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 as a CMS, gimp.app, MySQL

user interface:

What you see here is about the 6th design I produced in a matter of six 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 takes up the majority of the page, while I have section specific links on the right hand side. I moved to a two column layout so the pages were a little less busy and so you could focus more on the content.

lessons learned:

Even though I really like working with greys, I love working with blues and greys. The blue color of the design really warmed up the site as opposed to just working with greys. I also learned the value of using content management systems: templates, user privileges, cool plugins, etc. I chose to use my own hacked together version of WordPress, because I am very familiar with WordPress and I wanted a lot of customizations, and WordPress was very flexible.

random thoughts:

This version of Jappler.com is really cool. Every page, stylesheet, etc can be edited in any browser. I am finally free of a text editor and a ftp client. I can edit my site from home, from my phone, from the Apple store using a demo model mac, or even a PC at my friends’ house.