Seamlessness - Accomplished

So one of the main issues with our site was the way the info and container expand according to the viewer's browser window, resolution, zoom, etc. After a whole day of brainstorming on the way the divs parent each other I found a way to code it with a seamlessly repeating background across the header + footer while successfully incorporating the z-index for the header menu and the tavern logo, because they are all different divs within each other, for example - if you look closely the logo frame slightly overlaps into the content div's territory. However, despite the small victory, the question with the different resolutions is still very prominent. Because I designed the imagery in a 1280x1024 resolution, if viewed in lower res, everything is very big and overflow is present. One way to fix this is to have different pages designed for different resolutions, and have a Javascript load a certain page according to the viewer's resolution. Another way would be to just recreate all of the imagery/background to a smaller size so it is reasonably viewable in all the other resolutions.......

Figuring out Z-index properties and more...

So our website is done for the most part. The only serious problem we need to resolve is the resizing properties on our website. We want our divs to expand to a certain size but at the same time we do not want to have a scroll bar where the user would have to scroll down to the bottom of the page. It sounds easy to solve - using min/max width properties but trust me, it is kinda confusing.... Other than that, the Wordpress theme is already done - piece of cake.  We shall see how things progress over the Thanksgiving break...

Drop down expandable menu - DONE

So... as the tedious coding slowly takes on somewhat of a similar resemblance to our design, I decided to have an expandable dropdown menu for the food items under the "MENU" page of our website.  I followed this tutorial : http://www.tutorials-db.com/articles/Coding_a_Smooth_CSS_Expanding_Navigation/

and created the drop-down menu. Now it's cool and all, but when you first load the page, all of the items that are to be expanded appear already in their expanded form. It really annoyed me because it is not supposed to behave like that, logically atleast, what's the point of an expandable menu if it loads in its expanded form initially?!?! So in order to solve this problem, I had to actually go through the javascript part of it all and actually COMPREHEND what it does and how it does it........ After an hr of staring at it I finally comprehended it and tweaked it a bit so it initially loads in a collapsed form... A small 1:0 for Alex vs the website. Other than that - Me and Jimmy decided to split up the coding part, he would do the content coding, and I will go on to creating the Wordpress theme for the Events page of our website!!!! Peace.

Let the CODING begin.

So now that we finally decided what way we want to go about doing our website (design-wise), it is time to start coding. Slicing the images up for the header was a lil' confusing since we figured we do not exactly have a simple rectangular-shaped header, due to the Tavern portrait/logo in the upper left corner which will be a div on its own, leading the viewer to the homepage.

Tavern in Progress

So after taking some of the advices during the proposal, I came up with something like this. Here is something that is LESS clean lol, lots of more stuff will be added on top and maybe some on bottom, like sticky notes, football jerseys, football stuff, etc. etc.... This is just so you guys can see in which direction im heading off now. The content of course will be using Jimmy's alignment and layout from his last post..

Content

We could not make it Wed night because I had to work, Tom said it was crazy. Oh well, we have the next wed to do it, we can always shoot some pics for the content. We are still working on some good layouts and what not soo soon to come. Here is a little taste of what the food is like inside :) Stay hungry my friends.

Tavern Photoshoot

So last week we decided to meet up with Tom on Tuesday and discuss the outcome of the website furtherly. However, me and Jimmy did not feel like we had an excellent mock-up ready to show him , so we decided to have a photoshoot of the food. We checked out lights, tripod, I brought my camera, aaand we went there, set up a mini-stage at one of the tables, hooked up the lights and did the damn thing. I felt that Tom was not really confident wether we were good at what we do or not, but when he saw the equipment, and the results, he was positively surprised, and even gave us free food. We will meet with him Thursday (tomorrow) to hopefully show him a good mock-up of the site. We also decided to show up on Friday night, to see what's up with the party atmosphere, take pictures of people having a good time, etc.. for the content of the website. The look of the website is not going to be abstract, more like a polished, usf-looking, place to eat, possibly with a smidgeon of kitsch or some playfull-ness, like the interior of the place.

Tom (The Tavern guy)

We went to the tavern, Thursday morning, to meet with Tom, the owner of the Tavern. He was pretty cool, and we brainstormed for a little bit, got more info on what style he is looking for, what assets & pages the website will contain. We pretty much reached consensus on making a site with the USF feel to it, containing delish pictures of the stuff off of their menu, possibly having a news page which will probably be a blog, a contact page (duh), a gallery for the events that go on in that place aaaaaaand some more stuff. So all in all, it went good, he also offered us some free beer but due to the fact that it was like 9 AM we kindly declined lol... we are meeting with him again on Tuesday to possibly have a photoshoot of the staff or their food, or both...

So the TAVERN it is!!!

Well after the awkward meeting with the owner guy from Moon Under Water, we decided to go talk to the Tavern's owner. Fortunately, he seemed a bit more enthused than the other guy, which was a relief, plus the fact that we are regulars there did help us with getting rid of the awkwardness..He did say that his "buddy" was working on the website but apparently it wasn't really reliable so he was excited and ready to meet with us for further info. Me and Jimmy are meeting with him tomorrow morning to talk a bit more in-depth about what he wants and what are the general characteristics as far as site maps, content, etc... are going to be!!

Site Redesign Assignment

So as our new assignment was handed to us, we had to pick our groups to redesign a website for a local business that does not have an effective website or doesn't have one at all. Me and James decided to be in a group and we narrowed our choice to 3 businesses:

• Cafe Bohemia - a cafe/bar, located downtown, Saint Petersburg
• Moon Under Water - a restaurant, also located downtown
• USF Saint Petersburg Tavern - the tavern on campus, where we spend all of our stressful days chillin' with a refreshing pitcher of Yuengling

Our task for the week is to get together and reach consensus on what we want to do.

CSS Clearfix Solution

So as I was working on my website the other day, I came across something very annoying. Apparently when you have 'floating' divs of text or pictures or whatever inside of a container, the height of the container does not expand as the text or pic divs inside of it do. It is because when you use the 'float' command, the floating element is not actually recognized as a definite element that takes up space inside of the div. In other words, it appears like it is on another layer.
If any of you guys are experiencing the same problems, go to http://www.webtoolkit.info/css-clearfix.html and follow the instructions. It does wonders I tell ya :)

Website Assignment

My new task in my web design class is to create a website for my buddy and customer - James Blevins. After talking to him, I got the sense that he wants to go for the organic, earthy tones and natural ambiance. The rough composition of what I came up with, includes the organic feel with the help of the wooden background AND it is also classy at the same time.

What's UP

How's it going guys. This is my blog and I will be posting the progress with my website, random tips and tutorials that I come across and so much more.
This is also my first blog EVER, so bear with me if it is poorly executed.