I’ve always liked the rain. Maybe it was growing up in Florida and playing in the afternoon showers. There was always something a little more fun about the way the world looked when it was wet. We don’t normally get to see that aspect up close, and maybe we’re really missing out. So the next time it rains. Go outside and walk. Slowly. It’s plain enjoyable to see how the colors are always more vibrant when they are wet. It’s almost like they are shining

Thanks to The League of Moveable Type for their work to make Prociono available for free.

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Last weekend was a new experiment.

For the most part, when I make websites, I do all the planning, graphics, and markup myself. I’m normally a one man shop (although I’m actively looking for new people to collaborate with), writing most of the (X)HTML and CSS by hand. That control is very important to me.

However, while writing everything by hand plays well to my OCD desire to have control over everything, it takes time, and I’m limited to only the things I know to do. So, naturally, a quality CMS would be a great next step. It would allow me a little more power, and hopefully remove some of the time to write markup.

Enter the CMS search.

I have looked around and haven’t really found much that I was pleased with. However, about a year ago I was introduced to Squarepace.com. I looked around and it claimed that you have control over the whole process and that it would be easy for you to move modules around, edit them, and delete them. After a year of curiosity, I finally found an appropriate project to start last week.

So I met with my client, got everything planned out, and explained that it would be an experimental process, but we were hoping to get the site done and live pretty quickly. And we did it. AmyLashelle.com launched within a week of me starting the design process – by far a new record for me.

The Rundown

I’ll start by saying that, by using squarespace, I was able to make a somewhat powerful front-end experience with very minimal effort. The site has a nice (although not fully customized) contact page, a jquery shadowbox slideshow, an integrated blogging engine, and another slideshow on the home page. Nothing too fancy, but keep in mind, I built the whole site in a little under three days worth of work. I felt pretty good about what the site can do.

Here’s where it gets a little rocky. The user experience of building this site was frustrating at best. To the best of my knowledge, Squarespace is aimed at “designers”. It appears to me though, that those would be graphic designers, and not web designers. It seemed that almost every step was just a little harder than it should have been.

Messy Markup

Control over styles is supposed to be easy in their interface, but some key features (like width) are not editable there.

Once or twice, I wanted to wrap something in a div tag and couldn’t do it because their editor only lets you add HTML inside specific places. I upgraded so I could have “code injection points”, but it turns out that those points are very specific, I still cannot access all the HTML. The points also weren’t where I really wanted them. For instance, some things like Cufon and Google Analytics are supposed to be right before the end of the body tag, but their interface made me put it inside a nested div somewhere near the bottom of the content.

While I can appreciate that a template gives me all the markup I will need, it really needs to be flexible so that I can cut out unnecessary markup. This was a big issue on this site. I was incredible unhappy with the final markup. It is incredibly cluttered, messy, and non-semantic.

It also only allowed me to edit some commonly editable styles. The main page styles were not accessible. For example, I could not change the font stack for the whole site. I could change one main font in their interface, but not the whole stack.

Here’s the one that got me the most. You can export the styles… in an XML file. And the main page styles are minified! It’s as if they were trying to make the process as hard as possible for me.
Little things like this meant that I had to relinquish control over the markup – something I didn’t want to do.

User Experience

As far as the Squarespace interface, it did a couple things that made me use a lot of hacks to present the page well. I could not add a class or change the ID of page links, which meant I had to inspect the code with Firebug, find the randomly generated ID, copy it, paste it in the custom styles section, and create a new style – which was overriding current styles, instead of just editing them.

I suppose I could go on, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

What to do?

So essentially, I’m still looking for a quality CMS designed for front end web designers like me. I can’t imagine I’m really that much of a minority. I’m looking for something that gives me complete control over the markup without making me wade through piles of PHP.

If there is a CMS out there like this, I would really appreciate hearing from you. Otherwise, maybe this means I need to work with someone to make this type of product. I know I would love to use it.

recalcitrant

Today’s word of the moment is Recalcitrant.

According to Dictionary.com (our always loyal friend), Recalcitrant is something like this:

\rih-KAL-sih-truhnt\ , adjective;

1. Stubbornly resistant to and defiant of authority or restraint.

If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate.

- Kaye Gibbons, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

Image via Flickr.

Font used:  Droid Serif.

OBFUSCATE

It took about 6 months to wait on content, and then when I finally got permission to write it myself, it took about two more weeks for it to launch. Such is life. (This is also my disclaimer for the quality of copy writing).

Orchid Event Solutions

Being a company that focuses on excellent technology, reporting, and other pretty cold elements, I chose to highlight our more friendly side – our full service solutions. The main point here was to connect with the site users and convey a message of simplicity, competence, and confidence. I did this with images of nature that were meant to convey a much more casual environment- one where our clients are free to talk to us about any need they have.

The copy is also very casual and conversational. I really wanted to stay away from any type of dry corporate language or technological verbiage that could be distracting. The whole site was designed to be forward thinking but light and simple – not bogged down with any extra baggage.

There is still some work to be done, and the site will constantly be evolving, but I think the initial goals of upgrading our site to something more modern has been accomplished. Here’s the previous version – as you can tell- outdated, cold, corporate, and overall disgusting.

Orchid Event Solutions (before)

The keen reader may have noticed that the new site also includes a new brand. Good eye Magellan. There will be more about that an upcoming post.

I’ve used Photoshop a fair amount, and I’ve edited plenty of photos, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat down and fully re-touched a destroyed photo. This was time.

This man is a refugee from Iraq. He fled his country after intense persecution and torture to both him and his family. Part of that torture was destroying this traditional photograph as psychological torture. The original, tattered and really quite meaningless, was sent to me in a small file from a scan of the 5×7. I reproduced it as an 8×10 and was surprised and the quality when I upsized it.

I could have kept going for a long time to keep trying to get it right, but this served its purpose. When I presented this to Alaa, he pointed to his chest where his heart might be, and said in broken english, “this feels good”.

It felt good for me too. Just for a little bit of fun and a few giggles, I kept going and made the following stylized version. Probably not what he was looking for, so I presented him the simple re-touched version. I kinda like this though. (and yes, that IS his real name).

Stylized version