Push down  – 970 pixel x 418 pixel

XXL box – 468 pixel x 648 pixel

Fixed Panel – 336 pixel x 860 pixel

We contracted out our new design to an outside company. Great, the new design already taken place, so how are we gonna implement the new design without disturbing the existing template?

Take a look of the new design layout wireframe.

new thestar.com layout

The new design will be a 3 column layout. We will always have a leaderboard and a big box on the page.  The content will follow by a major headline story and then a list of story line up. Everything looks good except the new humongous ads sizes break all the layout rule.

Problem: The new ad sizes does not fit with the new design! As always that advertiser wants their ad above-the-fold to get exposure.  Our design was created and built before those new ad sizes. And of course the outside company is not gonna go back to the layout mode unless we slap them with more cash.

Solution: Tweak the layout in the most minimal way and keep everything on the page identical. In order to cut down the developer’s work, I had to take the existing layout and tweak the most minimal way so that we won’t need to touch the majority of the existing CSS stylesheet.

Push down advertising is the easiest to mock up because all you need is to push down all the content below navigation. Then again, it’s so huge that you can’t ignore.

Push Down 970pixel x 418pixel

Here’s a real example from businessinsider.com for push down advertisting.

Push Down Ad closed mode

Push Down Ad open mode

XXL Ad gives me a headache. Ideally, we want to keep our 3 column layout, but this nasty size literally takes up half of the website width!!! So I had to reorganize the headline story content and have it share space with the XXL ad in it’s own box and push everything down.

XXL Box Ad (468 pixel x 648 pixel)

Finally, the fixed panel. The width of fixed panel is 336pixel. It is literally 36 pixel wider than our right rail, which has our big box ad and all the related contents. And with 860pixel in height, there’s no way the headline story abstract can show that much copy to accommodate the height. Therefore I had to bring some story line up and shrink the width in order to accommodate the odd width size.

Fixed Panel Ad 336 pixel x 860 pixel

So why those large ad? I guess the advertisers are now aware the demand for premium inventory, and not just blinking skyscraper anymore.

businessinsider.com believes the following reasons why advertisers want to move away from just banners:

• If advertisers really want to buy banners, they’ll do it for cheaper through an ad network.
• Banners are too easy to ignore. Demand-generation ads need to interrupt content (like they do everywhere but online).
• When people think of the banner, they think of a blinky, subprime mortgage ad where you have to shoot the duck.

After years of working as designer in the corporate environment, you will notice couple things

• Always design around advertisement
• Always provide the best above the fold exposure for advertisement
• Making online banner ads and sponsored by logo are like daily chore

I am not a big fan of advertisement, but what can you do? it pays everyone’s salary!

Rogers Homephone Challenge Couch Comparison

Both companies are money-gauging company so it’s just disgusting for me to even want to look at the ad. However, what it gets interesting is when company is attacking eachother using the same marketing approach.

Bell's couch comparison

This is Bell’s couch comparison Ad that is advertised on today’s Metronews paper. It took the whole spread. It says “You think I am expensive for my homephone service? I have more stuff to offer for the digital TV!”

While those two are fighting for each other. I saw this Ad from Telehop that took the same couch idea and then added their own. It simply says “I am the cheapest for the best offer, sucka!”

Telehop Couch comparison

nice.

This is how the story begins..  I woke up late and then I realize that I had a meeting at 9:30. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it. Therefore I msg my buddy at work and ask him to tell my manager that I will be very late for it. So I rush out of my door and then try the best I can to get to work.

When I was about to get off the streetcar and saw my buddy walking out of the door with his backpack and a white envelope. Something comes up to me says “Oh NO! Dave is gone!”.  I went to work and saw his stuff is still there therefore I thought he went for a doc appointment or something.

And then the news come to me, my manager had to pull me aside and told me that they have to let him go because they want someone who’s a “full developer”.

I was shocked.  I knew they were looking for a new developer, but I didn’t know they were looking for a new developer to replace an existing one. Apparently he was let go due to skillset incompetence.

