Alex Ivaylov - a web developer

New university

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:04:49 +0000

I have moved to a new University – Edinburgh Napier Uni and I am doing an Engineering Bachelor (BEng) in “Web Technologies”, which is a brand new course combining the courses “Web Based Systems”, “Data-driven Web Systems”, “Interactive Multimedia Systems” and “Web Design”.

New project

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:27:53 +0000

Me and the the other guys from the Sco Dot Biz web team have just finished working on our latest project – the website of Pass Drive driving school Check it out Any feedback is welcome

My New Flash Game

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:35:02 +0000

As you know, I am not a big fan of flash, but I had it as an assesment for my Interactive Product Development unit. The task was to create a keepy uppy game. For those of you who are not familiar with Flash, basically you can put different object in there (for example the ball), which will not do anything, unless you program them to. The programing language in Flash is called Actionscript. When you click on the ball it will not do anything unless it’s programmed to.

To play the game, click on the picture below:

In my case, I had to program flash to calculate, where the ball has been clicked and then move the ball depending on the point where the ball was clicked. We are using trigonometry (yes, the things with cosines, sines, tangents..) to calculate where the ball has to fly, how hi does it have to fly and how heavy should it feel (when should it start falling down).

The future of web apps

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:18:51 +0000

One of the main purposes of the next generation of web technologies such as HTML5 is to get all those multimedia and interactive elements, which today can be achieved only by using plugins and make them part of the standard HTML DOM (also accessible by the JavaScript/CSS/etc).

For example, to embed a video today, most of the web sites use Flash, which requires a plugin and the embeded flash movie is not controllable. In HTML5, a video is inserted, similar to the way images are inserted in the previous versions: today, we insert an image, using something like , video will be inserted in HTML5, using the markup similar to . We will be able to manipulate the video with JavaScript/CSS/etc just like every other element of the DOM. More about the html5’s tag here.

But the technology, which I am personally most excited about is WebGL. As you can tell, it will be a web standard for 3d graphics. It is currently in early development stage but the idea is to get full 3D games and graphics, over the web, without having to install anything.

Today, if you want to play a high-quality 3D game, you have to install it on your computer and run it from there. The idea of WebGL is to get everything you need to play the game with one click, over the web, as part of a website. Technically speaking, WebGL itself will be a JavaScript API. It will be working together with the new features of HTML5, such as the new client-side storage API, the

Here is a demonstration of the popular Quake game, running in a web browser with no plugins: http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2010/04/look-ma-no-plugin.html

As you can see the technology world is moving slowly to the cloud computing concept which means that web applicaitons will be becomming better and better untill, one day the desktop software is gone…

Please note

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:49:58 +0000

Please note that this website will be totally redesigned and Wordpress won’t be used for it anymore. I am doing a new graphical design, which will be more into the current trends.

I am also writing my own Content Managment System specially for what I need. The CMS will basically be a collection of all the best elements I have seen and liked around thousands of websites on the web. It will be based on the LAMP technologies (of course). And for markup, I’ll use HTML5 (only some elements, which are currently supported by most browsers (or planned to be supported)). Once, the CMS is ready, I will make it available open source under the GNU/GPL license.

Unfortunately, I am so busy that I don’t have any time to work on it, so I can’t really tell you when it’s gonna be ready…

About usability

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:30:40 +0000

Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool to achieve their goals. In User Interface design, usability is the clarity with which the interaction with a computer product is designed.

Main points of usability are:

Ease of learning
Efficiency of use
Memorability
Error frequency and severity
Subjective satisfaction

In this category, I will be writing about usability, relayed to my cinema kiosk interface prototype:

Heuristics: 1. Visibility of system status

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:15:29 +0000

It is important that every software product keeps the user updated on what the system is going on every moment. It must be clear whatever the system is doing something or it is waiting for the user to make a choise.

All these has been taken into consideration, when designing the Atro kiosk interface and the user has been given clear instructions if they have to click or something or if they have to wait for this system to do something.

Heuristics: 2. Match between system and the real world

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:56:58 +0000

The logic and the way the people see the Atro cinema kiosk system’s interface is pretty much the same way as if they are purchasing tickets from a salesman:
a. Indicate their interest by clicking on the screen (same is if they start a conversation with the sales man)
b. They see a list of movies (same as if they were told the current movies by a person) OR (they collect reserved tickets (same as if they asked a real person for them)
c. They choose ticket options (projection and quantity) the same way as if a real person asked them for the projection and the quantity.
d. They pay by cash or card in the same way as if they were paying to a real person.

The main purpose of the kiosk is to replace the sales person.

Heuristics: 3. User control and freedom

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:02:34 +0000

Users should be able to go back if they choose the wrong option or if they make a mistake in their choises when using the system.

At the moment, this is only partly implemented, while the user is viewing the movies on show.

This has not been completely implemented into the prototype, but will be in the final product.

Heuristics: 4. Consistency and standards

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:07:03 +0000

The system is standard. It is similar to all other cinema kiosks.
It is similar to other systems, which the user has probably already used.
The system is nearly the same as the self checkout machines in the big supermarkets, which more that 80% of the people have used.
The system is similar to a cash machine, which more than 95% of the people have used.
The system is consistent. The element positions, colours, texts, controls, etc. do not randomly change as the screen changes.
Once, the user starts using the system, the elements are at the place, where he would expect them on the next screen.