Design
I have been fortunate to have worked on many projects in my career including many high profile clients such as Shell, Glaxo Smith Kline and Haliburton. I have never been just a web designer, or just a multimedia designer. I have worked on both small and large web sites, a variety of printed materials, online training, CD/DVD creation. My main drive over the past seven years has been e-learning and interactive design and the creation of distance learning materials.
Here you will find samples of the work I have been involved in over the past ten years.
Alexa Ranking
My site has been sitting dormant for, oh let me see around 4 years. Its been quietly pulling in a miniscule Ad sense income, that has probably kept me from letting the hosting lapse and my site fade quietly into, the ether.But a couple of months ago a set up a new site www.shins-splints.co.uk, and it gave me a new found vigour to breathe life into my tired 10 year old website.
So I’m giving it a bit of an overhaul - changed the system it ran on (From movable type to Joomla). And I’m going to see what happens. I'll try and let everyone know what works for me and what doesn't, in the dark arts of SEO (search engine optimisation).
My first goal is to have my Alexa ranking break into the top 100,000. This looks like quite a tall order as I’m currently ranked 21,351,683. That has to be pretty near to rock bottom.
Keep an eye on this graph, or you'll know doubt hear me screaming and shouting if it goes up by even 1.
Update November 11th 2009 - i seemed to have actually dropped in ranking, which is not good.
Alexa ranking now : 22,037,592
Written by JJ
Here is a selection of web sites i have created over the years.
Barrington Stoke
Interface design of site aimed at children with learning difficulties
www.barringtonstoke.com
GeneJury
Website redesign for biological sciences education outreach, Edinburgh University
www.genejury.com
Its Great outdoors
Interface design for outdoor equipment retailer
www.its-great-outdoors.com
Edinburgh Womens triathlon
Web site creation for local womens only triathlon in Edinburgh
edinburgh womens triathlon
Alignment
Redesign existing web site with a minimal look and feel and an intuitive user interface, the client also needs to be able to update content freely
alignment
Karen Women's Organisation
To create a website that promotes the plight of burmese Karen people forced to live in refugee camps on the Thailand/Burma border.
Karen Women's Organisation
Scottish Fireservices College
Web portal for the Fire services training college, which has undergone numerous redesigns and upgrades yet retains manyfeatures from inital build.
www.scottish-fireservicescollege.org/
Whistler Premier
Accomodation site for a leading canadianbooking agency, with built in system the client can switch between summer and winter style interface.
whistler premier
Westin Hotel Whistler
Corporate redesign for Whistler basedhotel, site also include backend system where hotel investors can manage theiraccounts.
westin whistler
eco-learning.com
To increase the profile of this enviromental web portal, with a design that conveys eco friendly business.
http://www.eco-learning.com/
Fixed interface VS Fluid interface
Written by JJ
Liquid Interface
We all understands the benefits of liquid design, the ability to scale with the resolution of the screen. It reduces the whitespace or more appropriately, "empty space" filling up the screen. But it really falls over when you take into account readability of text more importantly line length.
Liquid is more suited to sites that have to cram a lot of content onto a page. see amazon,
Fixed Interface
For me i prefer fixed, as a designer you have total control over what you have designed. You know what you see on your screen the user will see on theirs, You have formatted your text to lines about 10 words long(this allows the reader a far greater reading speed), It wont when resized give the user a line of text 30 words long. The white space issue; this space shouldnt be seen as empty space it can be used effectivly to draw the user to the interface or frame the content and keep them focussed on the design and main content.
There is no single best way and that your design should depend upon your:
- needs
- audience
- requirements
Both are good, both have strengths, both have weaknesses.
I mixture of both is probably a good idea fixed with a liquid header and footer but keep the central content anchored. yet giving the the illusion of resizing in the browser.