I just couldn’t’ justify the fact that he was “not good enough”. He was such a personable guy and a hardworker. All I knew is that everyone in the team had kept him so buzy that he barely have time to learn anything new or to breathe new air.

He blog about the timeline of getting let go. So I wonder when is my turn?  Letting go and restructuring had happen from time to time at my work.  I am sure everyone’s work as well. I think it’s inevitable, but you get severance pack if you were told to leave. So take it and use it!

I am fortunately to have parent reside in BC, and they love RV-ing. So I took their RV and went on a 5 day trip to Tofino, BC. Tofino is located on the west coast line of Vancouver Island. It takes around 8 hours from Vancouver including the time on the BC Ferry.

Eventhough my parents own a RV (Recreational Vehicle) doesn’t mean I went on a RV trip before. I left Vancouver in 1998. And they bought the RV right after I left to Toronto.

May 18th, 2009

Here we go!

We head to BC Ferry to get to Victoria city on Vancouver Island.

On BC Ferry heading to Victoria, Vancouver Island

The weather was cloudy on the first day. We were glad it’s not pouring rain. Shortly after arriving Vancouver Island. We head to Butchart Gardens to see some beautiful flowers. I visited this garden when I was either 14 or 15 years old. It’s over 10 years ago! Therefore it’s a good idea to visit again to see some nice flowers.

Butchart Garden Entrance

Sunken Garden at Butchart Gardens

After visiting the garden, we quickly swing by Victoria city and took some picture in front of the Parliament Buliding.

Victoria Parliament Building

There wasn’t much going on in the city therefore we decide to look for dinner and then pack it in early.

Barb's Fish & Chip

May 19th, 2009

2nd day 0f our trip, we drove straight from Victoria to Ucluelet. The weather wasn’t too good, it was cloudy and rainy.  However the scenery to Ucluelet is absolutely stunning, we just wish the weather could be nicer.

Goats on Roof Old Country Market store at Coombs,BC

Tall trees at Catheral Grove

Ucluelet is another city south of Tofino. We decided to park here for one night because I was too tired from driving. We found a RV camp site that we can park for 25 bucks a night which includes water and electricity. And look at the backdrop. It’s absolutely stunning.

Ucluelet,BC

May 20th, 2009

There isn’t much for us to do in Ucluelet unless we join a tour to take a charter to small around. Therefore we took a walk around Wild Pacific Trail.

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet, BC

Ucluelet is nice, but there’s barely any tourist. The town is just wayy too dead.

Once we get to Tofino, we saw a lot more people and we parked at this Crystal Cove Resort right next McKenzie Beach.

Crystal Cove Resort next to McKenzie Beach

We head to Tofino city to look for tour company to get us to see whales and Hot Spring Cove. The range of the tour goes from $89 to $109 per person. There isn’t much difference between those tours except maybe you get a better time to go or better boat to go there. We end up picking this tour company called “Tofino Whale Centre” for $89 per person. It takes an hour and half boat ride to get to Maquinna provincial park, and then another 20 minute board walk to Hot Spring Cove.

May 21th, 2009

Heading to the tour at 11pm. We got on a boat of 12 people.

We saw this bald eagle on the boat ride..

The dock near the entrance to Maquinna Provincial Park

20 minute board walk to the Hot Spring Cove

I didn't know you can sponsor those wooden boards.

Hot Spring Cove - 50 C degree water. Perfect!

Hot Spring Cove - Natural Hot spring~

Out of the Hot Spring Area, you will see those mussel everywhere on the rock!

After an hour around Hot Spring Cove, it's time to head back

I am not even sure who owns these dogs, apparently they swam across from the village across the lake to this park when tourist show up from Spring to Summer season.

We saw a black bear on the way back from the park. Apparently those black bear shows up at the beach looking for shells and crabs to eat during low tide.

We actually saw a lot more wildlife while we were on the boat. We saw grey whale, otters and sea lions. It was an awesome trip that made my purpose to be here in Tofino.

May 22nd, 2009

We stayed one night at Tofino, and this ends our trip here. We decided to head back and check out scenery on the road ont the way back.

