Website Design and Inspiration (as a Programmer)

Posted in: Web Design by Steve on November 18, 2008 | No Comments

After using DotNetNuke for the last few years for one of my sites, I decided to build this site from scratch using ASP.NET MVC.  This way, I would have a reason to learn a new technology and try out new techniques. So, first thing I did was try to come up with a new layout.  I wanted to stick with something that was simple and incorporate other websites I’ve come across that make the experience of viewing their site enjoyable.

I haven’t really come up with a design that I am 100% happy with.  I thought about using an open source template from a website, but I still haven’t found anything that I like.  I’ve checked these sites:

• http://www.oswd.org
• http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
• http://www.openwebdesign.org/
• http://www.opendesigns.org/

What sites do you go to for templates?  Who do you use for building your templates?  Have you paid for templates?

I have tried to get inspiration from other sites (Smashing Magazine, etc…) but to no avail.  I wanted to know what other programmers did about their designs.

New Host Hotness

Posted in: General, Web Design by Steve on July 29, 2007 | 1 Comment

I’ve changed hosts and now the site is running so much faster.  I moved to an actual Apache server (instead of the Microsoft one) in order to help learn Ruby, PHP and be able to use a Subversion server.

I’ll be moving all my WordPress and vBulletin over to this new host so please bear with me.

One of the Best sites I’ve ever seen

Posted in: Web Design by Steve on June 21, 2006 | 3 Comments

I was taking a break from programming tonight and doing my regular “Stumbling” around the net (using the Firefox extension, Stumbler, from Stumbleupon.com). I came across this website that absolutely blew me away. It’s all done using a custom AJAX framework and has a great layout. What really struck me was the ease of how to navigate the site. It really doesn’t look like a website at all. There’s a sidebar, a tabbed interface and no postbacks.

There’s also a great icon library search that’s available to search for icons based on keywords. I was trying to build something like this for a client and didn’t get to finish it due to time constraints. It looks great and I hope that he comes out with the framework on how to build this.