The Innocent Statement

I have just had a killer 2 hours trying to make my XSL translate this XML:

<base> 
	<item name="cssFiles" media="screen"> allBrowers.css</item> 
	<item name="cssFiles" media="screen" ieonly="true"> ieOnly.css</item> 
</base>  

Into this XHTML:

<style type="text/css" media="screen">  
	@import url("allBrowers.css"); 
</style> 

<!--[if gte ie 5.5000]>  
	<style media="screen" type="text/css"> 
 		@import url("ieOnly .css"); 
	</style>  
<![endif]-->    

Forms can be much more fun than they currently are, and they can be much more functional. Combine this with the Please Wait Buttons for ultimate effect!

Functional Form validation in action.

Picture this;

You are a normal web user. By this I mean that you are not a web developer, and you are not amazingly web savvy. You are trying to find some information on the Internet about fishing, so you go onto your local fishing web forums, and spend quite a bit of time filling out a form to post a new message. When you have finished you scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Post Message' button. After a couple of seconds nothing seems to happen, so you click it again. Still no immediate response, so you click is a few more times. Eventually the page submits, and you have either posted the same message 20 times, or generated an error of quite seriousness. Either way, to some web developer in the world, you have just become the bane of his day!

It's time to fight back at our impatient click-happy enemy! Or at least try and help them.

Working as just part of the whole

Something that I have come to realise over the last six weeks working at the cabin is that working as a team on projects brings a whole new bunch of management problems with it. Don't get me wrong, the benefits out number the problems with ease, but there are things that need addressing when working in a team if the team is to be truly efficient. People think is different ways, this is a fact. But when you are working together as a team, you really need to find ways of thinking on the same wave length. When everyone is moving in different directions, it only pulls things apart.

After my entry earlier this month on Mock Designing, I think it would be good to show you some of the work that I have been doing, or been involved in, over the last few weeks.

Not all of this design is good, and some of it is not my work either. But when you take a project on after the initial concept design has been decided on, doing a second mock-up can be limited.

The Teifi Trout Association

TTA Concept 1

The first mock design I did for this one was a bit naff, I will admit that freely. The thing was that I had no information to go on, except a list of links to other websites, which failed to inspire me at all. So, I thought that a safe, normal mediocre design would probably satisfy their needs.

I was wrong. They wanted something more creative and more unique from all the other fishing association websites. So, with a little help from the team, with ideas, and after watching the film Big Fish I came up with the second mock design.

TTA Concept 1

This second design is far less structured than the first one, and the content place holders have not really been developed. I really just wanted to get the creative idea across to them as soon as possible to see if they liked it.

I told them that this was just the first step, so the whole design would become much more detailed and tighter. I heard back from them yesterday and they like the concept very much.

Oh yeah, I drew the trout and the fishing rod myself.

• See TTA concept 1
• See TTA concept 2

Ultima Cleaning

Ultima Cleaning Concept

This wasn't really a mock concept at all, because the design work had already been done by someone else. But I was taking it on, and I wanted to add a few tweaks to make the design work a little better.

It is not a design I think I would have come up with myself, but I am quite glad with the way that it turned out.

It just so happens that you can check this one out online, since it is almost finished.

• Ultima Home concept
• Ultima Level 2 concept

Glanrhyd-Y-Pysgod; Wales Country Cottages

Glanrhyd Concept

This design borrows a little from the TTA concept; see if you can spot how.

I did this design yesterday, and I had no feedback yet from the client. I don't know how they are going to take it yet. I think I used something that they will like, but you never know.

The main concept started when I was looking through pictures of the cottages that they sent me. I noticed this sign on one of their walls, and thought it would be great to fashion the design around that sign. I think the client should like this idea, since I know they like the sign. It also has the added benefit that when people book via the website, they will recognise the sign when they turn up. Good identity modelling?

• See Glanrhyd concept