Durban Website Designers

I have had the domain ‘webpage-designers.co.za’ sitting about for a while now. It may be a strange name but at least half of the enquiries for websites that come through the phone refer initially to a ‘webpage’ even though the finished product comes to 50 pages.

Given the momentum generated (if you can call it momentum) by the new Warthog website, I thought I would put something in this vacant space. As usual, a variety of new techniques were experimented with - typically CSS hacks.

The first was CSS drop shadows. A bit of a code mouthful but with the exception of good old IE, worked well. I will experiment with those a lot more.

Second, CSS gradients. I have always been a fan of Uncle Bill’s gradients and other MSIE filters and used to use the gradients a lot. The alternative was to use a background image - fine unless the container has variable height. Yes, you could use a background and an image repeat-x but it has to be loaded and we’re talking about days before CSS appeared.

Third, CSS radiussed corners. I’ve always loved these things because they soften up the page. Many still use the image slice - sorry, takes too long to code and to load (and to edit). Its easy to make these either stand proud or cutout or to have reversed radiuses.

Both the right panels have all these techniques and not a single image. The lower panel I am particularly proud of as each of the nine CSS elements that are required have a three colour gradient applied even though some of the elements are only a single line.

Fourth, a custom scrollbar. I also love this thing. Its a CSS file and several javascripts but works on all the browsers I have tested. The CSS simply defines the scrolltrack and its top and bottom and  then the bar and top and bottom. I have dispensed with the track to keep the display clean. The first bar was of course a barber’s pole - looked great but not appropriate. So, I settled on a threaded bar with a couple of nuts.

Fifth, CSS animation. The round email link enlarges on mouseover - only one image used. I’m not too sure about this but will keep it anyway.

It goes without saying that none of these CSS hacks validates but given their stability across browsers, I have still included the W3C button. The HTML validates with no problems.

In the usual effort to increase search friendliness, the ‘Webpage’ may look like a graphic but its white text on a background. Similarly the ‘websites’ at the very top is real text on a CSS opacity div (it also hides an unfortunate junction where the graphic disentangles itself.

This graphic is not a ‘div’ background. Its the ‘body’ background which makes it easier to add bits on top of it.

SEO-wise, the site features nowhere as yet. I realized belatedly that although Google recognizes ‘web sites’ as ‘websites’, it recognizes ‘webpages’ as ‘web pages’ so I will have to change the header text at some point.

Our local mall - the Pavilion (known to all as the ‘Pav’) - has, since its opening 20 years ago, had a small cafe called Le Petit Cafe. Real upholstered seating , no irritating acoustic wallpaper, good service and walls bedecked with impressionist paintings. Also, arguably the best value meal in Durban. Rack of lamb for R25 where everywhere else is R75. I have eaten hundreds of breakfasts there (R15). Their prices have been so good and they have been so successful that they have kept all the neighbouring (very average) eateries’ prices down although they must be making a profit.

Now, they are being forced to close tomorrow. They have been refused renewal of their lease by the Pavilion management except on a month to month basis which they cannot survive on. Why should this be so?

Many go there to eat and then patronize other shops on the way in or out so they are good for business. One is forced to speculate as to whether pressure has been brought to bear from the other outlets or the management has a pal who wants the space. I regard it as bullying of the worst sort. I was told that those patrons who contacted the undermentioned were told that the cafe did not want to renew the lease - something they deny.

Anyway, the character to get hold of is Lene Wessels - 031 265 0558 / 083 459 5468 - for what its worth although the cafe is due to close its doors tomorrow.

Late, probably by several years - but at least two weeks later than I thought it would take, the latest version of the venerable warthog.co.za has appeared.

Despite the early version making use of the first CSS, it has held up well with all the changes in browsers but it looked dated. The new site uses brighter colours and some new techniques. The CSS is updated to use drop shadows, large 3px radiussed borders and a custom scrollbar. Instead of lists of content items, panels have been used. Its not been validated yet but when the increasingly long list of ‘todos’ has been sorted out, it will be and should validate easily.

The Warthog iconography lends itself to some storytelling so the index page header is different from the other pages. I probably spent too ling fiddling with it but I think it adds a humorous touch that visitors seem to like and remember. The site is also of a fixed height which means that both the header code and right column code are always visible. Yes, it restricts the amount of content in the right column but most visitors don’t bother too much with it anyway. This column currently has a small panel of portfolio sites or tips but can be expanded into something more effective.

Instead of using a fancy gallery script for the portfolio sites, I have gone with simple thumbnails and divided the portfolio by general age. Attached to each thumbnail is a small piece of expandable text describing the website above. This technique is used on the FAQ page.

Another  new item is the opportunity to download various guides that have been developed over the years and sent out on occasion. These need to be edited still but are quite useful. On the same page are a few useful resources.

General page content graphics have been trawled from the Internet but something with a little humour will replace them.

Instead of the split menu of the old site, I have gone for a dropline menu to keep things tidy. The ‘current page’ tab should stand out but that would mean a separate ‘menu.htm’ for every page on the site so I have ignored it. I might add breadcrumbs if there is the risk of confusion.

As far as the content in general is concerned, it is always imperfect and will be the subject of continual fiddling.