Learning Curve
Posted: Wed 3 August, 2005 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Work-related |7 Comments »Working with the new company (I’m thinking “Groovy Group” as a company name, but not sure yet) there’s been a lot of discussion about some of the stuff that’s going to go into the site. Everyone seems pretty pleased with the basic mock-ups I’ve done so far, and there’s going to be lots of discussions this week about where it goes now, and what I/we need to do next.
Well, the basic next step is “make it work, or at least the basics”, which is no biggie. But it’s also going to be “Look at using AJAX for a lot of it, which means I have to learn another new bundle of stuff pronto. Not that it’s a problem to do so, but it’s going to make the next month or so kind of interesting. Also, it’s one of the new technologies that is only going to get more popular (I’ll provide proper explanations for it once I’ve got it more sussed, but trust me, it’s fuckin’ ace) over the next few years, so it’ll be good to learn it now and use it, rather than just having the theory.
Other than that, though, they’ve already told me that they’re really pleased with all the stuff I’ve done, and that the three-month trial period/contract is effectively over, as they’ve already decided that they want me to stay. Now it just comes down to discussions with the directors (which’ll be next week, as they’re all away this week in the US) about whether they just stick me on the full-time payroll straight away, or wait for the three month contract to expire before switching me over.
Either way, though, it’s good news.
AJAX is indeed funky, but has accessibility issues, and of course, you *are* going to make sure the site is accessible, aren’t you? 😉
Yes, I’m aware that AJAX has accessibility issues, and yes, I’m working to make it as accessible and cross-platform as possible.
In fact, there’s conceivably going to be two versions of the site, and AJAX and a non-AJAX, with the AJAX being the default, but that checks for j/script functionality. If that’s not there, it’ll default over to the non-AJAX.
Well, that’s my current concept, anyway. How it’ll go down with Groovy Group remains to be seen.
The other proviso is that the entire software product behind it is for visual media stuff. There’s a kind of attitude of “well, visually impaired people (or whatever the PC phrase is these days) won’t be doing the stuff that this product can do, so why worry?” but that’s the attitude I’m aiming to defuse too.
And damn you, you’ve chuffed up a post I was planning in the next day or so! Grrr. *grin*
Gracefully degrading for non-js users is great, but what’s more of an issue is making sure that the js works with access tech because you can’t always be sure that AT users will have turned js off.
… and sorry, didn’t mean to get in the way of your posting… just forget I said it then, and I’ll go back to my accessibility bore corner 🙂
What’s that, pix banging on about accessibilty? You’d think it was her job or something.. 😉
Heard good and bad things about AJAX, bad things more recently though, I’ll see if I can fish out the sites if you like.
Congrats on the permanent move though, sounds like you’re enjoying it and that’s ALWAYS the main thing!
Found it – http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2005/07/ajax_web_20.html
Groovy Group reminds me of Only Fools And Horses…
Just spotted this: http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/jf/column12/index.html