Duct Tape Design Philosophy

Alright, it appears that I do not have to rant about my "eye-opening" experience at NYP's PPP program. So for today I will talk about websites and a philosophy I designed by myself, hehe. When anyone wants to build a website, one must consider 4 factors, I like to call it DUCT. Duct tape! Who doesn't love duct tape.

D in DUCT stands for Design, the graphics and the organisation. U stands for Usability, how easy is it to navigate the website or find what the user wanted. C stands for Content, what is on the website and finally, T stands for Technology, like the scripts used etcetera. Usually, when developers talk about user experience and users themselves, they tend to care only about D and U, which is bad.

It is important to care about the graphics and looks of the website but it is not critical. Take Craiglist for example, virtually no graphics and hardly any design elements and yet it is a very famous and widely visited site. Although poor design can turn off visitors, if there is a pressing need to use the site, they will still remain and explore. A great and often used example of design over ease of navigation would be Microsoft's website, the site looks cool, I agree but try finding something there without the search. Even with search, the site is horrible when you want to find something you need. Many argue that Microsoft's website has too many things to put up, well tell that to Wikipedia.

Ease of use or usability is a very tough area to measure or implement. A few sites I would consider "easy to use" would be YouTube, Google and Amazon.com. One of the most important factor in making a easy to use website seems to be matching the superficial purpose and intended purpose, in simpler terms: "What the heck the website is about". Google is more usable than Yahoo because when someone sees the Google homepage, they know that google is meant for searching. Yahoo on the other hand has all the news and information cluttering up the page, to someone who have never heard of yahoo, they would not know what Yahoo's main feature is. This is why Google is more used than yahoo in the Search Business. Google was designed for searching, plain and simple, it serves its purpose and that's it. You don't have to locate the search box with the Google homepage and it loads fast, unlike Yahoo. So the presentation of the PURPOSE> is the no.1 factor to usability. Having too many "purposes" smack right in the face of the users will create a sense of crowds and chaos, perhaps even headache inducing.

Content or C in DUCT was often touted as the single most important factor in pulling in visitors. youTube is a testimony to the idea of content over anything else, although there are better video sites out there, youtube is often the choice of video viewers simply due to their large database. Wikipedia is also another great example, no one would visit Wikipedia for the WikiMedia software, Wikipedia is only useful and visited because of the site's articles. However, let's compare Apples to Apples, same content, different access method. Google Earth and Google Maps, Google Maps runs the same map database as Google Earth and Google Earth is far more easier to navigate, has all the nifty features and much smoother zooming. But more people tend to visit Google Maps than running Google Earth, this is because Google Earth requires an installation whereas Google Maps can be viewed instantly at anytime, anywhere. So this tells us that if two applications has the same content, the one that's easier to access will get the visits. And if content was the so-called "single most important factor", then my my daughter would be more visited than any other School's ICC website.

The last factor is the Technology, which I think is the least important factor in getting visits but however is the critical. Technology enables the use of better design, facilitates usability and enables a new type of content. Examples of technology being applied would be CSS for blog skins, PHP for forums and AJAX for search suggestion. However, technology DO get in the way, take Flash banner ADs, flashy javascripts that block your vision etc. I was asked by a friend once, he wants to build a forum but with zero users, he was worried that he could not get his chat box to run. My suggestion is to use only what you need, its good to experiment but do not think that one needs cool flashy intro screens to make a cool website.

That would sum up my DUCT tape philosophy for website design and analysis. I do put them into practice just have trouble implementing them. :P

My Boring Life on Google Maps

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PPP Experience Week 3 part 2

Alright now I am going blog (complain, rant) about the second half of week 3. The tips of my sword are stained with blood, you are just going to be adding another 50ml to it. Mwuhahahaha! How's my joke? Isn't that funny? How bout this one: Why did Charles die on Christmas? Because he bought toys made in China! Hahahaha. Alright, that's lame.

On Thursday we had a Communication skills class, we have to "talk" to people we don't really know in our class. I didn't get any of the gals and one other person got two, including a Class A. It seems that I should be the one who is displeased, but I don't want to mention what he did tomorrow. Plus, my carefully crafted SMART goals thing did not go through the nyp's email system, I wonder who admins it, perhaps they should update the system and use PHP based ones. PHP rocks, I think its the best online application programming language ever, PHP variables are even declared in $! Loves my PHP. I use PHP on my Secondary Schools CCA website as well.

See, I WANT A PROGRAMMING CLASS NOW, I am starting to go insane, I need to go for programming class, I never had one and learnt everything by myself. Communications skills are irrelevant when I don't have programming skills to create products to market. OH!! Marketing, we are going to that next week.

Speaking of marketing, I am reminded of the interesting Entrepreneurship lecture on Thursday. PEST and SWOT analysis, I personally use this kind of analysis in my work, that's useful knowledge for myself.

