Yes that's right! While finishing off my new book, in the background I have been working on putting together a full-blown, full-featured website. At the moment it consists mainly of all the stuff - women's workwear and uniforms catalogue scans and so one - that used to exist as Picasaweb albums linked to the blog, but hosting even more of my collection.
As time goes on it will expand to contain all the things I have featured on the blog in the past and which went to inspire and inform my writing and motivate me to start writing in the first place (and much more besides), but in a more easily accessible and searchable form. Right at this moment the website only exists in a draft form but you can visit this early - 'under construction' - draft version by clicking on either the title banner above or the mission statement thingy picture below. I am very keen to hear your feedback / criticism so feel free to comment here, email, Facebook or Tweet me... I look forward to hearing from you!
For now, this is how two sections of the home page look Whether the title stays as it is depends on the feedback I receive; so it is sort of up to you. I decided to call it Beyond the Barred Window rather than Behind the Barred window because... Well... because it is sort of going... Beyond! Beyond this blog and hopefully beyond the usually accepted remit expectedof a spanking or corporal punishment orientated website (or something like that!).
Love the new site, Garth especially the womens prison uniforms (though you would kind of expect me to say that..)
ReplyDeleteI think I would change the title font, style and background and perhaps center it a bit better over the body of the page. I don't think it needs to be that large and in it's current form it is hard to read and somewhat distracting. Besides that it looks good so far and I look forward to seeing it when it is done.
ReplyDeleteI Thought you might, WIP Fan. But if you think about it, there are a lot of other potential outfits that could be pressed into service or adapted within those old catalogue scans with a little imagination.
ReplyDeleteHi Madmonkey and thanks for the feedback; much appreciated! A question though: when you say it doesn't need "to be that large and in it's current form it is hard to read and somewhat distracting" are you still talking about the title at the top of the home page or the 'mission statement' thing underneath which is superimposed on an adaptation of the light blue Institutionalised volume 2 cover... Oh, and are you viewing it on a computer or smartphone - and if computer, what browser are you using?
That's true, Garth.I do really like mosat of the uniform on display!
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about the website logo in the body of the page. The thing that says "Beyond the barred window..."
ReplyDeleteAnd I am viewing it on a pc using chrome.
Personally I think it should be about a third as tall as it is now. Its about 281px tall, maybe make it more like 100-125px. It just takes up space.
Bloody hell, Madmonkey, don't you sleep?
ReplyDeleteYeah I quite agree, thanks for that! I will eventually check it out in several browsers (which is good practice of course), but it is good to get an idea of what people are viewing it in. I've checked with Chrome (which I hate, as it has 'issues' which crash my computer. Fatally! i.e. the dreaded blue screen!!!) and it looks the same as in MS Explorer.
But, yeah; as you say: The whole caption area is too deep; and that white background is just boring. It is something I would ordinarily tackle by hand – as I did when setting up the blog – but editing the HTML doesn’t seem too easy in Weebly’s setup; it is all template and wizard-driven and at present I cant see how to dig below the surface.
It is quick, easy… but inflexible (but that may be my ignorance). In the meantime, I’ll try out a few other style templates (there are loads) and I’ll try out another method of navigating from page to page; I’d quite like a series of thumbnails consisting of images / graphics pointing to the different subject areas / sub pages so forming a visual, graphical navigation system rather than the pull-down tabs as present. A kind of ‘see-at-a-glance’ or ‘see where you’re going before you get there’ sort of thing.