Web design 102: Technological Analysis

HTML is the standardized web site design language. However, rapid technological development has made the language to take back stage as more focus is placed on web portal development with extensive use of sophisticated web development tools. As a web designer, you must conduct technological analysis before developing a website. This exercise is conducted to determine the most relevant and appropriate technology for the web.Technological analysis is very important for web design for following reasons;

1.       It allows you to determine the personnel that will give you the intended input in the development.

2.       It allows you to determine development budget as it will influence the hosting plan and other costs.

3.       The exercise allows your choices to be based on factual reasons

4.       Relevant softwares and implementation platforms can be factored at the development initiation and secured for the actual development.

Conducting this analysis in practical terms involve objective analysis of the functionalities desired in the website coupled with possible technologies that can be deployed for achieving them. You have to conduct an head-to-head analysis in various aspects like servers (wamp, apache, IIS and so on, programming languages (JSP, ASP.net, PHP and so on), image formats (PNG, GIF, JPEG and so on), database engines (MySQL, SQLserver and so on) and development environment (Visual studio, Dreamweaver, FrontPage and so on).

Having done this numerous times, I can boldly claim that the effort is worthwhile as the end result always bring the most appropriate technologies that will seamlessly integrate for optimum web functionality. However, conducting a technological analysis must be conducted without any form of sentiments or else the aim of conducting will be defeated. Also, interaction with other technologies must be considered while selecting the appropriate technologies.

I will be discussing Content layout and interface design in the next lesson. Please don’t miss it.

Combating Cyber Crime

Nigeria is prominent for cyber crime or scam popularly called Yahoo Yahoo (advanced now is Yahoo+). It always baffles me how we got to this level coupled with the sheer societal acknowledgement and uncontrolled manner in which these heinous crimes are perpetrated. As a professional, I always think this is one of the easiest crimes to forestall and requires not too sophisticated technological implementations before a criminal can be arrested.

This crime has created embarrassment for Nigeria nationals across the globe as major e-payment services have put the nation on the blacklist. Organisations like PayPal and EBay has totally stopped any transaction that relates to Nigeria. This scum is a major challenge in our society as little children even are acquainted with terms like maga, control number, sequence and so on. The Nigerian entertainment scene is another breeding ground for these criminals as their act and conquest are always reflected in songs and even movies. Stopping this is a major step for policing and crime prevention in Nigeria. Combating cyber crime is a major branding effort and signal to the world that the nation is serious about corruption.

Technologically, we can combat this crime. Ways of combating cybercrime coupled with early detection will be discussed in subsequent posts. The background to the discussion is that, your identity on the web can be detected effortlessly. The approach to be taken the security agencies with intricate analysis will be discussed.

STAY TUNED!

Sorry for the silence, it was due to commitments and loads of tasks to be executed. Follow us at @originaldgitz on twitter or join D-GITZ Media friends on Facebook.

Where are the IT Reporters?

Reading the Sketch newspaper when I was young is only meaningful from the back page. Sports news resides there and I am always eager to know the next move of Mary Onyali, Florence Omagbemi, Rashidi Yekini (RIP), Segun Toriola and the rest. Also, the Champions league (not easily accessible as it is today) and other sporting details always had me scamper for my Dad’s newspaper.

Now my new love which is Information Technology (IT) has got me reading the news papers once again. Also, listening to the radio and watching the television always brings a particular question to my mind;

WHERE IS THE TECHNOLOGY NEWS!

Stations like CNN, BBC, France24 and others have dedicated time and experts reporting about the numerous trends in technology. Some websites, bloggers and magazines are dedicated to this cause as well. No wonder, the level of awareness and deployment of technology is thriving in developed nations.

COUNTRIES LIKE NIGERIA ARE MERELY FEEDING ON THE CRUMBS FROM THESE NATIONS.

Sampling the broadcasting, journalism and reporting landscape of the Nigerian media have further deepened my concern as there is a colossal dearth of technological analysis and in depth discussion of technology. The most common technology reporting are announcement of product rollout, press conference and contract announcement. It is a pathetic trend and will haunt us for decades to come.

IF YOU DON’T REPORT, THERE WON’T BE SENSITISATION

The major challenge in IT development around this part of the world is we have not drummed this amazing field into the young children. The midget computer schools have sold wrong information and young citizens have no direct access in the print and electronic media. In order to drive technology development, I think it is highly imperative for the Nigerian nation to see technology journalism as a field to be broadened. Drive IT Home and pack IT in the garage.

WE NEED TO BRING IT TO PEOPLE’S HOMES!

