Rough Draft Site

In an effort to keep from going cross eyed I thought it would be a good use of my time to take a break from dreamweaver to write my blog for the week.  Here is my website:

Planning:

I'm someone who likes to have a road map or process for getting to where I need to be on a project. So  a lot of my time and effort has been dedicated to thinking through the layout of my site, what I want to say, and how I want to say it.  Originally I anticipated making a site for sarcophagi in general but after working on my road map for this I realized this topic was way too broad and decided to narrow this down specifically to Dionysian Sarcophagi (after all only 1/3 of the remaining sarcophagi are Dionysian...phew!) 

Content:

My website is divided into 6 sections, the intro, history, theology, funerary practice, sarcophagi, and author. My intent is keep this somewhat interactive for the viewer. Ideally the viewer will go to my site, gain the foundational knowledge he/she needs about Dionysian sarcophagi and then turn to my sarcophagi page to view various friezes and make his/her own interpretations.  This will then spark some "eureka" moment for him/her to possibly continue this study and contact me (if they so desire) for more information. There are also links to the museum's I've visited where I acquired these images for further research. (Then I will hit it big/make millions on my extensive knowledge of funerary art...mwuaahahahhaha/apologies, I've been staring too long at a computer). 

Design:

I've decided on one layout for my pages, the heading is a frieze I spent many hours photoshopping with the company of Beth Shook, and the backdrop is cropped and lightened from one of my pictures that Dr. Petrik suggested at the beginning of the year. One thing I'm worried about is being "too neutral." I know that from last class Dr. Petrik reminded us that neutral doesn't go out of style on the web but I'm a little worried something is falling flat. I have not added my images but the majority of these will be white/cream (except for the theology page where I will put images from the Villa of Mysteries...bright red!) At times I think the brick and cream works and at times I am reminded of pepto bismol so any advice is welcome. The block quote on the beginning of the page isn't really working for me either. I would like to start my project with this quote but I'm finding it difficult to place and do not want the viewer to be put off by too much writing. 

Things I plan to do

Most...ok none of my images are in place as of yet. I was having a hard time placing these within the text and ran out of patience and moved on to the next task and most likely will not be able to put these in by class tomorrow but I do have a specific list of images that I plan to use for each site. I'm planning on cropping specific themes and characters to place next to their description on the sarcophagi page as well as include a slide show with brief descriptions. I'm struggling right now with how to display my images, that is if it's better to keep them big or off to the side by my text. Perhaps I'll try to put a couple in for tomorrow to get more feedback. 

 

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions are appreciated! 

Comments

[David Patrick McKenzie]

Stephanie--nice work! I think this is coming along nicely. I think your font choice is especially good, and I love love love the header image! The brick also works well on the sides--it gives the implication of tombs. Just a couple of thoughts:
- The menu bar at left should be moved over a little bit, to give it some breathing room.
- I know this is really tough, but the brick background could be blended together more. I considered doing the same because of Washington's red-brick architecture, and didn't because of the toughness of blending! I know it's tough but that may help. I think there are some stock photos of red brick available--stock photos that are meant for blending in a background.

Great job on it so far! When you have your millions, remember who sat next to you in Clio. :)

[Megan]

First off, I think it's very visually appealing. I like the brick, and the delicate colouring in the header image.

Some things you might think about changing:
-You might try aligning the nav with the capitol D of Dionysis.
-Maybe bring the block quote on the first page down the page a bit, because it feels like it's crowding the header.

Good work, good luck!