Shawn McCraw, of McCraw Designs, Guest Speaker.

It’s always nice to hear from someone who works in your chosen career, as a student. His or her experience, advise, and knowledge isn’t something that can be taught in a classroom; theirs is a data mine of trial and error, of career paths, first hand knowledge of dealing with clients, and of producing exciting creative work-that ultimately is about addresses a problem, while at the same time communicating the appropriate message, in a dynamic way, that generates value.

This is the modus operandi of Shawn McCraw, of McCraw Designs, who came to speak to a couple of classes of graphic and web design students, last Tuesday, 2/16/10, at my school, The Art Institute of Austin.

Created My First JavaScript Array. w00t!

I missed last weeks class due to a sinus headache (hate them), so I didn’t have the benefit of giving Gina a blank look and saying things like, “I’m confused,” or “What was that again?” Or the one question I really want to ask after this assignment, or actually a question I started asking myself during Flash class today is, “I really need some more back ground on syntax.”

So I downloaded the pdf of Gina’s lecture, which she thankfully emailed to me, and low and behold, a good portion covered syntax, score. I also decided to put my data augering skills to work and googled, “JavaScript Syntax” and came across this site,and they had a tutorial on JavaScript Syntax. The great thing about this tutorial site, and Gina’s lecture, is that they both ended with creating an array.

What is an aray? To quote the tutorial,

An array is a grouping of objects that can be accessed through subscripts. At its simplest, an array can be thought of as a list.

JavaScript Event Handler Fail!!!

My 1st attempt at writing a JavaScript event handler failed . I’m not sure what I did wrong, I’m going to have to ask my instructor, Gina, tomorrow in class. I’ll give you the basic rundown of what I was trying to do. In our last class, which was our introduction to event handlers we wrote a script that changed an unhappy pet rock

JavaScript: Live it, Learn it, Love it!

So, the 1st day of class was all about introducing us to JavaScript.

In brief, JavaScript is used to provide interactivity, and was especially crucial during the days of slow modem speeds, you know back when 28.8 kbs was blazing! JavaScript is useful because, unlike PHP, it is a client side technology. Meaning that all the magic happens inside the browser, limiting calls to the server. While it is a scripting language, JavaScript is fully programmable. It allows for form validation, can detect browser type, and adds or creates cool visual effects.

Originated by Netscape in circa 1995, JavaScript is made up of 3 parts:

• ECMA Script-provides core functionality, and has similar syntax to ActionScript
• DOM-Document Object Model- provides methods & interfaces for working with the content of a web page.The API are from XML that was extended for use with HTML, and supports CSS. Also supports mouse
  and user interface events
• BOM-Browser Object Model-provides methods & interfaces for interacting with the browser, allowing for manipulation for browser windows.

School Is Back In Session!

The Winter Session ’10 has started! Actually today is the 2nd day of classes. I’m pretty stoked about this quarter, I’m taking the 2nd Flash class, with is going to focus a lot on ActionScript 3, Traditional Typography, Algebra, and Advanced Scripting. In Advanced Scripting, we’re focusing on developing RIA’s, Rich Internet Applications, using JavaScript.

Working With Clients: Site Outline, Data, and Navigation Hierarchy

The Family by Choice site redesign will contain the following information with horizontal navigation. The navigation is illustrated to the right. Bare in mind, the navigation is tentative and may change:

Home Page: Will serve as an introduction to the organization and to the site.
Family by Choice is a non-profit adoption service organization for GLBT, singles, traditional, and non-traditional families throughout the State of Texas. Family by Choice is not a child placement agency, but assists families in locating and connecting to appropriate licensed adoption and foster care placing agencies, as well as other needed services, and to secure second parent adoptions when applicable. We provide information and education in all realms of adoption, foster care, and parenting at no charge. Our agency staff is made up of licensed experienced professionals, adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and volunteers. We were created with the goal of meeting a variety of specific needs of prospective and established adoptive families in an economic way. Family by Choice hosts two support groups for the GLBT community. These groups, “Daddy-Os” and “Mommy-Os”, meet on a regular basis for play dates, education meetings, and a host of other activities that support parents and children. Family by Choice is a member of the Texas Council on Adoptable Children of Texas and the North American Council on Adoptable Children. We work cooperatively with the Human Rights Campaign and the “All Families, All Children” project, with Equality Texas, as well as other national and local advocacy groups. We are a member of the Austin Gay Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Working With Clients: User Profile.

Now that we’ve developed our client profile, it’s time to take a look at who our potential end user may be.

