A Little Sneak Peak

[o0 Ryan 0o]

Well I've been dinking around here and there with a new design. It's finally starting to come together. I've been having issues deciding on color schemes, so I was like hmm...maybe I'll do them all.

Here is small peak at our new web 2.0 site...in 4 flavors (top right): http://www.ryanroth.com/newsite/

It's valid XHTML and CSS, so far. Everything is going to be pretty lightweight and quick to load. I'm extremely excited about the themes/skins. They're set up to use cookies so the site will remember what you picked previously when you visit again. I'm also working on some more javascript and ajax ideas, but for now there are just some random loading images (3).

Anyways, everything is working on every browser I've tested. The web 2.0 stuff can be a little glitchy cross browser, so if you seen an issue could you please screen shot it and let us know what browser you're using.

Again, this is a work in progress, in fact this all I have completed at the moment short of lots of neat pictures. I'm hoping it will come together in the weeks to come. I have a lot of neat ideas in the back of my head.

Thanks for looking

 

[PrototypeGeckos]

It looks great Ryan, I am a fan of the green myself, but it is neat that you can change color for your preference. You do great work, and it shows with that site!!

 

[PacHerp]

looking great Ryan, I like the brown/orange color myself.

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

Looks awesome... you definitely have an eye for design and it shows in every site you've done.

One note: disabling javascript prevents the main image from loading in the background. You might want a default just in case someone wants to view the site without JS (or use php/perl to insert a random image). Also, if you really want to get crazy about using JS, it might be a good idea to use a framework, such as mootools or the EXT framework. It will help ensure the site stays browser compatable as you do more advanced stuff without having to worry about error checking as much. For example, mootools can dynamically link in CSS to acheive the same effect as your color scheme's: http://demos.mootools.net/Asset.css.

Worth looking at if you haven't already. The site looks great.

 

[o0 Ryan 0o]

I've actually been working with a lot of the mootools stuff lately. The CSS theming didn't utilize cookies so I started to look for some that did to see how it worked. I can always build the cookies stuff into the mootools code though. Most of the snazzy things I had in mind were with mootools actually. It's been a little tricky trying to implement some of my ideas, but I'll figure it out eventually. I'm not in a huge hurry since we already have a functioning site. I just slopped this together yesterday quickly to see if a few of my ideas were doable. I definitely have a bit to go yet.

How familiar are you with mootools? If I get hung up with anything, would you mind if I shot you a PM? Thanks.

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

I'm pretty familiar with mootools, not so much with EXT. I've used mootools for a number of internal websites/apps at work, and the managers love how interactive it is and how nice it can look. It can actually handle cookies, although the css assets don't necessarily use them, you can always use the Hash.Cookie methods to store an object or array, which you could use as a quick indicator. The demo on the site is filled with too much of the graphics it's hard to pull out the parts that deal with cookies.

Feel free to PM with any questions if you get stuck on anything.

 

[dprince]

Ryan, it looks great!! :main_thumbsup:

 

[paulnj]

Ryan, I think the Blue looks great with the image in the link, but with a more tangerine animal the orange would be less distracting and not take from the animals as much as blue would.

Just my humble input and that page looks great.

 

[o0 Ryan 0o]

Thanks for the complements and input guys.

Paul, you can change the theme as you see fit. Swap through and pick the theme that you think works best. I even added a new "classic" clean white version. Also, I think if any color would take away from an orange gecko, it would be the orange. It's pretty bright and it would be easy to think a gecko is not as orange in comparison. I'm not worried though, it's a just highlight color and it has been our color for a while now on our current site.

 

[paulnj]

Oh, guess I should have read the whole post more clearly..... oops

Valid point about the orange on orange too.