Please familiarize yourself with the out of the box web parts and controls. Learn not only how they work, but also the limitations of each one. Wouldn’t hurt to brush up on some popular third party web parts as well.

This will keep your designs/wire frames/work flows more in the realm of executable and less in the realm of pure fantasy. As an added bonus, the developers will be less likely to plot your death if you do this.

My Employer, Slalom Consulting is Gold Sponsor of Sharepoint Fest 2011 in Dallas.

The event is being held March, 16 2011 at the new Irving Convention Center.

Should be a great time. hope to see you there!

While editing a file(several) in SharePoint Designer I was trying to just check in the file. Nope. I jumped through several hoops and it would not check in or let me undo checkout. I was stuck.

Seems this is something of a legacy issue. The solution is simple if not a bit annoying.

1. Make a copy of the file.
2. You can now check out the original file. Do so.
3. Check original file back in.
4. To remain tidy, delete the copy you made in step 1.

Why does that work? The new copy of the file resets the GUID apparently and releases the death grip.

The fine folks at Andrews Distributing afforded me the opportunity to design and build their corporate website in SharePoint 2007.

Every good design process begins with exploring. You both learn about what kinds of problems you really need to solve and pick up clues as to how to solve them that come in handy down the road.

This project started out with a meeting to "glean what afflicts them" and review a creative brief that had been forwarded and somewhat filled out by the client.

Andrews Distributing had an existing web site and felt like it had run its course. It was built years ago with Flash and was a nightmare to update. Once more the design did not represent the brand that Andrews had spent so many years to carefully develop. So the objective was in fact two fold.

1. Create a compelling design that supports a very well developed and recognizable brand.
2. Make sure that editing the site is easy for non-technical users.

Once you have identified the issue and it has been agreed upon, the way tend to work is really centered around visual communication. I use drawings both on paper and of the digital variety. In this case the sitemap was that of a traditional brochure site with little variation and the workflow on the client side was non-existent. The real challenge here was to make sure the "mini workflows" that the web parts provide are acceptable for the team that updates the site.

In this case SharePoint 2007 was a really big asset. I spent a few hours and put together a working prototype. The client was able to spend time with the prototype and get a real feel for how to interact with the CMS side of things. Once we signed off on the web parts the site needed some visual design.

One of the great things about Andrews is they have a very well defined culture and brand. It was a personal challenge to meet the standards and expectations established by the staff and leadership. I think the biggest boost to my design was a tour of the corporate office and a history lesson on the company. I even went on a mini photo tour and created some of my own assets for some banners. The design when it was all said and done was well received and is something I was proud of.

Andrews was very happy with the design and execution of the site and I have received a great deal of positive feedback.

I have to say that, for me, SharePoint TechFest was a huge success. Even though I got there late and missed the morning sessions, I did get to attend the Keynote and afternoon sessions. It was as well put together an event as any I’ve attended, great presenters, great sponsors and an abundance of really smart people.

As a non-developer it’s common for me to feel like a fish out of water at the SharePoint events I attend. There just isn’t an abundance of “creatives” so the talk is rather technical and I end up understanding about half of what the “SharePoint Vulcans” have to say. This event started out about the same… a Star Trek convention without all the neat costumes. They did have great BBQ.

Things started looking up for me at the Keynote. The self acclaimed “SharePoint Dude” Brett Kovatch from Penson Financial Services was tasked with delivering and he did. Brett began to admonish the crowd to do the unthinkable. Gather and evaluate requirements with polls and interviews and USE the data to drive the design and interaction. Use wireframes and workflows to help the business stakeholders and SMEs understand what it is they are getting themselves into. Nice. Throw in a creative brief and I’m in heaven.

Seriously though, it is true what he said and I know that all the super intelligent people there are not strangers to the idea of requirements gathering and user testing. It’s common practice in custom development. For some reason SharePoint is not treated with the same kid gloves. I suppose it has to do with the “do it yourself” aspect of SharePoint and the fact that it’s really not as simple as all that. Gotta set it up right for it to work right.

Between someone (who knows SharePoint) agreeing with me on interaction design for SharePoint and all the great previews of SP 2010 I had some great takeaway. I’m excited about what I learned (understood) about SharePoint 2010 and can’t wait to get under the hood and see what I can break.

At the end of the day, it was great to see my friends from the various sponsors and customers. Meet new folks and put some faces to names and twitter accounts. If you get a chance to go to TechFest next year, do it. I’ll be there for the whole day this time.