13.5 hours of coding and one presentation later...

[exatron]

It took most of the day yesterday, but I finally finished the prototype for redesigning the client's website. Presenting it went really well and the client liked most of it. There were a few minor glitches (the page layout needs a few tweaks to make it look pretty, and a link went to the wrong page), but that's expected since it's a prototype.

Some of the comments we got were really amusing. One person said our redesign looked lame compared to one of their other sites, but added that she meant it in a good way. She also liked that it was close to their existing design standards, and pointed out that it was probably because my last project was testing the current version of the website.

Next week, we start getting feedback from the users.

I also got a nice reward for all of my hard work yesterday- my copy of ISO #1 arrived. ^.^

The first thing I noticed was that the glossy cover made the inking stand out, and I even ran my fingers across it to feel the slight ridges produced by the printing process. The second thing I noticed was that the cover was nice, thick cardstock. Marvel used to use cardstock for the covers of its Ultimate books, but switched to the standard paper to cut costs. (They also gave Colossus's storyline in Ultimate X-Men a bit of a break, which is a shame since it was getting good and was trying to make some of the same points as ISO.)

Reading the actual comic is definitely a different experience because of the tactile sensation, how half of the pages are next to each other, and the way turning them creates a natural break.

I noticed a lot of little things that I didn't see before- Cody's shirt riding up when Jake shocks him on page 2 (mmm... fluffy, white, ripply tiger tummy...) and Thor looking happy on page 14 for example.

I still love that tight white shirt. It's not quite as good as no shirt at all, but it works.

Sam seems like she will be an interesting character since she needs to learn not to be so protective of Doug. The first thing she did when meeting Cody was to get between him and Doug, setting up a barrier between them that says "You go through me if you want to get to my brother." I'm assuming that she knows her brother is gay since it fits with her attempts to protect him, but there is a bit of ambiguity when she menions what makes Doug let people win.

I think I've become a bit spoiled by ISO's creative layouts. Most of the mainstream comics seem boring in comparison.

Even with that long day and the lack of sleep that came with it, I still made it to the gym tonight.

"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." - Henry A. Kissinger

Comments

[invisiblewolf.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the presentation and getting ISO #1! I'll be doing an ISO 9000 audit, now. ;-)

-Spiritwolf.

[exatron.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and good luck with that audit. I know ISO 9000 isn't an easy standard to meet.

[invisiblewolf.livejournal.com]

Sorry -- I meant that as a joke. :-) When I was working for BAE Systems, there were ISO 9001 auditors going around, but I never had to participate.

-Spiritwolf.

[exatron.livejournal.com]

My brain was more fried than I thought. Normally, I get jokes like that right away.

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm wondering exactly HOW someone can mean lame in a good way, but I suppose it's not something that should be argued with. Still, rockin'. Dunno if eventually you can show us some of these websites, just curious what you can do ;-)

Yeah, Lulu used a more standard cover, so I was surprised by the nice cardstock. I also keep forgetting about how pages are side by side; I should keep that in mind when layouting. Hee-hee, I can guarantee *I* sure had Cody's tummy on my mind when his shirt rode up ;-)
And Sam knows. Morea bout that later tho.

I've noticed the gym makes the days go by faster. I suppose that's been a help these past few weeks.

Take care.

[exatron.livejournal.com]

I think she meant that the design was clean, efficient, and didn't have a lot of extra junk that exists only to say, "Look what I can do." There actually is a lot of stuff like that, but it's almost entirely in how I wrote the code.

I probably won't be able to show the site redesign for a while since there's a confidentiality agreement on the prototype itself. My plan is to use my Google Pages account to make my own site for demonstrating the things I can do. Not surprisingly, the really cool stuff isn't supported by Internet Explorer.

The thicker cover and lower price made me feel like I got an absurdly good deal.

I figured you would have Cody's tummy on your mind. His abs may not be absurdly defined, but they still scream, "Feel me."

Good to know.

The gym does seem like it's been a big help.

Thanks, you too.