CA website work

[MidKnight]

Code and art relating to the website can be posted in this thread.


I made some more concept pics
http://i26.tinypic.com/29zdffb.jpg
http://i25.tinypic.com/4ujrjb.jpg
http://i29.tinypic.com/2e58ua1.jpg
http://i29.tinypic.com/21cf3o2.jpg

some nice CA screenshots that we can use as background are appreciated!

[maackey]

Hehe, well it would've been nice to have a-

-the weather looks nice today, doesn't it?

[V1ntage]

It may be a good idea to remove any color and focus on layout only. It will be easier to focus on deciding where the content is actually placed. When you add color information to blueprinting, such as a picture, you're forcing yourself to concentrate on 2 things at a time, which makes the whole process a lot harder.





I'd also recommend to create blueprints using a grid. Grids will allow you to create consistency throughout your visual presentation of the content and make it look more professional. http://960.gs/

[Agon]

As it seems MidKnight has not much experience in web design as V1ntage.

Is the blueprint showing the welcome page?
I would put the search bar into the navigation bar. A search box does not need much place.

And please make the website resolution independent, I dont want half of my screen empty and wasted like the spring website.

[V1ntage]

Liquid vs static webdesign is a hard topic to tackle. Most currently developed websites opt to implement a static width that fits on a 1024x768 resolution. There's a possibility to use a semi-liquid layout that kinda uses best of both worlds, but it's hard to integrate and maintain. The decision which technique to apply generally depends on the type of presented content and the screen resolution used by most visitors.


Each approach has its pros and cons:

1) When there's a lot of reading material on the site it's beneficial to create a clear vertical hierarchy in the presentation of the content using a fixed width. It shares many similarities with the real world press such as books, magazines, newspapers,... and therefor it tends to read better.
EDIT: Also, for comfortable reading the ideal length of a line of text lies between 40 and 70 characters. That means that the only content that can be made liquid is visual content, without sacrifising the quality of the website that is.

2) When the site mostly consists of visual material, it's obvious to use all screen space in order to enhance the visual experience using a liquid design. Think of websites with photography, graphic art or similar.

[maackey]

Agon: on the current prototype I'm working on, I am trying to keep the formatting contained in stylesheets, so that one can easily change the size/resolution of things. For instance MidKnight said that he wanted the content to be all the way on the left (as in his mockups) while the unfinished site is currently centered(ish) Both are quite possible, I just have to add different stylesheets that the user can choose.

Its still being heavily worked on (well, it will be once I get settled into school), but I'm sure I can pretty easily make a version that scales to different sizes, as well as a stylesheet for a generic static display.