http://www.removement.com/ Blah, Blah, Blah en jtechtmann@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-02-03T02:10:01-06:00 http://www.removement.com/blabber/comment/remix_01_jsonline/ http://www.removement.com/blabber/comments/remix_01_jsonline/#When:02:10:01Z I was asked recently about the jsonline.com website, and most importantly how would I make it better. I decided to spend a day or two and remix the jsonline.com site. This is my answer after a few days of thought.You can see my remix here View Full size image News sites like these have to be hard to get right. There is so much information to present. I am by no means saying I have come up with the end-all solution. I have not. What I did was try to clean it up a bit, separate the different sections of content a bit more, reduce some of the redundant links and just make it a bit more pleasurable to look at and navigate. This remix is not fully developed, but is developed enough you can get the idea. Color Palette The first thing I did was to sample the major colors from the logo to create a palette. We have the light blue and dark blue from the gradient in the "JS" and the corresponding "Journal Sentinel". There is the almost black from the "online" and the darker red from the gradient red underline. I then also added two lighter variations of gray to give a couple more options and brighten the site up a bit. The current site seems kind of dark and gloomy to me. Layout Decisions If you look at the side-by-side image above of the original on the left and the remix on the right you can see it looks a little cramped. It is also difficult to decipher a menu structure. So I went to the good ol' grid for some structure and to make the design a bit more comfortable. The Grid I decided to give the content some flexibility I would use a 16 column grid. We need to have at least 300 pixel in the far right column for the 300 pixel ads. I also wanted to open the menu column a bit so it was not so narrow. So this left me with having to decide if we cater to the 800x600 resolution crowd or not. The current page came in at 953 pixels, so I figured it was safe to not have to cater to the lower resolution crowd, but would not really know until I saw some web stats, so I just assumed on this fact. I bumped the width up a bit and used a 16 column grid at 45 pixels each with 17 gutters (including the two outer gutters) at 15 pixels each giving us a total of 975 pixels for a total width. View Full size image The menu column gets 3 columns, the main content receives 7 columns and the right column receives 6 columns which in spots I have broken up to give 2 columns of 3 to help with some smaller link columns. Redundancy With so much information and many menu items listed down the left side I noticed there was a redundancy of menu items. The header item in the menu list was not linkable and directly following was a link to the home page. This occurs in all menu sections. So I decided to just link the main menu item and get rid of the following "Main Page" links. It was brought to my attention that the classifieds are the biggest money maker but to me this is a bit much. If its the first thing on the page (and I think lightening up the top bar helps it stand out more in my version) people should be able to see it. In my version I have added a little reminder to the classified page and a way for people to one click to buy ads. I think that is enough and yet again helps get some of the other links closer to the top. Header I also added some tabs to the header, created a larger search box and a more prominent weather icon and current conditions. I wanted to give the header a cleaner look. The tabs were added for the major sections of the site. To give the user a quick way to get to were they want to go. I came to get entertainment news, I can access the Entertainment tab without having to scroll down the page and find entertainment. I also got rid of three more side bar navigation items by adding the login form and join buttons to the left of the tabs. Why not just let your subscribers, who took the time to sign up, a quick and easy login method. You are seeing more of these nice graphical ways of showing what the weather is like. Why not. It adds a nice graphical element to the header, rather than that small little icon you cant tell what it is. I also like these because the are actually informational. I sit inside all day and like to know what the weather is like before I leave in the morning and when I leave after work. Last but not least I cleaned up the search box. Those pre-filled form boxes are not always the most accessible of things so I used a label instead and dropped a gray background behind the form to stand it out a bit. Conclusion Really the end goal of this remix was to help define space, help the content to breath and to aide a bit in helping