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What tools is best for drawing an overview of a system for a new starter.
I want to show the components and if possible the technologies they use.
Current options include: Visio, Word, EA?, Paint!
Visual Studio isn't an option (too exprensive).
As VS is too expensive, perhaps Google Draw would fit the bill? It's part of Google Docs, which is free. Just sign in with your Google account.
It's got all the normal flow chart symbols, I find it dead easy to use, and it's on line so you can share it with a new starter just by sending them the URL and giving them access to the drawing.
I use it for nearly all my system diagrams now, because it's so easy to use.
I had the exact same issue a short while back and tried all those tools (and others). Here's what I found:
PowerPoint's the best option! You probably already know how to use it and it gets the job done.
If you're looking for some neat diagram elements (e.g. pictures of network components and such) then Visio is also a pretty good option.
Enterprise Architect (EA) is an overkill for the job and unless you're already proficient with it you'll find yourself spending way too much time on figuring out how to get it to do your bidding rather than just drawing the damn overview.
Paint is is too simplistic - you'll be more productive with PowerPoint.
http://www.bubbl.us/ (fast mindmapping)
http://www.Draw.io/ (online diagrams, incl. UML)
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/ (client program that needs to be installed)
I have taken to a combination of visio and powerpoint, usually embedding flowcharts into a PP deck. I've found I get more bang for the buck by maintaining a living architecture diagram in visio and then referencing it in other materials appropriate for their audience. For example, I might want to reference an arch diagram in both an introductory slideshow as well as detailed API documentation.
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The company is growing and we're starting to implement more and more complex software designs. I feel a need for some tracking software... I just don't know if it exists.
I currently maintain a Google Doc Folder (shared by our 3 developers) with a well-organized doc for each module. A doc is also created per major upgrade to a module or modules. For all other "tracking"... we have interal forums.
I want the following:
I want get an immediate printout of all Project_01 features or bug fixes on a particular project with the option to hide or show developer comments that have been implemented in the last X number of days.
This clearly suggests a web-based system where developers enter issues, bugs, and features with appropriate tagging. Entries should be commentable, taggable, dated, editable and reporting should be based upon tags, dates, developers, projects, etc.
I figure I'm going to be perceived as naive by the grizzled veterans floating around here, though I've been running this business for 4 years (so I've been around). I don't think we have the resources to absorb the overhead of implementing something like CMMI... but then again, I don't really know what's best.
My personal evolution to using Google Docs per Application Module + internal phpbb forums for everything else has been pretty nice compared to the way we started out (marker boards, Microsoft Word docs). I just feel like I can go a long ways towards exceeding client expectations if I had the ability to track features/bugs/issues better with superior on-demand reporting.
Thoughts?
Update: Went with MediaWiki integrated with Mantis
Take a look at fogbugz. It looks like it meets all your requirements.
Also, take a look at this other SO question: Free/Cheap Task/Bug Management software
I've good experiences with mantis. http://www.mantisbt.org
Yes, FogBugz and Trac are recommended.
I hope it helps.
I find this comparison of issue tracking systems either interesting or overwhelming.
I think with 3 developers, in the same building, you probably can get by without software tools. But, adopting something now, before you're so big/complex that you can't survive without it may save a lot of future pain.
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Programmers usually don't pay much attention to user interfaces and focus more on functionalities but users first judge the product by its appearance so it is necessary to make nice user interface for web, desktop and mobile apps.
Personally I don't like to spend much time for user interface design and sometimes try to look for some examples and then modify the existing design.
Does anyone know any good web resource with collection of user interfaces for web, desktop and mobile devices?
Personally I find quince a nice site for that purpose
I use Balsamiq Mockups and their site has a good collection of mockups you can look at. Also UI-patterns and inspireUx are both really good resources.
This one may be useful: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ilovewireframes
You can also have a look at the Yahoo design pattern and particularly the wireframe stencil kit that you can use to design your user interface: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/
Design pattern libraries are very useful, but it can be a bit dangerous to look at them and "pick your favourites". This is not how good UI design happens. Different design patterns are useful for different contexts.
You may be better off by starting with a review of competitor products, and building up your own understanding of what works and what doesn't within your applications specific context.
For the web I recommend you to take a look at those links:
http://layouts.ironmyers.com/
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/advanced/
http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/
This Design Patterns set by Chris Messina on Flickr.com seems to be good.
