what I understood, there must be labels like what you will input in this textbox for example email address. There would be a chance to lessen the people who commit mistakes. For the programmer, don’t expect that users knows what data they will he put in your page. If you don’t put any defensive designs, this will make your customer not to like you until they will not visit again your page.

·         Context is more important than consistency

For a web, the most important thing is the context. The users will not care if it would be consistent, what they want is the context. If the customer click the add button, he expect that this will add the product. That is what the customer wants to see rather than thinking of what is best if box or circle. It all depends on you as a programmer. The important is to have it to show the exact needs of the customers.

·         Have a simple and understandable words

As a programmer, they need to have simple and understandable words to put in their page. The customer are not all intelligent as what you think, they have different levels and understanding. If you make a complex sentence, some of the customers still needs to figure out the term you used before clicking it. Your user will not love it because they need first to learn it and remember all the details of your site. If you have simple words, your user can easily visualize what to expect when he clicks it.

·         Have a one interface for the administrator and users

The advantage of having this is the admin can easily manage the site or their users. He can do whatever he likes without any restrictions because he is the admin of the site. If the programmer builds a separate site for the admin, it would be difficult to manage the users who used that other site. This suggests having a joined site for the admin and users so that if there are problem, the admin can easily make an action.