Monday, September 17, 2007

Site Spotlight: Erikloyer.com

One of the new ideas that I want to add to EE Design is a site review. I have selected ErikLoyer.com to be the first site in the review.

Erik has created a very nice feel with his site. The colors and typography create warmth and beauty. I especially like how he chose to handle the project section. It seems like it should be easy to display work on the web, but many times it isn’t. Its well organized and I love the description pages. By showing selected steps involved with each project, I think you get a feel for what it might be like to work with someone.

Take a few moments and check out ErikLoyer.com. It is terrific.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Expression Engine Template Cheat Sheet

Once you have a few templates under your belt, the Expression Engine template process is fairly easy. In the mean time, its nice to have a reference sheet to go back to when you need some code help. If you haven’t seen it before, you should check out the Expression Engine Template reference chart.

On the chart you will find variables and parameters and where to use them. This can be huge when you are taking your freshly coded HTML and CSS files into Expression Engine. I have several copies printed and laminated and keep them around for easy reference. If you would like to download the file as a PDF, click on Expression Engine Reference Chart to get it.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Renovating A Website Part Two

In the last post, we sorted out what we knew about the site. For me, the next step is to think through what could be on the site. I’m a big believer that a website should have value that is greater than its own content. One way to do this is to add links to other relevant sites and information. Maybe pull some feeds in from other relevant sites. I won’t go through an entire list, but hopefully, you get the idea. The goal for EE Design, isn’t to just be EE Design, but to be the Expression Engine Design resource site.

Expression Engine Design is a subject that is bigger than just one author or one site. For your own site, its important to evaluate this idea as well. What value can you add to your readers’ experience? How can you take what you have and bring it together with some other great things to make an even greater site?

Once you have decided on what you will have on the site, the next step is to start working on fitting all this stuff together. For me, this isn’t a huge formal thing. I usually start out with tracing paper and a Sharpie. The important thing is to just start getting things out there. This is a very solvable puzzle, but its one that you don’t see the picture until it is complete.

In the next installment of Renovating a Website, I will dig into this subject more and maybe even show off a few of my über cool sharpie sketches.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Renovating a Website Part One

Designing a website from the ground up isn’t an easy undertaking. There are so many things that are unknown. Are people going to visit the site? How will it be used? What will the site be known for? There are probably hundreds of questions that could be asked when building from the ground up. What about an existing site though?

Renovating an existing website brings a different set of challenges with it. Existing content can be a challenge, but the beauty of the blog format is that it fades away as new posts are created. What about existing layout features though? Deciding what to keep, remove and add can be quite an adventure in thought.

EE Design is a great example of this very situation. The site has some content in place, but it has been neglected and needs some content love. From the design perspective, it needs an overhaul. The site also could use some new features to give it more value.

So to begin this process, my first step is evaluate what the site currently has:

Articles: 43 articles
Downloadable Templates: 18 templates
Design: Design dates back nearly three years
About page
Archives page
Sites page
Submit page

The next step is to figure out what to do with that information and what to add to it. Be on the look out for part two of Renovating a Website.

Monday, September 03, 2007

EE Design Is Back

After a[nother] change in ownership, EE Design is coming back live and better than ever.

We are currently working on the direction of the site, and what we hope will be a hot new look (after all a design site should have a killer design). In the mean time, feel free to peruse the archives and maybe download a template or two. The Quick list to the right will take you to the different templates that currently live at EE Design.

Look for more information over the next few days and weeks!