cshen.ca

Having spent two weeks navigating the slow and cumbersome goSFU system in search of courses to take next semester, I’m now entirely frustrated at the system for being inexcusably slow and hard to navigate, as well as lacking in basic functions which make registering that much easier. Since I have some free time on my hands, I decided to experiment a bit and see if I can design something that’s more workable, and while I’m at it, make it look as if it belonged in 2009.

I should mention right off the bat that this is an experiment only, and does not represent a viable design for goSFU. There are several noticeable oversights that reflect the quick-and-dirty nature of the design, which I didn’t bother fixing because well, it’s just an experiment.

Note: If you only want to see the design and don’t feel like reading the explanations, skip to the very end.

Just upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and took the chance to make a new theme. This time going for a clean, minimal look and emphasizing text as the center of focus. No more sidebar: tag, category, and monthly lists are on their own pages now. This theme, like the last one, is served as XHTML or XML. Internet Explorer still gets an XML error, but it molests this design so much that even the XML error page is a better visual experience.

Its that time again when an overhaul is due. This time I went for a lighter colour scheme, blue and white.

In addition to the theme, I’ve made some other major changes. The most noticeable is removal of all backward compatibility for pre-XHTML browsers. Since I am no longer limited by outdated browsers, I made use of some advanced CSS selectors, just to make life easier. Templating is now handled exclusively by WordPress, so I don’t have to maintain two separate template sets. I took the chance to completely start from scratch, a new WordPress installation, and discarded all the old posts.

Still finishing off the details, enumerating pages, etc., but here it is.