url: http://www.jappler.com

SDAC Inc provided:

• Web/Graphic Design
• XHTML/CSS programming
• CMS (WordPress) configuration
• Custom WordPress theme
• Third Party Plugin integration
• Custom PHP programming

technologies used:

XHTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, gimp.app, MySQL

user interface:

What you see here is about the 5th design I produced in a matter of two or three months. I spend many hours looking at some of the best designed web sites on the web and taking note of each part I liked and did not like. Since blogging has become so popular, web sites have starting mimicking the general blog layout. Experienced (my target audience) web surfers’ eyes are trained to look for navigation at the top of the page, the body of the page in the middle, and static links to be available on the left side of the screen. I added the idea of having section specific information available on the right hand side. The year 2004 was the year of the blog for me.

lessons learned:

Even if I QA my work on Safari, Netscape, FireFox, and Mac IE 5.x with code that is validated by the W3C, it is inevitable that IE for Windows will still display things different. It is all about learning CSS tricks and being patient. May hours went into the CSS, but at the end, it is a great feeling to know it works on 99% of the browsers. I also learned the valuable lesson of using multiple style sheets to combat some CSS issues in IE.

random thoughts:

Jappler.com is a return to one of my favorite colors to work with: grey. I like to work with grey because, without bright and interesting colors, you are forced to be creative and focus on other aspects of the design. I think this design displays clean lines, clean code, and hopefully interesting content.