The Harbaughs :: Amanda & Josh

Every so often someone writes something that hits so close to home. The recent article from A List Apart by Jeffery Zeldman is one such case. He discusses, quite aggressively in some cases, web design's place in the art community. Oftentimes, web design is linked to other mediums or simply given the title "New Media".

He gives this as the definition of what web design is:

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

Read on and be inspired.

I was contracted to help implement a new design for www.trentmerchant.com and it has successfully been launched and ready to view. Trent Merchant is currently running for School Board in Charlotte, North Carolina. The developer and I feel the site was a successful update with very useful modifications to the Wordpress CMS used to power the website.

Have a look see. 

AJAX is the "Web 2.0" name given to a technique that many of the hottest websites are implying, such as, Google, Flickr, Netflix and many others. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML which is basically the idea of refreshing the content on the current page without having to fully reload the screen. This effect creates a much more "desktop-esque" experience for the user meaning it seems more natural and fluid.

As the web becomes a more widely used medium programming techniques like AJAX will grow in popularity. At this point techniques like this seem more like "trends" but really the creation of a more enjoyable user experience is ultimately the final goal of any web designer. Right? Of course it is, otherwise most websites would still use hideously patterned backgrounds and web-safe colors.

For an example of AJAX and how it works exactly check out Google Maps, oogle some photographs at Flickr or browse around Netflix's inventory. I am currently working on a project to allow users to browse the inventory of an online nursery, make purchases and send comments/mail all without having to reload the page on every request for new content. Pretty swank.

After some tweaking and last minute changes I have gotten Pixelhaven up and running. It's a shame the domain I was originally going to go with got taken out from under me. I suppose I can always use a .net domain when I get to that point.

Pixelhaven is a "pet" project of mine. It will allow me to discuss design with clients and it will eventually become the new design portfolio for my freelance website design business. Click here to visit Pixelhaven.

I am almost never completely satisfied with anything I design. The sense of, “What if I try this or that. Maybe a new color ? perhaps green” is always in the back of my mind. I am sure it makes it annoying to live with me sometimes. Because of this I have decided to redesign “The Old Portfolio”. It is always nice to start a new project, especially when it is a personal one.

The sky’s the limit. Anything goes. The design is still in the “Concept” stage of the Design Process (which I may go into at a later time), but the basic elements are all there. I have not decided on colors just yet, as that is the one thing that drives me banana-sandwich about design. Getting the colors just right is something I can literally spend hours doing. Without further ado I present Pixelhaven, my newest design venture. Don’t be concerned with the Latin. The site will be in English, I promise.