earlk on mon 10 apr 06
On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 15:05 -0400, Paul B wrote:
> Hello, i am looking to redesign my home page
Paul,
Can you create a sketch of what you want?
If so, it would be a great help to anyone working
with you on a web site. If not, then put some
more thought into it until you can.
In movie making they develop "story boards"
early in the production process that tell the whole
story in a set of still frames. I have found this
concept to be very useful when building a web
site as it allows one to get a feel for the complete
site before commiting the time to develop any
single page. Sort of like drawing the profile of
a pot before you sit down at the wheel.
Just a hint.
earlk
bothell, wa, usa
Paul B on mon 10 apr 06
Hello,
i am looking to redesign my home page - it is at the moment just something
i threw together while learning dreamweaver and, since the site is no where
near finished, i want to change the basic layout now while i still can.
The problem is that, although Dreamweaver comes with lots of pre-made
templates, they are all very newspaper-ish looking, not quite creative
looking enough for a pottery website.
I am hoping to either find a potter who does websites for other potters who
may have a nice, pre-designed template on hand that i could use along with
my own banner i already created, and perhaps modify a bit as i learn html,
that they could sell me at a reasonable price; or else just find a site
template i could buy on line, but one that doesn't look quite so
commercialized as most of the ones i have seen available so far do.
So i guess the question is, can anyone help me make the site look a little
more custom without spending a lot of money?
any help appreciated.
thanks,
Paul
http://blanketcreek.com/
(under construction, don't laugh yet)
Graham Mercer on tue 11 apr 06
Hi Paul,
I am a potter that has a website business catering specifically to ceramic
artists (www.pottersonline.com.au) and in my opinion you have already shown
that you do not need to acquire a stock template for your site.
Firstly I would ask "Why do you want to change it?" I think that it has a
nice, artsy feel to it as it stands. I would say that what you have
developed so far would be a great basis for a template of your own. You are
already using Dreamweaver which allows you to create your own templates and
apply them to your site - why not take advantage of it and have a template
that is truly yours and unique. That way you are not going to be
disappointed by stumbling across another artist that has a similar site
based on the same template. Often commercial templates can cause more
trouble than they are worth. Areas that you would like to change are fixed
and areas that are 'flexible' often aren't!
If you got your existing site up and running this far then you are well on
the way to acquiring the necessary skills and techniques already to do it
yourself.
One thing that you can do to greatly improve the load speed of your site is
to optimise your images. They need to be tuned, both in their physical
dimensions and also their file size. Some of your images are okay, while
others are way off. As an example your banner can easily be reduced from
128Kb to a file size of around 38Kb without degrading the image quality (see
attachments). Other images such as the loaded trolley kiln at the bottom
right of your page is huge in both file size (316Kb) and dimensions
(1200x1600 pixels). It appears as though you have just 'forced' the image
down to a smaller appearance without actually reducing it. The same pic can
easily be optimised to a 300x400 pixel image at just 31Kb without losing
image quality to any great degree. If you optimise your images throughout
the site it will vastly improve the page load times, thereby reducing the
tendency for visitors to quit in frustration rather than wait for the images
to download. This is particularly relevant for people using dial-up access.
There are a number of other things I could suggest, but I will leave it to
you to decide if you want to go down the suggested path.
Please don't take this as criticism but as constructive suggestion. I think
that you have done a great job so far and with a bit of tweaking you have
the potential for a very nice, user-friendly site.
Feel free to contact me if you would like any further information about any
of the above.
Cheers,
Graham
Graham Mercer
Potters Online
Melbourne, Australia
(03) 9844 2765
0411 097 259
Skype ID graham.mercer
Will Duderstadt on tue 11 apr 06
Well, for anyone using an Apple, I have to suggest the .Mac hosting &
publishing package. I may be a tad biased (I spent 4 years at
Apple) .Mac offers truly amazing templates and everything can be done
so easily. The kicker is it's only $99 a year. Far cheaper than
other hosting solutions + software like GoLive or DreamWeaver.
Although you can use it to create content and then host elsewhere if
you already pay for hosting.
A little video showing off:
http://www.apple.com/dotmac/publish.html
Two examples I found (google search, not my sites):
Excellent example of template use, although he suffers the same
"unoptimized image" problem:
http://web.mac.com/cabinetmountain/
no template used, but amazing slideshow:
http://web.mac.com/davehanichak
Good luck!
Best Regards,
Will Duderstadt
The Edward Orton Jr. Ceramic Foundation
http://www.ortonceramic.com
On Apr 10, 2006, at 3:05 PM, Paul B wrote:
> Hello,
> i am looking to redesign my home page - it is at the moment just
> something
> i threw together while learning dreamweaver and, since the site is
> no where
> near finished, i want to change the basic layout now while i still
> can.
> The problem is that, although Dreamweaver comes with lots of pre-made
> templates, they are all very newspaper-ish looking, not quite creative
> looking enough for a pottery website.
> I am hoping to either find a potter who does websites for other
> potters who
> may have a nice, pre-designed template on hand that i could use
> along with
> my own banner i already created, and perhaps modify a bit as i
> learn html,
> that they could sell me at a reasonable price; or else just find a
> site
> template i could buy on line, but one that doesn't look quite so
> commercialized as most of the ones i have seen available so far do.
> So i guess the question is, can anyone help me make the site look a
> little
> more custom without spending a lot of money?
> any help appreciated.
> thanks,
> Paul
> http://blanketcreek.com/
> (under construction, don't laugh yet)
>
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