Journal: News & Comment

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

Hand crafted Web goodness

I don't make very much of my living from building Web sites, but I have created a few. I have also been doing it for some time.

• I first created this site in 1997. You can find out a bit more on my expertise page.
• Not long after that, I was put in charge of the site for Multiactive Software, where I worked from 1996 though 2000. (Here's what the Multiactive site looked like then.)
• Last year, we created a site for The Neurotics, my band.
• I put together an online movie page for The Shagadelics a few months ago.
• I'm in the process of building something for the Adam Woodall Band. Keep an eye on it to see how things change there.

I've made each one with rudimentary tools -- a text editor to hand-code the HTML and some graphics programs to make the pictures -- plus a few of the many free Web services, such as Blogger, Extreme Tracking, Apple iTools, and Atomz Search, that make Web site building much easier than it used to be.

I have two strong opinions about Web sites:

1. They should be viewable on as wide a variety of devices as possible (different types of computers, operating systems, handheld devices). You can never predict how people will look at your work on the Internet, especially in the future.
2. They should always be changing. An "under construction" sign is pointless, because a good site is always under construction.

I try to take my own advice there. This page is tolerably readable on a Palm handheld, for instance, and I've even edited this journal entry three times since I first posted it half an hour ago.

 |