about the web site…
…how to explore it…
the basics…
We write illustrated articles, and present them in a consistent manner across our site. Once you've visited a few pages you should have a pretty good feeling of how the rest of this site appears and works.
content…
The main purpose of a web design is to deliver (hopefully useful) content, and this is how it's done on our site.
- Main content is clearly divided into suitable sections and sub-sections, each with its own headline.
- The main content is always first – on top, no matter which browser and how it's used.
- Additional content, comments and images, are placed in side column(s) – after the main content if pages are linearized.
- Keeping the file-size small for quickest possible download, is a priority. Images are therefore of good, but far from excellent, quality, and their visible sizes are limited. Context-relevant alternative text is used where appropriate.
- All articles have dates for creation and latest revision at the bottom of the main content column – this column, alongside or right below the signature(s).
Only original and/or locally verified material is used in our articles, regardless of subject.
navigation around the site…
The site contains a few hundred pages/articles, divided into site-sections and subject-groups. Navigation relies on section-maps, and sequential navigation from page to page in each section or group.
- Primary navigation is at the bottom of each page, in the “page footer”. Some pages on this site also have internal or external links / navigation in side column(s).
- Primary navigation is also established through link relations for browsers that can make use of them. Internet Explorer can't, I'm afraid.
- Each section has its own section map or menu, known as “Table of Contents” or just “Contents”. All articles in one subject-group are found in the same “Contents”.
- All sections can be reached from the main page, or “Home” page, for the site.
Note: since this site contains articles in more than one language, switch to the relevant “Home” – the one written in the relevant language, and go on from there. We don't second-guess what language you may prefer, so there's no automatic language-selection involved. - The Back button will always work as expected, and all pages on this site will open in the same “browser window” or “tab” – unless you choose otherwise. Same with all links going out from this site.
We have of course no control over, or responsibility for, all the many sites we link to from our articles. All site owners can make their own design and usability choices – and luckily they do.
visual design…
Visually it's intended to look ok and just work. The better browser you have, the better it'll look and work, but these pages aren't designed with any particular browser in mind – there's no need for browser-specific web-designs today.
auto-adjusting page size:
These pages will adjust to the size of your browser-window, within limits. There may be some “white space” (unused space) on wide browser-windows, since neither too crowded pages nor very long text-lines are easy to read. These pages will of course become more compact on narrow browser-windows, but they'll work the same.
Some older browser-versions won't let the page adjust, for the simple reason that they can't handle it. No big deal, but maybe it's time to upgrade such an old browser.
adjusting text-size – bigger or smaller:
If you're not entirely happy with the size of the text – change it. All of today's browsers can change text-size on web pages for you. These pages are created with text-resizing in mind, so there's no reason not to give text-resizing a go if you see the need for it.
I have intentionally not added any “text-resizing vidgets” or “buttons” on these pages, as your browser can do a much better resizing-job entirely on its own.
The text-sizes and fonts these pages have by default, are compromizes to suit the huge number of combinations of browser-defaults, screen-sizes, screen-resolutions and personal preferences any web page has to survive across. Text-sizes and fonts are not chosen to suit any particular combination, but to work reasonably well for everyone everywhere.
prepared for print…
There are no “print only” pages on this site, only the original pages which are enhanced for print.
These pages will not look the same on print as they do on screen. Only this main column will be printed (for now), and it will look more like an ordinary document than a web page. This is intentional, since everything that's really important is in the main column, and navigation makes no sense on paper.
Browsers' and printers' ability to “pretty-print” these pages may vary quite a bit, but it should work well on most browser/printer combinations. It will work with and without setting printing of background, as the background for printout is kept mostly paper-white and without background-images on this site.
Paper-format and -orientation aren't critical, but ordinary A4 “portrait” will normally give the best result.
prepared for rough handling…
These pages don't carry any surprises, but they are prepared for the fact that browsers aren't identical and each visitor may have his or her own preferences. I can't say how much these pages can handle without breaking, but they are reasonably well prepared for rough handling.
Most modern browsers will adjust image-sizes to available space in the columns, but older browsers
can't do that and will instead cut off the overflowing part of too large images. Some old browsers can't handle
such things at all.
This is of course only relevant on very narrow browser-windows, as images will keep their real size in more
normal-sized browser-windows.
The ordinary “full screen” F11 will reveal screen styles on most browsers. However, some browsers support projection, and will go into “projection mode”. That will give a totally different appearance altogether, as intended.
If you see your browser's logo in the background, don't worry about it – it's just a gimmic. If you see another logo there, or maybe no logo at all, then there's still no reason to worry about it.
technical design and development…
Web designers may be the ones with interest in what a web design is made up of, and I'll keep the description somewhat compact for the sake of regular visitors.
The base (source code) for this and most other pages on this site, are taken from our own 2004 design. It was created to cope with all relevant browsers back then, and it still performs as intended. It's robust and extremely flexible, so I see no need to replace it as main design base on our site.
apparent differences across browser-land:
If you compare how this design appears in different browsers, you will find minor differences. I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to which browser visitors' use, and all major browsers are given what they need in order to render these pages properly – in accordance with web standards.
However, some browsers – like Internet Explorer – are simply too weak no matter what, and I won't downgrade the layout in good browsers just to pamper for the bad. Internet Explorer is however given all the extra styles it can make any use of, and shouldn't be too far off.
I don't consider older browser-versions worth checking, so the line is drawn with IE6. Some older browsers may get some attention, but usually only to avoid complete failure on their part.
other differences:
Our site is not following any “major trends” – design-wise or otherwise. It is our own, unique, design, and its main role is to carry content without disturbing it. It fulfills this role to our satisfaction, so we will probably keep it like this for quite a while.
A real close look on a very good screen will reveal almost invisible details that apparently have nothing to do with the design, and some of them differ from page to page. This is how I keep track of progress and regress across browser-land without the need for specific test pages.
not optimized for search engines…
Again: this subject is mainly of interest to web designers and/or site owners, so I'll be short.
I can't say I mind getting a positive ranking on Google or elsewhere, but I won't do anything in order to affect the ranking either way. I don't often get around to test my sites' SE ranking either, although I do use the on-site search options occasionally in my daily work.
As a user I often have to skip the first page(s) in search engines like Google, because I don't find the top-listed links relevant or useful, and optimizing my search rarely ever helps. These daily experiences are reflected on my own site.
I wouldn't dream of deliberately optimizing anything on my own site for search engines, since that might place some of my articles in the wrong places on various lists, and add to the general information overload. So, I have thought about SEO, but that's about it.
The fact that the source-ordered Mark-Up behind these pages may look a bit search engine optimized, is not entirely accidental though. I write and organize articles so they should make optimal sense to humans, and humans use software.
open for comments…
We don't sell anything on this site, but we respond to serious comments on any subject we touch on in our articles. Our mailbox is protected by solid filtering, which is why we can openly display our mail-address – below my signature.
Exchanging knowledge, experiences and/or opinions on a subject can be useful for all parts involved, and communication is fine with us as long as it's kept on a civilized level.
I wish you an interesting trip around on our site, or whereever else you aim your browser. Have a nice day and surf safely.
sincerely 
Hageland 23.oct.2007
last rev: 15.nov.2007
gunlaugs@c2i.netabout the web site…
