Sunday, February 26, 2006
What Style is My House
I'm writing in my notes that I made to rough out the What style is my house questionnaire. I lost the paper notes twice, so I want to make sure I don't lose this before I get a chance to build the questionnaire.
Basically I will ask a series of questions. Different answers will have different scores adding towards a particular style. Some questions should help specify within a style, for example a house that is victorian, could be specified based on what they respond to the roofline question.
Questions:
1. What year was your house built? (list consists of eras)
2. Which of the following most closely resembles the shape of your roofline? (series of drawings)
3. Select the elements that are prominent features of your house? (porch, centre hallway, 10' ceilings, fireplace, stained glass, vaulted ceilings, garage, carport, split-staircase, walk-in attic, dormers, 7' + basement.
4. Which of the following most closely resembles an original window in your house?
5. Which of the following does your house most resemble?
6. How many storeys does your house have? (1, 1 1/2, 2, 3 or more)
7. Which of the following describes your house? (Detached, Semi-detached, Side-by-side, Row)
8. If your house has pillars outside, which of the following most closely resembles those pillars? (craftsman, victorian, doric, metal)
Would like 2 more (5 is kinda weak).
Basically I will ask a series of questions. Different answers will have different scores adding towards a particular style. Some questions should help specify within a style, for example a house that is victorian, could be specified based on what they respond to the roofline question.
Questions:
1. What year was your house built? (list consists of eras)
2. Which of the following most closely resembles the shape of your roofline? (series of drawings)
3. Select the elements that are prominent features of your house? (porch, centre hallway, 10' ceilings, fireplace, stained glass, vaulted ceilings, garage, carport, split-staircase, walk-in attic, dormers, 7' + basement.
4. Which of the following most closely resembles an original window in your house?
5. Which of the following does your house most resemble?
6. How many storeys does your house have? (1, 1 1/2, 2, 3 or more)
7. Which of the following describes your house? (Detached, Semi-detached, Side-by-side, Row)
8. If your house has pillars outside, which of the following most closely resembles those pillars? (craftsman, victorian, doric, metal)
Would like 2 more (5 is kinda weak).
About House Proud
I tried writing the text for the About House Proud page directly in HTML but I was feeling kind of stiff creatively, so I am attempting to write it here in the blog. Words seem to flow more freely here.
The goals and objectives of House Proud can be summed up in one statement. If I can stop one person from dismantling their Craftsman porch and replace it with an ornately turned Victorian style ballustrade from Home Depot, I will feel satisfied with my work. This is not a knock against Victorian homes or Home Depot. I live in Toronto Ontario and there is a large number of Victorian homes here, and if your house is Victorian then by all means rebuild your porch with turned ballustrades, and Home Depot has a great selection.
My point is that all houses have an original style and by using that style as a guide to your decoration and renovations, you will ensure that your house is in harmony with itself. A favourite quote of mine is taken from a website called SplitLevel.net
House Proud provides good information about house styles so you can make good choices for your home.
I'm not saying you have to restore your house back to every detail of 100 years ago. You can use modern components and materials. But as it is with most things in the world, every "new" design stands on the shoulders of previous designs. So if you know a bit about the style of your house, you can choose designs that have traits in common with your home.
What's in it for me?
A number of things about me personally came together in the form of House Proud. I am trained as a Historian at the University of Waterloo, however almost my whole career I have had the unofficial job title of "Computer Guy" (this is how my wife describes my job to her family).
House Proud is way for me to combine my interest in History and design as well as online technology. Being in the "home-owning parent of two" stage of my life I have taken a great interest in domestic architecture. I have always like certain styles of homes but it was only when I found out more about my 1940's bungalow that I realized why I like those homes. My previous statement is almost a web cliche as I have read about so many other people who have had the same experience of purchasing a home, and later becoming fascinated by its origins and its design.
