Category Archives: geekspeak

site-related techspeak, computer crap, other technical garble not of interest to the general populace.

webdesign 1 Comment

The Not-Really-Big Reveal

For anyone who’s been interested in what my freelance gig is and how it’s turning out, I thought I’d share with you the HTML mock-up I’ve created for my client. They chose this design out of over half a dozen Photoshop composites, and I spent this week creating a stylesheet that I can plug their content into. After I do that, there will be some content-management issues to tackle and some bells and whistles to add.

So, there you have it: the midpoint of my freelance project. I think it’s some of my better work, IMHO.

webdesign

Step One Complete

Four composites are now completed and posted on a private website for my client to peruse. One of them totally sucks, one could become something decent, and two of them are actually not bad. Truth be told, I really like one of them, but it’s the most totally boring one of the lot. Says something about my style and personality, maybe, that I prefer the muted and beige and straitlaced design over the one(s) with bold colors and rounded corners and other elements I don’t usually use.

I sent the link to my clients around 9pm this evening; my self-imposed deadline was tomorrow. I said I’d have a completed website in four to six weeks once we finalize the design, and I think that sounds completely reasonable. The only issue is going to be figuring out how to allow them to make additions to content without using a database. (From what I can tell, it would cost extra on their hosting plan.) Their usual modus operandi is Frontpage, as I’ve mentioned before, and I’m afraid it would wreak havoc on any design I would throw out there.

We’ll come up with something. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

webdesign 2 Comments

Definitely A Learning Experience

I gave myself one week to come up with three to five composites for my website redesign client. No problem — I did similar projects with similar deadlines in college. VCT, graphic design, yeah. No problem.

I hate all of my ideas.

No, let me rephrase: I can’t seem to translate the ideas in my head to something that looks good on-screen. I feel like I’m missing lots of the finer details and the subtleties that I admire in other designers. Shadows, patterns, gradients, tiny lines and shapes and ornamentations that just aren’t popping into my head. The 4×3″ ballpoint pen drawings look like drawings of decent web page designs; my Photoshop comps look like a VCT 102 student put them together.

Maybe trying to take design cues from my favorite designers isn’t the best way to go. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself because of it. In any case, I have one evening and two weekend days to finish at least one and a half comps, if not more, and preferably improve on what I already have completed. If I have to give them crap and say they’re first drafts, I will, but I’d rather give them awesome comps and just let them choose what kind of website they want.

It’s just so frustrating. I finally have the opportunity to wow a client with my flair… and now… *pfft*

geekspeak 2 Comments

A Productive Morning

This morning’s accomplishment: the majority of a CSS layout for my new portfolio. It still needs navigation, which will be in the lower left of the screen, and my logotype in the lower right. For the most part, though, the basic framework is up.

Just thought I’d share. OK, back to work. Maybe I’ll get the dynamic display thingie working before I tackle the navigation, as it’s been a while since I coded pop-up layers/divs for menus.

Update, 6:15pm: I got my PHP/SQL displaying everything but the “keywords” I plugged in. I have a table that lists all the technologies and/or software used for a project; for instance, the LSM site has as keywords PHP, MySQL, HTML/XHTML, and CSS. Once I threw that keywords table into the mix, it totally screwed up all of my logic. I think I have some more ideas up my sleeve before I go calling for help (to Sheryl and Dan and whoever else knows and cares), but this has really been harshing my mellow this afternoon.

Apart from that, though, it works! Holy shit.

Update, 7pm: After a 30-minute, unrelated phone chat with Dan, I implemented one of my brainstorms, and it appears to work. Yay for arrays! Now, I just need to figure out how to put commas between the array elements… later. Details come later. For now, making the damn thing work in the first place is top priority.

geekspeak

Today’s Coding Accomplishment

Today’s accomplishment: making the beginnings of a photo gallery on the LSM site. Compares a table of events to a table of photos, lists the events where there are photos, links to a page of thumbnails and descriptions for said event, and those links open pop-up windows with larger versions of each photo.

For seasoned codeheads, this is no big whoop. For me, it’s applying what I’ve learned in Visual Basic for Applications and Microsoft Access at work to PHP and SQL at home. And there are still things I need to learn and investigate, like the imagecopyresampled() function that could automatically make the thumbnails from the full-sized images. Hmm.

This weekend? E-mailing the owners of the broken Frontpage site and offering my services for a pittance. I need the experience, and I’m actually kind of excited about taking on a new project. As long as they understand that it won’t be done super-quick; I have other things that take precedence, like my portfolio and prior commitments to LSM and my contracting job (if it ever gets started). I’ll let you know how it all pans out.