I’m finally getting somewhere with the new design of AMBERAlert.com, so it feels good to show some of the progress I have made with the homepage in the last two days. I will be making some small changes to the layout and filling the gaps today before opening the flood gates of criticism at the office. In the meantime, comments on what you see now are welcome here.
I spent a few more hours on this theme tonight, and I am happy with it. I like where it’s going. However, I still have a few little things to finish up before I can step away from it.
I will be designing a few page templates for certain sections. I am working with a bare-bones theme arrangement right now, so most of the content is being served to you through the default template - index.php
First on my list will be a single post template. My design for the posts template will focus on two key goals: readability and comments. This is what posts are all about, right?
Next I will get together a generic list design to create the archives, topics, tag, and search results templates. These designs will display lists of posts depending on how you want to browse: month by month, by topic area, through tags, or using the search box.
Finally I will have some fun created the templates for my projects, topics and contact pages.
The projects page will showcase my work on past and present projects. I might also include a section on ideas for future projects.
Topics will be displayed with their corresponding subtopics and a brief description. My inspiration comes directly from A List Apart’s topics section. I think I will go with something split into columns, with graphics and shorter descriptions.
Contact forms are fun. I want to spicy this page up with something, but I don’t have any sauce, yet. We’ll see what happens on that day…
As you can see, I got part of the new theme working here. I should finish up with most of the page templates tonight, and move on to more important things, like more content.
The first thing I would like to tackle are the topic areas for my blog. This always seems like a huge task, but I am feeling it today. I’m in that mood, where I really don’t care and I can just shoot through them. After topics, I will go into sprucing up my about section, with a brief bio and a new photo. I know you can’t wait, but you must.
I have failed miserably at created a custom Wordpress theme. Twice. I am now convinced that I got it down. I’m going pretty minimal (maybe minimal pretty), just enough to chew on and hopefully swallow.
I made it halfway through the workday, then I came home. Now I’m here with a box of Puffs Ultra, strategically scheduling my NyQuil dosages. I would like to give a shout out to those people who decided to come to work sick last week - “Thanks for helping me out, and giving me a reason to work from home, I might actually get some things done. I owe you big-time”.
This week, I was going to begin working on designing a new look for our AMBER Alert website. We’ve decided to develop it on Wordpress. We’ll use the multiuser (MU) platform since state specific subdomains (az.amberalert.com) are part of our plan. The new theme will focus on promoting our alerting platform, explaining the history of AMBER Alert, and spotlighting our award-winning Child ID Kit software.
