if that link to the clickthrough model doesn't work, try these

small shifts, and a prototype link

I'm working my way towards some key decisions this weekend. Namely, can I be satisfied producing the prototype for the Summer Solstice website with some sliced JPEGs and HTML? How much better can I present this concept for a mini-site to the National Park Service with just a little more polish, and one or two animated files for good measure?

More aesthetic variations on previous efforts are what I intend to present this week. This time the image files are linked together with HTML pages and hosted on my server. You can find the images here: [link] (if link breaks, try http://www.limcaco.com/gr605)

Even better news: I get my SLR back from the repair shop today, so I have the next two weeks to get some bonfire pictures for the front page...hopefully.

One more round of non-clickable art

I thought I had a shot at creating some quickly deployable image-map pages, but instead I produced what you see below. I like where the art is going, and once I figure out some interface and organizational strategies, I think I'm ready to slice this weekend using proxy graphics. I plan on shooting some bonfire footage at Ocean Beach but need to gather a crowd to do this. Also, my camera comes back from the repair facility tomorrow, so I'm waiting for that too.

Updated Navigation Elements

This screen "capture" reflects the addition of a media player element, for photo or video, alongside a text area with a scrollbar controller. I have some misgivings about having so much text that a scrollbar is needed. Also, I want to implement this site without Flash, frames, or anything that isn't an open standard. There may be too many glowing elements on this page. I hope to flesh out some of the other pages tonight in class.

I just remembered the reason for my blog title

I suddenly remembered Alex's question from week 3 or so, concerning the title of this blog. Better still, I remembered the real answer, too. You see, I used to be a much larger person (about 40 pounds heavier before I started grad school a year ago) so that's where the bold part comes from. The oblique part can either be attributed to being Asian (think about it for a second) or having an different point of view.

Okay, back to work.

and now, a brief intermission.

I guess I should have spread around the comment-love last week if I wanted to hear any feedback on these entries. Either that or we're all kind of brain-dead from midterms, which is highly likely. Leigh tells me it was sort-of received well in class last week, so maybe I'll allow myself a small sigh of relief.

Anyway, I'll freely admit that I'm hesitant to commit to a design right now on my own. Just sort of sitting on my hands. In the interest of getting to a place where I can deconstruct the art for building in Dreamweaver, however, I'll be working on the visuals shown in images B through E below. Some issues that I would like to address are:

Maybe use the light pen typography as a framing motif for other elements

Increase the masthead size to better span the page

Contain photography to a predefined area within the page instead of filling the left-third.

Refining the second-tier navigation (somewhat of a problem, but on a mini-site I guess it's not so bad?)

Better sense of hierarchy. Everything is big and "yelling" on the page right now. Gotta rein that in.

If anybody wants to reach me, I'll be sitting here, half-awake, procrastinating by doing excessive thumbnail sketching. I'm giving myself forty-five minutes to get it out of my system. See y'all tonight, and good luck.