developmentWhat you need is to proceed from the idea towards something tangible. (And make sure that everything works.)

software development, programming

Each time you come up with an idea while designing, it is clear that the end result has to be a real object. In the world of products these are genuine items (hardware). In the world of communication we achieve this mainly through software. But software has to be developed. 

 

In our case this is done above all in the form of web-development: HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, Flash and Flex and from the server in PHP and also Python. 

 

Because of the openness and flexibility of the interface we prefer to use OpenSource software. Its advantage is that everybody can access it freely and that it is open to adjustments. 

 

Here are some concrete examples of ideas which we put into practice. 

 

depage-forms: html5 forms made easy (Part I)

article by Frank Hellenkamp / Sebastian Reinhold

HTML forms: Easy and difficult at the same time

HTML-Forms are simple to write – but to do it in a good way and to make them comfortable to use is not an easy task. 

There are a few things you will have to do again and again: 

  • Write the HTML for the form itself

  • Style the form in the right way

  • Validate the data in the browser (optional)

  • Validate the data on the server (never optional - don't forget!)

  • Additionally make sure the user don't have to fight with the browser e.g. strange messages about "resending" data on reloading the page and using back- and forward-buttons.

Forget about fighting!

read more »

Links

iPhone optimization and »mobile web«

article by Frank Hellenkamp

mobile internet

Similar to the development in the nineties, when the internet became more and more important due to the spread of PC`s, mobile access to the internet is now coming to the fore. Even though Apple`s iPhone only enjoys a relatively small share of the market, it does -along with Google`s Android- dominate mobile internet traffic.  

This is because the iPhone and Android achieve a fairly good display of regular internet sites that are not optimized for mobile internet thanks to Webkit. That is not the case with a lot of other browsers. 

depage.net displayed on the iphone

Because the iPhone is currently the most important and best known mobile device we have decided to optimize depage.net and depagecms.net for display on the iPhone.  

read more »

Links

depage::cms goes opensource

article by Frank Hellenkamp

This year the official decision has finally been made: We will publish the coming depage::cms version under an opensource license, thereby making it available to a wider base of users and developers. 

 

Because this process will take some time (documentation, source code management on the basis of git, etc.) we must ask you to bear with us. If you are interested and would like to be informed about new developments, you can register for our newsletter and we will keep you up to date. 

 

You are welcome to fork us at GitHub . 

read more »

Links

Pop-Up-The-Bathroom

article by Frank Hellenkamp

10 trends in bathroom design

Pop-Up-The-Bathroom was about visualizing 10 trends in bathroom design. This project was developed in connection with the ISH on behalf  

of the VDS in collaboration with FAR_consulting, Karsten Jipp and Verena Landgraf. 

Verena Landgraf had illustrated the 10 Badtrends using individual pictures. Based on this illustrations, we had to design and implement interactive application for the internet with a different view for automatic presentation at the ISA. 

In order to give more space to these illustrations based on 2 dimensions, we decided to convert these spaces into »quasi« — a kind of — 3D. 

Because of the shortage of time it would not have been possible to use a proper 3D implementation, and what is more it would have destroyed the two dimensional character of these illustration. 

 

The following trends were illustrated: 

The implementation

read more »

Links