david rasch - making stuff work » design http://www.davidrasch.com Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:53:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 RSS feeds meet IntelliContact http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/08/26/rss-feeds-meet-intellicontact/ http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/08/26/rss-feeds-meet-intellicontact/#comments Sun, 27 Aug 2006 03:45:23 +0000 drasch http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/08/26/rss-feeds-meet-intellicontact/ As we get neck-deep integrating RSS feeds into IntelliContact, we encounter an interesting challenge. In the past, our interface was a mere repository for features, integrated through loose glue usually in the form of tabs. Each feature received its own tab–surveys, autoresponders, adding contacts, maniuplating contacts, and tracking analytics. In our wholely redesigned interface . . . → Read More: RSS feeds meet IntelliContact]]> As we get neck-deep integrating RSS feeds into IntelliContact, we encounter an interesting challenge. In the past, our interface was a mere repository for features, integrated through loose glue usually in the form of tabs. Each feature received its own tab–surveys, autoresponders, adding contacts, maniuplating contacts, and tracking analytics. In our wholely redesigned interface we have only four tabs. My Contacts, Create, Send, and Track allow our user to setup their lists and contacts then create, send, and track their email newsletter, survey, or autoresponder.

Where do RSS feeds go? They are a publication method, so maybe they belong under Send. But, they are targets when broadcasting a message (like lists) so maybe they belong under My Contacts. Maybe they are something else that you Create, Send, and Track therefore they go on the Create tab with hints about their status on the Send and Track tabs.

The answer may seem obvious to you, but it’s likely a different answer from that of your friends.

Most importantly, I welcome such a discussion and challenge. A victory is ours when our interface brings the simplification to a necessity rather than a desire as we improve IntelliContact.

[tags]intellicontact, ui, design, human factors[/tags]

]]> http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/08/26/rss-feeds-meet-intellicontact/feed/ 0 Getting Closer to the Zend Framework http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/05/06/getting-closer-to-the-zend-framework/ http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/05/06/getting-closer-to-the-zend-framework/#comments Sat, 06 May 2006 05:29:13 +0000 david http://www.davidrasch.com/2006/05/06/getting-closer-to-the-zend-framework/ I’ve subscribed to the mailing list for the new Zend Framework. It’s been quite enlightening to be thrown into a community of the highest-caliber PHP developers (aside from my team of course).

I look forward to contributing more and more to the discussion and ultimately contribute patches and code going forward.

For example, in . . . → Read More: Getting Closer to the Zend Framework]]> I’ve subscribed to the mailing list for the new Zend Framework. It’s been quite enlightening to be thrown into a community of the highest-caliber PHP developers (aside from my team of course).

I look forward to contributing more and more to the discussion and ultimately contribute patches and code going forward.

For example, in the preview release, I’ve been working with the Zend_Controller and found a number of things that it lacks. This in and of itself is no problem. The framework is supposed to include some of the best solutions for the most common problems. The aspect I’d like to improve is to allow the framework to be a bit more extensible. For example, there’s no easy way to change the parsing of the actual URL. Even by overloading the functions I still have to pass the URL in via a global variable.

It’s very lucky that we just finished rewriting our front-controller. We learned lots of lessons in the process, but ours solves a specific problem and wouldn’t be for everyone.

[tags]zend, php, framework, front controller, design[/tags]

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