Launched: New HSU site
Published 22 Aug 2006
Just a quick announcement that I recently launched a redesign of the Humboldt State University main site. This pretty much explains most of my silence for the past month or two. The new site focuses on recruiting, which is a major goal of the university at this point, and has been in development for over 6 months.
Highlights include:
- Back end powered by ExpressionEngine. This is a departure from my usual Textpattern; unfortunately our server configuration won’t work with the newest TXP version.
- Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, everywhere but where I had to tied into legacy systems. I am slowly working on fixing those.
- Standards-based CSS layout (of course)
- Kick-ass photos from our campus photographer
- A new virtual tour where we got our feet wet with Flash
- Better semantics, and a much more efficient back end structure
- Writing from our Public Affairs department— up until now I’ve had to scrape together the content myself, and it showed
- Thickbox used for supplemental stories for banner photos
- User editable quick links
I will be writing more on some of the specifics in the near future, but for now, enjoy.
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Commentary
Morgan writes
Aug 22 at 07:24 PM #
I really like it. It’s like mint for my eyeballs. :)
(I gave it a mini-review on my blog.)
Elaine writes
Aug 23 at 12:27 AM #
Damn pretty. And I still think the customizable quick links is incredibly clever. :)
Scott Jungling writes
Aug 23 at 12:28 AM #
Simply brilliant. Excellent quality photographs and very cool quick links.
Jon-Michael writes
Aug 24 at 09:31 AM #
Wow! That’s the nicest university site I’ve seen; it’s actually easy to find and use sections.
Care to contact my school and fix up the POS site? They finally converted it from all flash to Dreamweaver XHTML, but it’s has the most retarded navigation (ex: 6 links lead to the same page!).
Anyways, great job on the site. It should inspire other universities!
Pat writes
Aug 24 at 08:34 PM #
Got any in-depth articles on how you used ExpressionEngine to create the site in the pipeline. I’d love to hear about the backend details.
Andrea writes
Aug 25 at 02:11 AM #
Thanks all!
Pat: yes, that is one of the first articles I want to write. I’m really impressed with ExpressionEngine these days. :)
James John Malcolm (AkaXakA) writes
Sep 2 at 04:50 PM #
I, for one, would love to hear how you got on with ExpressionEngine!
Chip writes
Sep 7 at 06:22 PM #
Congrats on the new site – looks great! We’re in the first stages of launching here, but still a long road ahead!
Stephanie Geyer writes
Oct 31 at 01:03 PM #
<span class="caps">LOVE</span> what you did with the home page. Congrats!
Andrea writes
Oct 31 at 03:06 PM #
Thanks Stephanie! The review of the old site from your firm was very helpful when putting this one together.
Lucas Stark writes
Jan 11 at 11:15 AM #
Your function:
function menuFix() {
var sfEls = document.getElementById(“nav”).getElementsByTagName(“LI”);
for (var i=0; i<sfEls.length; i++) {
sfEls.onmouseover=function() {
this.className+=(this.className.length>0? “ “: “”) + “sfhover”;
}
// event added to keep menu items from disappearing
sfEls.onMouseDown=function() {
this.className+=(this.className.length>0? “ “: “”) + “sfhover”;
}
// event added to keep menu items from disappearing
sfEls.onMouseUp=function() {
this.className+=(this.className.length>0? “ “: “”) + “sfhover”;
}
sfEls.onmouseout=function() {
this.className=this.className.replace(new RegExp(”( ?|^)sfhoverb”), “”);
}
}
}
Is throwing a script error in IE 7.
Very nice site though
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