What I have learnt

A few days ago while I was doing the NUS teaching grading survey, I was surprised that I had more to say about CS3216 than any other modules. Of course, mostly good stuff!! Looking back at the semester, I always jokingly tell my friends "I'm kena sold to computing".

True story.

During poster session

This is the semester that was initially filled with uncertainties and later on transformed into a systematic deadline-based curriculum with small excitements in between.

Uncertainties: I doubted myself when Prof Ben said, 'every sem there're 1 or 2 students who drop the module'. I thought I would be the one cause I'm not that confident in my design skills and honestly speaking I don't know what's gonna come my way. But, I persevered and immediately during the first assignment, I kind of got the hang of it and began to trust what I do.

Systematic deadlines-based curriculum: After staying back in school for the first lecture of cs3216 on my first day of school, i kind of saw the truth about this sem: work work work. During the first few weeks of the sem, I created a list of deadlines for all my modules and to my horror, there seemed to be at least 1 deadline every week! It's like I've been pre-programmed into autopilot mode and all I do is to act like a robot and do projects super consistently, 1 submission after another. I liked the torture actually. At lear I know I've been working hard and even if I can't score well in exams, I know I did not waste any time and learnt a lot.

Excitements: These happens after each submission and every each feedback. Honestly, getting praised for our hardwork is really an awesome feeling. However, the sad thing is, not many modules use peer grading and we don't even get to hear complimentary words from lecturers. I like how we are requires to give comments to each other's works and sometimes, I get confidence boosts from reading the comments! Also, at the same time, I learn a lot from other teams and their projects!

All look so happy! 

What I have learnt:

1)  "definitely, some basic programming skills!"
Yes through the various workshops in the starting of the sem. Subsequently, i was lucky enough to experience some very basic coding in one of my other NM modules where we had to learn how to use Processing to create interactive games. Later on, during the final project, I could understand the big skeleton of the system my team built. I could have explored more on my own but i just didn't have the time due to crazy deadlines from other mods as well. I've gotten a few recommended self-learning sites, i hope to make this holiday meaningful using those. 

2) "more about UI/UX design"

Definitely. What i have done was all evolving around UI design! And i really learnt quite abit on how to design for programmers to use. Also, through UAT with target audience, i learnt that we should always bear this in mind when designing: always think like a user. 

Prize presentation. LOL

3) "how to work well in a team"

Or, should i have said 'how to work well with programmers'. It's real tricky at first cause generally, what they are looking for and what i think they look for are really different. Best take home point: design systematically. Cause we always gotta save each and every clickable element in .PNG file format with the correct size. 

Kids are just so adorable.

To sum things up, I really enjoyed he module. I can easily say its the most fulfilling module I've taken. Thank you Prof Ben for giving me the chance to take this module in the first place! :D I'm honoured to be one of students from the last batch.

10 year down the road, what i will remember about cs3216 are the friendships forged, the night that we stole beanbags to sleep on in utown, crazy laughing sessions at com1 at 1am, the unfinished fight for com1 mayorship on 4square, and many more wonderful moments like this...

Rob UAT with kids

Reflections

Wow. all the groups presented awesome stuff.

I really liked 'Letters to Amanda' cause it's really meaningful and the simplistic design is a boomz. Awesome sauce (Joshua style).

Other than that, I would like to talk about working with external companies. Both satisfying client's needs and satisfying proj requirements are IMPT, so whats the issue here. Actually, there isn't much a issue, but we are somewhat dependent on another company(that is not our client) for the graphics, audios, videos, used for app. So this kinda determines our progress for the app. Also, the time taken for whoever that need to get back to us regarding our queries is super long and not standard, so its really hard for us to gauge and plan.

Prof Ben told my group that we should still take charge of the project and produce results. We shouldn't be lagged because we don get the materials from them. Then, i was thinking, sometimes, we can't act on our own because we are building something for someone and we don't get the full decision right. Features we propose, also need to be approved by them. Of course, we could just build the ideas and then let them review later when they get back to us. Or build it with our self-created graphics then change it later when the professional ones are done later. We may just have to change the system again afterwards if they are unhappy with it despite us thinking the features are cool and awesome. I feel it's like a waste of effort if we are unsure whether will they be really put into use or scraped later on. That was what i felt back then.

