Michael Hartmayer

Working on a new theme for my Portfolio! The theme I’m currently using is just something I grabbed off some site, to get my portfolio up and running. Now that I have time to rework it, I’m putting a little extra time and effort into it. So far my process has been to create a wire frame of the elements, and markup some basic functionality (I created an asset list document to work from, before creating the wires). This will make designing a whole lot easier and permit me to only have to worry about the “pretty factor”, since I’ve already mapped out my functionality and flow.

Check out my progress:

Wireframes (Layout):

Wireframe (Layout + Navigation Example):

Designing the Background:

( I’ve already got grid lines in place to make sure everything will work with 960px. width )

More Background Work + Some Layout:

Trying to find a good way to present the navigation:

Started Filling in the Content UI:

Continued:

Continued:

Continued:

Continued:

IE6 and IE7 both experience a problem in which images inside of block elements inside of anchors lose their click ability. Here’s an example:

<a href="rss-icon.png">
	<span style="display:block; width:100px; height:100px;">
		<img src="someImage.png" />
	</span>
</a>

Every area of the link remains click-able except for the surface consumed by someImage.png. (Note, this problem will not show in IE8, or FF)

Here’s a very small jQuery plugin I wrote to fix this particular issue.

(function($){
	$.fn.fixClick = function() {
		return this.each(function(){
			$(this)
				.css({cursor:'pointer'})
				.click(function(){
					window.location.href = $(this).attr('href'); 
				});
		});
	}
})(jQuery);

Simply select your target element(s) and use this plugin to make the entire anchor click-able again. Here’s an example:

$(document).ready(function(){
   $('a').fixClick();
});

Almost done adding all the functionality to the CP. My process for this project has been pretty fun. Something like this:

1. Layout the different pieces of information I want to show

2. Style them

3. Make them dynamic

I usually like to plan a lot before I tackle big projects like this, but I just couldn’t resist. Having too much fun just winging it! Guess that’s the advantage to working on your own projects. They get to be as fun as you want them to be! Here’s a screenshot:

More minor tweaks and changes:

New doodle design in progress:

So, this is the project I’ve been playing with. As you can see it’s slowly shaping itself into the application I want it to be. Still fiddeling with the UI for that chat.

Check out the progression:

Menu’s I’m working on: