At hedgehoglab we pride ourselves on the user-centered approach we use in designing our software, with our core product fixx seeing a number of iterations over the past few months, primarily in terms of UI design but more importantly in information architecture surrounding the views and the simplicity of use.
The process that we currently use consists of first deriving use cases of how the user will perform each operation in the system (in the form of user stories), then on to quick mock ups of real application screens in the form of wireframes (using a standard layout and component library) and finally short iterations of focused review by the entire team. We repeat this process until every use case of the system is addressed from a user perspective.
The problem with such agile reviews and lightning changes of the UI and wireframes is that it leaves some poor soul, namely me, to reflect these changes in the wireframes ready for another review. A time consuming job without the right tools believe me!
After hearing many good things from other Information Architects, we originally tried Visio for a while in the hope that this would allow for quicker iterations, but I found Visio lacking in visual appeal and there was always a bottle neck in duplicating effort by translating most Visio wireframes into visual designs after every iteration. In short, Visio sucked at providing quick turn around in terms of having realistic application screens designed.
The second option was opting for mockups in XHTML, thinking we’d save time further down the line when we could just tag some CSS, refine the XHTML and lo and behold, have a completed view. This, however, proved more effort than estimated with the intermediate & final CSS changes and mark-up tweaks ultimately ending in a mash-up of good and bad code, something we ended up throwing away and opting for a re-write. We also found that XHTML wireframes did not allow the flexibility or speed of change we required to make the wireframes as visually complete as possible.
So, what is it that has me ranting about wireframes and turnaround?…
Although not comparable to the likes of Photoshop and Illustrator (tools my designer chums swear by), Fireworks lends itself well to the needs of most web developers when it comes to slicing and dicing the visuals ready for a quick conversion into finished XHTML and CSS. It also allows us to create wireframes that are visually rich and are as close to the completed product as we would like. This also eliminates the step of producing plain wireframes in Visio first and then designing them out in a graphics package.
Working with Fireworks the past few days has seen about 10 iterations of the fixx UI go from a 5 hour job to no time at all. Each change was painless and immediate (and visually correct for everyone to review). Fireworks does a good job of keeping your pages and layers organised meaning exporting them into a reviewable image format was effortless and because Fireworks is out for both windows and mac (sorry Ubuntu fan boys, no Linux yet), we can all chip in when we need to and work on the UI of the system.
The end result? The fastest and most visually stunning wireframes & mock-ups I’ve produced in a long time with the advantage of ready-made visuals! All they need now are a little bit of eye candy thrown in, in the form of icons and content and we are away!
If you want to see sneak previews of the fixx UI we have put together keep an eye out for my next post where i will be discussing some of the changes we have made to the UI with plenty of screenshot goodness. Oh! And did I forget to mention that fixx will be entering internal beta soon at the lab?
I have always been a strong supporter of grassroots web standards technologies and the semantic web but it has always been through the back of the crowd. When we started hedgehog lab, one of our primary aims was to be a vehicle to promote good practice and the great community around the web and software in general. The best way to do that was to sponsor community events surrounding these topics, but mostweb-related events come with a hefty dent in the wallet when it comes to sponsorship rates.
Therefore, it was refreshing to see that the first Semantic Camp, being organised by none other than Tom Morris, had a flexible sponsorship opportunity to contribute as much or as little as we wanted. As strong proponents of standards and a company filled with geeks who are fascinated about the future of the Semantic Web, we could not resist the chance to be a sponsor.
Although our contribution is trivial compared to some of the other sponsors of the event, we are hoping this will become a stepping stone to lay the foundation for hedgehog lab supporting more events like BarCamp NorthEast (hint to organisers!) and other major web-related events.
Unfortunately, none of us were quick enough to grab a ticket to the event but I am sure we will be turning up to many that will follow the success of this. To those who are going, “Get building the Semantic Web!”
“SIMON! Introduce yourself!”
No way!
“Introduce yourself…”
Ok! …I’m Si! …the new guy! …be nice to me cos I’m shy!