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Web Design Lesson 1: Concept Development

The first step in web design is concept development. This process involve the bringing together of all the features and requirements for the websites. This will involve the client or the group of people contracting the web design. This aspect is usually neglected by web designers as they quickly pre-empt the features which a website should possess.

Another banana peel in this area is comparative analysis of the features which similar organization has on their website. Web designers should treat each project as a unique market. Every organization (as poor as they might be) have unique selling point or organization structure. Features like product, pricing, delivery format, human resources and others are different.

Bringing the concept of designing a website requires brainstorming and discussion with clients to determine their focus and expectation in a website. This will make you a professional and also allow you to be unique in the saturated web design market.

Furthermore, designing a concept require you discovering the focused market of the website. For example, an entertainment website normally targets young people thereby influencing features such as real time audio download, chat engine, musical chart, blog and so on.

UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET AUDIENCE WILL INFLUENCE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE DESIGN!

Another aspect in developing the concept is to understand the business environment of the organization. There is nothing bad in exploring the client’s competitors’ website to discover their flaws in order have a better design. Doing this will further increase your value as web designer because you will be more informed about the than the client expected.

Doing all these will ensure that the concept of the web site to be designed is based on concrete information and market based research. This will influence your design and ensure that you exceed the expectation of the website.  The next post will emphasize on another aspect.

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Designing a Website

Website traditionally represents the creation of an online presence for businesses, groups and individuals. The web has provided a massive opportunity for organizations to create marketing models that has championed colossal profits. Globalization and integration of markets has made the web the virtual reality of wealth creation. Ask Mack Zuckerberg and Larry Page how much money the web can create.

However, it is disheartening that web design is dominated by mediocrity or sheer lack of competence in Nigeria and some other parts of Africa. I see advertisements that portray web design as a touch and go profession. Many even boast of designing a web site in 2 hours while some promise to teach web design in one hour and teach how to make money with it in the second hour. This is evident in the quality and lack of professionalism in hosted Nigerian websites. A quick survey of University websites in Nigeria is evidence.

Web design professionals spend months and even years to learn the process of web design because it is the online office of any organization. It markets a firm or group of people even while sleeping. Poor design and concept development turn viewers off thereby limiting the amount of patronage that is to be enjoyed.

DESIGNING A WEBSITE IS A PROJECT!

Web site are no more designed but developed as dynamism is the order of the day on the web. A business website on the web these days has so many connections to the social media, blogs, e-mails and search engines. Assembling all these features require high level of planning and technical competence. The process of designing a website requires numerous activities which will be discussed in subsequent posts.

Please, comment on our posts because your comments are valuable to us. For further details, please contact pelumiapantaku@gmail.com or twitter using @originaldgitz

The Act of Programming

Programming has always been characterized with different arguments and perspectives. Some of the arguments include open source and patent programming, web/mobile and desktop programming, client-server and business tier programming and the choice of programming language. Away from all these controversies, new entrants into programming are usually confused by the best pattern of development in programming.

Most of programmers reachable in recent times are mere glorified code writers as they often exhibit narrow understanding of scenarios. Some have to re-write codes for a particular problem over and over again. Hence, the frustration of programmers that even leads to numerous prospective application development giants abandoning this lucrative aspect of information technology. Here is my perspective on effective development of programs.

Writing a program should start from pseudo coding. This aspect often neglected by programmers because it is elementary. This process requires drafting the steps required in solving a particular problem which the program is meant to solve (Even complex programs need this). This can be done using bullet point or detail outline of steps which the program will implement. Brainstorming is required at this level to also discover the factors and other vital components of the program.

Flowcharting is the next stage. This activity is old but very efficient as it allows you to transform the pseudo codes into implementation sequence. Flow chart will describe the flow of the program in order to achieve its goals. Other diagrams that can be developed include ERD (for databases), Data flow Diagram and UML.

For advanced programs, it is advisable to develop a use case that identifies the functionality and privileges of each user and entities associated with the application. The next phase is what I termed the object specification activity. This is where you determine the functions, construct, data types and other nuclear programming features which will be deployed. This phase requires objective reasoning on how the program will be developed. The flow chart should be core in this phase. The last activity is the actual coding which is what most programmers in this part of the world start first.

THINK FIRST BEFORE YOU ACT (CODE)!

This piece is my contribution to improving the human capacity in the Nigerian and global IT space. If you have learned something or you have any corrections, please leave your comments. My name is Pelumi Apantaku and my twitter handle is @Pelulomo_27