web notes - a blog

This is a faster version of robots.design. There are no demo connections, and the interface is simpler.

The remainder of the code is the same.

In today’s economic climate, traditional design, code, integrate with applications will become too costly.

The companies that will be most successful will identify opportunities to reduce the cost of labor for mechanical tasks like applying colors to skins so they can use their talented professionals to deliver better solutions to their clients.

robots.design was used to convert a complex AJAX application from one color scheme to another.

Since the objective was a neutral color scheme, I put greyscale color codes into the image/new color area. I ran the third script on the CSS files, and on the HTML (some inline styles were there). Took all those colors and pasted them into the existing CSS color block, and ran the tool.

Applied the second set of sed commands, and it looked pretty good.

I did change some of the colors manually to make it look better, but in 2 hours, I had a completely recolored application. The last time, it took me 2 days.

:)

Later note: I ran robots.design on a different application, with a much more sophisticated design, including dojo’s tundra theme, and it performed extremely well. I copied the dojo .css files into the application’s css directory, then ran robots.design. I didn’t copy the dojo .css files back into the dojo tree, because once they have been modified, they aren’t truly ‘tundra’.

• Start with a skin, purchasing skins is almost always worth the investment. The layout of the skin is more important than the colors. If a skin isn’t available, have the design team build one that is flexible enough for most clients.
• Develop a starting point and process to reskin it, even if it is just a list of manual operations. It may be more cost-effective to have an engineer do this than a designer.
• Try to use supporting graphics with neutral colors, to reduce the number of images that have to be recolored.
• Distribute the tasks to the lowest level possible. For example, recoloring images with image software can be performed by someone with limited technical experience.
• Don’t expect to be able to fully automate the process.
• Identify areas that are likely to be overlooked and ensure quality assurance is aware of them.
• Check the log files to find any missing image calls.
• Explain the cost savings and benefits to the client. Be sure they understand the limitations.

Most designers don’t work directly with LAMP. Most engineers don’t create images and page layouts.

That is why a team is so important.

Usually, one person makes things look nice, and one person makes them work. In the best case scenario, each respects the other’s abilities and strives to avoid conflicts or applying limitations. The optimal environment is where they challenge each other, in every respect, with ideas and technology - always deferring, in the end, to the appropriate person.

robots.design is a design tool, but it must be applied by an engineer. In a nutshell, the power of the tool, in its current implementation, must be applied by someone with Linux experience, which most designers don’t have.

The only way to overcome this limitation is to create a tool that can be easily used by designers, while still retaining the power of the tool.

Requirements:

• Backup the CSS files, but ensure they are not overwritten by later execution. Perhaps allow an override.
• Use PHP to execute the sed commands.
• Provide a streamlined interface.
• Provide clear documentation.