Those of you who drop by my office from time-to-time may have discovered two things about my morning routine. 1) I have to have my cup of coffee, and 2) I love to make coffee rings!

To help manage my busy life I use a self-created time management sheet. I have this on my desk at all times and I use it to keep my work life on track. Recently I have decided to intentionally make coffee rings on this sheet each morning – not sure why…

One thing I have discovered in this process is that there is design in anything and everything – even in my coffee rings. Now if my coffee rings were the exact same each day this exercise would have stopped on day three. The rings are all different – they have different designs. The example I posted here (created on October 30, 2008) is a great example of the depth of colour you can achieve. This is determined by how much coffee is on the bottom of your cup, how much the paper absorbs, if there is another piece of paper below it that also absorbs, any drips that may occur… the list goes on.

Web design is also more complex than people may think. The word “design” brings to mind thoughts of how a website may look – possibly what pictures they may want to have posted. Really web design is about so much more.

There is the design of the information architecture, design for usability, design of navigation and don’t forget the content (copy) layout! Should we consider good code design – xhtml, css, PHP, javascript – all working together. Database design… is your database optimized? How about search engine optimization design – do you want the website to be found?

Okay – I could go on here forever – my point is this: a Website design (or redesign) project encompasses so much more than the basic look & feel of the web site. At first glance my coffee ring may look like a simple spill or a mess – trust me  – it is so much more.

Next time you are down near my office drop in and I will show you the coffee ring of the day and we can chat about the beauty of design.

myTyndale.ca is the life-line to what is happening at Tyndale — and we have just made it easier to get the information that our students need.

Introducing myTyndale.ca Mobile » www.mytyndale.ca/m

myTyndale.ca mobile is a simplified version of the main myTyndale.ca web site. We have narrowed it down to bring you only the information you need making it easy to navigate and fast to load.

When you go to www.mytyndale.ca/m you will see urgent alerts along with the last 10 news items and the last 10 classifieds ads.

Alerts will be posted for important and time sensitive announcements like school closures or weather alerts — stuff you need to know!

So stop using your phone as a flashlight to find your keys in the dark and come on over to www.mytyndale.ca/m