this past saturday a few of us attended the first ever expression engine meet up in edmonton. for myself personally, it was an opportunity to delve into the whole wide world of web design because, to be frank, i don’t know much about it!
here are a few things i learned about:
a) expression engine is a CMS (content management system) that without needing to know PHP is highly customizable (now i had to look up PHP when i got home because the whole time i was there i was nodding like i knew what she was talking about, but really i had no clue) now, PHP initially stood for “personal home page” but the meaning has been altered to a recursive acronym – PHP Hypertext Preprocessor – which refers to a coding language. phew, good to know!
b) CMSs allow you to make additions and alterations to a web page without having to edit the entire document the site was initially created from. alternately, you or your client can log on administratively and change text, images, links, etc. or even add or remove pages from the site.
c) a lot of great websites (see below) are created on expression engine because designers are able to put the site they have designed into the CMS rather than being forced to fit the design of their site into templates or themes that are difficult to change or sometimes are even unchangeable. expression engine is not only great for programmers, but is really suited to people who think more on the front end of things – like designers!
we learned a lot of new things on saturday and, admittedly, a lot of it was over my head! there happens to be an excessive use amongst web designers and programmers of “ee”, “a”, “aa”, etc. (foxycart, foxee, EE, aMember, eCommerce, the list goes on and on…) which made it hard for some of us to follow along as we had no idea until the visual presentation came up what was really being discussed. we were obviously the “n00bs” as they so kindly tagged us.
overall, it was informative and interesting and it got me out of my little bubble a bit. i am a lot more curious about web design now especially because it seems like expression engine was really created with designers in mind. it doesn’t seem as daunting as other programs and i would like to download and play around with the free program to see what kind of damage i can do. eventually it looks like something i might invest in for myself. who knew?
i’d like to leave you with the following links to some websites that were made from expression engine – it’s amazing how the “grid” can be broken and the websites can take on such different appearances, enjoy:
obama’s campaign site change.gov
my favorite, and the absolutely amazing british car show top gear
the ever famous a list apart
and lastly a really unique site that doesn’t look CMS controlled at all, the fashion institute arnhem
In the first picture you have my name tag reading top to bottom. Although still ledgible, I would find it easier on the eyes if it were placed to be read from the bottom to the top, as it would face inwards on the compostion, rather then outwards, and would thus give a relieve the sense that John is not part of the group. Or are you just trying to tell me something about my status in the group, because if so, I’m impressed that you were able to tell me you guys no longer like me through the use of design.
i sincerely apologize for the direction that the type in your name tag is facing, if it weren’t to late i would just go and peel it up, turn it around and retake the photo for my blog post as i wouldn’t want my photo to become the basis for some kind of group breakup. i hope that your feeling toward the photo and toward the group as a whole are not tarnished based on this experience. maybe i can make it up to you in the next post. for future reference if i was wanting to make some sort of announcement about your place in the group i would have just cut your tag out of the photo altogether – i’m trying to be less passive aggressive as of late! hahaha! also, have you thought about that fact that this whole thing could actually be your fault? i mean, if you had written your name the other way on the name tag this wouldn’t have been an issue at all, now would it?
I wanted a pastry so bad during this meeting..