Colophon

A colophon is used in better books to describe the fonts and design processes used in the making of that book. I've included colophons for the last bunch of web pages I've done, mostly so I could remember how I did it.

I envy web designers who manage to completely overhaul their sites every few months. I suffer from option paralysis -- too many ideas! too many interesting things to try! -- and I only manage to roll out a new change sitewide every few years. My last design was in 2004 which included very basic (and very bad) XHTML and CSS-based layout and a blog. This new site design was launched in late 2006.

The goals of this latest iteration were twofold:

• Rework the CSS for the site, improving the code and updating the look.
• Integrate the static "www" part of the site with the dynamic blog by integrating both into a new but extremely custom installation of Movable Type (the blog already was in MT).

Part of the goal of moving to a content management system -- even one as basic as MT -- was to start thinking of the site in terms of reusable, dynamic elements, rather than as static HTML pages. This is a common aspect of content management and information design in the tech writing world these days, so setting up my own site with this in mind was an interesting way to try out the notion. Having the entire site in MT would also enable me to add more dynamic functions throughout the site, for example, a dashboard-like front page and RSS feeds for various pages.

The blue square design of the site originated from the double-colons in the web site title. I used the double colons in my first blog as a silly affectation (limon :: by Laura Lemay). When I started this redesign I pulled the title over first and then the blue squares proliferated from there.

This design is the blue theme. I also have themes for six other colors, and my original intention was to rotate them on a daily basis, but I didn't get around to that.

This site is powered by Movable Type 3.3. It uses the Plugins Compare, PreviousNextInCategory, Supplemental Category Tags (mtcatx), Simple Template, ArchiveDateHeader, and MTIfEmpty.

The tiny icons for comments, permalinks, etc. are the graphicPUSH free blog icon pack. They are terrific. Buy the complete set! Twelve bucks! Cheap!

Site development was done primarily on a Macintosh in TextWrangler and Photoshop, with testing on Windows XP and Fedora Core 4 as well as on my Nokia cell phone.

Primary caffiene source: the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company.

Hosting by DreamHost.