The name House Proud comes from the adjective I would use to describe myself and others who are interested in making their house as good as they can be. With the record-setting housing market over the past number of years, there are hordes of us setting out to update our homes. I think everyone wants to be proud of their home, and I think everyone would like to know more about their house's pedigree.
The goals and objectives of House Proud can be summed up in one statement. If I can stop one person from dismantling their Craftsman porch and replace it with an ornately turned Victorian style ballustrade from Home Depot, I will feel satisfied with my work. This is not a knock against Victorian homes or Home Depot. I live in Toronto Ontario and there is a large number of Victorian homes here, and if your house is Victorian then by all means rebuild your porch with turned ballustrades, and Home Depot has a great selection.
My point is that all houses have an original style and by using that style as a guide to your decoration and renovations, you will ensure that your house is in harmony with itself. A favourite quote of mine is taken from a website called SplitLevel.net
"Right now the trend is very dressy doors with oval glass. If you have a bowfront window, avoid these at all costs. A 2005 door with oval glass on a 1967 house with a multiple-square or multi-pane front window just doesn't jive. It's a bit like an old lady wearing a mini-skirt; she looks like an old tart. Put her in a 1960s era pillbox hat, a pink skirt and jacket, with modest black pumps, and the old lady looks positively elegant. Same with the house."The point is that it doesn't matter if your house is a 19th century Victorian row house, a 1920's Arts and Crafts bungalow, or a post WWII Ranch Rambler; each house is built with a particular style. Applying decorations or renovations that are in line with that style is the difference between a balanced good-looking home, and a house that is awkwardly attempting to be something it is not.
House Proud provides good information about house styles so you can make good choices for your home.
I'm not saying you have to restore your house back to every detail of 100 years ago. You can use modern components and materials. But as it is with most things in the world, every "new" design stands on the shoulders of previous designs. So if you know a bit about the style of your house, you can choose designs that have traits in common with your home.
What's in it for me?
A number of things about me personally came together in the form of House Proud. I am trained as a Historian at the University of Waterloo, however almost my whole career I have had the unofficial job title of "Computer Guy" (this is how my wife describes my job to her family).
House Proud is way for me to combine my interest in History and design as well as online technology. Being in the "home-owning parent of two" stage of my life I have taken a great interest in domestic architecture. I have always like certain styles of homes but it was only when I found out more about my 1940's bungalow that I realized why I like those homes. My previous statement is almost a web cliche as I have read about so many other people who have had the same experience of purchasing a home, and later becoming fascinated by its origins and its design.
The name House Proud comes from the adjective I would use to describe myself and others who are interested in making their house as good as they can be. With the record-setting housing market over the past number of years, there are hordes of us setting out to update our homes. I think everyone wants to be proud of their home, and I think everyone would like to know more about their house's pedigree.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Re-thinking Articles
Dynamic Dropdowns
I haven't written in a while, but I have made some developments. The Who's Your Neighbour
is coming along. I have the javascript working pretty well at taking the selected city and
pulling in the neighbourhoods associated with those cities. In implementing this on the
client side I have established that I need to associate neighbourhoods to cities on the
physical model side. I had thought that I would use coordinates to associate things together
but it would just be too complicated to do that using javascript. I will simply require
that people select a city when they add a neighbourhood. I have also figured out a way to easily drop the links and ads space at the sides when a form appears. I think this adds to the usability
of the form.
Articles
On the article content side I have made some progress. I have an article on the bungalow
about 70% finished. The article started out titled The Craftsman Bungalow, but I began by
talking about the social aspect of the Bungalows popularity. By the time I had barely coverd
that area I already had a sizeable article by web standards. So I then renamed the article
Bungalow Mania, and have decided that I will treat the bungalow in three articles.
