Dec 21, 2013 01:46 pm NICE! When I first logged in, the page was a little of a jumble, but when I refreshed,the page fell right into place. I like the new look! And in knowing you a little, I'm sure this is only the first tweak of many to come. :)
New web site launched (obviously)
Posted on Dec 21, 2013 12:41 pm
dbmasters
Administrator Since: Apr 03, 2002
OK, I got a wild hair up, well, wherever wild hairs get up...and decided to remake HRC over this hollarday weekend...seems things fell into place quicker than I expected...I am sure there are some bugs, so, when you find 'em, post 'em, here...I still may play around with different fonts and crap thru the weekend just to amuse myself...
Just so you know, there were a few goals here...
First, I have been doing a lot of responsive design work of late, so I wanted to move HRC in that direction, and, while it won't be perfect just yet, it should be much better than it was, and, has a new basic platform that will allow me to make it better and better over time as I do more, learn more and technology advances.
Secondly, it's just gotten stale, and it's my fault, I haven't put much time or effort into it, traffic has declined, forum has gotten quiet, rankings have dropped because, quite honestly, I have not had time to do much with it.
Thirdly, the original purpose of this site in the very first place when it was built over a decade ago, was to be my playground to try new things...learn new tech and have a place to play with it...well, it's fallen way behind...I have updated this from an outdated Yahoo YUI and old CSS to the latest jQuery and jQuery UI versions, HTML5 and CSS3...of course, weeding out all the older HTML will be done over time, but this was a huge start.
Lastly, just to give it a more updated look, more breathing room in the design and just try sumthin' new.
I hope you enjoy the new format.
[ Back to Top ]
Dec 21, 2013 01:46 pm NICE! When I first logged in, the page was a little of a jumble, but when I refreshed,the page fell right into place. I like the new look! And in knowing you a little, I'm sure this is only the first tweak of many to come. :)
Dec 21, 2013 03:37 pm Thanks, Rob! You are one guy I remember uses his mobile devices more, so you are always in mind when I am developing these formats for smaller screens.
...and yes, you are right, I have more in mind, but baby steps, first I needed to concentrate the content on the strengths of the site...the forum and articles (even articles are outdated, but still relevant by and large, the science of audio doesn't change)...and into a more fluid format that can move with the device size...now that I have that in place, I'll see what else I can manage to pull off...
One of the fun parts now is to make sure the different images, videos, soundcloud and such will adjust their sizes with screen size. I see SoundCloud already does...the rest is on me...fortunately, I find these challenges fun...WHEN I have the time!
Glad you like it so far. I did just add some code that will hopefully keep it from being jumbled on the first visit by regular visitors.
Dec 21, 2013 10:21 pm Just happen to be popping in today.
My primary thought on the redesign is with the forum...the 'boxes' need to not have a scroll bar as it slows navigation by capturing the scrollwheel action from the page.
Dec 22, 2013 05:01 am Yeah, I agree with that, it has been annoying me as well...it's gotten in the way a few times.
So, I changed it...I couldn't decide if cutting posts off are better or figuring out how to implement that "read more" type of functionality that is so common on social media...that type of link would be easy with just text input, but we have images and videos and stuff, which makes it tougher to add...
Thanks for the input.
Dec 22, 2013 10:20 am I have to say that I really dig the clean look going on here.
So far it looks good on my Asus tablet screen. Maybe traffic will pick up again, and I'll have more reason to hang around and post more here, haha! I know, I've been hanging around that "other" site a bit lately. I'm a forum traitor!
Though, I do check this site at least every other day, heh.
Dec 23, 2013 08:14 am Thanks j-bot...I have run some level of testing on desktop, laptop, chromebook, kindle fire and an android phone and, while the responsiveness isn't perfect, it seems pretty good, I'm happy with it from a starting point platform.
The next big step will be replacing form validation with jQuery validation, which will be much sexier than the current model, and, slim down the JavaScript needed to perform such stuff...maybe do that tonight...unless happy hour for the holidays with some buddies happens to come up. :-)
Dec 23, 2013 01:44 pm Hey deebs... looks great! I can probably help with some testing as we have lots of toys here. All kinds of tablets, all in ones etc. Let me know if there is something in particular that you would like tested and I will see if I can accommodate.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to you and everyone else here!
Dec 24, 2013 10:40 am Hey, if you get the time, scroll thru any part of the site and check it out. I am not really too worried about functionality, perse' but more just how the site formats itself to the different screen sizes...more front end adaptability than anything else.
Merry [insert holiday of choice here] to everyone as well.
Dec 24, 2013 07:26 pm Merry Christmas guys. I thought I was tripping at first when I saw the page load. It'll take me a bit to get used to it I'm sure, but I understand the reason for playing with it. Playing is fun!
I've been doing some web coding lately as well. Lots of JQuery at the moment and to a lesser extent some Jquery UI. I'm keen to see what functionality you end up using.
edit: Did you do away with the subforums?
Dec 24, 2013 10:00 pm Hey coolo, good to see you. Nice to see some regulars are still comin' around.
Yeah, jQuery and jQuery UI are something I have been working with a lot in 2013, and always wanted to find the time to switch HRC over...HRC was looking so aged and I kept tweaking stuff but it still looked aged, it needed a facelift...badly...and the responsiveness needed to be improved exponentially...plus, lots of time off work over the holidays, so it seemed a good time.
Right off the bat, jQuery and jQuery UI were immediately used to assist with the responsive design using it for JavaScript size media queries to get browser window size, the dropdown navigation menu, and to slim down the JS in general, today I added form validation from jQuery, and I do have code that hasn't been released yet, to replace new window popups with modal dialog popups instead. Pretty basic functionality, but at least brings tech and usability into a current form.
Subforum code is still in place, but it's not being listed or navigated the same way in the UI...I just realized that myself, and will be adding more logical subforum nav back in over the coming days.
Dec 30, 2013 12:43 pm Hey dB, just getting back to work today after being off for awhile. I just wanted to post a quick reply to see how the latest posts appear on the main forum page.
|
Related Forum Topics: |
If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.