We run across a lot of discussion whether the stage of wireframing a website is important or not. Should you avoid the process of wireframing and just dive into design? What is the purpose of wireframes and why many designers and developers implement this stage as part of their planning tool?

Wireframes are an essential tool of communication that provide a rough guide to website structure. Their purpose is to give guidence to general layout, navigational elements, and content structure to designers, developers and clients. The stage of wireframing is achieved after the process of sitemaps has been approved. At this time, you should have in your hands a site structure in a hierarchical style. Here at Imulus, we take time at a wireframe stage in order to run the design and developing stage smoothly. Only an educated client will understand this process if explained. Sure, all clients would like to see their website redesigned in 24 hours…that would require a lot of java. We take time to explain to our clients why this stage is important to us and to them as well. They will understand.

Our designers will work through the wireframe stage to completion and then will sit down with our developers to discuss the many possibilities. This opens different perspectives which are always handy to get everything on track. For example, when it comes to talking about some special functionality feature for the site, it is a good thing that developers know this ahead of time and see what’s expected. They can see what problems they can run into and how to solve them ahead of time. It is too late if this got avoided when the design is already in development. As for the designers, it is easier to have a wireframe in hand. You get the idea where things are supposed to be, and start to visualize the design. Try to have some fun with wireframes. OK, sure, they can get boring sometimes especially when it comes to some revisions but that’s all because you’re anxious to start the designing and developing. Also, you don’t have to adhere strictly to what the wireframe is showing. We have run across many times where the wireframe was showing one thing, but in the design stage we have changed it. It’s all right to change the wireframe in the design stage as long as the purpose and direction is not lost. My advice is to spend whatever time necessary to complete the wireframing stage; it will make your job easier in the design stage, and will save headaches to developers, as well as to clients.

A book recommendation to follow on a wireframing stage: Web Redesign 2.0 | Workflow That Works by Kelly Goto & Emily Cotler

The other day I was searching for a used 1U server for use in our development environment. Since I no longer like eBay, my new path for locating used items is Craigslist. I found several servers in the Denver area however I was too late and the servers had already sold. That’s when I began to think I needed a tool to monitor Craigslist.

At lunch today I told the gang that I’d like us to create a simple monitoring tool which checks Craigslist every hour or so for changes under the region / topic I’m interested. The tool would send me an email once a change was posted.

Tonight, I found my tool. I guess there isn’t a need to recreate the wheel. Here’s Craigslist Watch.

I remember way back in the day (in 2000) when you had to read the online newspaper classifieds to find a good rental property. Now there are many options for finding the ultimate pad. (more…)

The GIS geek in me just had to post about this find.
http://maps.webfoot.com/

Ducky Sherwood has combined census track information over Google Maps. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, there are several elements of this implementation which make it unique.

Most Google Map mash-ups are point related data. For example, location of coffee shops, location of Digg postings / story submissions, location of New York city taxis. This however is data based in polygons instead of points. Allowing us to simulate GIS richness on a Google Map.

Polygons can hold value data which allows the developer to display statistical information in various color gradients. This allows for richer data visualization.

The next part of this equation is to show line data overlaid on a Google Map. The line data give the ability to show custom routes and trails. It will also allow the developer to assign line weights to various roads to distinguish road capacity.