I am very pleased to announce the launch of my brand new site!

If you are a returning visitor, you will notice that everything around here is brand new. A while ago, I decided that my site needed a complete overhaul, and in my spare time have been working on this new version for the last few weeks. This is the most complete redesign the site has undergone since I rewrote the site scripts 4 years ago.

The most difficult decision I made was to completely rework my portfolio browser. For the last few years, I have been using a piece of software I wrote myself using Perl and XML, which I called the Image Engine. This worked well, but I wanted to add new features, and realised that adding the features I wanted would require such a comprehensive rewrite that the time involved would not justify the end result.

So, at the beginning of the redesign process, I decided to switch to using Gallery, an Open Source software solution. This was a big step, as apart from the work involved in integrating my new site design into the Gallery templates, it also meant that I had to manually add each image into the new albums. Previously I was able to upgrade the existing XML database each time I updated the Image Engine, but this was not an option with Gallery (well, it is beyond my meagre programming skills).

I hope you will agree that the effort has been justified, as I think that the new Gallery albums are much easier to use and make my work more accessible. However, because adding all the images has proved to be so time consuming, I have decided to launch the site before finishing all the editing, so you may find a few holes in the descriptions and summaries here and there.

Also, although I have tested the site as comprehensively as possible in as many browsers as I have access to, you may still encounter a few glitches. If you do, please leave a message on the bug reports forum, or use the e-mail form on the contact page.

Personally, I think the new design is leaner, simpler and more attractive. I hope that you agree. If so, please feel free to let me know in the comments, on the feedback forum, or use the contact page to get in touch.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 12th, 2005 at 12:01 pm and is filed under News, Site Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.