Lilac Creative

Things are looking a little different around here! When ExpressionEngine 2.0 beta was released last December, I started planning for a site redesign to be implemented once EE2 was out of beta (which happened last month with the release of ExpressionEngine 2.1). Initially, there were three things I wanted to “upgrade” in this redesign: the ExpressionEngine templates, my site content, and the visual design itself. ExpressionEngine 2 has some great new templating features (i.e. snippets and global variables) that really help simplify templates, and making use of those, I was able to get rid of a lot of redundant code in my templates and template groups. I used Google Analytics to identify content on my site that wasn’t being used. I ditched anything that wasn’t getting significant hits, and reorganized my navigation to make the site necessities easier to get to. The visual design came together slowly, in between client projects. By the time I was ready to translate the design into HTML and CSS, I started considering a fourth upgrade for my new site design: HTML5.

The Viability of HTML5

There’s been lots of buzz about HTML5 lately, but it’s still currently in the Working Draft stage of its development, which means nothing is finalized and a lot could change in the development process. Just how viable is the HTML5 specification, and should I use it for my site? These were the questions I was asking myself as I approached the coding point of my site redesign.

So I started doing some reading on the subject. I read arguments for and against using HTML5 now. Arguments against using HTML5 right away argued that HTML5 is still in the Working Draft stage of its development, and could therefore change a lot before a stable specification is settled upon. Arguments for adopting HTML5 today pointed out that most browsers already support HTML5 elements (with IE being the exception—big surprise there), and IE is easily accomodated by including a quick and easy javascript shiv to force IE to recognize the new elements.

In the end, I decided I wanted to give HTML5 a shot with this redesign, mostly so I could try out the new specification and get a feel for it.

Calling It What It Is

One of the things I like best about HTML5 is the new elements—they enhance web semantics. Before HTML5, I would wrap my header in a div named “header”, my nav in a div named “nav”, and my footer in a div named “footer”. Now each of those commonly used page sections is its own element. The whole point of web semantics in HTML is to correctly organize and identify the purpose of a site’s content while keeping it separate from the presentation of the content, and the new elements allow HTML authors do just that.

In the same vein, HTML5 forms introduce new input field types such as email, url, color, and tel for telephone numbers.

Useful HTML5 Articles and Resources

Below are some of the articles and resources I checked out when considering HTML5:

• 5 Reasons Why You Can Use HTML5 Today
• Why designers should care about HTML5
• A Preview of HTML 5
• W3C HTML5 Working Draft
• W3C HTML5 Forms Specifications
• HTML5 Gallery - A gallery of sites already using HTML5

Have you tried your hand at HTML5 yet? I’d love to hear why or why not!

Thanks for stopping by the site! I'm going to be taking a little summer break from July 3rd to July 19th. While I'm gone I'll be without internet access (except via Blackberry) for part of the time, so if you send me an email or an inquiry, please be patient. I'll respond to emergencies as soon as possible, and other inquiries as I'm able. Hope everyone has a fun, safe Canada Day and 4th of July!

I normally don't post personal stuff on the Lilac Creative design blog, but some stuff has come up in my personal life that is affecting my work schedule, so I just wanted to give a brief "what's up with me" for anyone who's been wondering. 

The week before last, my husband (who is an officer in the Navy Reserves) received orders to Iraq. While we were prepared for the possibility of him getting called up for active duty, the reality is quite a different thing. Mentally (and spiritually) we are ready to do this, but there are a kajillion practical things that we need to get taken care of before he leaves in two months. I'm doing my absolute best to stay on top of my work schedule, but I am finding these "practical things that need taking care of" spilling into my day and eating up time that would otherwise be devoted to my clients' projects. I am in touch regularly with my clients whose projects are active right now, and if you have a project scheduled with me, it will start on time. If you're a client with a completed project who has contacted me with a question or a tweak, I will get to you--I promise! I am just a bit slow on non-essential emails right now, trying to prioritize stuff and get everything done. Trust me, I would much rather be helping my clients and designing pretty web pages, than sorting through banking stuff, looking over powers-of-attorney blah-blah-blah, etc.!

So, please bear with me the next month or so, as I try to get A LOT done in a very short amount of time. Like my husband always says, there's only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time!

Well, it's finally finished: The new Lilac Creative website! Back in April, I started to feel like my website was having a hard time keeping up with my business, both the design and the content management system. So, I started planning to rebuild my site on ExpressionEngine, and decided to give it a redesign at the same time. In planning my rebuilt and redesign, I used the same process I use when I build sites for clients: I examined the growing needs of my business and identified areas where my old site was not meeting those needs; I took into account both the kind of clients I currently serve as well as the kind of clients I want to attract; and lastly, I tried to identify ways that my website could help me streamline my business. The site you see before you is the result of months of planning, color-scheming, designing, late-night coding, and nit-picky copywriting. I plan to blog about the different aspects of my rebuild/redesign in future blog entries, to give anyone who's curious a little insight into how I work. Until then, have a look around the new site and let me know what you think! And if you catch any bugs, don't be shy about letting me know about them.

Due to recent unacceptable problems with my previous host, it became necessary for me to do an unscheduled and very sudden host switch.  I purchased new hosting, switched my name servers, uploaded all my files, and reinstalled my site on my new host in less than two hours–not bad!  But there are still a few areas of the site that still need to be re-setup: namely my blog (which is displaying all wonky for the moment), and my contact forms.  Bear with me while I get everything back to normal around here!

Also, if you happened to send me an email between 10pm and 12am EST, there’s a good chance I didn’t receive it.  My email is all setup again now, so if you had an email bounce back earlier, try sending it again and it should get to me.  Thanks!