Redesign of fueledbycoffee.com

The time is coming (overdue?) for a redesign of Fueledbycoffee.com. I have been considering this overhaul for many months now, and will take this space to share some of my thoughts and a few sketches that I have collected up until this point. But first, a bit of history:

I created my first webpages on the now infamous Geocities and Angelfire web-servers back in the mid 90's (94? 95?). These sites were of little to no content, really-- just a high schooler showing off to his friends the html he had learned, listing his interests and posting pilfered images from other sites on the web, all under the title of "Cheeselog's Pawn Shop" (don't ask). After my freshman year of college, (and in the height of the dot-com days-- oh sweet optimistic 1998) I interned at a web development firm in the Northern Virginia area. (The CEO drove an Acura NSX... how dot-com is that?!) This involvement in the web arena sparked my interests in developing my website further, and in this time period I maintained "Cheeselog's Central Hub", a website that actually contained some content-- mostly relating to music, Honda CRXes, and other sundry 19-year-old interests. Being that I was enrolled in a university that was labeled the "Most Wired Town in America" (man that's really nerdy) I had loads of free webspace on the campus servers from which to host my site. This site grew stagnant over the next few years as I switched majors from mechanical engineering and found my calling in industrial design. After a three years of ID, I decided to set up a portfolio site where I could host some images of my work. Fueledbycoffee.com version 1 was born sometime in 2001. Fueledbycoffee.com was torn up and rebuilt sometime in 2002 after a move to Chicago. This version added the intriguing "blog" feature, something I had been reading about since school, (Design is Kinky, Core77, K10K, etc) but never actually got around to setting up. Fueledbycoffee.com version 2 has been up and running for well over 2 years now, and has become stale-- both aesthetically and functionally-- and it's time for a change. This brings us to today.

I'm most certainly not a web designer, and I would never claim to be. Quality web design requires a depth of knowledge that far surpasses my working knowledge of basic HTML. I would LOVE to create a dynamic website that made use of PHP, minimal Flash interfaces, and such technology-- but that's not really my goal. I want to create a clean interface, modern aesthetic, but foremost a venue to present my portfolio, thoughts, and personality.

Elements of the current site that I dislike:
  • The word "design" in the title Fueled By Coffee. It insinuates that I operate a design business under the name, and that's just kind of goofy. The new site will be titled Fueled By Coffee.com only-- the design portion will only be embodied by my portfolio.

  • The front page is too static. It might as well be considered a "splash page" considering how static and useless it is after you've read it once.

  • My portfolio section is growing mold, and isn't very user friendly. I'll be updating with fresh content and layouts with the redesign, but I also need to work on creating a new design that makes each sample a little easier to recognize (titles) and a lot easier to read (no pop-ups!)

  • The contact page is redundant. The contact page is redundant.

  • The font used in the title blocks is horrible.
    • I didn't have Helvetica on the machine I was using, so I used Verdana. Lame excuse.
  • The photography (especially the coffee beans) in the title blocks looks amateur (it is) and rushed (it was). Lame excuses again-- make it nicer.

  • But the napkin sketch was funny! Yes, it was. Move on.


Okay enough hating on the old design. Some ideas for the new:
  • Add a news section to the index page for some dynamic content. News items will include new portfolio pieces, any sort of publicity, notable life-events, changes in employment or address, etc. Keep the about section. (See Fig 1.1)

  • Create a new masthead/titlebar using real macro SLR photos of coffee and 3-D computer renderings.

  • Add an archives section which aggregates similar blog posts into easier-to-navigate sections. (eg- "Foto Fridays" would be one section)

  • Portfolio section with larger and labeled teaser images. (See Fig 1.2)

  • Possible music section for posting mixes and rough demo tracks-- an audio sketchbook of sorts.


Fig 1.1 - Index.html


Fig 1.2 - Portfolio.html


  8/31/2004

 
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