Also, I know that even though client may not like the new features we did, it is ok to satisfy proj requirements because eventually people are subjective. One can like our idea, another may not. This is like a never ending dilemma - whether to satisy proj requirements and create something with less pro materials or wait for client's approval then proceed. So hard to strike a balance...

But of course I completely agree to Prof Ben now. We should not be hindered, especially by problems we claim to affect us but they actually don't.

So, my group got tog and discussed and we are ready to go ahead with new ideas and features. Gonna implement them and then propose to client. It's similar to 先斩后奏 in the sense. HAHA. Anyways it's all about the learning process!!!

Some updates

I didn't attend Monday's lecture cause i was kinda under the weather. So i will do some updates on project and stuff.

Final project is pretty different for me as compared to the previous 2 projects. I'm not doing much designing now but i'm focusing mainly on the UX/UI review. Last time, i had to come up with the content for critique and prolly get feedback from others and now, i get to critique designs and bring the app out for users to try. Through that i will be doing vigorous QAT and observing how different people uses the app differently and noting down feedbacks. I realise this is something that i like to do cause in 2359 media, i've done QAT for an app and i find it interesting. 

Everyone behaves differently, but it's wonders how a specific good design bring out a same set of actions from users. For example, a button, how do we know its a button and how do we know it should be clicked on. Good designs make their buttons obvious lets say using embossing and color gradient. How can we make an app that is intuitive to kids who might not have prior iPad experience? Things we really need to ponder about. At this point of time, i wish i'm doing a parttime job at some kindergarten then everyday can interact with kids!!

For Million Eyeballs!

Just to zoom into 2 points i really like.


Acceptable Response Time: 
According to Fiona Nah's study,  everyone has a 2 seconds tolerance for loading time of webpages. TRUE. I'm really sick of those websites that does not show all the graphics and text properly within 2 or 3 seconds. Users may leave the website asap and switch to other websites as loading time is the most basic from of UX, and the very first interaction with a new website we encounter.

User satisfaction is achieved when experience exceeds expectations.
* Do better than your competition
* Do better than your users' expectations

CSS Sprites:

Using CSS sprites, we can redue the number of image requests. By loading a big image containing all the different images in it, CSS can simply call out for different individual images within it later on .

Example.

Image from this pretty cool tutorial. 

I guess this method is also pretty simple on the designer side, we just have to simple put everything together and save on a single .png file? awesomeness!

Final projjjj

Hey peeps, 

It's blogging time again. It's really the hell week. or i would say WEEKS. I just had to rush out a photo collage design for critique session and present at the end of the class. I started doing at the beginning of the critique and i uploaded the work and presented at the end of the class. Mentally stressed up ttm. Following lect which is now, i realised i didn't do the survey for mobile assignment!!! So had to rush out again. (sorry for doing it so late, really >..<) 

Anyways, sometimes i look back to the previous 2 projects, i nvr had to rush til the last minute cause it seems designing always happens at the beginning of the proj and programming stuff are at the back. Even when rushing, our pro programmers will be the ones suffering. Of course, let's not talk about trivial documentation which can be done fast fast when writing inspiration comes. I wish i can do more for the group. Somehow no coding background is really unfair to other members... Moreover, for final project, i wont be doing much designing except UI/UX review. 

My final project team have 4 members, Hoang, Wayne, James and me. We decided to go ahead and work with 2359 media to create a interactive storybook iPad app. the content will be for a really nice cartoon with awesome graphics that is going to launch on Disney Channel Singapore. (shall leave out the name for now cause of NDA)

So it will mainly have elements like storytelling, video showcase and games. And all of that will appear as a continuous episode. Simple swiping can bring kids through the different scenes with karaoke-style subtitles. This is followed by video playback that shows part of the cartoon. Lastly, we will try to incorporate interactive games in between the episode! We came up with several awesome ideas for games and i really hope they can be implemented! Kids will be brought into a whole new world when its complete. hee. 

The app will have really awesome cutsey graphics which i believe kids will love!! My role will be doing QAT with kids and reviewing the UI/UX to make the app super intuitive. Prof Ben already gave us some suggestions during the consultation last week so we are going to work on that. However, i have to say, we don't really have complete control of the project cause we are working with external parties so it will take abit more effort for our ideas and suggestions to get through. The difficulty for us would be the coordination part, within group and with external parties. I'm learning :D.

