JPTWeb

Eye tracking sounds very elegant when one talks about studying a sites overall usability. However I found that it is very challenging to conduct. Part of the challenge is the technology itself is very fickle. Even on the $50,000 eye tracker we used there were still calibration problems, and bugs in the software. Another part of the challenge comes when creating an experiment design and trying to decide what to study. Often times we would think of a cool idea only to realize it something that could be studied with a traditional usability test (no need for eye tracking equipment really).

Below is a presentation I made using Prezi about eye tracking which goes over some of the basics and analyzes the trends and what may be in store for the future. Use the little arrows to navigate the presentation, full-screen mode is also recommended to get the full feel:

Recently I have been working with the JFusion team on an Elgg integration plugin, and happy to hear a new version has just been released with the Elgg plugin.

So if you are wondering what the heck this is let me explain.  Joomla a CMS is described as "the dynamic portal engine and content management system."  It is a tool that can be used to run and administrate websites. What makes Joomla great is that it has a huge library of 3rd party extensions that allow people to build communities, manage e-commerece sites, forums, just about anything.  JFusion is an extension for Joomla that extends Joomla's core functionality

Taken from the Joomla site: "JFusion is a revolutionary new universal integration framework for Joomla 1.5. It’s a “universal bridge” that can synchronize user accounts, user sessions and even visually integrate many different applications into Joomla. This is done by extending the Joomla 1.5 user authentication framework without any core hacks. Now you can turn your Joomla installation into a powerful portal system that manages your user base across all your online applications. JFusion is just another example on why Joomla is the future of Content Management Systems."

Elgg is a completly seperate piece of open source software that is a bit like facebook or a social networking site that you can run on your webserver.  Simply put: this plugin integrates Joomla and Elgg via JFusion.

A Community of RIT students that represent the Undergraduate Admissions Office.  Many of the students maintain the blog as well.  As taken from the website: "Our community offers a first-hand look at RIT student life through our Student Ambassador blog as well as up to date information from Admissions and Financial Aid staff. We encourage you to browse the site, comment on discussions, and ask questions of our community members!".

The site is powered by Joomla and has over 100 registered members including students, faculty, and staff.

An entertainment website powered by Joomla.  Set up the backend system and did some of the design work, while the client / content producer added hundreds of pictures, videos, games and more.  A localized version was created for Rochester NY which included photo galleries and profiles from places around town.

A followup to my orignal site made with the Joomla Content Management System (version 1.0).