We are experiencing a minor server breakdown right now. Headlight’s reporting interface is therefore unresponsive.
We expect to recover within the next few hours.
We expect to be online at 2 pm (GMT).
Unfortunately we expect Headlight reporting interface to be offline for the rest of the day. Tomorrow at 8 am (GMT) we expect
to be online again.
We are happy to announce that we are now back online. When you log into Headlight, you will se that we do currently not show data for the 25th, 26th and 27th february, due to the server breakdown. This does NOT mean that data are lost. We just have a big pile of data that needs to be inserted, and we expect this to be done tomorrow morning. (8 am GMT).
Updates will be posted here.
UPDATE 9.17 am (GMT)
We’re recovering from the breakdown, and we expect Headlight to be open for login at around 11 am (GMT)
UPDATE 10.55 am (GMT)
Recovering is taking longer than expected. We expect to be online at 2 pm (GMT). Check back here for further updates.
UPDATE 2.10 pm (GMT)
We were just about to go online, but experienced a few problems again. Headlight reporting interface will be offline for the rest of today.
UPDATE 28th feb. 8.08 am (GMT)
We are now back online.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOUR USER EXPERIENCE
As a user you will not be able to log on to the reporting views.
Maintenance work will not affect your campaigns, or data collection/tracking.
For questions, please do not hesitate to contact support@traceworks.com or call your personal contact at TraceWorks.
On friday (the 29. of february 2008) we will be applying the latest hotfixes and features to Headlight. This will be done at 7.30 am GMT, and we expect the update to take 30 minutes.
UPDATE 6.22 am (GMT)
Upload has been postponed. Instead we plan to deploy the updates late tonight at 11.30 pm (GMT). We expect the deployment to take 30 minutes.
This means, that you will not be able to log in to Headlight from 7 am GMT to 7.30 am GMT on friday. 11.30 pm (GMT) until midnight tonight.
Friday this week (the 22. of february 2008) we will be applying the latest hotfixes and features to Headlight. This will be done at 7.30 am GMT, and we expect the update to take 30 minutes.
This means, that you will not be able to log in to Headlight from 7 am GMT to 7.30 am GMT on friday.
– UPDATE 7.15 am GMT –
Upload is complete. You can now log in to Headlight again.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue may have caused to users of the API while the issue was being resolved.
-The AdWords API Team
Cheers,
-Jeffrey Posnick, AdWords API Team
Skilled Interface Designer wanted
We are looking for a talented graphic Interface designer to join our design team in creating astonishing interfaces for our marketing suite, Headlight. As designer you will join the creative design crew of our chief designer, design communicator, and chief of innovation. Your task will be to participate in the conceptual design phase to the final development phase, by visualizing ideas, designing finished screens, to creating HTML mock-ups for future Headlight modules.
At TraceWorks we have strong opinions on how we want our software to look, and how it feels to work with. Endless feature lists doesn’t mean much to us. It is more important that our software fulfill the actual needs of our customers and is a pleasure to work with. By constant use of the latest knowledge and technology, we are continuously pushing the barriers of what our customers are able get done with our software. Our highest priority is to break down complicated marketing data into comprehensible actionable information that doesn’t require a doctor’s degree to interpret.
Needed qualifications:
- Passionate about graphic user interface design
- Strong theory of general graphic design
- Creative and has good illustration skills
- Strong in web design technologies like HTML and CSS.
- Fluent in relevant Adobe software
- Good skills with Flash and JavaScript is a plus
- Comprehension of online marketing is a plus
To learn a little on what we’re influenced and inspired by, check out this post on The Dojo
To learn more about working at TraceWorks and how to apply, go see the jobs section
The next upload of fixes and features will happen this thursday (7. february 2008) at 7 am GMT – 8 am GMT. During this timespan Headlight will be offline, and closed for login. Headlight will be back online when we finish maintenance work at 8 am GMT.
UPDATE 7.30 am GMT
Maintenance work complete. You can now login to Headlight again.
In the attempt to show who we are and what take we have on software design (by we, I mean the freaks in the TraceWorks design dept.), I’ve collected a list of sources from which we gather our inspiration.
The amount of information available on interface design today is massive compared to last century when I started practicing this mystical art form. By that I mean to warn you dear reader, that we’re only human(ish) and the list is by no means the complete list of everything worth knowing.
Consider it a good starting point, and by all means tell us if you know of something we should check out. Ok! here we go:
Clever people
- Donald Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things, which we read a hundred years ago and started our crusade against poor design.
- Alan Cooper, a fairly new addition to our inspiration chest. We found out that we share the same views on software design, but Cooper has formalized it into a method called Goal Directed Design (which is what we’re tampering with at the moment).
- 37 signals, we where very inspired by these guys in the early days. They where sort of the first to shout out that business software don’t have to suck.
- Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards, and the master mind behind a list apart
- Edward Tufte, the man to see for theory on information graphics (although his books is a wee bit on the dry side).
- Seth Godin, has some pretty good points on marketing and product design, along with a good sense of humor.
- Henrik Birkvig Danish author of several graphic design books. Basic but imperative knowledge for any designer.
Blogs in our RSS reader
Here’s a list of blogs about design, software, or technology that we read frequently. To describe each one individually would make both you and I sleepy. Because, you probably know how it is with blogs; you read some of the posts, others you ignore, and they even post the same stories now and again. So it’s really just about leeching the information you want from all of them at the same time.
- xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
- information aesthetics
- Cool Hunting
- The Dashboard Spy
- Smashing Magazine
- TechCrunch
- Mashable
- Logic + emotion
Of course there’s a lot more than these on the radar, but if tied naked to a seatless chair with a eastern European gangster holding a set of red hot pliers uncomfortably close to my reproductive organs, that is the list I’d make.
Books
Here’s a list of books on the theory of product design and interface design. Some of them you should read cover to cover, others you can just pick out the tasty bits you need in what ever design task you’re facing.
They’re pretty good for proving points as well. People tend to believe what they read in books. So should you, may higher powers forbid it, be confronted with a disbeliever in you team, you can always slam “the manual” on the table and say “it says so right here”. I’d recommend a slightly more gentle approach if you’re dealing with clients though.
I’ve collected them all in an Amazon list here, if you want to investigate further.
This one is in Danish.
Smukkere grafisk design a danish book by Henrik Birkvig. If you’re an experienced designer, you’ll probably not learn anything new from this book. But it’s pretty cool for brushing up on basic design principles now and again.
-- Borana Toska, Product Marketing
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