Not a web resource, but the user interface for BBEdit from
Bare Bones Software (text editor, Mac OS) is the best I have
ever encountered and is worth studying and emitating. What is learned from
such a study can be applied on any platform, not just Mac OS.
"Best" = simple to use for beginners, intuitive gradual discovery
of more advanced features.
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I am looking for some tool that would help me prototype basic website structure and logistics (or simply user interface).
It should be extremely efficient in the matter of time needed to do simple changes like changing position of objects on the page. It should provide features for creating multiple pages and linking them together.
I don't need visual aspect of the thing, just the basic structure, placement of objects and logistics.
I prefer offline, free or open source solution.
Try Mockingbird, it's mainly used for user interface prototypes, but you can easily use it for flowcharts / structure diagrams etc.
Best of all it's free!
Try Balsamiq Mockups, it's excellent and quite inexpensive. Or, Microsoft's Sketchflow is great for building interactive prototypes.
In no particular order:
Sketchflow, part of Expression Blend 3
Balsamiq
Mockingbird
Axure
"I prefer offline, free or open source solution."
Then Pencil is what you need!
I've tried iPlotz recently which is an online wireframing tool and I've been impressed.
I highly recommend Mockplus Cloud.
Mockplus is a desktop-based tool for prototyping mobile, web, and apps. You are able to create interactions with simple drag-and-drop. Besides，your teamwork will be time-efficient with the collaboration feature.
The admins are always online and can solve your problems in minutes if you have any. You can learn about design and get design inspirations and resources in this group.
What’s more, this group offers many benefits to its members only.
If you join the Mockplus and the admin will offer you 40% off coupons and free UI Kits & Fonts Package. Besides, you will get life-time free tech support on Mockplus even if you are not a paid user now.
If you are looking for a place to communicate with others about product and UX/UI design, and also get a great rapid prototyping tool with saving a big budget.
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After seeing a friend using RapidWeaver and producing wonderful results in a few clicks, I was astonished and started searching if a tool like that exists for Windows. Unfortunately, so far my search yielded no result, so I'm writing here the criteria I'm using hoping that anybody will come up with a relevant suggestion:
WYSIWYG HTML editor
Must work (well!) on Windows (Vista/7)
Must not be web based (I don't care about webapps allowing me to create sites off of crappy templates)
Template-based (and possibly with many templates available)
Pretty flexible (nothing like Dreamweaver, but I wouldn't like being stuck with just entering text into some prebuilt templates)
Intuitive (and possibly good looking) UI
Producing standards-compliant markup (office-like HTML is not an option)
Here is what I don't care about:
Price/License (if it's commercial it's probably even better for my purpose, as if the tool is good I will want fast, quality support)
Good code editing features (when I'll get my hands dirty with the markup I want things to be looking already pretty good so I'll just have to improve certain areas based on my requirements...)
Server-side scripting (I'm handling that otherwise, for this tool I just care about the design part)
Here's a list of commonly recommended tools I consider unfit for my needs:
NVU
KompoZer
Microsoft Expression Web
Microsoft Visual Web Designer
Adobe Dreamweaver (good, but too good for my needs. At this stage, I'd prefer something quicker, even if it means having lower quality html)
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Probably too late, and not sure if this helps you anyway:
http://www.artisteer.com
http://www.xara.com/eu/products/webdesigner/
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I want to learn how applications like CakeWalk, Cubase, and ProTools are built. Are there any good resources out there to learn this type of development?
Resources
Digital Signal Processing Basics
If you want to learn about how the capabilities of these programs are implemented (I'm talking about filtering, synthesis, mixing, etc.), read as much as you can about digital signal processing (DSP). If you happen to be in a position to take a DSP class at a college or university, you'd probably get a lot of good information out of that. (I've taken a couple such classes myself and they were fantastic) Beyond that, there are dozens of books and research papers out there concerning various aspects of DSP; just try to find a good one (or several) and dive in. A Google search can definitely get you started.
If you want to know more about audio programming in general, i.e. how to access the operating system's audio resources (microphone/speakers/etc.), I guess I could echo Dan's suggestion of looking at Audacity...
The Audacity folks might be able to help. Getting involved with an open source project is a great way to help the community and get mentored on a new technology.
Anyone interested in this topic and learning more about Digital Music Technology could also look into https://ardour.org/ - an open source Digital Audio Workstation in ongoing development and with an active developer community. http://community.ardour.org/community.
"Ardour is an open source, collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers. Development is transparent — anyone can watch our work as it happens. Like a good piece of vintage hardware, you can open the box and look inside. "