Erm, yeah..anyway. “People” have been nudging me to get on the ol’ blogaroonie to say “Hi”, but apparently, that modern masterpiece above wasn’t enough / could be considered slightly creepy.
As you may have gathered, I’m Simon… or Si… or the douchemeister general, and I too am a new hedgehog lab employee. My official title is, “Director, Research & Development”, but that’s only cos “Code Playboy” was taken. By Sarat. It essentially means that I get to dabble with different technologies and tell people about them. Just to give some context of what I mean by “different technologies”: I’m a huge fan of Python and the Django framework, I think that XMPP has a lot of potential with regards to APIs, and I believe that data portability is going to be huge.
A couple more important (and somewhat religious) tidbits: I’m a Linux guy myself (they’ve already got me setting up Ubuntu servers up here), and my editor of choice is VIM (not double jointed enough for that OTHER one).
I have joined from a larger company, where I worked as a front-end developer of sorts for about 18 months. Being at hedgehog lab is a completely different ball game: in a smaller company you contribute to pretty much every area, whether that’s saying “good idea, let’s go with it!”, suggesting an alternative, setting up a Ubuntu server, configuring software, fixing a bug, or playing with some wireframes, I have done it. All in the space of a month.
That has its good points and its bad (primarily that there’s always work to be done!), but it gives me the impression of having more input, and the lack of any major approval hierarchy (beyond, “Sarat am I ok to try this…?”) sees a very quick turnaround in getting stuff from idea stage to reality.
Needless to say, it’s great at the lab. I hope to bring you a new entry (hopefully with more substance) in the near future.
As a new member of hedgehog lab (and what is fast becoming a custom here), I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my role here at the lab!
My name is Ashley Green and I started working here about 3 weeks ago. My role within the team is Developer, Technology and Products (I love my title)!
I am a recent BSc (hons) Computing Studies graduate from Northumbria University in Newcastle which I graduated from in July last year. I then went on to briefly work for a digital agency and it was after I worked there when I discovered hedgehog lab and over the past few months I have heard so many good things about the company and read some really good recommendations that I knew they were building something which I really wanted to be a part of and so far I am really enjoying working here. I am not sure how many people can actually turn around and say that they enjoy their job, but I love what I do and the atmosphere within the lab is really encouraging.
So what do I do; well, in the short amount of time which I have been here I have had plenty of training provided by my fellow team members to help me get upto speed learning cool new technologies like Struts 2, Hibernate and Spring.
I have already been given responsibility to work on an exciting new project called Solomon, which is a knowledge base for collaborative teams and customer support (hint: Solomon was a wise king). The project is currently in the inception phase and we will be bringing updates to you as soon as possible.
I will also be responsible for spearheading the social computing and networking strategy for the lab, so if you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter etc then please look us up. I am busy working on new strategies to ensure that you can always find us and engage with us no matter where you are, so I will keep you updated!
It is refreshing to use my creativity and being able to voice my idea’s and opinion’s to the team, which are always considered, regardless of how rubbish or ingenius they might be. The main thing for me is that I am valued as a team member and I have the support of my fellow team members. I get to work alongside people who know what they’re doing and are passionate about their work, which is really what any company in this industry should be about.
Well thats about it for now, this blog was really just a bit of background information about me and my role so if you want to know anything about me then please leave a comment or contact me by email and I will answer all of your questions, but don’t forget to keep checking our blogs and website.
In a follow-up to my last 2 posts about the issues I see facing recruiting developers these days, I came across an interesting post by Mike Cannon-Brookes who is the co-founder and CEO of Atlassian.
Atlassian is a company I admire a lot and hedgehog lab is in part, shaped on many core concepts that Atlassian is built on (ignoring the irony that our core product is a bug tracking system like the legendary JIRA; although I am sure Atlassian PR will be quick to mention that Confluence is their core product now given the meteoric rise in it’s adoption).
What is surprising is that little has changed since Mike’s original post in 2005 and the issues seem to reflect our findings on developer CVs and interviews, a whole 2 years after his post.
