Time does fly when you are coding.

I’ve been working from home and doing a new design for a web site I look after at work. It badly needs bringing up to date since it was originally designed back in 1999. Check it out ukchnm.org.
The people who update it are currently using Contribute, Macromedia’s web publishing platform for end users, which is not the best state of affairs in the world. So I’m doing a new up to the minitue design in CSS using tableless layout and tabbed navigation, which is all new to me. The users will then update it using a php/mysql content management system, the basics of which I’ve already got written. I’ve taken the best part of a day to get a tabbed navigation up and going.

I’ve had to eat a large dose of humble pie recently and realise that with only 3 years in the profession I’ve very much a newbie at everything. Coding I’m fair at since I did my Masters dissertation in web programming and have kept that ticking over, but when it comes to design I’m picking it up as I go. I was fortunate to work with someone who had worked on various BBC websites recently and that was very useful. At the moment I see my self as a sponge, soaking up as much knowledge as possible then squeezing it back out in a useful manner (hopefully).

Once site I would recommend on CSS design is A List apart which has helped me immeasurably today. CSSZenGarden is also worth a look to see why its worth getting CSS to work.

In other news Rach has just got her course pack for her OU course in Mammals, so a gizzilon DVD of furry creatures will keep her happy for a while. We also got an invite for her friends wedding, which might mean I’m dropping off going to Dragonmeet next month. Ho hum.