Adams - Update

Week of October 9 - 15

I met with Howard at his home in Langley, Virginia. We discussed what exactly he wanted. He requested that I do three rough thumbnail designs for his website. He requested that I do two simple, and one that incorporated his actual artwork into the layout. Here is the first and second simple layout, this is the third. Howard really liked the first layout; therefore, that was the one I started coding.

Week of October 16 - 22
Upon cleaning up the website and selecting which fonts, colors and effects would go into the layout, I sliced the layout using adobe photoshop CS5 to get it ready for the coding process.


Week of October 23 - 29
This week was dedicated to coding the actual layout. I imported the sliced index file that photoshop generated into dreamweaver. From there I removed the tables and replaced them with a CSS overlay so the layout would not only be cross browser comparable, but cross platform comparable as well (cell phones, ipads...ect) The website itself is a mix of CSS and HTML. The CSS stays static in order to maintain a consistent text and link style from page to page. For example, the navigation itself is its own CSS ID, having a consistent white font color and red hover effect.

Week of October 30 - Nov 5

Was running a little behind schedule, my original goal was to have the website launched by November 1st. At this point what was left to implement was the actual gallery script and a contact form. I snagged an opensource PHP mail form and edited it for the website's needs. Initially, for the gallery I was going to use PHPImageGallery to display and maintain the images that would be posted on the homepage. However, the server that is hosting the website has a .htsaccess file that would not let me edit nor give the proper permissions for internal uploading and scripting display. I settled on another script, lightbox, that didn't utilize PHP, rather it did its scripting using javascript and used CSS to better view and display the images.

Week of Nov 6 - Nov 12

Currently the website is fully functional and can be found HERE. The contact form is fully functional, and when you click the image example on the homepage it opens using the lightbox script. I have been in touch with Howard regularly through out this process. Last week I requested that he writes his about me section, organize his pieces in the way they should appear on the website, and provide me with links to his affiliated pages, groups, interviews, tutorials...ect. The last time I spoke with him was three days ago, so I'm hoping to have all this information by the weekend so we will be ready for a full launch. In the meantime, I have been editing the website to make it a little more functional and aesthetically pleasing. I added a background image to give the layout a little more life. Two days ago I ended up widening the layout by 150 pixels in order to better display the gallery. The statistic viewer has also been implimented to better collect website data.

So what's left to do?

Right now I am just waiting on Howard to get me the requested materials. Due to coding the layout in CSS - once I have the requested info it's a simple copy and paste, then the website itself can be deemed complete. Howard has also been deciding over what domain he wishes to associate his website with. Currently, I have created a temporary URL just so there is a physical link to his website. Hopefully, by the weekend the website should have its full content and domain name. I have already prepared a list of design forums where I can advertise his website once released. More so, Howard has agreed to make an announcement of the completion of his website on his Twitter, DeviantArt, and design group webpage. This should reach no less than 1,000 web users.

Website physical locations: http://www.howardwinterson.tk or http://www.thetreasureroomtrader.com/howard