Design Archives
This website has been through many changes since August 2007 when it was first launched.
It started off as a fan site for Dragonfable and Mechquest, then I added AQ Worlds and Cysero's Defenders. I've changed layouts and colour schemes, and added and removed features such as forums and comment boxes which no one used. I learnt about web standards and good practise for separating code (XHTML), presentation (CSS) and behaviour (Javascript) and I've learnt how to use some PHP and AJAX and I've just started learning the basics of Flash (I can't wait to use it on the website!). It has been a great opportunity to develop my web design skills and share my interests with others.
One of my biggest problems has been not having enough time to work on my site. There's so much more I'd like to do! However, Sunumbrella's Sircle already contains over 40 pages and more than 200 images, which is quite a lot for one person to manage manually. My next major decision will be whether to integrate a content management system or streamline the site to focus on more specific areas. At this stage I'm leaning towards choosing a content management system to help reduce the maintenance.
Website History
- Web Design 1 (2007)
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The original design for this came from Open Source Web Design. I mainly just changed the colour scheme and designed the galleries.
- Web Design 2 (early 2008)
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I wanted to design the site layout from scratch and use the full screen width. I used the black background because of AE and Cysero's Defenders. eventually though, I decided this design lacked colour and was probably not the easiest to read.
- Web Design 3 (mid 2008 - now)
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Again I designed it from scratch with colour and circles in mind. Each section has a different colour theme which is something I really like. I've used a wider range of web technologies in this design. Biggest problem is that some things load rather slowly.
