So here we go — I ' ve stripped all of the styles and graphics from the site, and we ' re gonna start redesigning the website. I ' ve scoped it out, and instead of just posting up a new design, I'm gonna do it over several days, and post daily progress.

If you haven ' t ever really considered how to create a site design from the ground up, hop on in,--it might be interesting. Today — The plan

Just to catch everybody up to speed…

Today, I’m going to be planning the site design. In order to do this in the most organized way possible, I’m going to use a project framework.

There are five major components that I am going to be tackling:

1. Planning – today
2. Detailed planning - one day
3. Development (HTML, graphics, CSS) – three days
4. Bug fixing – one day
5. Rollout – one day

In this plan, it will take me one week to finish the project. However, reality being what it is, I expect it to take about ten days.

Scope: I am going to be redesigning the templates for this site. The way that most websites work is like this:
Instead of simply coding every page of the website, a software called a content management software (or CMS) is installed on the web server, and acts as a layer between the website developers (Nanc and Matty) and the HTML layer. All of the content that we write is stored in a database, then inserted into templates that define what the website will look like.

There are a number of templates to consider, such as templates for the front page, for individual article pages, and so on.

Goals: The site should be attractive, easy on the eyes, and easy to use. The ‘easy to use’ part is tricky and consists of a number of items.

• All the parts are in the right place
• It should work in modern browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. It should also degrade well for folks using older computers.
• It should look good, regardless of the screen resolution.

So, that’s about it for the first day of planning. Come back tomorrow for the see the rest of the plan

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