Claromentis Intranet Software Blog

Visual Interface SunPower

When it comes to find the easiest solution to manage intranet and extranet content, Claromentis has some great nifty features for users on every level.

Today, almost all content management solutions offer you a WYSIWYG text based content editor, which means what you create on the editor section is what you will see on the actual page. Cool, but nothing special!

What makes Claromentis special is the way it interacts with your content. Let me explain you a bit further:

In Claromentis, it is possible to create templates and define editable areas. Let’s say you have a page which contains 3 sections; one for the menu, one for the main content and one for the links of websites you visit frequently. I also presume that you would like to have some images within your main content section.

With Claromentis easy-to-use content management software, you define the areas above and their field type. For consistency purposes, you wouldn’t want your intranet and/or users to change the overall look and feel of your template, so you wouldn’t want them to change the main title font size or colour. So you can define the header section of your main content area as ’string’, which means your users will only be able to change the content of the header section but not its styling.

You have your template ready and its sections defined. The next step is populating the actual content. How would you do this? Simple. Just look at the following picture and you will get the idea:

Easy to use content management solution

It is also possible to create areas within your template which are not editable by users. This could be a company slogan or a footer area which contains company address information.

Customizable Intranet Software: Works the way you do…

Products, Technical Support, Visual Interface CMS

It’s hard to imagine what those with colour blindness are seeing. As we all know colour blindness affects a significant amount of the population. It is mostly caused by genetic condition but there are certain circumstances such as brain or nerve damage which also potentialy cause colour blindness.

Designer uses colour to convey various messages, it is an efficient communication tool.
From colour-coded background, traffic lights, status indicator, icons. It is very important to pick the right colour to ensure these messages can be communicated clearly.

Colour Blind Comparison of Claromentis Web Page

Claromentis Intranet Solutions page as seen using Colour Blind Web Filter

Want to see your website as seen by colour blind ? Visit Colour Blind Web Filter

General Intranet Posts, Visual Interface Design

Designers are independent. In work, mindset and lifestyle. Yet in this Web age aren’t we losing independence? For most designers the first tool to start designing from is the Adobe suite, a quite impressive set of tools that help us to make our work easier. But don’t we rely too much on Adobe? For years people have been watching how Microsoft dominated the market. We lament that its applications are bloated and criticize its efforts to wipe away competitors. But instead of taking a stand, we continue to buy its products and we continue to moan.

We always have options. And in the design process we have them too. At the moment we don’t really know to what level open source applications can compete with Adobe. But with support, with independent minds and strong community involvement, the open source movement can grow. Competition is a part of the progress and so is the choice. We need to maintain a competitive arena in design. And we need good open source alternatives for the tools we use. Independent start-ups are the lifeblood of the industry and the breath of fresh air we all need.

But apart from Microsoft, Adobe and the latest computer system to run these applications, you may have problems setting up a professional open source environment which would perfectly meet your needs. We need better open source applications for designers. And we need to work together to produce them and then use them. Just think for a second: how many young designers can afford Adobe anyway? Do we not need a platform that supports us while we support it? Doesn’t open source represent the true spirit of design?

Nick Pretorius,
[Source]

General Intranet Posts, Visual Interface Adobe, Design, Microsoft, open source

2005

• Designed for 800×600
• No CMS
• Semi static websites

2006

• First CMS Implementation
• Designed for 800×600
• Dynamic PHP pages
• Horizontal Drop-down menu navigation

2007-2008

• Designed for 1024×768
• First to introduced “Product Motives” diagram
• Table-less design
• CSS Menu
• Mid 2008 - SEO Implementation

2008-2009 (Concept)

• Designed for 1024×768
• Non drop-down menu navigation
• Rich footer

General Intranet Posts, Visual Interface Claromentis, Design, Logo

IDEA (Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement) has conducted a survey about Factors That Improve Online Experiences which you might possibly find interesting & helpful.

The report emphasizes facts like the importance of visual design & ease of use. And also, it points out interesting information like “designers being overly optimistic about visitors’ ability to maintain orientation”.
You can download the full report as a PDF file or read the shorter executive summary.

If you want to see the methodology behind the survey, click here.

General Intranet Posts, Visual Interface Online