OK Sushi
MODx as a rapid prototyping tool
Today I thought I would write about using MODx as a rapid prototyping tool. Regular readers and those people that know me in a professional and semi-professional capacity know that I love this content management framework, and I use it wherever possible in my projects.
My current role is redeveloping the Queensland Government Internet site which is currently using Teamsite to manage it’s content (although I always feel as though it works as more of a file management system and less of a content management system!). In the development process we have engaged various companies to conduct usability testing on mockups and wireframes.
Very shortly we will be conducting usability testing on working prototypes of the site. Exciting!
We were faced with a dilemma: should we create static pages, using our different templates to be tested, or should we use the exisiting functionality of a content management tool to do all the heavy lifting for us? The choice was obvious. Enter MODx
The steps I took to replicate the website were these:
- Create a new site in MODx
- Create pages to replicate the exisiting site map
- Create the little HTML modules as chunks in MODx
- Populate the pages that would be used by users during our task-based testing
- Create links to child pages in the chunks using the Ditto snippet
- Interlink relevant documents using the MODx syntax for linking to another page
whatever the number is - Apply the template(s)
- Implement the stylesheet switcher to allow testing of different stylesheets
That’s it! MODx is really a testers dream. I just wish I could convince the powers-that-be that we could dump Teamsite!
Interview with Larry McCormick
Those that know me, know that I am a sucker for proper electro music. Old or new, it doesn’t matter.
This interview with Larry McCormick is great. He, as well as being my Myspace buddy, runs a label called Monotone U.S.A., who have released a whole bunch of superlative electro records in the past couple of years.
From the site:
Exzakt:: I guess you could say I am proud of all the projects I have worked on in the last few years. I have put so much time and energy into each one that it would be hard to select one that I can consider more important then the other. They are all different aspects that contributed equally to make me what I am today when it comes to music. Besides my live show the other projects have been just as much about Electro advancement as much as my own music. In order for Electro to grow us as Electro Artists need to work on the entire movement and not just our personal advancement. Recently I have worked on more projects that are in other genres so I plan on continuing this to grow as an overall artist.
Such a good philosophy. Read the rest of the interview with Larry McCormick
K Foundation
I had never actually seen the footage of this important event.
See also:
Usability Testing - Almost Done
Ok, so a full day of watching participants on a projected view is quite tiring. It’s been really interesting, I don’t think that I could do this for more than two days at a time though.
Out of my three designs, one is the obvious winner, however I have been told that yesterday, participants chose a completely different one. Damn those pesky users!
I think I have a better understanding of the challenges of user-centered design after today, however. I am looking forward to analysing the hard data.
people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.
Usability Testing, with Comic Sans?!?
Today I am sitting in the office of Peak Usabilty watching participants click about on some wireframes I mocked up in Visio.
This whole process has been really interesting. I installed a bunch of templates provided by GUUUI that allow you to use rough sketch-like lines and images and gasp comic sans to mock up very rough wireframes. The reason for making wireframes rough-looking is that people are more likely to offer criticism if something looks unfinished.
In my case, this was initially frustrating, as I had already mocked up the site I am working on in three different ways using XHTML and CSS, and they were looking good. Looking back, I can see the value in doing this rough style testing, though.
Peak have put the wireframes into an HTML document that the users look at using Internet Explorer 6, and then their clicks and mouse movements, as well as their facial expressions and voice, are recorded using Techsmith Morae – a pretty comprehensive tool for this kind of work.
I think I’m in for a pretty interesting day.