Cheers. 

Case study L.

GUI


Lesson 1: Too many choices = confusion!
Check on what users click.
By observation. Look at Google Analytics. A/B testing.

Lesson 2: Users need guidance
Be explicit.
Step by step instruction to get user input.
Warm and personal rewards.

Creating context from user interactions.
Notifications for different actions to get more people onboard.

Focus user interaction at key features. 
Give them 1 key thing to do and make them do it well then increase features.

Interaction Diagram
Draw out the simple design. Show how from one page brings users to another page. And draw all all possible routes.

UI is not UX.

Team Dynamics

Ideas first OR team first? 
TEAM for me. Working with smart and understanding people will create give good results. Ideas will sprout. If you are working on other people's idea, it's likely that ownership and commitment will be lesser. Cause it's someone else's baby, not yours..

Vote to make decisions OR strong leader?
Best if we have a team of strong individuals who are versatile enough to be leader or follower. Of course all have to compromise.

Empathize vs Escalate.
Teammates unable to deliver on the work he promised because of personal problems, how? I would first empathize, and help abit if i can, but if it carries on, gotta rethink the scope that we are trying to do. Cut down features would be inevitable.

Know your team!!
I agree!! It's definitely good to get to know groupmmates and know what they like, their passion and their areas of expertise. Will be easy for workload distribution and of course the funny funny things we do during project meetings to spice up stressful atmosphere.

1 thing to mention. I really enjoyed working with Kenneth, Joshua, Hoang! They are all so funny! We sang and went crazy together on those no-sleep nights in com1. I like this kind of team dynamics, relaxing but serious when needed.

I'm like merely summarizing the whole lecture. But I really find the above mentioned points really important! Ciao~

in the midst of ass2

6 hours and 35 mins before assignment 2 submission!!!

I'm taking a chill pill here writing this post. It was an awesome experience working with my groupmates! This assignment has given me the opportunity to design the interface for iPad web. So shiok!!! Finally made use of a few of the iPad GUI psd thingys i got from the net. lol. 

Special thanks to Sharon from NLB. She helped us alot! especially the gathering of photos from different archives or related orgs. :D TYVM! 

Visit Singapore River: Mobile, a mobile heritage trail, @ http://bit.ly/sgriver
(currently only works well on landscape mode on iPad) :/ working on the rest soon

GetHelp! Case Study

GetHelp! is a pretty cool idea aimed to help people with their doubts by crowdsourcing yeah? Looking at the general layout of the app, I actually think its a pretty simple and easy-to-navigate app. Without reading much information on what it does, i could guess the use of the app from the several screenshots provided. However, the initial design definitely has room for improvement:

Usability vs Aesthetics

I think the app has good functionalities. Users can do these few main tasks: 

1. Add post to call for help --- with the choice of adding details

2. React to a post --- offer help OR refer friend

3. Check out stats and badges

These 3 main functions are pretty easy to understand but their UI will easily make users somewhat confused coupled with misleading/unclear copywriting. 

Overall design:

This app is not attractive enough and does not have a design feel of its own. It looks like any random facebook iframe app that has standard fb features = no fun. I think the app uses way too many icons also. Some are appropriate some are really redundant for example the ones in Add post page >> add more details. The icons are not serving any purpose other than complementing the words 'deadline', 'estimated time' and 'location'. Those icons can be taken out to reduce the clutter of info and can probably align the text fills to be neater and more presentable. 

I guess the designer was trying to make the design more unique, but the 4 slanted tabs on top do not serve much purpose! Slant =/= nice. I suggest it should be rotated to 0 degree. If they want to make it more creative and special, they could employ specially shaped icon holders that suits the theme. Also, is there a special meaning of having 3 tabs on the left and 4 tabs on the right? 

Add post page: [Options/freedom when posting a need]

Good to have the title 'I need help with' and the button 'call for help!': clearly emphasizes what to input into the text area. However, I don't understand the rationale for separating the below section for inputing details and 'who do you want to ask?' from the main call for help title by using different coloured background. I would think for every post, users should have the option of choosing who to ask and which social network to post because it's the most fundamental mean of communicating a message to people. 

