Android App Design for Web Developers

Mobile apps are shiny, new and still exciting for users and developers. As it turns out, designers can easily tap into all of this.

Somehow, over the past month or so I've dived fully into Android app development.  I'm a print designer normally. I focus on magazines and occassional collateral. I've done some infographic design which felt like a natural extension of print.  Sure, I was part of the web page club in high school. A few years ago, I knew table based web design. Then I moved to learning css.  This time, I thought I'd study some Javascript.  When I learned that Phonegap could package a website on to Android phones as apps, it seemed like a great way to learn Javascript. Give myself a simple task of making an app and learn from there.

From Google's documentation: "There are essentially two ways to deliver an application on Android: as a client-side application (developed using the Android SDK and installed on user devices as an .apk) or as a web application (developed using web standards and accessed through a web browser—there's nothing to install on user devices)."

Phonegap (Apache Cordova)

Phonegap, soon to be renamed Apache Cordova, is an open-source mobile development framework developed by Adobe Systems. It allows web based development with all of it's visual and technical advantages and disadvantages. It also allows you to access native featurs such as the camera, gps and accelerometer.

In theory, you can develop cross platform apps with a single codebase. "Build your app once with web-standardsBased on HTML5, PhoneGap leverages web technologies developers already know best... HTML and JavaScript. Wrap it with PhoneGap using the free open source framework or PhoneGap build you can get access to native APIs. Deploy to multiple platforms! PhoneGap uses standards-based web technologies to bridge web applications and mobile devices." I haven’t fully tested this, but reports are that the differences in various browsers quickly can come into play.

Be sure to try out one of my trivia apps in the Android Market. Let me know what you think I can improve.

Do Web Designers Need to go to a Technology College?

Photo: Blog Redesign by Vancouver Film School

Being a self-starter is a valuable tool as a web designer. Many designers learned their skills on their own time through trial and error and personal research. While there are probably hundreds of web designers holding good jobs who never attended college, that number is shrinking as web design becomes a more structured career. Today, companies are looking for web designers who have diplomas to back up their talent.

Competitive Job Market

One of the simplest reasons for a web designer to go to college is that there is so much competition in the web design market today. Anything you can do to make your application more impressive than the next person's application is worth looking into. Employers like to hire college graduates because that degree provides proof that the applicant is able to begin a task and complete it in the required amount of time. Many jobs in the computer field are quickly becoming closed to anyone who does not have the appropriate degree to compete.

Benefits of Structured Education

Spending time focused on web design through college courses can be valuable for you and your future employers. College gives you an opportunity to work directly with instructors who have been in the field and know what skills you really need on the job. You will be faced with a wide range of topics regarding web design that will give you an extra set of tools to fall back on when you encounter a problem in the real world. College also gives you a chance to learn about the most cutting edge technology as it is released.

How Employers View Degrees

When someone has earned an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree in their chosen field, it tells an employer that the applicant is dedicated to gaining as much knowledge as possible about their work. Employers also understand that it is impossible to graduate from college without learning how to meet deadlines with quality work. When facing a choice between a talented web designer without a degree and one with a degree, the degree will almost always win. College provides a structured study of web design that depends on a stable approach to studies over a series of years. Many employers appreciate stability in an employee as much as they admire creativity and skill.

Finding the Right School

When you are looking for a good web design school, make sure that you choose one that holds accreditation in the United States. Schools with accreditation are required to meet certain educational standards so that students who graduate are guaranteed to have a good quality education. If you are trying to choose between a 2-year degree and a 4-year degree, opt for the 4-year degree whenever possible. The options for web design schools range from technical colleges to online degree programs. It is not hard to find a school that fits your schedule.

Jessica Bosari believes technology will eventually save the world. She writes about technology colleges for technology-colleges.info.

Web Cookies and Privacy (Infographic)

As tasty as they sound, web cookies have become controversial with increasing concerns in privacy. For a guest post on Search Engine Journal, I've created a fun illustration about how web cookies are baked and delivered right to your browser. Please share the post!

Take a look at my guest post and infographic at Search Engine World

If you want more information, I have sources and references included below. Thank you to myblogguest.com / @myblogguest for helping to arrange the guest spot.

Why you'd want to be a design volunteer

With many young designers out of school for the summer, it seems like a pretty good time to talk about volunteering. It's not just for the new designer, an experienced designer can get to do things they can't do in their regular job.

photo credit: lumaxart

As you hopefully know, many jobs and even internships are looking for people with some experience, a real world portfolio and professional references. The question also comes up as to how to get those things without already having some connections. Well, volunteering is a good answer. (Another might be placement agencies and your college's alumni relations office.)

In the past, I've found great opportunities through Volunteer Match. They have tons of big and small opportunities. A search just now for my area found individuals, the Kennedy Center in DC and local government volunteering and charitable organizations. They also have virtual opportunities where you can help from your home computer. Being a print designer, i found volunteering to be a great way to solidify my web design skills. Many charitable organizations would love for you to give them an awesome new website.

You might also think about looking through listings on Craigslist. You could also freelance for work, and sure do that too. But as a volunteer you can help out some pretty worthy causes and often get a nice letter of recommendation or thank you letter. These are great for references without the hassle of dealing with the business side of freelance.

6 Wordpress Plugins You Want But Don't Know It

In optimizing this blog, it turned out that there are all these great features you can add to your existing Wordpress site that can make the experience better for you and your users. You can add your favorite aspects of larger sites without much programming experience. Here are some of the ones that I found useful:

1. AJAXed Wordpress

AJAX is one of the most important technologies of the Web 2.0 revolution. It enables you to use a web interface without reloads or clunky software plug-ins like Java or Flash. This plug-in gives your blog powerful AJAX features. You can choose and customize the features to your blog's design. The in-line commenting system lets your users comment right from the homepage. They can even preview comments formatted using your CSS before posting. It's as seamless as you need it to be.

2. WP-OpenID

This plug-in gives your users a log-in without any registration! With then power of the OpenID standard, you can have users sign in using a Yahoo, Livejournal or Google (Blogger) account. They probably have an OpenID account without even knowing it. It's very simple to make your blog OpenID accessible. I haven't yet worked out the details of making OpenID play well with the AJAXed WP, but I've come up with a reasonable compromise by using them both in different situations.

3. Batch Categories

This plug-in helps you manage your post categories easily. It's a time saver in so many different situations. It will help you put your content right where your readers will expect it.

4. Broken Link Checker

Find and fix those broken links in your posts. I came across this plug-in after seeing so many daunting 404 errors in my site logs. This thing made it easier to find many of them and correct the problems. You'll want your old articles to be readable and as useful as possible!

5. Hot Linked Image Cacher

Similar to the last plug-in, this one goes through and finds images hosted outside of your site. Then it copies them over to your server. This will prevent missing images down the line.

6. Sociable

This puts icons for various social networks onto your posts. You can choose from tons of different services to feature.

This article is a follow-up to “Wordpress Design Spice Up Tips