Tien Chiu

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Website redesign

I’ve definitely decided to redesign my website, and have gotten in touch with a couple of Web designers to discuss getting help with the graphic design.  The idea is for them to generate a Photoshop layout for me to work from, and for me to do the actual implementation.  This will give me a chance to learn about Web design, and I can get support from my Web development team along the way.  Thus allowing me to restructure my website (which badly needs reorganization) while pursuing my professional goals.  Would that all my hobbies dovetailed so nicely!

Anyway, I have asked for information from 2-3 graphic designers, and will be picking someone shortly.  If you know someone cheap and creative, can you point me in their direction?  I can’t afford a great deal, but I would like to get ideas and templates/components for me to work with.

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The next big thing

I must be recovering from the mad dash to finish costumes and my 550-mile journey on the bike, because I’m already starting to think about the next Big Project.  I think it’s going to be my website.  I need to master more Web-based technologies for my work (so I have a better understanding of how we build what we build), and my Website, while adequate, is state-of-the-art…for 2002.

So my intent for the next few months is to learn more about Flash, HTML, CSS, etc. and maybe even some PHP coding while I revamp my site.  I’ve asked one of the designers in our Creative department at work to take a look at the site (in his off time, as a personal favor) to give me suggestions on how to jazz it up a little – I can code, but freeform design is not one of my strengths, so I’d like to have a bit of professional help.  I figure that, once I have the design concepts, I can start work on learning the technologies.  I really do need to learn them for work, and I have an entire Web development group to help me learn, so it will dovetail my personal and professional interests quite nicely.

This does not mean that I plan to give up weaving, exercise, or even cycling.  In particular I plan to continue weaving and studying in Bonnie’s book.  However, now that I have my weekends free again, I anticipate having more free time/energy to pursue other topics.  I think this will be one of them.

(I may also resurrect the handweavingresource.com project – another fine learning exercise, I think.)

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A deluge of packages

I left work early yesterday because they were jackhammering up the sidewalk right beneath my window (or what would have passed for a window if it weren’t a blank wall).  I came back today to not one, not two, not three, but FIVE packages! containing the following items:

  • Don’t Make Me Think!  A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
  • Transcending CSS: the fine art of web design
  • Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning
  • PHP in a Nutshell
  • Designing Web Usability

…and, Season 2 of Ranma 1/2 .

Yes, you can tell where MY brain is…now, back to creating use cases and wireframes!

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Complexity in weaving and web design

Bonnie pointed out to me that it is possible to weave a 5-end satin on threadings other than straight draw, so now I’m investigating some of her suggestions, like an advancing twill or a network drafted satin.  I think for the purposes of this particular outfit, it makes more sense to weave the yardage for the outfit in a “plain” 5-end satin, but since I’m putting on a 13-yard warp there should be quite a bit of yardage left over for shawls, etc., and for those I think it would be fun to play with network drafted satin.  So I’m starting to think about that as well.

Meanwhile, I have put the Web project on hold while I try to design this new website for the company I’m contracting for right now.  I’ve never designed a complex website before and am finding the whole process a little overwhelming.  I have to design the UI, determine and document the behavior of every button on every page, figure out how to integrate with two data feeds, work out the implications of two different data structures/delivery methods in those feeds, AND figure out the process by which this website is administered, sync’ed up with the datafeeds, etc.  It’s a much bigger project than I had anticipated, and because I don’t know anything about any of those pieces (except how to create a basic wireframe) it’s a little overwhelming.  I think I’ve done pretty well by it so far, but every time I turn around there’s more stuff to do, more things I have to figure out on the fly.  This is taking up a huge amount of mental energy and I’m finding myself with not a whole lot more brain left to study PHP, etc.  Once I’m over the hump with this project (hopefully in another 2-3 weeks) I can go back to my crash course, I think.  Meanwhile I’m going to occupy myself with less left-brain-intensive stuff like knitting and weaving.

It’s fascinating stuff, though.  I had no idea that a “simple” website was so complex!

I will be hearing back towards the end of this week from a company who wants a web producer/information architect.  I hope they make me an offer!  The stuff they’re talking about sounds endlessly fascinating.

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Loom woes update

So, I heard back from Leclerc customer service, and the good news is that I don’t have to send the box back to Leclerc.  The bad news is that I have to pay by check, so it’s another three days wasted while the check is in the mail.  But at least it will get fixed, and it sounds like it should be pretty easy once I have the parts.  I’ve ordered two extra solenoid plungers just in case this happens again.

Meanwhile, I plan to concentrate on (a) sewing up the muslin for the jacket and (b) website design.  I’ve ordered another book or two on website design from Amazon.com, one a classic on Web usability design, and the other on how to design websites using CSS (more focused on design, rather than the grammar of CSS).  I’m also starting to write up requirements and do the wireframes for the website I’m designing.  This project will take awhile, but I’m pleased by the amount I’ll learn along the way.

Life is way too short to be put out of whack by minor setbacks.  Where something gets stuck, something else beckons.