So this should probably be directly below the title within the darker background area and the 'call for help!' button should be placed below these selections. As for the other details about a post, it can be designed as a dropdown style where once a button named "add details" is clicked, a form containing additional options will appear below. If i'm not wrong, this should be able to using AJAX? 

The options given under 'add more details' are misleading. What exactly do 'deadlines', 'estimated time' and 'location' refer to? Of the object/project/task? No one knows.. But i like the 'description' option, posters are free to include whatever extra info they about the task.

Overview page:

The layout looks okay for this page. But the colour red is overly used! I think 'help him' and 'refer a friend' can be in a lighter shade of red perhaps as red is not exacting soothing to eyes and it may cause users to be irritated by the repetition. 

Individual 'need' page:

The comments portion is not pretty! Centre alignment makes all the comments and post time and name of poster messy. The use of 3 red rounded square icons is actually not bad. The cartoons seem appropriate for what each icon does but RED again... lol. Try to change to a lighter shade of red to lessen the impact would be good. 

Cycle of interaction & incentives

I think the very concept of the app is engaging. True enough, many times we have requests and questions that even Google can't solve. So when it's time to turn to friends or friends' friends, it would be efficient to have this app. But, it is not the most easy app to use for question and answer. Even though it has game elements like rewards and stuff, it might have neglected the very key fact of people wanting an answer or help desperately, and thus the need to publicize it in an efficient way. It may have too many functions and lose focus on the key driving factor of this app.

Compare GetHelp! with Facebook Questions now, which do you prefer? I would say fb questions. Based on its simple and intuitive featureless features. see screenshot below. :)

Step 1: Type a question

Step 2: Add options or wait for friends to add

Step 3: Wait for friends or strangers to vote or add options.

I mean this is a really simple feature of fb. GetHelp! has nice ideas of increasing connectivity by linking to twitter or even SMS which is awesome. But probably the developers can try to learn from the simplicity of fb questions? hee.

Lecture: PhD in Human Nature

Vsee's CEO, Milton, came to give a talk! And it's so coincidental cause only a few days ago, i heard of it and googled it. Turned out that the company came out with a video sharing programme that can edit and share files in real time while conversing with each other. It's amazing that they can share files like word doc even if one of the participants of the video chat do not have word installed on his com. See their website here.

Vsee (See Share Send): solve remote work challeneg, set people free (from all the commuting to and fro work)

3 Key points learnt
1) Microlearning

• Surround ourselves with learners! 
• Every day 3 things
• Break patterns 

I really liked this concept as i feel i'm always forced to learn in school for exams or quizes. We learn for the sake of scoring but rarely for self enrichment which is just sad. Like the speaker mentioned, we need to be with learners to learn. Everyday, reflect about the 3 things learned! I used to do that for a particular module where we had to write down the 3 points learnt in class every session which i thought was pretty meaningful. It will be more meaningful if we do that everyday. The example he gave for breaking patterns was 'using a weaker hand to brush teeth'. I find relevance in activities like this: Used to practice writing with left hand in JC; changed the side which i carry my bag. By doing these, it sure did gave me alot of unique experience even when doing everyday tasks which does not only add colour to our lives, but also give us sense of achievement from time to time!

2) Aim for boredom

• Brain is more active when bored!
• Breakthrough in thinking
• Defense against info overload

'Let your brain wander and feel the boredom'. i was really surprised by the first point, but i agree after thinking!! A lot of times, i realize that it is actually more difficult to think of good ideas when we actively forces ourselves to think. While often ideas come to us when we are unprepared and when we are doing nothing. I don't know what's the science behind it, but i guess it makes sense to say that the brain cells are actively waiting to be put to use when bored as compared to times when occupied while multitasking! Let's al go take random strolls in beautiful utown and think about nothing. hee

3) Learn Sales

I AGREE. The sales people earn alot. Let me rephrase that: the BEST sales people earn ALOT. Of course, not that all of us should learn sales and become a sales person in a company. In life, all of us are salespersons. We need to learn how to convince our parents to trust us; how to sell a party idea to friends; or sell a cool project idea in cs3216, etc. 

I liked Milton's sharing. :D

I shall end of with a quote from him "Live life with urgency, but do the important stuff!"

ShopForMe Submitted!

It was a fun experience working on ShopForMe's designs! I'm happy that friends actually like it! Credits for Alan, Chunteck and Xianyou for the programming, super talented people! It was nice working them!

