RE-ENTITY DESIGN

All designers will tell you what a terrible job Microsoft does of producing HTML. It becomes a real headache when you have non-technical people publishing content online. But its not always the software's fault. I'd like to develop a Semantic Validation tool to help solve some of the problems.

Screen reader users often navigate by headings. Yet, how often do you see <p><b>Heading here</b></p>? A bold paragraph is not the same as a properly marked up heading. It would be missed completely by a screen reader.

A tool to help validate these types of mistakes would be a real advantage in a large publishing environment.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Content Management Systems recently. Finding a solution off the shelf is exceedingly difficult. If you are lucky enough to have correctly identified your needs, there is still no guarantee you will make the right choice. Of course it depends entirely on the environment where it is to be used.

I have developed an interest in a Flat File CMSs recently as I think it will be a very good fit for in a certain environment. Actually, hybrid would be a better word to describe it as I'd like a database to store metadata on each document. The idea is to use the metadata to build dynamic components of the static documents.

I was lucky enough to be sent to the Web Directions South conference in Sydney. What a great event. I got to meet so many interesting designers and developers. Most of the speakers were fantastic and I hope to go again.

Jeffrey Veen was a real highlight, as was Dmitry Baranovskiy on SVG. Many of the speakers have made their presentations availble online.

Well, it's been a long time coming...and there's still more to do! But I'm very pleased to finally release RE-ENTITY DESIGN v4.

I hope you find the new format and focus interesting and rewarding. As time goes on I'll keep you up to date with how the new site has performed.

Meanwhile, I invite you to comment and criticise my work to your hearts content. I am looking forward to the remarks of my peers and customers. Feel free to add your name to your post or to leave it anonymous. I am especially interested in comments on W3C compliance, accessibility and best practices.

Unfortunately, this site doesn't validate as there are some things Blogger won't allow me to modify. I am looking to transfer to another blogging service once I have found a suitable alternative.

For the time being, my old site is still available here. I will eventually integrate the content into the new format.

Although the site has been running for some time, I'd like to share it as an example of what can be done with just a few guiding ideas and a photo or two.

Roulette wanted something simple and refined that conveyed the feel of the band and their music. They had a site already but it didn't grab the audience and it was difficult to maintain.

I was given this photograph and I set about trying to use it in a way that would accomplish their goals. I didn't have to allow for a lot of content so I had a lot of freedom in how I could implement the visual design.

I teased them a little with this variation for the Members page but they rightly decided it wasn't the image they were looking for.

Testimonial

We approached Re-entity Design with a simple mandate for Roulette's web presence. It had to be visually striking, consistent with our branding theme, and easy to navigate for our on-line visitors. Re-entity not only delivered but did so well within our budget. We were delighted with the quality of the design work, and found the project to be logistically smooth and creatively stimulating.Roulette, The Band

Roulette, The Band

• URL: www.roulettetheband.com
• Project goal: Total redesign and rebuild. Focus on image and marketing goals.
• Downtime: 0.