Since it is already Tuesday in Hong Kong, I have uploaded the first two pages of the redesign. The Home Page and the Club House page have been freshened up with a nice clean look. Both are very similar in style because essentially, the Club House is my idea of the home page part 2.
I think the new style is cleaner – especially compared the the almost four year old yellow. I have to admit that it will be a bit weird getting used to the new design having spent so much time with the last one. Two things pulled from the site are the contact information and the expanded what’s new listings on the home page. I was getting bad at updating them. My current plan is to put all the What’s New into Movable Type (OK, it is not a new plan, but one that has been around forever) and then having some sort of include on the home page which shows the latest updates.
As for the Club House, I wanted to have a photo of me on vacation, and I chose one of my favorite shots of being on vacation in Tahiti. I did have to crop it a bit to make it fit, so all you get is my lovely elbow. The Club House has never been redesigned since its launch in March 2002, and boy did it need it. There is lots more to do in that section like removing most of the photo galleries, and switching up the layout, but for now a fresh coat of paint will do.
Why did it take so long? Mainly because I was very happy with the old design, and it wasn’t until recently that I felt that some sort of refresh was due. I struggled for awhile coming up with the direction and the style I wanted and there was at least three different aborted attempts. Maybe when I write the Behind the scenes of Club Josh book, I will include all the concept ideas.
What’s ahead? In no particular order: New server, more travel photos, redesign of the trip diaries (some go back to 1998 era design), Splitting Charo site to its own domain, update Doingworld, re-do Jarre section (I admit this is waaaaay down on the list), port What’s New into MT, depricate the mobile, HDML, and PDA sites and make a new Club Josh lite that will be accessible via PDA, Cell Phones, and any other device.
Well that is all for now, enjoy the new pages, and stay tuned for more to come! The comments section works again (you do have to register with Typepad though – its free!) so let me know what you think.