Screenshot. :)

Now the fb app is done, we gotta move on to the next assignment which is mobile/cloud app. Ganbatte everybirdieee~

My views on The Sims Social

Sims social really gives me headache.. I mean literally. Before i could type this entry out, i was exploring the sims social on fb and then my mile headache for half of the day just got worse. I had to nap abit and get back to work now.

Before i conclude why it is giving me headache, i shall summarize what the presenting team said about the app yesterday in 3 points.

1) Success story.

Indeed, as quoted from the group's presentation, Sims Social has 10,679,619 monthly active users and perhaps, it just had 1 more - me. From the moment, i clicked Play Now, I was brought into a world that stimulates a real social world where my character is supposed to interact with my friends' characters. But of course, all on a virtual and controlled level.

The reason why the app has so many users should be partly due to the popularity of The Sims PC game in the first place. Of course, i guess it adopts many functions of the original game thats why the success are brought over to Facebook. Essentially, Sims Social's success can be largely attributed to its pervasiveness. Before its launch, gamers had to pay USD40 odd to purchase the game and that, hugely limits the number of people playing it. Once its out on Facebook, and its free, people spread the word, and the app becomes super popz.

2) Gamification

The Sims Social uses really smart game mechanics: constant reward system. As I just started playing, it gave me step-by-step guide on how to interact with every object in the room, what to do when my Sim gets bored and how to visit my friends' Sims. Immediately after every single step i follow, my Sim gain moolah, gold diamond coins, blue diamon coins, social points and bla blahblah. It's realy encouraging for first time users like me who don't play much games. The game is constantly reminding users to interact with any items in the room by giving pop notifications and even playing different kind of sound clips. The rewards, points and level ups are exactly the factors that keeps the user captivated.

I was shocked that my Sim could automatically do activities without me controlling it. This is a pretty smart way to make the user wanting to gain back control. To be honest, i was thinking if it is really true that people are playing games to feel that they are in power, esp these kind of role playing games. The world is making us feel powerless, so many natural disasters, wars, miscommunications.. Sims is like building the perfect world, all our dreams can be realized through our Sim. Too much sentimental stuff eh..

3) Bugs bugs bugs

YES. This is what super agree with the group. I am a pretty unlucky first time user: Opened up the game, it took 5mins to load and its still loading... Then i had to refresh and it finally worked. I picked a gender for my Sim and i let it generate a random character with abit tweaks of skin colour and there i go, i Japanese looking 109 Harajuku girl.

I liked how it always gives us so much choices. Yet it does not give us any choice when it decides to hang. Like for example, when i reach the invite friends page for the first time, i clicked the "cancel" button, it led me to another tab that has got weird codes all over. I had to refresh again.

Another eg of how buggy it is: i was trying to click add my friend as my neighbour, after i clicked send request, the main game screen remained greyed out. =.= so what the game wants me to do now, refresh one more time? if not for this review, i would probably have stopped trying to use the app altogether. Can they please fix all the bugs?

Extras.

As a designer, i can't help but to keep commenting on the UI/UX

This is something i noticed while waiting for 8 years for the app to load. It's really a cute way to reduce boredom while waiting. The caption below will keep changing to other cute phrases.

Somehow, the app required too much to be done on the user side? so many coins to click on!! (but after a while i realise they will be automatically added to the Sim)

Lastly, the playing canvas for apps on FB is already super limited and the control panels on top and below of the screen occupied about 1 third the space. I think its quite irritating. especially when users have to keep zooming in and out to get a better view of the house. A good app should reduce efforts on the user side.

**How could i FORGOT TO MENTION: the illustration is fantastic!! i love all the colors, the every detail of the avatars, cute icons for rewards. Every little detail about the illustration is keeping users addicted to the game. There's a lot we designers can learn from Sims Social and so many FB games out there. So many different styles of graphic designs and they are all successful in their own ways. I wonder when can i find mine.

Mobile

I think this kind of apps have a great potential on mobile platforms! People can use it on-the-go while waiting for a meeting to start, in the toilet, waiting for bus.. etc. Just like Tiny Tower, it is gonna be well-liked by people of different age groups! Coupled with in-app purchase, closing the loop on the mobile app itself, the game will be brought to the next level. However, we are not sure when mobile payments will come to Singapore. :/ Soon i hope.

