We haven’t been blogging too much lately because we’ve all three been working hard on the pinyin and definition practice, which promises to be mega sweet. We’ve spent the last week or so hammering out the design, which has included a big overhaul of the way the practice screen currently works. The process has gone something like this:
Morning:
Nick: “George, are you done with that design yet? Because we need that thing.”
George: “I’m working on it.”
Afternoon [after about 3 hours of photoshop work]George: “Okay Nick, what do you think of this?”
Nick: “It’s pretty good . . . what do you think of having the pinyin font about 2 points larger, about 10px left, and center aligned? How about if we float these icons right to provide more room, and we change these icons to something more flashy.”
George: “More flashy?”
Nick: “Yeah, like put some gradients in there.”
George: “Ug.”
Nick: “And then I was thinking . . . you know what would be better than this design? If we actually had all of the functionality represented here immediately visible to the user, so have . . . .”
Nick: “. . . so yeah, let’s get Scott down here to see what he thinks.”
Scott: “It’s pretty good . . . what do you think of having the pinyin font about 2 points SMALLER, about 10px RIGHT, and LEFT aligned? That would be more simple and easy to understand. How about if we float these icons UP to provide more room, and we change them to something less distracting.”
George: “Less distracting?”
Nick: “Yeah, make them plain colors or something.”
George: “Ug.”
Nick: “And then I was thinking . . . you know what would be better than this design? If we actually had all of the functionality represented here hidden in some submenus to keep the practice page proper more simple . . .”
Okay, so maybe it hasn’t been THAT bad, but it’s been a little stressful. We’ve just about cemented the design, and Nick and Scott have already started implementing the stuff that is finished. With any luck we’ll be able to get the new features up in the not-too-distant future.