Warthog 2010 Makes an Appearance
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.