The story behind the design.
This is the history of the site alib.co.uk & alibullock.com: My web site started way back in 1995 with a university page and a very basic knowledge of html (then version 1 or 2 I think) and the University's only courses were with the IT department so web design meant writing code in Pascal and C++. This would explain why so many early web sites were so poorly designed I suppose.
But this was the only the dawn of the internet and so as I worked on my own the internet grew and so did I. As I left University I set up sixblocksdowntown.co.uk my first ever web site. Through some early mistakes and a few successes ensured that stayed with building web sites and created alib.co.uk
I hope you enjoy the site and the history behind it - I can only say thanks for all the patience from Caz, friends and of course my family.
In 2008 I have worked on evolving the design of the site from 2007 and have included a new area of static page content as well as new front pages images that change every time you visit the site.
I have also added a new Portfolio gallery
The index 2 page or main page has been completely re-vamped and simplified so that it is now much clearer what they key sections are.
The background remains as a black and white image. This theme continues from the index page and can be seen throughout the site.
In Jan of 2007 I knew that i wanted to create a new homepage and a new design that reflected my move towards the photographic aspect of the site.
In June I finally got round to looking at the design and in july I came up with the first of a 3 stage idea. Stage one was to see if the design would work, stage two was to actually build the site and stage 3 was then to add in the additional ideas.
Over 12,000 pages were combined into new flash galleries and I redesigned the front page (you will see a different image each time) as well as a focusing the images with a B&W background
The whole design took over 3 months of solid work to complete. Every page had to be reworked to the new design and the back and white back drop. Flash galleries were added to the gallery and photo sections while man pages were given a new look.
The site went though 3 revisions before I could finally say that it was live - I hope you enjoy it. No more redesigns for a while...
What I hope will be the final design update in 2006 building on the 05/06 design. New features included:
- Better google integration
- New news panels
- Easier navigation from the front page
Update on the late 2006 design template
New page created in August 2006
Update on the 05 panel design used since the inception of the alib.co.uk web site
The story behind the design: Previous sites to alibullock.com
There would not be an alibullock bang up to date web site without previous projects and versions. Over the last 8 years (at the time of writing this) I have owned various different web site names, and each has had a different look and feel to them. Mistakes have of course been made but with many successes I have kept building and the history can be seen here.
