Minisite 3 Preview

here's a sneak peak at minisite 3. Go to my minisite 3 to see the full details.
There was a problems with uploading the webpage graphics, but I think it's fixed now.

Minisite 3 Review

As I already said, minisite 3 was up. There are a couple of updates compared to minisite 2.

Navigation
Now users who browse minisite 3 will enjoy skimming through the interactive pop up boxes. When an user browses through the different categories, they will be given the option to quickly browse through all thumbnail images. Then if the user wants to view a particular image, then can click on the image to enlarge the image, then they will have to click either on the image or outside to close the large image to see all the smaller thumbnail images. This mutli-image gallery is all done in CSS.

In addition, more images have been uploaded now. This includes model photos, construction photos more concept sketches.

Site Design
The website now has a more clearer focus on the robotic theme. There are random micro text, some random abstract art to give the website a very futuristic, digital feel. An image of cylons from the popular tv show Battlestar galactica is also shown.
However I wanted white lines to boarder around the lower image, so I used tables in the html code such that the long cylon image doesn't look like it's just plonked there. The table also gives website some structure.

Opacity
When the user browses through the links, there will be transparencies. This gives the website a more sophisticaded depth. However there is a problem with this. It works fine in Mozilla Firefox, However there are some compatibility problems with internet explorer. For some reason, when you click to enlargen an image, the small thumbnails appear over on top of it as well. Strange...I had spent hours trying to fix it and I can't solve the problem. I may have to start from scratch to find out the problem.

Final Product Photos
The final product is finally documented in the form of photos. Some photos have different resolutions and this had created problems. Some photos are landscape and some photos are in portrait form. Since the thumbnail preview boxes are in landscape form, I also chose to display all the images in a landscape format. This required me to do some photo editing in photoshop so that the portrait photos' resolutions aren't warped.

Of course I could of portrait form sized versions of those thumbnail preview boxes, but I wanted all the thumbnail images to be of the same image format to keep the same consistency.

Minisite 3: Opacity

[Above Image: comparison of Left: 70% opaque,Right:100% opaque]

I've been studying the code for the multi-frame gallery I got from CSSplay.co.uk and I've been trying to under what each line of code does by changing the values for each CSS property.

I've also taken it further by applying a opacity css property which allows me to make the background transparent. I found the technique on:

In the css code it looks like this:
[background-color:#000000; opacity:.7; filter: alpha(opacity=70); -moz-opacity:.7;]
Background color is what colour you want to be transparent. Opacity:.7 is the value of the opacity. You can also adjust the opacity seperately for IE and Firefox. This can be done by using the proprietary code: -moz-opacity:.7;]. The filter in this case works for both IE and firefox.

This method is a great way to allows me to change the transparencies using numerical values. I no longer have to make images of semitransparent backgrounds in photoshop. The disadvantage of making a transparent background is that it doesn't allow other users to change the opacity value for themselves.

Overall this is a nice visual feature and therefore I would like to use in my Minisite 3, specifically for the multi-photo frame viewer. This allows the user to also see the background brushed steel artwork.

Minisite 3 Background

I have made an image which I created in photoshop cs2. Since my website theme will be related to robotics, I chose a brushed metal material as a industrial theme. It will form the background image for my minisite 3.

Javascript : Hide/Show Text

Two weeks ago, I managed to write a simple javascript function with the help of Eva. The aim of the classroom tutorial was to solve out how to show and hide more text in a document.

I made an external file and below shows the script:


// JavaScript Document// Expand text- one shot.
function et(rID){
if (document.getElementById){
var tID1 = document.getElementById(rID+1);
if (tID1.className == "ex") {
tID1.className = "ux";
}
else {
tID1.className = "ex";
}
}

}


The follow code below shows the html document: (note that I did not make another seperate external CSS file, so I just wrote it in the head.


[head]
[]
[body]


show hide


(approx. 200K compresses to approx. 25k) The content is first edited in Tiddlywiki, then an HTML export of the content is written to a file. My parser processes this file further, as well as integrating it into other HTML fragments.

-->

Construction of Creative Knight Robot CD stand

All body parts have been cut out from white cardboard and then use PVA glue used to stick all the pieces together. Black and red colour spray paint cans were used to colour in the robot parts.

Only the joints in the body were made out of round balsa sticks. For example, the joint from shoulder to arm, wrist to hand, waist to legs etc...

Minisite 2: Image Viewer

As mentioned previously, I have to work on how to show and present the images I will use on my website in a better way such that it gives more value to those images.

On cssplay.co.uk There is a layout called "Multi-page photo gallery". I have downloaded the source file to understand how it works.

The example file shows 3 tab. Portraits, Landscapes and Birds. When you hover your mouse over the category tabs, it changes colour and it also brings up the photos in a thumbnail array view. (see screenshot above)

When you hover your cursor over the images, the image enlargens by a certain percentage and when you click on it, it maximise to its biggest resolution so you can see a bigger view. However when you move you cursor away and out from the viewing box, the enlargened photos shrinks to it's original thumbnail size in the array view.

Link: http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox3

I think this is an interesting way to allow users to preview multiple images quickly all at once and then gives the user flexible to enlargen what he or she chooses to zoom in at.

I will explore this option a bit further and see how I can implement this technique into my minisite 3.

Minisite 2 Feedback

Yesterday, I got feedback from Justin for my minisite 2. There are 3 things I can improve on.

1) The presentation of images - The way images are placed on the page seems a bit too dull or barbaric..."like it's just plonked there". I should find a more aesthetic or interesting way to present these images. CSS play seems to have a good examples of how to just do that.

2) The navigation menu - This also needs some work on. Seems a bit plain... Needs to show some more interactivity.

3) The overall site design - Since I'm using a futuristic robotic-ish theme, I should focus on how I can use visual elements to represent that on my webpage.

Minisite 2 Review

It's been a while since I uploaded Minisite 2. There are a few improvements compared with minisite 1.

The following issues are:
Screen Size/layout
Readability
Section Cue


In previous websites, I have made webpage resolution too large, so if users with smaller Monitor screens would have to uneccessarily scroll too much. Webpages with lots of text or images should have a longer background webpage to accommodate for that.

If you look under inspirational images, ther are lots of image, so I would therefore have to make the height of the background image longer in my CSS code to accommodate for that. However there is a problem with my code. Since I have the inspirational images section of the page long for the sake of fitting all the large images in, the construction photo section webpage also uses the same height of the webpage, but there is only 2 photos under the construction section. That means the excessive space below is it wasted. I will try to resolve this issue with my minisite 3.

In terms of readability, I have different font types to differentiate between body text and headings. I have set a futuristic font to comply with the website theme. Normal text can be editable via the html.

I have also set a section cue to allow the user to see what he wants when he hovers over the navigation menu words.

Futuristic Fonts?

Fig 1. Induction font

Fig 2.Checkbook font

The fonts used in my webpage is going to be absolutely important. I'm using a futuristic/sci-fiction theme, so i'm going to use some futuristic fonts.

I've downloaded some sci-fi and futuristic font to experiment with and there are 2 I like: checkbook and induction. These are just free fonts you can download off the net. I will use checkbook for sub-headings and induction for the main title of the webpage called "MINISITE 2".

However firefox and explorer don't recognise these fonts, unless all users in the world has this particular custom font. So therefore I would have to type these fonts up in photoshop and save them as an raster image.