On Friday, we had a tutorial involving the use of PEST and SWOT analysis. Yes, I just praised it a few lines ago, so why do I seem unhappy. Why should I analyse another person's company?? Plus, I am not an optician, I only need to analyse my software industry. Yes, its good to learn how to analyse. BUT why must I analyse another person's company in a group and RUSH a PPT on 3 hours. Its totally not practical, analysis should always be in a longer time frame by internal discussions and internal presentations. Anyway, I suspect my unique and special suggestion about the stock exchange would only be thought of by Google Finance users, I don't think two little girls would be able to think of Google Finance as a research source. Not to mention, the two lines I use was copied word for word and in the same position. Oh did I forget mentioning that one of my team members (whom I should not mention) was seen with the two girls. Scary coincidence, surely, they must have been Google Finance users who happen to use the same exact words. But then, why was I the only one who brought up "raising money through public listings". Getting listed is not about getting listed, its about raising investments from the public. Anyway, I am very sure that is is just a mere COINCIDENCE. :D . Low possibility does not mean impossible.

Great minds think alike, like how what one of my friends noticed about my new found love for Yuki Nagato.

After that on Friday, we had to do a skit for Communication Skills. We settled for director chat and another team also settled for director chat. That's pure coincidence, I am sure, really. Anyway, I didn't realised that I said "So Harry, Dick and Tom" and went to justify the use of "Dick" and "Harry". You know, Harry Potter is a Harry and the Vice President of USA is Dick Cheney. Anyway, it went well but nobody will vote for a bunch of geeks. Geeks are really an oppressed bunch. Nobody likes my lead paint jokes.

Get this one: It was Jane's last birthday......

Because Jane got a Barbie Doll made-in-china for her Birthday! HAHAHAHA

Wasn't that funny?

At least this whole course is better than working. The main reason I entered Poly is because I want to do programming and get graded for programming. All I get is null and a difficultTime with drawingLessons and lotsOfHomeWork. Well this blog is homeWork() and I wish my $balance > 0 == true.

return 0;

PPP Experience Week 3 part 1

I have to talk about my PPP experience again, what a boring subject. I would rather be ranting about the stupid Satellite shoot down by the US. Anyway, there was a lot of work to do and I get tired out everyday, that's how it is and why I could only update about Monday and Tuesday until today.

Monday was the second lesson of "Experience the new Web". Guess everyone rushed to do their blog but I don't really care, if I did I would have place some nice code on this thing.Oh but guess what the lecturer struggled not to go technical again, but how fun it was when he started talking about RSS and AJAX. Ya but too bad its no programming course: Booooriiiiing.

Tuesday was drawing class equally boring. Just show our drawings and stuff, mine was horrible. At least the girl's drawing was professional, they are suppose to anyway.

Guess that's it for now. Oh that was short because its boring anyway. Why can't I shoot people like the smoking posts, can't do it here before anyone gets hurt.

PPP First Week

My Lecturer says I need to blog about my experience in the Polytechnic Preparatory Program (PPP) of Nanyang Polytechnic. Well, then I will comply and starting posting about this, I doubt I will have time to change the stupid template on this homework thing.

As a programmer I consider the Orientation week as week Zero, so last week is week one to me. Monday was this "Experience the new web" module thingie about web 2.0 which this blog is homework for. Interesting subject but boring lecture, had to read wikipedia while the lecturer was lecturing to stay awake. In my opinion, I think the lecture was boring because he was trying to hard to keep the lesson simple and easy to understand; resorting to repeating and rephrasing multiple times. Technical stuff are more interesting and fun, I signed up for this program to learn programming earlier in the first place anyway.

Tuesday is this "Drawing the visible world" module. I can only describe the lecturer of the module as a minimalistic and efficient person, telling us to go off and draw in the morning; only to meet up at 2pm. At least its easy going but the amount of work to do is like mountain high, plus I am no artist. The most I got for art in Secondary School was D7 and I used my rulers, protractors and compasses to do so. Well, I just have to hand in something to pass the thing.

Wednesday was holiday, no modules. Perhaps I might do a rant this Wednesday, I was hoping to do rants and rants for this project but I have to talk about my "experience" in PPP.

Thursday was a module on "Communication Skills", it was a pretty enjoyable experience. We had a social interaction game of sorts and listened to a tolerable lecture. However, I did not really like the fact that the room numbers were changed from what was given on the timetable. The "Entrepreneurship" Lecture after lunch also had the room number changed to the hall next door. The lecture for the Entrepreneurship module was head shaking and gravity amplifying, if you get what I mean.

Friday is the tutorial for the Entrepreneurship module, there wasn't much activity and it was said to be the most activity we will experience in the entire program. Plus, we were told that we have to do this "fantastic" research project.

The program is decent and at the least more enjoyable than Secondary School lessons. However, I am extremely disturb by the fact that the lecturers were told that we were allowed to CHOOSE our modules for the program which is totally not true and returns 0% match. Its like buying a DVD/CD Rewinding machine.

Its short because I do not like not to be able to post rants. Ranting is more fun than a boring "online dairy".