So basically, Sims Social gave me headache for 2 big reasons: 1 its buggy. 2 it looks really addictive and i hope i won't be addicted to it despite it being buggy. LOL

L3 HTML5, WP7

Today's lecture brought back memories from my intern company 2359media. I remember i had to come up with this presentation on 'Native Apps vs Mobile Web App'. One of the key point raised in the presentation was the role played by HTML5 in the mobile app. With HTML5, Mobile Web Apps seem to be a better choice for a brand's mobile strategy due to its ability to reach various platforms and it having improved functions to provide rich media interaction to users. I shall not summarize what we all have heard in the lecture, but let me show you some of the cool products of 2359 Media.

An example: rich media ad for HTC on the iPad

Employment of touch-based interactions... Video embedding... Mobile devices coupled with HTML5 redefine advertising. So much more can be incorporated to enhance the user experience.

MobDis, the key product of 2359 Media, are a HTML5 site builder for the non-programmers. Zero coding knowledge is needed to create a complete functional site with simple drag and drop.


Yup, i'm awed by what HTML5 brings to the mobile industry. That's exactly what we should explore for the mobile assignment!

WOW ok i just spent 10+mins watching the Mango demo. WP7 seems pretty cool. I like how it has big words and the pages flips to display. I like the fact that the UI is really inspired from objects in our daily lives (ok maybe not ours, theirs).

However, no matter how good a new technology is, tech diffusion takes a relatively long time. With the mobile phone market alr saturated with iPhones, Android, BlackBerry, blah blah, its gonne be hard for WP7. So the sad thing is, most people are not gonna adopt e new design quick enough due to habits. Evangelists gotta do their thing to tell people how great it is. Hopefully, innovators + early adopters can make a difference after sometime.

excited much.

Funny old advertisements?

I'm really happy to be working with my fb app groupmates. They are all super efficient people and are all super understanding! Xianyou is always high and tends to bring up the group atmosphere! Chunteck is cool and calm, like the thinker of the group, overseeing our progress and all! Alan has really good ideas and has helped me with some designs. Such nice people!! I'm thankful :D Mid term submission was fast and furious! :) good job guys!

The saturday workshops are interesting, only thing is that i can't really practice what i learned. i'm a more hands on person, so more practices would be good. But i know there aren't much time for me to slowly explore, so basic intro is the best solution, the rest depends on individual's efforts. I would love to learn more technical skills, gonna hit the online tutorials when im more or less done with random tutorials for other mods and the rest of the designs!!!

OH! i was really impressed by the movie booking loophole thing he found. wakaka. Don't think can openly say here.

L2 principles of software engineering?

So here's what i wiki-ed:

Software Engineering (SE) is a profession dedicated to designing, implementing, and modifying software so that it is of high quality, affordable, maintainable, and fast to build. It is a "systematic approach to the analysis, design, assessment, implementation, test, maintenance and reengineering of software, that is, the application of engineering to software."

Lecture wasn't a dry and boring one. It kind of summarized and simplified alot of complicated info into a simple presentation + sharing session from seniors (to suit non programemrs ^.^).

Key take-aways

1) SE involves Process, Programming,People. In our class, mostly are programmers & designers. Programmers are the core drivers of a project i would say, cause any app would require them to churn out all the complicated system. While the designers are the ones that make the outlook of the app pretty and easy to navigate for users.

2) Software development life cycle (SDLC) is somewhat similar to design iterations taught in previous design modules I took.

Iterative design is based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing and refining. Changes should be made according to feedback and thus the process helps to improve the quality and functionality of a design.

3) Decomposition | Abstraction | Design for Change

4) What I found interesting is the "High Cohesion, Low Coupling" theory. Cohesion i understand. Each module should be highly cohesive such that components are closely related and meaningful. But Low Coupling is kinda different from what i learn from Comms which is always stressing in the importance of making lotsa interactions with people. Everyone talks about networking and based on social networks, everyone is linked together. "6 Degrees of separation" proves that. We have been to told to tt interaction good, thus, without much thoughts, i chose the first diagram in my heart Prof Ben asked in class.

Based the programming pov, perhaps we can reflect abit more and probably too much connections with other people ain't good afterall.