Bungalow Mania to cover the social aspect, The Arts and Crafts Movement, to cover
the origins of the bungalow, and The Crafstman Bungalow to cover the features of
a early 20th century bungalow. In each article I will need to be clear that I am discussing
a different kind of bungalow that many of us grew up in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
I think that I will need to take this multiple article approach for most articles. Rather
than trying to write one far reaching article that no one would ever finish reading on
a web page, I will break them down into smaller articles. This has the benefit of being
better for the reader, but also will allow me to write content more quickly if I do it
in smaller chunks. I will make sure that I link between articles carefully and always
provide a list of related articles.
I am still trying to decide whether I need to finish the house styles descriptions first
or whether I should write the articles, as I learn a lot about the styles as I research
and write the articles.
Well I got to get back to finishing Bungalow Mania.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Create What style is my house questionnaire? - roughed out on paper
- Create House Style section - in progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- Created no-sides style sheet to drop conten at edges
- broke style sheets into separate sheets
- Took care of printer friendliness
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
I haven't written in a while, but I have made some developments. The Who's Your Neighbour
is coming along. I have the javascript working pretty well at taking the selected city and
pulling in the neighbourhoods associated with those cities. In implementing this on the
client side I have established that I need to associate neighbourhoods to cities on the
physical model side. I had thought that I would use coordinates to associate things together
but it would just be too complicated to do that using javascript. I will simply require
that people select a city when they add a neighbourhood. I have also figured out a way to easily drop the links and ads space at the sides when a form appears. I think this adds to the usability
of the form.
Articles
On the article content side I have made some progress. I have an article on the bungalow
about 70% finished. The article started out titled The Craftsman Bungalow, but I began by
talking about the social aspect of the Bungalows popularity. By the time I had barely coverd
that area I already had a sizeable article by web standards. So I then renamed the article
Bungalow Mania, and have decided that I will treat the bungalow in three articles.
Bungalow Mania to cover the social aspect, The Arts and Crafts Movement, to cover
the origins of the bungalow, and The Crafstman Bungalow to cover the features of
a early 20th century bungalow. In each article I will need to be clear that I am discussing
a different kind of bungalow that many of us grew up in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
I think that I will need to take this multiple article approach for most articles. Rather
than trying to write one far reaching article that no one would ever finish reading on
a web page, I will break them down into smaller articles. This has the benefit of being
better for the reader, but also will allow me to write content more quickly if I do it
in smaller chunks. I will make sure that I link between articles carefully and always
provide a list of related articles.
I am still trying to decide whether I need to finish the house styles descriptions first
or whether I should write the articles, as I learn a lot about the styles as I research
and write the articles.
Well I got to get back to finishing Bungalow Mania.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Create What style is my house questionnaire? - roughed out on paper
- Create House Style section - in progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- Created no-sides style sheet to drop conten at edges
- broke style sheets into separate sheets
- Took care of printer friendliness
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
Friday, February 17, 2006
Who's you neighbour on its way
Who's Your Neighbour
Its been a little while since I have updated. I have worked on the mockup for Who's Your Neighbour and now have the main page and the profile form worked out. Left to do is the display version of the profile. And I also have to take the mockup to the point of being an actual application. My thinking is that I will work out the display of everything before I begin adding code -- my tendency when coding is to focus on display. Hopefully this will work.
Style Sheets
I have also done some work on the css. I have broken style out into separate sheets: framework.css, formtable.css and print.css. Breaking this out has allowed me to create a print style sheet for the website. This is a brilliant feature of css (I'm a bigger fan everyday). I had set out to do the traditional printer-friendly link, but found out that I could just create a specific style sheet for printouts and turn off some divisions, and make the center content a page wide.
Comments
A new idea I had on the way to work this morning was how I could implement commentary. That is allow people to comment on content right on each page. I think I can do it in a way that does not have a lot of overhead and it easy to maintain. I will have one comment table and use a call from within each page to summon the comments made on that page. We'll see -- its currently a nice-to-have in my mind.
