eyemg.Control software design and development

Dream Realized.

Spring 2001. Steve and Joe Erickson set out to create a new type of website management system for eyemg Interactive Media Group: one that doesn't simply build pages based on a single designer's stringent understanding of the site's use, but instead dynamically creates them based on the type of information on the page. Their dream was to give the content creator, not a designer in an off-site web shop, unprecedented control over what type of data appears on each page and how that data is displayed.

Fall 2002. Steve and Joe release Preview 1 of eyemg.Control v2, sporting a brand new user-tested admin interface, speedier code-base, and a slew of functionality enhancements.

Summmer 2003. With the departure of both Steve and Joe from eyemg, Control is End-of-Lifed.

New Administration Interface

Mother Tested. Fiance Approved. Almost a year and half of internal use and client feedback provided the basis for the major overhaul of eyemg.Control's administration screens. The new v2 administration interface has been thoroughly tested using paper prototyping, click-throughs, and real world testing.

Design for the new skinnable interface focused on making eyemg.Control "less science and more preschool". Steve and co. accomplished this through clear language, much improved user flow, and the heavy use of logical icons. A new "Quick Help" feature was added to provide pertinent information directly on the site rather than requiring a user to search the separate Help application. "Tooltips" also were enabled on every button and link to both unclutter the interface and clarify actions.

New Features Galore

eyemg.Control v2 is ready to display Text and Images, News Articles, Links, Job Openings, Events, Class Listings, Contact Information, Downloadable files, Frequently Asked Questions, Testimonials, Flash, and even QuickTime Movies. "Navigation images" allow image driven navigation. Navigation from other pages can now be embedded in pages for footer bars, site navigation, section navigation and more. eyemg.Control v2 uses eyemg's HumanURL™ technology and stores meta keywords and descriptions for each and every page... making it search engine and human friendly.

More Than Just Text

Most content management systems (CMS) are built with a specific model in mind: newspaper, magazine, corporate site. Steve threw out that stringent way of approaching the problem to create a far more flexible system. He realized that all types of information can be broken up into discrete elements. For example, a piece of "contact" information could be broken up into first name, last name, title, company, phone number, extension, address, city, state, country, zip, etc. These different types of information are then called content types.

Joe then was able to program these content types so they could be swapped in and out for different clients/markets/installations. He also developed them to be easily programmable so if a client came around with the need for a different content type, eyemg could easily create it. And because they're pluggable, eyemg is able to take that new content type and plug it in elsewhere.

Organic Design

Through the magic of HTML::Template, Steve is able to create highly organic looking websites in spite of the site being template driven. Pages can change drastically based on its content. Control also allows for custom templates to allow for different displays to accomplish different functions. Control even lets Steve collect templates into Style Sets to completely change the look and feel of the web site based on mood, season, holiday, or client-stated need.

Password Protection, Mailing Lists, and Other Features

Control was built from the ground up to have both public and password-protected areas and the user-management that accompanies those features. Control also features fully customizable mailing lists to give visitors to both public and private areas the option of receiving timely customized information in their email. A built in release-timer also accompanies all content in the site, so an administrator can determine when and for how long information appears on the site. All content can be "shared" across areas to avoid duplicated data.

The Technology

This 20,000+ line Perl-based app utilizes the HTML::Template display engine and sits atop a MySQL database. A Mod_Perl feature-complete version of v2 was in development when eyemg.Control was end-of-life'd in the summer of 2003.

Control'd

Over half a decade later, eyemg.Control still powers a handful of sites, including the Summit County Engineer, The Davey Tree Expert Company, Enviro Science Incorporated, Akron Community Foundation, Hitachi Construction Machinery Support Site, and Presstek Sales & Marketing Support Site.