]]> http://www.richterwebdesign.com/blog/2011/12/subtle-yet-awesome/feed/ 0 http://www.richterwebdesign.com/blog/2011/10/pon-preview/ http://www.richterwebdesign.com/blog/2011/10/pon-preview/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:39:32 +0000 gregg http://www.richterwebdesign.com/blog/?p=412 Continue reading →]]> Screenshot of my pong site I am working on. When complete will be a (HTML5 compliant) functioning JavaScript pong game as true to the original version as I can get it. Planning on some cool easter eggs in the site too.

A couple of months ago, I launched a new website for jazz legend, Dick Berk.  Since then I have been meaning to write a quick overview of some of the more interesting features of the site, but these endless beautiful Seattle summer days have kept me from doing so.  Or perhaps, I just haven’t gotten to it,.. until now.

Some items of note;

• The entire site is “above the fold”.  Yes, numerous web designers will tell you this is bad in practice, but this site was so clean, and the background image so striking, that I wanted to keep everything on one page, and have the image scale with each window.  So with that, the site will render on 99% of screens out there.  This site looks amazing on an iPad as well as on a 27″ Apple Cinema Display.
• This site is valid HTML5.  Which really, doesn’t mean a whole lot.  Other than using specific tags and mark-up, the real fancy stuff comes on the next bullet.
• This site is not only valid HTML5, but the audio player portion will play in both Flash and HTML5.  The page will detect your browser’s capability and then give you the necessary playback mechanism, all silently.  And the experience is identical for Flash playback, vs. HTML5 playback.  This all happens with an amazing (and somewhat difficult to implement) jquery utility called jplayer.  Check it out at jplayer.org.
• This last item may seem odd to be included in the list, but I love it.  If you navigate to any page beyond the site root, and click any portion of the background image, you will be brought back to the main page.  Obviously this was easily accomplished by setting an <a> tag on the background image.  Simple, yet effective.

Other items on this site provided by RWD (me):

• PHP contact page
• Website hosting
• Domain name registration
• Custom Fonts
• Complete site design and development
• Organic Search Engine Optimization efforts

For this site I am proud to provide the site design & development as well as the hosting, email, enhanced Search Engine Optimization, logo design & a whole lot of the color green.

Check it out, http://campaigntreasuryservices.com

Gregg

I get these monthly newsletters from Adobe that tell all about the upcoming education events.  It drives me nuts that a company like Adobe, that makes such amazing products for digital design, and employs so many industry leaders and experts, would continually commit such an obnoxious oversight on their text reflection.

Do you see it?  The tail on the letter ‘y’ does not work with their reflection effect.  The reflection effect would lead you to believe that all the letters up until the ‘y’ are sitting evenly on a glossy black surface.  Once you get to the ‘y’ the effect is broken because since it has a tail, it couldn’t possibly be sitting in line with the other letters.  If it were, it would oddly be sitting higher and the very bottom of the letter would be in line with the very bottom of the other letters.  Which would make it look more like FebruarY.  They further complicate the issue by allowing the portion of the letter ‘y’ that is in line with the other letter bottoms to reflect… does that mean the tail is laying flat on this reflective surface?

They could fix the issue by using a different typeface that allows the bottom of all letters to align or they could use all caps in the current typeface. Or of course, they could eliminate the reflection effect altogether.

I know I am being a bit nit-picky but this has been going on for months and months and from a company like Adobe whose customers and employees are in the digital design, typography, web design, etc… professions, it just makes no sense.

There, I feel better now.

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com

Items of note about this site:

1. PayPal integration for extensive catalog
2. Outstanding custom fonts
3. Lightbox integration
4. Background image and site contents expand & contract to both window height & width

To see Deborah’s New Work live and in person she has an exhibit going on now through February 8th 2011 with an Opening Reception, Friday January 14th, 6-9pm.

Hours: Tues – Sat 10-6 & Sun 11-5

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com

Recently Matt emailed me and inquired about updating some media files and adding custom fonts.  So we found some great custom fonts, added some new media, edited some content, and while I was at it, made numerous subtle changes to font size, layout and even a couple color adjustments.  The end result is fantastic.  What was a website that looked 98% complete, has gone to a website that looks outstanding with a nice polished finish (in all modern browsers).

Judge for yourself, http://mattcordier.com

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com

Of course I realize that I geek out on this stuff way more than most.  But, between RWD & my day job as an IT Applications Manager, I spend an enormous amount of time in various browsers.  As more and more enterprise & personal applications are added to the web, our time spent there will obviously continue to increase.  Browser functionality and the User Experience will continue to evolve and there are likely features that don’t yet exist today that 5 years from now we won’t fathom living without… think tabbed browsers.  The browser makers (Mozilla, Opera, MSoft, Apple & Google) are in an all out war & like everything else, the competition brings big change & benefits to you and me.

Of course, being a Web Designer in Seattle, I would like nothing more than to see the hometown team from Redmond put together an adequate browser… but that’s not happening anytime soon.

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com

I am excited today to officially launch Matt’s newest website, www.mattcordier.com.  Matt and I worked many many hours over the past few months on this site and dare I say we are both quite pleased with the final result.  Over the coming weeks I will undoubtedly write blog posts about various particular techy functions on the site, but for now, for today, let’s just let the website do the talking.

It’s worth noting that while the website is ready for your eyes and ears, come back often as Matt and I still have plans and work ahead of us to add more audio, video, & other content… not to mention Matt’s blog posts on his site too.

http://mattcordier.com -or-  http://thechicagodrummer.com

Thanks Matt, It has been great working with you.

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com

Moo is a great little service.  They have a few different sizes of cards and your choice of matte finish or traditional paper finish.  What I like most about Moo is the ability to order a test batch of 10 cards and the ability to use your own designs (they have templates too).  So I did an initial test batch of cards and what I got, I didn’t like.  1st mistake, I went and set my design to 72dpi (dots per inch) as opposed to the Moo recommended 300dpi.  The result was a fuzzy font and image.  On top of that, once I received my initial test batch, I had completely changed direction on the design idea for my cards.  So back to the drawing board I went, downloaded their design layout guide for Photoshop (only need to do this if you are designing your cards), completed my new design, and resubmitted.  Second time around though, I felt much more confident about my overall design and went ahead and ordered a pack of 50.

So, the cards arrived yesterday and they look pretty nice!  They even came in a fancy little box.  Another thing I like about Moo is the ability to have up to 10 different card designs in a pack.

If I had to find somethings to complain about… Moo doesn’t take American Express, they don’t offer embossed fonts, no rounded edges on the cards, the 10 different designs in a pack only applies to one side of the card, and they don’t have any other options beyond their standard matte or paper finish (meaning you can’t specify the weight of the paper or opt for some fancy alternative material like wood, metal, or plastic… yes I have seen cards using these materials). But this is mostly me being nit picky… overall great cards, great service at a great price.

Here they are…

Gregg – http://richterwebdesign.com