On the first of this year I launched the sixth version of this Web site. I set out to do a phased redesign by first changing the homepage and individual entry page designs. The new design extends my interest in vintage style, showcases more links and media, and keeps with the same identity as the previous design. I plan to rework each section of the site individually over the next few months.
Today I've updated the Movable Type templates to format comments. The updates reformatted the display of comments, the comment form, and the MT comment preview template to match my redesign. The comment display can be previewed here and here.
I've also installed the Movable Type Comment Challenge Plugin to combat comment spam.
The Office of Creative Services is a Webby Awards Nominee in the School category for the 10 Ways IU is Red Hot Web site. Our office is the only in-house group within this category, and appears to be the only nominee from Indiana.
The Red Hot Web site was part of an overall marketing campaign that featured some of the many outstanding achievements of the IU community. You can read more about the Web site and view other Red Hot materials over at the Creative Services' portfolio.
Please vote for us! Our site is eligible to win a People's Voice Award. Voting is open to the public from April 10th to April 27th at http://pv.webbyawards.com. It does take a minute to vote (you have to register), but we would really appreciate your vote.
Here are some notable Web sites that I've discovered while at SXSW Interactive. I'll continue to update this post as I run get through my notes.
Web Typography & Grids // The two best panels I attended at SXSW this year were Grids Are Good and How to Design with Them and Web Typography Sucks. These will change the way I design and write CSS. I'm still looking for the slides for "Grids Are Good", but they did post the resulting design. The podcasts for these panels are not posted yet, but there are a few specific people that I'm anxious to share these with. The slides for the Web typography panel are posted here, and I encourage you to read this discussion on Jeff Croft's site. Added March 13
Sphere Widget // Sphere is a blog search engine that specializes in making connections between posts on different sites and the ability to display newly published blog posts. The Sphere Widget is an AJAX popup that can display results right on top of a blog post. You can preview this by clicking the "Sphere It" link at the bottom of this O'Reilly post. While I don't see the need for Sphere in my projects, the technique of using AJAX to pull data from one site to another has great potential. Added March 13
Design Patterns // Luke Wroblewski's panel on design patterns really helped to clarify this subject for me. There is a lot of information on this topic here, but definitely grab the SXSW podcast when it is available. Added March 13
SXSW Interactive Podcasts // This year SXSW is getting their podcasts out much faster. So far Kathy Sierra gave the most inspiring presentation on how interactive media lacks natural human communication. Grab the MP3 now, or subscribe to the RSS feed. Added March 12
Upcoming.org // This site has been around for a while, but I've just recently had a chance to use it. All of the events at SXSW are entered into Upcoming.org and you can add these events to your profile/schedule. Then you can sign up to have the site send you an SMS message to your phone an hour or so before the event. The SMS messages contain the basic information on the event such as the time and location. The messages are very helpful when you are attending a lot of meetings and events but don't have the chance to constantly check your laptop. I found that if you are not on Upcoming.org at SXSW, you're not cool. Added March 12
Trend: Mobile URLs // A reemerging trend is to create a custom URL for mobile devices. The SXSW conference offers sxsw.mobi and flickr now has m.flickr.com. These versions are scaled down for quick and simple functionality. Reminds of something I worked on many years ago.Added March 12
Flickr Photos Tagged SXSW2007
The Webby Awards has recognized one of my Web sites, The 2006 National Science Olympiad, as an Official Honoree. So while I am not a finalist and won't get a chance to speak those famous five words, I'm still very flattered to have the site recognized. This Web site was built with for an audience of 8-12 year olds and was probably the most fun I've had building a Web site.
Recent Comments
@Celso The navigation is a vintage typeface by Dinctype called Oceans11
Check out this article to find out how to use transparent repeated background images in IE6. Hope this helps.
Nice template!
Cool design, but I think you're using too many fonts. They look great individually but no so much all together in the same page.
Great work though!
PS: What's that font on the navigation called? Looks awesome..