Day Five here at New Horizons....

I have been preparing for next week's course Programming with C# with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.    I am installing VMware's VMWare player.  I then am installing a copy of Microsoft Vista I have inside the VM.  After that I will be downloading and installing Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 Express.  With this environment running I will be able to practice and study class elements.

I promised to write some about an effective user interface.  The 'Interface' designed by the programmer/developer has two different elements to it that will determine it's success.  Element One - what the developer heard or the Business Analyst heard and what the user feels is 'usable' and 'effective' for the job it was designed to do.  Now with most web applications/sites the user is the 'visitor' that comes to the website and 'browses'.  In this instance the 'user simulation' can be done by company assigned employees who typically should not know much about the application itself.  With these 'simulated visitors' user feedback can be very helpful.  It is important that these 'actors' can communicate well.  Their written and verbal feedback is critical for a successful implementation.  Once the 'website visitors' have tested and used each element of the website the programmers can then take their feedback and correct/fix/modify the website as necessary.  This process can be repeated several times until the 'stakeholders' from the company agree that the website is ready for primetime.


Next week I will be discussing the ways websites can be monitored and watched 24x7 by robotic eyes you program to watch/warn and alert you to problems and potential problems.