STR Gets a Redesign!

Early Notice

So I’m writing this before the redesign is even up. If you’re reading this before the big change happened, well consider yourself special.

STR Design History

This is the second redesign of SocalTrailRiders. However, the first redesign was more of a behind the scenes change. The look and feel of the website remained relatively the same as it did in November of 2004 when SocalTrailRiders was born.

Comments on the Redesign

For the new redesign I have gone with a darker and bolder brown and the “STR” acronym for SocalTrailRiders is emphasized more – especially in the logo.

Every once in awhile the image banner next to the logo will change. Keep an eye out for that.

I’d like to thank Bret (i am dino) for his constructive criticism throughout this redesign process. He’s better at making things pretty and some elements of the redesign were his idea. Thanks!

Some Stuff is Gone

The following has been omitted in the redesign:

• News
• Rider Profiles
• Articles

The big reason for these being gone is that they wouldn’t be updated and would get stale very quickly. I could sit here and promise weekly updates of news/rider profiles AND a new article every week but the reality is that I’m still a full time college student with friends, a part time job, and a mountain biking addiction.

Look for an archive of some sorts for old news items and articles in the near future though.

Forums Will Also Get a New Look

Soon the forums will default to a new style which will resemble the redesigned stuff. I’ll probably keep the old styles as an option, but don’t hold me to that. Let me know ASAP how you feel about it.

Some Technical Jargon

The first redesign introduced a website that was fully CSS and XHTML compliant and that tradition carries on with this redesign. The layout and design is achieved purely through the magic of Cascading Style Sheets. A fluid layout was used (as opposed to fixed) which means it should look solid on a variety of different screen resolutions and browser window sizes.