Cigarette Smoking

First topic of the blog: Smoking. Yes, cigarette smoking, its great. Wait, some of those who know me, a very extremist anti-smoking advocate is saying that "smoking is great". Well, lets hear my point before you decide. (Note: I hate smoking more than anything else and all references to support for smoking are purely sarcasm)

Smoking is said to contain thousands of chemicals that dramatically increases the chances of getting diseases. cancer and low-fertility rates. Smoking related-deaths claims the lives of millions of people around the world every year. Its not just the smokers themselves who suffer but those around them through what is known as "second-hand" smoke. It is generally accepted that smoking is very harmful to our healths and those around us. Though most would argue that smoking does not cause instantaneous death, well it has many other effects as well. Smoking causes teeth and nails to yellow, its disgusting and I am sure no one would want to be friends with disgusting people. I am sure the result would be depression from the lack of friends and suicide as a result. Unfortunately, "smoking is considered to be cool" and usually in the cool places like pubs and night clubs, it is difficult to see the colour of teeth and nails in the flashy lighting.

Besides smoking as a social phenomenon, smoking has its practical uses. Cigarette smoke is a very good pesticide and very few insects survive long in the smoke. Well, it can be considered to be "collateral damage" since all pesticides have harmful effects on human beings. It is indeed naive to think that pesticides only harm insects and not us, then how the hell do you think pesticides kill the insects. Anyway, cigarette smoke fills the whole room in a short time span, that makes it more effective than pesticide and there is no aiming to do. Not only does smoking kill pests, you can also induce cancer and other illnesses on people you hate through second-hand smoke at the expense of your own life, its legal murder! Plus, if jumping off the building is too painful, you can die a slow and relaxing death by smoking in front of the TV. Smoking can be seen as ritual suicide that is less painful then Seppuku.

However, I am an Evolutionist, who laughs in the face of the creationists, but that will be another day. If you can see a trend, it is the lower class or the peasants who usually smoke, as well as the drop-outs. Smoking is answer to human rights laws in the light that tigers and other carnivores no longer posing a threat to us. Without our natural predators, governments are left to introduce a form of population control that will prevent overpopulation. That population control or what some would call "the Natural Selection process" would be: Cigarette smoking. Since Cigarette smoking results in deaths and those who are lowly educated smoke, those who are left are the smart elites, like those from Raffles Institution. But one would be wondering, why would the governments of the world want to kill their own people who pay taxes. Well, the answer is easy, the poorer the person, the less income tax is paid, but Cigarette tax will milk what is left of the poor man's savings. Since Cigarette Smoking does not kills instantly, the poor person will have to pay for both taxes and cigarettes until he dies of illnesses, in which he no longer has any to pay and has no more value. So Cigarette Smoking, effectively cleans up our population and ensures a brighter future for our motherland.

From an economic standpoint, smoking contributes greatly to the society. Especially in Singapore, a significant portion of taxes, in which we pay our ministers with, come from cigarette tax. To hell with those tax evading cigarette smugglers, cigarette tax is how we make the lowly educated pay for our first-class ministers. Cigarettes are also addictive, providing a steady stream of income for our government and the rich owners of the cigarette companies. Cigarettes also create jobs for the factory workers and the university graduate filled management. Smoking is a necessity for our robust economy and any country's economy. Yes, smoking has harmful effects but didn't I said it was ritual suicide?

So the next time you see a smoker, say "Thanks" for they are supporting the economy, removing pests and regulating the population through the glorious sacrifice of their lives. Smokers sacrifice their lives for the good of our nation, such patriotism is to be admired!! We truly need smokers in our countries for our great nations to run smoothly! The reason why we have our civilised lives, education and internet connection is because of their sacrifice.

But still, to all the smokers: "It sucks to be you".

The Random Thesis Factor

Hello visitors, I am Lord Li Shing To, the Visionary. I opened this extremely under developed blog for one sole reason. If you guessed that I started this to rant and complain about the world over and over and over, you are very very wrong. The primary, absolute and only thinkable reason why someone who has a laziness quotient of 400 would want to open a blog like me is because of... HOMEWORK. Yes, at my beautiful and fantastic Nanyang Polytechnic, homework for one of the modules is to sign up for various internet services and create a blog. Fellow friends at my secondary school would probably be envious of my homework, its just starting some stupid blog and I would be given marks for it.

If you would like to know what to expect from my blog, it will mostly focus on topics of Technology, Politics or both. Most people use blogs as "online diaries" which I think is an oxymoron but I will talk about that oxygen-deprived moronic irony later this month. Of course, in no way this blog would become a moronic "online dairy" of sorts. Besides ranting and arguing about how idiotic the mainstream usage of blogs are, I will discuss about politics accross the board. Fellow Singaporeans might be worried about the government's self-protection behaviour but I will mostly concentrate on oversea politics and organisation structure.

I may try to add images and videos to make my posts more interesting but I am lazy. Laziness deprives such projects of the colours and vibrant diversity that text can never produce. However, if I were to be given proper motivation, I might go further to and perhaps continue this blog in the long run.

That is all, you are dismissed.