Got to keep writing content
An everpresent problem is that I still have to get cracking on producing actual content. I have started a couple of articles, but I don't have a lot of substance (content-wise) on the site. I need to get over thinking about it all, and just start whipping out chunks of text at a time.
Well there you have it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Create What style is my house questionnaire? - roughed out on paper
- Create House Style section - in progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- broke style sheets into separate sheets
- Took care of printer friendliness
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
Its been a little while since I have updated. I have worked on the mockup for Who's Your Neighbour and now have the main page and the profile form worked out. Left to do is the display version of the profile. And I also have to take the mockup to the point of being an actual application. My thinking is that I will work out the display of everything before I begin adding code -- my tendency when coding is to focus on display. Hopefully this will work.
Style Sheets
I have also done some work on the css. I have broken style out into separate sheets: framework.css, formtable.css and print.css. Breaking this out has allowed me to create a print style sheet for the website. This is a brilliant feature of css (I'm a bigger fan everyday). I had set out to do the traditional printer-friendly link, but found out that I could just create a specific style sheet for printouts and turn off some divisions, and make the center content a page wide.
Comments
A new idea I had on the way to work this morning was how I could implement commentary. That is allow people to comment on content right on each page. I think I can do it in a way that does not have a lot of overhead and it easy to maintain. I will have one comment table and use a call from within each page to summon the comments made on that page. We'll see -- its currently a nice-to-have in my mind.
Got to keep writing content
An everpresent problem is that I still have to get cracking on producing actual content. I have started a couple of articles, but I don't have a lot of substance (content-wise) on the site. I need to get over thinking about it all, and just start whipping out chunks of text at a time.
Well there you have it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Create What style is my house questionnaire? - roughed out on paper
- Create House Style section - in progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- broke style sheets into separate sheets
- Took care of printer friendliness
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Home Page Created
First Homepage
I have worked out the style of the homepage center content. I worked it out with pencil and paper at first then created the page with homesite.exe. I am quite happy with the outcome so far. Check it out
JSP Assembly
I have tested out the use of .jsp to assemble the pages rather than copying the framework into each page. So far so good. I just have to deal now with writing articles without the benefit of style information. Probably it will save me time to do it that way anyway. One feature I want to incorporate into each sub page is cookie-crumb. So that the reader can see where they are in the structure of the site.
Blast that 800x600
I thought I had finalized a format, but then I started testing using 600x800 screen and I had to make some adjustments. There's more whitespace in the middle of the screen than I would like, but it is a nice comprimise between 800x600 and 1024x768.
No excuses
Now that I have framework of the site built, I have no excuses but to begin filling it with content. I have started a Postwar home article, but I would really like to write a Craftsman Bungalow article first. I would rather launch the site using an article on Arts and Crafts. I really need to set a stake in the ground as to when I would like to launch, and how much content I expect to have created.
Misc.
Other things I need to start thinking about is a Messageboard, a guestbook, and FAQ. I would really like the capability to track comments by people about articles, below the article, but I do not want to have to build that capability. Hopefully I can figure a way to do that seamlessly using someone else's site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Create What style is my house questionnaire?
- Create House Style section
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
I have worked out the style of the homepage center content. I worked it out with pencil and paper at first then created the page with homesite.exe. I am quite happy with the outcome so far. Check it out
JSP Assembly
I have tested out the use of .jsp to assemble the pages rather than copying the framework into each page. So far so good. I just have to deal now with writing articles without the benefit of style information. Probably it will save me time to do it that way anyway. One feature I want to incorporate into each sub page is cookie-crumb. So that the reader can see where they are in the structure of the site.
Blast that 800x600
I thought I had finalized a format, but then I started testing using 600x800 screen and I had to make some adjustments. There's more whitespace in the middle of the screen than I would like, but it is a nice comprimise between 800x600 and 1024x768.
No excuses
Now that I have framework of the site built, I have no excuses but to begin filling it with content. I have started a Postwar home article, but I would really like to write a Craftsman Bungalow article first. I would rather launch the site using an article on Arts and Crafts. I really need to set a stake in the ground as to when I would like to launch, and how much content I expect to have created.
