Sunday, August 1, 2010

Fresh New Look

I have been working on a new design for our website for weeks, and hit the coding hard the last 10 days or so. But now it's all done, I hope you like it as much as I do:



For the techies, this was written in html/css using Notepad. I went with xhtml strict, liquid design, css for style. The only Javascript is the stat counter code at the end. All pages are validated code, and search engine optimized. Has been a work in progress for more than a week, but also a labor of love.

I love playing with patterns and colors. There is a website I discovered that makes me spend hours browsing, and when I find a pattern I love, I try to think how I can use it. The pattern I used in the header of our pages made me think of an island, and the blue background in the body represents the sea. I thought it fitting since we are on an island in the Caribbean Sea. Nothing subtle about my designs.

I continue to be astounded at the amount of information that is out there on the internet. Every problem I came upon with this design had a solution posted somewhere - just took some patience and some searching. And of course I went through a ton of other pages that didn't have that specific answer but had other stuff I might need in the future. I need to redo my bookmarks, they're a huge mess.

Next - a page for my business, OCS Web Design. I wonder what pattern I'll find for that...hmmm...better get looking...

5 comments:

Jonna said...

It looks great, I'm impressed with your programming chops. It loads quickly and it flows well, it's easy to find details. Good work!

Vee said...

I like it too, Sue. Professional, yet warm and inviting.

drgeo said...

The site loads great and zips along on my Mac using Safari--no problemo!

You might wish to reconsider the quote from Doris : 1) I don't know who Doris is, and 2) sounds like damning Miguel with faint praise, as in--he does the best he can (poor soul isn't very good but his heart is in the right place). I know you didn't intend that nuance.

Sue said...

Jonna - thanks, I love the challenge of programming, it makes me think for hours on end. Good exercise for my brain.

Vee - that was the look I was hoping for, thanks!

drgeo - part of doing the web design is testing in all the major browsers. The pages were tested in 20 browsers to make sure they all rendered correctly. You don't want to know how many bad words I directed toward Microsoft and IE6 (google css and IE6, you'll see I'm not alone in this). And what do you mean you don't know Doris? Everyone knows Doris! (just kidding, it seems that way - she's small but half the islanders know her and she's only been coming for about 5 years). Anyway, good point about the 'poor soul' interpretation - I will have to get a quote from one of our clients and update the flyer - thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

One suggestion... make the photos so that when you click on them, they become larger so that we can see the details better.

Linda
IC