New J-School Site

Jschool-New It’s up! (See One Last Look). Not perfect, and still a few items on my to-do list, but the new J-School web site is finally live, just in time for the new school year. A very different animal from the old one. All font tags are gone. Layout tables are gone. The major pages all pass XHTML validation (eventually the whole site will validate). We finally have a complete templating system (I ultimately decided to go with Smarty templates rather than adopt or build a CMS). Loads of new features, lots more anti-spam controls. Much less manual work to maintain the homepage (due to better separation of content types). Lots of things that were previously almost invisible are now surfaced via fly-out menus. Decent degradation with CSS and/or JavaScript disabled. Homepage now much more graphical (the main image is on a 15-minute rotation), less text-heavy overall. Lots more interface between back-end / intranet databases and public views (e.g. current and historical course offerings). And so on.

Amazing to look back over my Basecamp entries from the past year — 178 items checked off, 5 to go (mainly small fixes plus some work to do accessibility). Seemed like for months, I was adding three items for every one I checked off. Now, finally, it’s like a permanently attached monkey has been pried from my back.

Feedback welcome.

Many thanks to Andrew Devigal of Devigal Design (who also teaches design in our multimedia skills classes).

Music: Vincent Gallo :: Honey Bunny

14 Replies to “New J-School Site”

  1. Holy total makeovers, Batman!

    Man, that’s a damned site better (nyuk nyuk). That’s an eight year leap right there, from 1998 to 2006.

    Nicely played.

  2. What color SQL are you using, Scot? Also, it needs a dancing skeleton animated GIF. Make it work, Scot!

    (:p nice work, btw)

  3. All MySQL Tyler – with all these dozens of database apps, have never perceived a need for anything else.

    Thanks for the props – it’s pretty damn satisfying to finally have this thing out there.

  4. WOW!

    Big, big improvement, congrats!

    I know that feeling — no time to do the things you want to do — don’t we all?

    So, are you retiring as world champion now, or are you finally just getting started?

  5. Tyler – Ah, guess I didn’t interpret your question literally enough. Sorry. Yes, I’m a green man.

    Gilbert, thanks for the compliment. What is it I’m supposed to be world champion of?

  6. World Champion J-School Webmaster. Retiring at the top of your game now that the big task has been completed.

  7. Wow, well done. Big improvement indeed.

    I just took the leap with WordPress, moved our FAD blog over from its blogspot.com address to the centre of our website – http://www.fadwebsite.com (still a way to go though – I may tap your brain before I’m done)

  8. Hey, nice work on the migration Dan – that must have been a bunch of work. Sure thing, ping me if you have any Qs (though it looks like you’re doing just fine).

  9. Discovered the new site this morning — love it! It really looks and acts elegantly.

    I really appreciate how much you point to video and podcasts. This is the way all campus sites should be. Btw, here’s a link to all J-School events via webcast.berkeley (with RSS).

    Congrats, Scot. Nice job!

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