Misc.
Other things I need to start thinking about is a Messageboard, a guestbook, and FAQ. I would really like the capability to track comments by people about articles, below the article, but I do not want to have to build that capability. Hopefully I can figure a way to do that seamlessly using someone else's site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action List:
To Do
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
- Create What style is my house questionnaire?
- Create House Style section
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Test use of blogger for articles
In progress
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
Complete
- Research post war homes - Done
- Create front page centre content - Done
- Test out compiled page technology - Done
- Create a mini icon for browsers - Done
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Settled on a Name and design
Name
I have made a lot progress of in the last little while. I was able to settle on a name, but I still don't have a domain to go with it: House Proud - know your house style and proceed. Domain possibilities are: homepride.ca, houseproud.to, soulhouse.ca. Houseproud.to is the best but it is an expensive name $100 US. I will keep looking. I'm not too worried about the domain as I came to the conclusion that people use google to find website anyway. Its easier than remembering a domain name.
Design
I was also able to settle on a design. I am quite happy with the use of CSS now to create separation in a web site. I have worked out the standard header and permanent columns. It leaves the center portion for changing content. Starting with the home page, onto secondary pages. My plan is to use .jsp to assemble pages so I do not need to maintain a lot of copies of content. With everything I am doing I am trying to make it as easy as possible to maintain (I have learned from lessons in the past). I have a lot of content to still create, and I do not want to lose time messing with pixels.
Rotating Content
Ideas that I have for content borrow from the moneysense.ca site. I like this site as it always appears to have new content. Part of their trick is that they rotate existing content to the front page. So it looks like new articles are coming out frequently, even though they are rotating existing content. I also plan to use the article approach to build content over time. It will be difficult for me to not try and have all the content before launching the website, but I will have to manage as best I can.
AdSense
Another plan for the site it to use google AdSense. It will be interesting to see what kind of traffic I can generate and whether I can make some money just with my content. I would like to add a Messageboard, and guest book to the site. In the future it would be good to capture comments on the article.
Blogger
I just had another idea, what if I post the articles on blogger, and add my framework to the template. That way I could use blogger's capabilities for capturing content. I would have to look into this. It would make it nice and easy for me to post new articles.
Well I should get back to it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Existing action List:
- Research post war homes - Done
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
- Test image manipulation with Java - No status
- Test image storage in MySQL - No status
New actions:
- Create front page centre content
- Create What style is my house questionnaire?
- Test out compiled page technology
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Create a mini icon for browsers
- Test use of blogger for articles
I have made a lot progress of in the last little while. I was able to settle on a name, but I still don't have a domain to go with it: House Proud - know your house style and proceed. Domain possibilities are: homepride.ca, houseproud.to, soulhouse.ca. Houseproud.to is the best but it is an expensive name $100 US. I will keep looking. I'm not too worried about the domain as I came to the conclusion that people use google to find website anyway. Its easier than remembering a domain name.
Design
I was also able to settle on a design. I am quite happy with the use of CSS now to create separation in a web site. I have worked out the standard header and permanent columns. It leaves the center portion for changing content. Starting with the home page, onto secondary pages. My plan is to use .jsp to assemble pages so I do not need to maintain a lot of copies of content. With everything I am doing I am trying to make it as easy as possible to maintain (I have learned from lessons in the past). I have a lot of content to still create, and I do not want to lose time messing with pixels.
Rotating Content
Ideas that I have for content borrow from the moneysense.ca site. I like this site as it always appears to have new content. Part of their trick is that they rotate existing content to the front page. So it looks like new articles are coming out frequently, even though they are rotating existing content. I also plan to use the article approach to build content over time. It will be difficult for me to not try and have all the content before launching the website, but I will have to manage as best I can.
