In addition to building this site, I also designed the Holy Mischief CD and the logo for Ruddy Duck Records (above). Learn More ...
Rebuilt and modernized the online presence for an internationally-famous musician. The previous edition used TABLEs for page layout. Visually, it was primitive by current standards, especially when compared to similar sites. The markup was also heavily dependent on deprecated tags. Overall, the process of modifying content and visual elements was time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, the shell had to be built from the scratch. The new visual design -- a neo/retro Blue Note look -- was based on input from the client. Customizations include photo and historical research, writing and editing music reviews, collecting anecdotes from peers.
Global Objectives
- Modernize the visual design without obscuring the content.
- Create a system that allows modification of global visual elements without touching individual pages.
- Comply to Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) standards for the visually- or motor-impaired, as well as users of PDAs, text browsers or web-enabled telephone
Technical Improvements
- Modernized coding and usability by writing in XHTML
- Positioned content in DIV tags, creating a more flexibile content structure.
- Centralized visual elements (fonts, colors, images, page layout, image rollovers) in CSS
- Tagged content in ID and CLASS selectors
Layout Improvements
- Rendered the main navigation as a horizontal bar, creating easy reading and efficient use of space
- Reorganized data tables, now easier to read and modify
- Color choices based on screen legibility, clarity
Status: Finished, approved and posted. Oh yeah, loved by all.