On the side note! I created a foursquare venue for SR@LT19! LOL. Im gonna check in every single time and be the mayor! woohoo!

In the midst of being whiny

Today i'm in a total whiny mood. I'm like negative nancy.

Partly because of Sat's workshop - Even though the workshop taught simple stuff, it's kinda killing me. LOL. I could understand if i follow very closely, but i realise once i encounter a problem, "that's it" for me. Cause i'm not sure of the very basics of coding, so it's kinda hard to troubleshoot. But i was glad for my cnm senior to be sitting beside and learning tog! At least i wont be lost on my own. Programming is feng (means crazy)! But in a good way. Fellow classmates are so zai (pro)!

Partly because of the start of fb app assignment - Our group had a meeting after the workshop. We've decided our app and each of us are assigned with stuff to do. Mine of course is design. So i spent the whole day searching of ideas for the outlook and style... maybe im spending too much time researching. Should have just dived into it?

Anyways, 4-hour long workshop and a 3-hour long meeting was totally physically and mentally strenuous. I CANNOT believe i fell asleep from 8pm til 12nn the next day. =.= Unacceptable. Oh wells, i gotta sort out myself and be HIGH to get things done!!!!

This set of fonts are so nice. i like.

The very first lecture

I survived day 1!!

What i got out of it...

1) I'm more motivated and less anxious of the module. (erm, as i type this, i just got the jitters agains oh wells.)

2) Prof Ben Leong's motivational words are pretty helpful. Kinda reminded me of the very reason why i chose to take up cs3216.! I really like the second quote.

Make a difference.

What doesn't kill you, makes you STRONG!

3) hearing the seniors' advices and experiences made me more certain of this module. Despite the hell-like workload, they persevered till the end and remembered the joy. I would want to experience that as well. The only concern right now is that i'm really scared of my module combination this sem. 3 project-intensive module and 2 examinable ones. Just gotta pull through i guess.

4) OMG. Everyone is SUPER talented!!! Show & Tell was a blast!!! I was amazed by how diverse the whole class is and especially the pharmacy guy who can do programming. Those engine guys who can code and design.. and even make REAL ROBOTS. I mean look at myself, im merely a nooby designer with limited skills and probably no one knows i can design since i forgot to mention that. I totally should have shown the interactive design project i did last sem that won my team a 2nd placing in the UPA competition held in Atlanta. What i wrote on the CS3216 Superheroes paper was mostly for i'm a blogger", "worked in a real company before" and just 1 or 2 "photoshop guru". :/ Ah well, what's done is done.

I guess what i need to do right now is to keep the PASSION going! Not to let it wither!!!

On a side note, i'm really EXCITED about the saturday workshops!! I finally get to learn some programming. Hope i'm not tooo noob to pick it up.

What I hope to learn in cs3216

This is kinda crazy, but lemme start with saying my favorite 2 words these days.

Hello evleybirdie!!!

So what do i mean by "kinda crazy"?
Honestly, I'm not sure what has gotten into my head for having the guts to take up a computing module, and not just any computing module but THIS!! I mean it is software developement!!!! %^^$#^$&&# I know nuts about normal coding already (except for some basic dreamweaver), I still decided to try. I'm hoping to exercise my creativity in the course of coming up with killer app ideas and also to design the UI for them. I'm not 100% confident of my design skills, but i'm willing to learn and upgrade myself!

I hope to learn...

1) definitely, some basic programming skills! I'm a kinda maths person since young. I like to count and i'm pretty good with numbers. From what i know, that's a good thing to have to learn programming! When i see my friends doing their programming assignments, i feel this desire to understand the codes also. hehe and of course I wanna know more LANGUAGES~

2) more about UI/UX design that i happen to encounter during my internship with 2359 media. Helping colleagues brainstorming app ideas for clients was something i really enjoyed doing. CS3216 will give me the chance to realise design dreams of my own i suppose and also to hear about others' ideas and work on them.

3) how to work well in a team, especially under the simulation of a real working environment with people from the diff fields. It is rare chance that i will get to work with computing students and there will be many habits of them that im not aware of. There will be times that we all disagree with each other where we will need to take a step back and think for the greater good of the whole project.

These are just 3 fundamental points i wanna know. Due to the lack of knowledge for this module yet, more to be added throughout the semester when i know more.

As i always believe: More knowledge brings more queries!