[thelist] Web site designs that die of old age

Jeff Howden jeff at jeffhowden.com
Wed Aug 27 22:56:33 CDT 2003


ari,

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> From: Aredridel
>
> My thoughts are don't change what's broken. [...]
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errrr ... *not* broken?

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> I usually just update technique, but not design -- I
> went XHTML on a client's project with almost pixel
> similarity over the old table design.  Yay for that!
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i just did the same, but had to change a few elements in the site design
because i didn't wanna get all rounded-corner crazy like the table-based
layout.

there are two designs, both based off the same layout.  the only difference
is color scheme and content.

summer
http://mtbachelor.com/
http://summer.mtbachelor.com/

winter
http://winter.mtbachelor.com/

it's not *100%* valid, but close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, and
thermo-nuclear devices.  it's mainly the content area on some pages are
controlled by an msie rich text editing interface that spews out html that
won't validate to xhtml that i have problems with.  i try to be on top of
things and clean up the html when i see they've updated it, but i've been
too busy wrapping up some major e-commerce things for launch on 9/1.

there are so many things i'd have liked to have gotten done with regard to
moving the content ahead of the left and right panels in the source,
accessibility, etc. that i just didn't have time for.  it's certainly a huge
improvement over previous efforts, imo.

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> Now -updates- should happen as often as possible.  New
> content makes people come back.  New designs drive 'em
> away, often as not.
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if they're there for the content to begin with, a design change shouldn't
change that, especially if you've made the site download and render faster,
more usable, better organized, etc.  in other words, a redesign shouldn't be
done simply to put a new "skin" on top of the same old thing.  it should be
done in conjunction with addressing other shortcomings of the site/design.

just my 2c,

.jeff

------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Howden - Web Application Specialist
Resume - http://jeffhowden.com/about/resume/
Code Library - http://evolt.jeffhowden.com/jeff/code/




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