Today John and I spent some time talking about the Residential Computing Landers Lab Helpdesk app. It’s a tool that a student programmer of mine once wrote. We use it daily in the computer lab, tracking calls and keeping in communication with students with computery problems.
After our conversation, we have decided to meet tomorrow to review the Helpdesk. John is rewriting the helpdesk and portalize-ing it for simple use through the WOUPortal. So tomorrow we’ll do a full audit, looking at the DB design, moving through each page thinking of ways to improve it’s efficiency, flow and features.
One thing in particular we’ll be looking for are appropriate opportunities to use DOM and AJAX to improve the speed and accuracy of data and searches from the Helpdesk. The goal is not to bloat it, but to use it when we can significantly improve the experience or accuracy without decreasing performance, etc…
I never took the time to review the code or application (the Helpdesk) so tomorrow will be some much-needed maintenance combined with incorporation of new features that we’ve recently designed and tested. One of those tools (toys) is a feature similar to that of GoogleSuggest.
Honestly, it’s an exciting time. The number of tools we have grows each week. Now if we can just get together and share, learn and implement…