Today we launched the new realbasic.com. With the help of Gwen Palmer and the rest of the gang at REAL Software, Inc. we finished with plenty of time to spare.

Our key goals for this site are:

• consistency
• add color to the REALbasic brand
• address their user spectrum - hobbyist to professional
• deliver windows, mac, linux specific content
• ease the ordering process for previous customers

Due to its table-based layout, this site does not represent a huge conceptual victory for web standards, but purists should look past the template to the innerworkings of the site for a few ideas on handling web content.

Platform-specific content

As part of our template, the team created a php variable that holds the user’s browser platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, or Unix. We used this variable to order lists and choose content based on the user’s platform. In Safari I see Mac, Windows, Linux, but in Virtual PC I see Windows, Mac, Linux.

This supports REAL Software, Inc’s marketing aims and delivers personalized information to each user with very little overhead. We are still working to incorporate this approach into all areas of the site. Using it to decide which download area and screenshot to start from are two quick examples of this technique. OF COURSE, the other platforms are easily accessible, but we do our best to make an “educated” guess. Even the search box is pre-populated with search terms based on the visitor’s operating system.

CSS Background Images

The site uses a url parsing function to generate css background images for each page, displaying a consistent header on all pages. In addition we created small header pages for times when the content needs more space or a large header graphic is superfluous. The php executes the url parsing function and inserts the name of a section (i.e. products) into the page’s <style> area. as part of the following css: background: url("/images/title-products-home.jpg");

Pictures of People

The votes were tallied and it was clear that stock photos were encouraged to be a large part of the redesign. Without much reluctance, I used public domain photos (those without licensing restrictions) and merged them with smooth gradient-filled rounded rectangles in Macromedia Fireworks. I will miss my little Fireworks when it finally gets discontinued. All I can hope is that the gradient tools in photoshop are improved whenever I get the nerve to try Adobe Photoshop CS2 DX 5000 iStudio Power Professional Edition.

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Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 12:32 pm

topic: work