I no longer update this old site (started in 1995, ended in 1999.) I've put it up for historical purposes, and who knows, maybe you'll find something useful. The forms and such don't work anymore.
You can find my new site here.
Matt, 19 March, 2000
This is a bare-bones start to what I plan on writing here. I will be
recording my site-design philosophy, among other things, here, so check
back every now and then for updates.
I've put this version of my site together with a few principles in mind:
brevity, clarity, ease of navigation. I'm trying for an integrated, clean
feel that is unobtrusive, yet informative.
I've got very definite ideas about what makes a site good, and I
hope to convey some of them through this one.
The advent of arbitrary colored text rendered "colored hotlinks" obsolete
because one can no longer tell if a piece of blue text is a link, or just
someone's idea of "attention grabbing." To make links stand out in a page,
something new is needed, and my solution is to put a "glyph" after each
link that unobtrusively lets the viewer know that
this
is a link. With this approach, page designers can use colored text for
whatever they desire and still let their readers know where the links
are. Of course, the glyph can be any shape and color, and I'll be putting
up a library of them one of these days.
Every page is bounded at the top and bottom by horizontal lines that
delineate the beginning and end, rather than allowing the browser borders
to act as boundaries. Every page also has an image in the upper left:
-
-
the home page. central to site, can get to any section from here
-
source pages. cgi, java and vrml source and discussions
-
japan pages. shogi, daruma, and links to other sites
-
general pages. guestbook, feedback, hotlist, this page
-
aboutme pages. resume, personal info, pictures
The images and color scheme allow for instant identification of the pages
as members of my site, as well as allowing users to quickly tell what
section they're in. The bottom horizontal lines also serve as
navigation tools (navbars) for the site. At every level except the home
page, you can go to every other page at the same level, back to the
home page, or to the feedback form.
The home page will offer an alternative navigation device, a pop-out VRML
navigator. This will require a VRML 1.0 browser and JavaScript support.
The problem with using VRML to model a relatively small site is that the
2D web is already a good way to present the information and navigate it;
what does 3D bring to the table that 2D doesn't?
I used to say that
Netscape Navigator
3.0 or higher is the best browser for my site. Nowadays, though, IE 4.0
seems to be quite adequate for the technologies I've used in this old site.
When I get around to a redesign, I'll probably support Netscape 4.0 and
IE 4.0 and try not to get too tricky.
In case you haven't noticed, I spark up a new window for links outside
of my site. This lets people visit other places while remaining at my
site.
