Videos for Developer And Designers Building Web 2.0

A new series of videos has been launched on MSDEV for developers and designers. The “Think Like A...” series is a collection of topics presenting a developer's point of view and a designer's point of view on what goes into making a WEB 2.0 website. The purpose of this series is to help developers understand and appreciate a designer's viewpoint on creating a website, and on the flip side, to help designers understand and appreciate a developer’s viewpoint on creating a website.

The series launches today at Think Like a Developer & Designer Series.

Available Today On Demand

Web 2.0: Potential Technologies for Website Creation. This video set discusses the technologies that can be used to create a Web 2.0 website including AJAX, Silverlight / XAML, Flash. The designer and developer talk about the pros and cons of these technologies from their different points of view.

Web 2.0: Tools and Workflow for Design / Development Integration. This video set discusses the various tools that can be used to create a website. The designer video focuses on discussing the Expression family of products while the developer video focuses on Visual Studio. The designer and the developer will come up with an agreeable workflow between design and development to maximize efficiency and productivity for the project. XAML is a key technology needed for this collaboration and also will be discussed.

Web 2.0: Potential Technologies for Managing the Creation Process. In this video set, the designer and the developer discuss the best way to plan and manage the website creation process. The discussion includes talk about potential technologies helpful in the process, including Microsoft Project, Visual Studio Team System, third-party source code management products and Microsoft SharePoint.

Web 2.0: Website Layout. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss the overall layout of the website. The designer talks about aesthetics ease of use and navigability of the website while the developer talks about the technical aspects of the overall layout.

Web 2.0: Site Feature – Videos. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss ideas about hosting videos on the website. The designer and developer each provide their opinion on possible strategies including streaming content using Microsoft Silverlight and hosting videos on third party sites like Youtube or Vimeo.

Available March 1

Web 2.0: Site Feature – ECommerce. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss ideas about adding commerce capabilities to the website. The designer discusses the best way to add a shopping cart functionality to make the site easy and seamless to use. The developer discusses the technical aspects of creating a shopping cart, including session management and back end transactions.

Web 2.0: Site Feature - Social Networking. In this video set, the designer and the developer focus on the various aspects of integrating social networking into the website, including user profiles, forums, user-created content. The designer talks about the design cues, aesthetics, and layout that go into making this a successful feature while the developer talks about how to use technologies from ASP .NET and SharePoint to implement this feature.

Web 2.0: Site Feature - Subscription Feeds. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss providing data to users using RSS and ATOM subscriptions. The developer discusses how Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) can be used to make this feature possible. The designer talks about integrating visual cues, icons and pages into the website that allow the user to use the feeds effectively. There will also be a discussion about the right amount of granularity for the data being provided through the feeds.

Web 2.0: Site Functionality – Navigation. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss the navigation functionality of the website. The developer talks about how ASP .NET navigation provider can be used to obtain this functionality while the designer discusses what goes into making navigation user-friendly, effective and pleasing to the eye

Web 2.0: Site Functionality - Site Membership for Users. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss the best way to provide site membership to users. The developer discusses the ASP .NET membership provider model and how it can be used to provide this functionality. The designer talks about the visual placement of membership controls, ease of use and seamlessness related to the experience of logging a user in.

Available March 15

Web 2.0: Site Functionality - Website Security. In this video set the designer and the developer discuss security on the website. The developer talks about ASP .NET technologies that help secure the site while the designer discusses how to find a balance between good security and ease of use.

Web 2.0: Site Functionality - Ease of Use and Aesthetics. In this video set the designer focuses on how to make the website easy to use by employing good layout and visual elements such as buttons, menus and page components. The developer then discusses the technical effort required to make a website user-friendly.

Web 2.0: Site Functionality - User Input. This video set focuses on the various ways users will interact with the website, including text boxes, file uploads, menus and pointer-based selections. The designer focuses on how to make user input seamless and minimize laborious interfaces. The developer focuses on how to use the various technologies to make this possible. A discussion of ASP.NET AJAX based user controls and Silverlight interfaces will be included.

Web 2.0: Search Engine Optimization. This video set focuses on the design and development aspects of optimizing a website for search engines. The developer talks about best practices related to optimizing the website, while the designer discusses the best ways of making the optimization transparent to users.

Web 2.0: Hosting the Website - Cloud vs. Traditional Hosting. This video set will discuss how hosting a website on traditional servers is different from putting the website in the cloud. Microsoft Azure is the focal point in this video set. The designer and developer discuss the design and development changes that may be needed to place the site in the cloud vs. hosting the site on a traditional server.

Bruce D. KyleISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation