Our band website has needed updating for longer than I'd like to admit. A while ago I'd tinkered with a new design in Photoshop, but it didn't look quite right. Finally this week, I started tinkering again until I had something good enough to show Ron the Drummer.
Before sending him the file today, I realized that the bit of text I'd put in the "News" section on the home page was out of date. I didn't feel like spending a lot of time coming up with something different, so I went with: "We've got all kinds of cool plans in the works, but if we told you, we’d have to kill you."
Later, at rehearsal, Ron said he thought the new design was fine, but could I take out the "kill" part? Given everything that's happened?
I didn't argue. For me, it was placeholder text, to be used only if I couldn't think of anything better. But damn, that's sad.
Can we please go long enough without another evil, pointless mass shooting that we can make stupid "then I'd have to kill you" jokes without anybody thinking twice about the deeper meaning?
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Advocacy, naming conundrums, and the Cinder Bridge website
Construction of the new and improved Cinder Bridge website continues apace. Well, maybe not "apace." It continues in fits and starts, whenever I happen to have time to poke at it.
In a sense, working on the website is more difficult now than when I did the original version. Back then I had no real experience with design. I wanted the thing to look good, sure, but I was satisfied with a semi-decent amateur effort. These days I create book covers for a living. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing. So now, of course, it has to be perfect.
What do they say about doing surgery on your own baby? Oh yeah: don't.
Anyway, I think I've finally gotten myself past the it-has-to-be-perfect stage. The mockup of the home page is almost done. Almost. Just as I was about to declare it complete and move on, I realized that there was a problem.
The new website will have an additional page for our ME/CFS advocacy efforts, with information about the disease and a blurb about why we recorded Everybody Knows About Me. All well and good. But the navigation link to this future page says "Advocacy."
People familiar with the band might guess that means advocacy for ME/CFS. No one else will.
Possible alternatives?
In a sense, working on the website is more difficult now than when I did the original version. Back then I had no real experience with design. I wanted the thing to look good, sure, but I was satisfied with a semi-decent amateur effort. These days I create book covers for a living. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing. So now, of course, it has to be perfect.
What do they say about doing surgery on your own baby? Oh yeah: don't.
Anyway, I think I've finally gotten myself past the it-has-to-be-perfect stage. The mockup of the home page is almost done. Almost. Just as I was about to declare it complete and move on, I realized that there was a problem.
The new website will have an additional page for our ME/CFS advocacy efforts, with information about the disease and a blurb about why we recorded Everybody Knows About Me. All well and good. But the navigation link to this future page says "Advocacy."
People familiar with the band might guess that means advocacy for ME/CFS. No one else will.
Possible alternatives?
- ME/CFS advocacy
Doesn't fit, and I'd rather not make the links smaller if I can avoid it. Also, it shares a problem with ... - ME/CFS
That's OK, but I'd like to eventually expand our advocacy to all neuroimmune diseases. We could be a lot more powerful if people with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, multiple chemical sensitivities, and others banded together. - Neuroimmune advocacy
Doesn't fit. - NID advocacy
You've figured out that NID stands for neuroimmune disease because of the context, but no one else will know.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Under construction
Back in 2003, Ron the Drummer and I agreed that Cinder Bridge needed a website. I exhausted every scrap of HTML knowledge I had to create ...
www.cinderbridge.com
Yep. I made that.
Oh, it's not terrible, I suppose. It's easy enough to navigate. There aren't any egregious design flaws. There's not one bit of text in Comic Sans. Still, standards for such things have risen in the last seven years, and my efforts are pretty obviously DIY.
Also, I've been spoiled by the blogging interface. Type, save, publish. If I want to make a revision or new post live, I click a button. I don't have to deal with ftping a revised page somewhere. Doing it the old way shouldn't be such a stumbling block, but it is. I haven't updated our Events page since ... let me check ... June 29.
Of 2009.
Anyway. We've been intending to replace the site with something better for years. A couple of months ago, I did some research and decided to hire the work out. I'll do most of the basic design, but none of the coding. My life is too busy to waste it relearning HTML and testing everything I do in five different browsers. The people we hire will also have the knowledge to build in a content management system, which will make updating the site more of a one-click affair.
Part of me feels a little silly devoting any real time to this. We don't absolutely need a website when we have Myspace (be it ever so defunct) and a blog. But from time to time, it'll be nice to have somewhere professional to send people.
www.cinderbridge.com
Yep. I made that.
Oh, it's not terrible, I suppose. It's easy enough to navigate. There aren't any egregious design flaws. There's not one bit of text in Comic Sans. Still, standards for such things have risen in the last seven years, and my efforts are pretty obviously DIY.
Also, I've been spoiled by the blogging interface. Type, save, publish. If I want to make a revision or new post live, I click a button. I don't have to deal with ftping a revised page somewhere. Doing it the old way shouldn't be such a stumbling block, but it is. I haven't updated our Events page since ... let me check ... June 29.
Of 2009.
Anyway. We've been intending to replace the site with something better for years. A couple of months ago, I did some research and decided to hire the work out. I'll do most of the basic design, but none of the coding. My life is too busy to waste it relearning HTML and testing everything I do in five different browsers. The people we hire will also have the knowledge to build in a content management system, which will make updating the site more of a one-click affair.
Part of me feels a little silly devoting any real time to this. We don't absolutely need a website when we have Myspace (be it ever so defunct) and a blog. But from time to time, it'll be nice to have somewhere professional to send people.
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