people find content. I learned a whole lot in this little exercise. I am sure as I look at this project more I could most certainly improve on things, but I think as a couple day exercise it was quite effective and made me think about design and layout a bit. View the project page Remix 2008-02-03T02:10:01-06:00 http://www.removement.com/blabber/comment/pixelsurgeon_is_dead/ http://www.removement.com/blabber/comments/pixelsurgeon_is_dead/#When:01:06:00Z Sad, sad, sad! This was one of the greats, one I used to frequent probably everyday. Helped introduce me to "graphics" as I know it, weather it be static, motion, websites it was cutting edge. Now it is gone. Gone out on top, the way to go. Pixelsurgeon will be missed. Thanks for the inspiration!Sad, sad, sad! This was one of the greats, one I used to frequent probably everyday. Helped introduce me to "graphics" as I know it, weather it be static, motion, websites it was cutting edge. Now it is gone. Gone out on top, the way to go. Pixelsurgeon will be missed. Thanks for the inspiration! News 2007-12-02T01:06:00-06:00 http://www.removement.com/blabber/comment/new_stuff_old_stuff/ http://www.removement.com/blabber/comments/new_stuff_old_stuff/#When:01:07:00Z Here come some of those updates I was talking about! We'll I have been very busy but found a bit of time the other night to add some projects. I have added two new projects and three older projects. Check them out.Techtnologies Website Techtnologies, LLC was started by my brother and I to help ease the growing solutions in technology in Southeastern Wisconsin. We are a small Development and Web Design firm offering low cost solutions and job contracting. Maggie and Jeremy's Wedding After 7 years, 6 apartments, 4 cities and 2 and half degrees, Jeremy, armed with flowers, popped the question and we are getting married! We have set a date for August 9, 2008 at the Eisner Museum in the Historic Third Ward in Downtown Milwaukee. Oneself - Oneway Another Milwaukee Great. Hailing from the Rusty Ps Oneself has been around the Milwaukee Scene for quite some time, laying down smooth raps and funky, jazzy tracks. Give a listen, you won't be disappointed. Rusty Ps - Versus MKE Such a great concept. They invited all there friends who produce, create music and made an album. I wanted the look of the design to look like a compilation of diffrent objects put together to form this great piece of art. Rusty Ps - Out of Many This was done when I fist started hanging with the Ps. Known then as the Rusty Pelicans (changed right before the album came out). By far the best hip-hop to grace this fine planet. Some great special guests on this one. Site News 2007-10-11T01:07:00-06:00 http://www.removement.com/blabber/comment/post_made_in_milwaukee/ http://www.removement.com/blabber/comments/post_made_in_milwaukee/#When:10:49:01Z Milwaukee has surpassed all our expectations. We were really impressed to see Milwaukeeans come out and support it's local art and artists. We had Music, Art, Live Art, a Silent Auction and a full on Fashion Show. Made in Milwaukee 5 was a smashing success. It was so good to see Milwaukee as a community that supports it's art community. I have said it before, but there is so much great art, music, fashion, wearables being produced in this city and to have the community come out like that and support these creative people brings us such joy. I and I am sure I speak for the rest of all the amazing people who helped with the event would like to personally thank Milwaukee for showing the love. You make all the hard work put into this event worth it every year. This is why Made in Milwaukee exists. To give people an outlet to show Milwaukee what they create and on the flip side, give people a venue to come see all this work. I will be writing more in the near future of the importance of supporting a community and talk about some online tools we are developing to help madeinmilwaukee.com help Milwaukee support it's community. Video of Fashion Ninja's Fashon show from the event. Until then here are some links and press from the event. The Milwaukee Scene (great pics of fashion show and event) On Milwaukee (middle of the page) MKE Online JS Online Events 2007-08-09T10:49:01-06:00 http://www.removement.com/blabber/comment/new_site/ http://www.removement.com/blabber/comments/new_site/#When:09:48:00Z Please be patient! I am in the process of moving the site to a new server and new CMS platform. Look for lots of new updates soon!I have moved my platform from Wordpress to Expression Engine. I have many reasons for the move which I will be explaining as soon as I am up and ruinning. Lot's of art, digital projects I have been cranking out and some thoughts from me to come very shortly. I just finished some big projects and will have some time to dedicate to this site. Site News 2007-07-02T09:48:00-06:00