AdSense
Another plan for the site it to use google AdSense. It will be interesting to see what kind of traffic I can generate and whether I can make some money just with my content. I would like to add a Messageboard, and guest book to the site. In the future it would be good to capture comments on the article.
Blogger
I just had another idea, what if I post the articles on blogger, and add my framework to the template. That way I could use blogger's capabilities for capturing content. I would have to look into this. It would make it nice and easy for me to post new articles.
Well I should get back to it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Existing action List:
- Research post war homes - Done
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format - Started Post war homes
- Complete profile form - looking at blogger format
- Test image manipulation with Java - No status
- Test image storage in MySQL - No status
New actions:
- Create front page centre content
- Create What style is my house questionnaire?
- Test out compiled page technology
- Look into logic to rotate articles
- Create a mini icon for browsers
- Test use of blogger for articles
Friday, February 03, 2006
New name (?), new features
Name
So I was probably quick to jump on soulhouse.ca, as I have now thought of many better names. The one I really want is houseproud.com but that is reserved. The closest one I could find is homepride.ca. I'm going to sit on it for a while as I probably jumped the gun on soulhouse.ca.
New Ideas
One new Idea I have is to add a neighbourhood catalog where people can easily add their house to the catalog. The objective is to provide people with an easy place to put a profile of their house, using google maps technology. You can check out the early prototype at here. It would use to fairly current web concepts of relationship by location, and wikipedia. You navigate to your houses locations, then insert a marker for your house. The marker will bring people to your houses profile. I had planned on making it wiki so that anyone can update anything (mostly for ease of use and anonymity).
The wikipedia part worries me a little in that it could easily be used to do vandalism. Oh well, I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.
Site Content
Thinking about the content of the site, I have decided to begin with a focus on Toronto. I have made summary notes on a book that takes you through the old houses of Toronto. This book has helped me identify the styles available in Toronto. I plan to also research newer house styles too, so that people in postwar homes can be aware of their house design, its features and design suggestions.
Site Design
Also on top of my mind is the design of the site. A key design constraint is that it needs to be easy to update and maintain. I have made the mistake in the past that a lot of HTML work is required to add content. I would like to use blog style capabilities to make it easy for me to add content to the site. I may give up style points with that approach, but a lot of things tell me that that less style and more content is good (see useit.com).
Next steps are:
- Research post war homes
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format
- Complete profile form
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
So I was probably quick to jump on soulhouse.ca, as I have now thought of many better names. The one I really want is houseproud.com but that is reserved. The closest one I could find is homepride.ca. I'm going to sit on it for a while as I probably jumped the gun on soulhouse.ca.
New Ideas
One new Idea I have is to add a neighbourhood catalog where people can easily add their house to the catalog. The objective is to provide people with an easy place to put a profile of their house, using google maps technology. You can check out the early prototype at here. It would use to fairly current web concepts of relationship by location, and wikipedia. You navigate to your houses locations, then insert a marker for your house. The marker will bring people to your houses profile. I had planned on making it wiki so that anyone can update anything (mostly for ease of use and anonymity).
The wikipedia part worries me a little in that it could easily be used to do vandalism. Oh well, I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.
Site Content
Thinking about the content of the site, I have decided to begin with a focus on Toronto. I have made summary notes on a book that takes you through the old houses of Toronto. This book has helped me identify the styles available in Toronto. I plan to also research newer house styles too, so that people in postwar homes can be aware of their house design, its features and design suggestions.
Site Design
Also on top of my mind is the design of the site. A key design constraint is that it needs to be easy to update and maintain. I have made the mistake in the past that a lot of HTML work is required to add content. I would like to use blog style capabilities to make it easy for me to add content to the site. I may give up style points with that approach, but a lot of things tell me that that less style and more content is good (see useit.com).
Next steps are:
- Research post war homes
- Write my first article and work out subsections and format
- Complete profile form
- Test image manipulation with Java
- Test image storage in MySQL
