I return to work today from a marathon four weeks off. Two of those weeks were official paternity leave and the final two were holiday bolted onto the end. Four weeks was just right for me. Helen and I have settled down into this parenthood lark and I’m comfortable leaving to get on with their [...]
My workload at the Open University (OU) stepped up a gear in 2006 and I was granted extra responsibility and increasing autonomy. I was enlisted to work on the graphical user interface for the OU ePortfolio, MyStuff. This was initially a very exciting task as I was brand new to the concept which seemed like [...]
Helen and I welcomed our son Oliver into the world last Saturday. At 10:10am on the 2nd August 2008 Oliver made his way into the world in an unexpected breached delivery. Our first child, we’re learning a lot about parenthood fast. To say we’re delighted is an understatement! Many thanks go out to all our [...]
I’ve decided to stop posting daily links from delicious to my blog. You’ll still find them at del.icio.us/guyweb/ though. I’m thinking about the best way to start blogging again. Real posts about real things would definitely be better than auto-posting my delicious links so let’s see what starts occurring.
Back on board after six months doing other things. Since I passed over my design comps the developers have been hard at work coding it up into an actual application. It’s still very rough around the edges but I’d say it’s at about alpha stage now, ready for a bit of testing. Needs a lot [...]
Two rather big things are competing for my time at the moment: OUTEXTS – A pilot text message service to students. Students sign up for free text messages which alert them about upcoming assignment hand-in dates, exams and such like. I’ve developed the web support pages and well as coordinated with AACS and Student Services [...]
Concept map linking to page designs. Should be easier to get your head around! MyStuff is the Open University’s ePortfolio system. It’s built using the Moodle VLE platform.
UPDATE: A clickable wireframe manifestation of the maps below is also now available. The current system map for MyStuff. As detailed as I can get right now. Still needs work though. Another mind map shows the types and functionality within the system.
Today’s design iterations seek to fix some of the high-level information architecture issues. I’ve removed the ‘quicklinks’ toggle (for the time being) in order to free up some screen real estate for the breadcrumb/titles to breathe. The user should now have a much clearer idea of where he is within the system. We have a [...]
I’d like a little feedback on the following critical issue, if you have time. The ‘breadcrumb’ navigation is all over the place. That’s because MyStuff is by nature ‘all over the place’. It’s all about creating something that can be reused in multiple places. As a result, strict hierarchy is difficult to define. And users [...]