Code behind howstuffworks.com

I took a look at the source code for the main page of howstuffworks.com.   They are definitely using linked CSS — about 4 different sheets actually: one called basic.css, one called layout.css, one called blocks.css, and one called article.css.  The source code is filled with Java-Script.  And there is also many divisions — upon divisions, upon divisions…

As far as old school HTML goes, I’m seeing plenty of image and URL links.  There is also plenty of unordered lists.  I’m not seeing any tables though — they seem to have done the layout job entirely with div tags.

I’ve also taken a look at the code behind my My Yahoo page.  The first half of the HTML page appears to be Java-Script for running the modules.  The rest of the document is basically formatted as a bunch of div tags, with either a table or a Java-Script inside each div tag.  Quite a few tables in the code.

Fireworks is great too!

I’m finding Fireworks to be an indispensable tool for web-page design.  I like how it gives me so much control over the properties of various objects.  It seems very easy to put in things like fill textures.

Not that, I’m sure, there aren’t better programs out there.  I’m not sure how high Fireworks would rate when it comes to higher-level special effects.  But the program seems very helpful when it comes to my typical web-design applications.

Website color schemes

Here is a few examples of different color schemes:

multicolor
red, orange, purple, green, blue
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

three color
yellow, blue, red
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

two color
red and blue
http://www.about.com/

two color
blue and green
http://www.space.com/

arguably monochrome
shades of red (with black…)
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

arguably monochrome
shades of red (with black…)
http://www.artsandlettersdaily.com/

monochrome
white on black
http://www.bwcitypaper.com/1homebody.lasso

SD cards are great

I sure like those tiny SD memory cards.  They’re better than flash drives.  I’ve got a USB SD/MMC card reader and a 1 gigabyte SD card.  So I can quickly switch that 1 gigabyte card between my digital camera, my Pocket PC, and my card reader.  And I can plug my card reader into practically any machine with USB ports (well, XP/Vista at least).

So, my SD card makes it really easy and convenient to transfer a lot of data quickly between devices and computers.

Example of Good Typesetting

The typesetting in most sites I’ve come across is decent.  One example would be howstuffworks.com.  Arial was a good choice, and I like the way that they integrate their color theme into the text by using blue and yellow as text header colors.

I had trouble finding an example of really bad typesetting.  I don’t like it when sites use Times New Romans — it looks so cheap.  Also, I noticed that some sites don’t handle font size changes very well (and the font size is very easy to change in Firefox).  For example, the layout for howstuffworks.com is completely screwed up when the font size is increased by just a few sizes.

I hope dial-up disappears.

You know, it sure would be great if dial-up would disappear off the face of the earth, and would be relegated to a few antiquated history books.  Don’t get me wrong — I’m thankful for my dial-up.  But it’s just not possible to use the internet in a practical way these days when it takes 2 minutes to load a single page on a website.  And I love to download pictures and articles and such.

Fortunately, UAF has pretty decent bandwidth.  I do nearly all my online activity from a UAF terminal.

Dreamweaver is great!

It sure is easy to manipulate websites with Dreamweaver.  All I have to do is get the ftp password and I can manipulate my websites from any computer with Dreamweaver installed.  Fortunately every lab computer on UAF has it installed.

I tried coding HTML on my own a few months ago, but it takes an eternity when I have to type every line into a text-editor.

Worst website I’ve ever seen.

The worst website I’ve ever seen would have to be my church website (www.mcgrathroadbaptistchurch.org; all due respect to the former webmaster who created the site long ago, whoever he was).  Fortunately, I’ve been put in charge of rebuilding it.

 As it presently stands (Oct 1, 2007), the site cries out for variety and elegance.  The background to the index page has a cheap look to it and is unpleasant to stare at.  The buttons all use the same basic ‘wood sign’ image, which are rather boring and, again, unpleasant to look at.  The use of simple Times New Roman throughout the website has too much of a ‘word processor’ look to it, and makes the site seem even more sterile, uncomfortable, and uninteresting.  And almost all the pages were very simply formatted using Times New Romans and simple line dividers, with no illustration, or illustration placed in an uninteresting manner.  Furthermore, some text looks out of place when viewed on a widescreen monitor.

 Functionally speaking, I believe the site falls short of one of its most important goals: to give people an impression, or ‘feel’ of the church.  There are only two images of the church on the entire site, with no pictures of rooms, facilites, teachers, the pastor, or church functions.  Furthermore, the site really should have a small map showing how to find our church, or at least our address.

 Also, when I redesign the site, I’m going to think about adding somekind of online chat room or forum.  Maybe it could be a tool to help church members get to know each other better (at least the younger ones).

Of course, in all humility, I recognize that the site was created a long time ago, and the church administration has never really maintained ‘webmaster’ as regular ministry position in the church.  No doubt the site creator volunteered to create the site as I volunteered to redesign it.