Roger (L) and Thomas(R)

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Roger is a high school teacher and Thomas is an account manager with a major tech company. They have been together for 10 years, and were married in California in 2008. They both native Texans and currently live in Dallas, Tx. Roger is 39 years old and Thomas is 45. Combined, they have an annual income of over $100,000. They are both very tech savvy, using the internet at least 4 to 6 hours a day.

Thomas uses the internet at work to communicate with co-workers on projects, for project management, and to communicate with clients.  Roger uses the internet as a teaching tool, he distributes class assignment via email, and teaches his students how to use the internet as a research tool for papers and other class assignment.

Leisurely, they both use the internet to stay in contact with family and friends, they frequently shop online, and also use the internet to access entertainment using services like iTunes and Hulu. They also love their iPhones! They also like to keep up with latest music, fashion, and gadget trends.

They are looking to adopt their first child within the next year. They intend to use the Family by Choice website to access information on adoption, parenting and to network with other GLBT parents. They’re also looking to retain Family by Choices services to assist them in the adoption process. They have also considered using a surrogate.

Mary (L) and Elizabeth (R)

Getty Images

Mary and Elizabeth have been together for 5 years, and married for 2, they were married in Canada in 2007. They are both 35. They both work in customer service as managers, and have a combined income of $80,000. They currently live in San Antonio.

Neither of them feel that they’re tech savvy, although they both have Facebook pages, they estimate that they use the internet about 8 to 10 hours a week. They prefer keeping in contact with family and friends via telephone, they are avid texters. They both enjoy gardening, and often entertain friends at home by hosting dinner parties.

They are interested in becoming foster parents, and are planing to conceive a child through artificial insemination sometime within the next 5 years. They are interested in learning about 2nd parent adoption. They intend to use the Family by Choice (FbC) site as a resource in how to become foster parents, and once they begin the conception process they will turn to FbC for assistance in navigating that process.

Please note, these are fictitious profiles and were created as part of a class assignment.

Working With Clients: Client Profile.

Now that I have the client survey, it is time to create a client profile.

Client Name: Family by Choice
Contact: Susan Griffith
Number of Employees: 2
Client type: Site redesign
Current URL: familybychoice.org

Family by Choice (FbC) specializes in pre and post adoption services, they are not a licensed adoption agency; rather, they assist their clients navigate the adoption process. The organization provides serves to the gay lesbian bi-sexual, and transgendered communities (GLBT), as well as non-traditional families and single parents. The purpose of the redesign is to increase the site content. The updated site will provide an overview of FbC, the services they offer, and serve as a point of contact for current and future clients. Family by Choice is a 501.3(c) non-profit organization, they will also use the website to solicit tax deductible donations, and to advertise their various fundraising activities throughout the year.

Please note, I am no longer working with FbC as a client, this information is solely being used for the purposes of a class assignment.

Working With Clients: Client Survey

When working with clients, it is important to get a good understanding of their needs and objectives. A great way to do this is to ask question. The type of question you ask are also important, as they will help determine exactly how much work, you as the designer, will be required to put into the site. The amount of work put into the creation of the site will determine billable hours. Finances aside, asking the client the right question will also assist you as the designer to enable the client to have an understanding of their own needs.

A great way to do this is to initiate a client survey. Now, initiating a client survey can be done a few ways: the survey can be delivered to the client, have them fill it out, and return it to you within a prescribed time; or you can sit down with the client, ask them the question, and fill it out with them. The way in which the survey is complete isn’t as important as it is to have the same standard survey for all clients.

Below is the client survey that was used with Family by Choice. Private information has been redacted, it is also is being hosted on scribd.com. Please note, this is being used for the purposes of a class assignment, I am not working with FbC at this time.

Working With Clients: Request For Proposal.

Over the past couple of session in Intermediate Scripting, we’ve been focusing on working with clients. The focus has been on developing a client profile to either redesign a live website or creating a fictitious client site. Additionally, we have been developing user profiles to get a sense of who the end user of the site will be, in order to create a more targeted site.

Until recently, I was in discussions with a potential client, Family by Choice (FBC). Family by Choice is an adoption resource service that caters to the gay, lesbian,bi-sexual, and transgendered community. Their website is www.familybychoice.org.

Attached is the Request For Proposal that I sent to FBC to initiate our discussion, its hosted on www.scribd.com. For the purposes of this assignment, I will be using the information that was gathered regarding Family by Choice. Any, and all private information has been blackout.