I'm using this site to test ideas and techniques for website designs.
So far, this has all focused on design of static pages, with linking
relationships and common behaviors.
So far, I've implemented:
A new menuing system, similar to the main site, but more maintainable and
with simpler structure. It's still based on JavaScript definition of the
menu items, so there is only one place to change menus on all the site's
pages. But the underlying html is simpler, and the styles are better structured
and better protected from cascading effects.
Pages now provide a fixed menu, with dropdowns, at the top, and a fixed footer,
with last modification date, at the bottom. Since the positioning is fixed,
these are always visible; so it's now easier to navigate from the middle of a long
page to some other page, e.g., no scrolling to get to the menu.
I've also added next and prev links in the menu, for pages that support them, and keyboard
actions for next (n), prev (p), top (t), and bottom (b), as well as help (h).
In case the viewport is too small to show the entire menu, I've provided buttons
for scrolling the menu left [<] and right [>]. You will find them at the
end of the menu on the right. They, of course, won't scroll with the menu.
To support accessibility, the menus should work with the arrow keys and enter, but
I haven't implemented that yet.
I will soon begin working on a component model, first using traditional
web technology, and then using the new standard Web Components, supported by
the polymer library.
The photo-like image element, above, will be my first candidate for a component. I want
behavior that isn't easy to generalize across all photos, so a component for
that makes sense.
So far I've collected libraries and a couple of samples to start, but haven't
done much implementation yet.
I expect to begin integrating these ideas and methods into the main site this Fall.
