The time has finally come for a total redesign of this site. As well as being visually unremarkable the code is a horror to look through. So over the next few weeks I’ll be taking a detailed look at the descisions and processes used to bring this site up to date.

As you can see, there was much redevelopment from my first site to it’s current incarnation. The first used frames (top and left were fixed, right was the changing content) which is a big no-no in current web development, but it was my first site ever. The current site moved from the frame-based to it’s current three-column CSS positioning, which has been a W3C recommendation since 2001. This separates all layout information away from the content which is a good thing for many reasons including Search Engine Optimisation and Accessability.

Making a three-column website work in all browers can be a bit of a headache, especially when the middle column is liquid (i.e. it stretches to fill the gap between the left and right column.) If I could ignore Internet Explorer 6.5 then life would much simpler but there were some serious problems with the way that browser renders CSS positioning. It doesn’t understand the min-width and min-height parameters, requiring you to hack the code specifically.

Three-columns were all the rage three years ago but now it’s more de rigeur to have a tidier two-column format. A good example of this is the Warren Ellis website (below left). This has a liquid content area and all the other stuff in one fixed-width right hand section. As much as I’d like to use that style I shouldn’t really use it as I aped his old three-column layout for the current look.

Fixed width or not? It’s suggested that the minimum width you should have a web page is 720 pixels. Most computer screens operate at 1024 x 768 pixels so is there a need to make your website fit a smaller 800 x 600 screen? Well yes there is, and even on the bigger resolutions the browser window is often smaller than the whole screen. Will that make your website look stupid on a 1600 x 1200 display? Probably. An example of taking a fixed width website to an extreme can be seen with the Lonely Flower design at CSS Zen Garden (above right). You can cheat by looking at the user’s resolution and generating the web page specifically for that resolution but I’ve never seen the point in generating more style sheets than necessary.

My initial thoughts are to go for a 550 pixel content area (fixed) and a 250 pixel sidebar (fixed). This would still work on 800 pixel wide screens and, as long as the background was well designed, shouldn’t look too bad at higher resolutions. The lack of a liquid content area would annoy some people but everybody knows how to use a mouse wheel or scroll down these days so the desire to fill every inch of the screen is reduced. And for an incredibly techie note, it would make it much easier to push the content higher up the HTML making it much more Google friendly.

Once I’ve decided what course to take I’ll write again. I’ll be tackling the issues of colour, header and background design next, my least favourite subjects. It’ll be time to dig out my Photoshop guides and colour wheels for sure.

I’ve not read a book in over a month as I’ve been playing this Nintendo DS game for an hour at bedtime instead. As it’s cartridge based there’s no load-up times so you can dive in straight away for a game of chess, backgammon or one of the 20 or so card games available. And when you get bored playing against the computer it’s time to hit the Nitendo WFC button so you can play people all around the world. This is my kind of technology.

Online play is a doddle. Just select the game you want to enter the lobby and you’ll get matched with other players wanting to play the same game. Occasionally the machine will freeze and you’ll be given an error code of 85020 but this has only happened in the lobby, never during play. There’s no explanation of this on the official Nintendo site but through a bit of research I believe this is an error on Nintendo’s side, not the users, so there’s nothing you can do about this. Please let me know if you’ve had similar problems. A good solution is to play Backgammon as you only need one opponent and the game will start as soon as another user pops up.

The addictive thing about this game is that there is a clever ranking system which gives your games more importance, we all like to be top of the charts. An old problem with these types of ranking systems was that people would quit their game just before the end if they were losing but Nintendo have overcome this by penalising anybody who quits early and allowing the other player to continue against the CPU giving you full points for a win and subtracting points from the loser.

The one game that keeps drawing me back is dominos. This isn’t your usual dominos but a special version they call 5 Up. Play is similar to normal dominoes with the added idea of trying to make the numbers at the end of the lines add up to a multiple of 5. So a 4:2 - 2:6 would give you 2 points (4+6 = 10). This adds all kinds of extra depth to play as you work out whether to play as a points whore, grabbing every point you can get, or by playing a long-term strategy of finishing while your opponent has tens of dominos in his hand, all of which get added to your score. It’s a tough game but has just the right amount of randomness to keep things interesting.

I’ve been getting quite good at it and I’m now 6th in the world (out of 939). The other three games I’ve been playing online are Sevens (now 32nd out of 1112), Backgammon (40th out of 920) and Hearts (20th out of 794). The next stage will be to start playing some Contract Bridge and Nap but I’ll need some practice before I’m ready to beat the big boys.

Anyway, 42 All-Time classics is available for the Nintendo DS at £19.99 and is well worth the money.

Yes! I’ve been announced as a finalist in the Brighton & Hove Web Awards after all. Whoever said that a childish rant wont get you anywhere was wrong. Actually, there was a small administrative error meaning that the wrong name was entered, the US A List Apart site, and mine has been put in instead.

So that leaves all my readers here no choice but to VOTE FOR ME!!! So please click the image below to register your vote, thanks!

Yes, this year I’ve failed to make the last five in the Brighton & Hove Web Awards in the Best Personal Sites and Blogs category, sob! So I’ll take my rage and criticise the five finalists. Bitter? Me?

1. Adactio. Very well designed site. The content may be a bit too tech-happy and personal for my liking but for a look at the mind of someone who eats, sleeps and farts web design it’s very good.

2. Andy Budd. Just like Adactio the design is very nice. Unfortunately the content is a bit sparse. There’s a total of 6 posts in October and two of them were about booking train tickets. I now see where my site is going wrong.

3. A List Apart. This is the best of the bunch. I’m always using this site to read articles on CSS standards and cross-browser compatibility. The articles are informative, well written and cover a whole range of web design subjects. The only thing I can’t work out is why a New York based website is up for the Brighton & Hove Awards.

4. Brighton & Hove Councillors. No, this site isn’t for people needing to talk through their mental issues with somebody who will listen. It’s those other types of councillors, the local do-good political wannabes. And I’m very impressed. It works well with clear and direct links to the councillors blogs, all of which are regularly updated with interesting local issues. A brilliant idea which has been well designed and coded.

5. Clagnut. Not as funny as it’s name suggests. This has only four posts from the month of October so I wouldn’t go checking the site that often. Oh and the blogger is a web designer who, like the Adactio and Andy Budd site bloggers, has also written books on web standards. Hmm, I’m noticing a trend of selecting the Brighton web design mafia in this award every year!

So there you have it. See what I’m up against? Three of Brighton’s uber-elite web design cartel, councillors and a big American web site. My vote will be for A List Apart and I hope you vote for the same.

I do see where I have to improve though. All those sites have some great coding standards. This site’s coding standards are appalling but it was my first site ever and I was getting to grips with Word Press and a liquid content area which wasn’t that easy. It’ll get a redesign soon and then I’ll show them. Yes I will!