This is Long Beach. Famous for surfing. However, the wave wasn't great these days therefore I don't really see any surfers.

Kennedy Lake, BC

Not sure what this spot is called, we stopped here to take some photos because it was just beautiful.

There's a small waterfall

Sproat Lake, BC

We stopped by Qulicum Beach for lunch. It's quite beach probably because the summer hasn't start yet.

We took the BC Ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, and this ends our 5 days Vancouver Island journey.

Horseshoe Bay, BC

Final Thought:

Taking a break from work and life routine to do or see something different gives you energy and inspirational boost for sure.

I remember that I watched Star Trek when I was a kid, and then I lost track of it after I move to Canada 14 years ago.

When I met my husband, the first thing he told that he is watching all the star trek series which is total of 716 episode during lunch time. I seriously think I met a nerd.

Well, thank god he didn’t become a trekkie. We just went to watch the Star Trek new movie past weekend.

It was actually quite good. Action-packing and the story does not make me yawn. Good Job, JJ Abrams.

And Wolverine, another action-packing movie. I love it! I heard there’s 2nd ending, yet so far everyone I know only saw the one where Deadpool picks up his own head.

Oh, is anyone going to Toronto Downtown’s AMC theatre to watch Wolverine? Download AMC Wolverine Coupon For Free Popcorn and Drinks!

I love technology. Now this Google Swine Flu Map will tell me where NOT to travel these days..

10 retarded way to save money

Sleep in the airport if you are cheapen out on accomodation. Not eat on monday will save you money? And make you r own Feminine Hygiene? K. I love saving money, but I am not that retarded.

Currently my company is doing a revamp on our biggest news site – thestar.com. With the new design, I can see that we are trying to de-clutter our information display. However, we still can’t get away from our traditional ways of display information.

When I saw this Google newsmap post from Information Aesthetics

It gives the “control” to the users to “discover” the stories vs our traditional ways of controlling the output.

Jeff Veen from Small Batch, Inc., who is also known from WikiRank gave this excellent speech on designing for big data. He clearly stated that giving the control to the users over data is definately the trend and the future of the web. He stated couple important rules about data visualization.

• We are always storytelling our contents, now it’s time to give user control to have them to discover the story
• We provides visual cues for users, now it’s time to make it into tools so that the users can interact and control their cues.
• We provide editing features but now it’s time to give the filtering control to the user to manage the output
  

And this is truly the manner of web 2.0 approach. We are giving the control to the users in a less response time and more interactive way.

Free Coffee from McDonalds

I like the fact they are using Facebook to track their Ads. This is definately very effective and accurate to know how many people have actually seen the ad.

Add patterns and “wow” factor to your IKEA furnitures

I was just snooping around ikeahacker and saw this product from Grippiks.com. It’s a stick on and easy to remove pattern that you can put on your IKEA furniture. It’s actually made for IKEA sizes. It’s cute and funky!

70+ Practical Cheat Sheets For Web Designers And Developers

Didn’t I just post 20 practical cheat sheets from web resources depot a while ago? Now there’s 70 cheat sheets! Frickn’ sweet!

5 cm. fir tree removed from patient’s lung

K, this is totally random, gross and unbelievable. Watch what you breath in while walking under the trees.

Wanna track how many users had visited your site using mobile?

There are an increasing number of users using mobile surfing internet these days. Percentmobile.com definately will help provide you a stat of how many people had visited your site using a mobile device. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet but will soon

Here’s wired’s article a week ago.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/04/apple-stanford.html

You can download free video clips and slides from iTune.
Here’s how you get to it.
1. Open your iTune.
2. Go to iTunes Store (on your left hand side in case you don’t know..)
3. Go to iTunes U (it should be in the box on the top left hand side that says “iTunes Store”)
4. Go to “Top Downloads”, it should be the first item that says “1. Introduction to Mac OSX and Cocoa Touch..”
5. once you get to the page. just download both Video clips and PDFs. the new one comes out every single week.

Here’s another link on Apple.com about iPhone Developer University Program.

Good luck!