Templates, web design, and work

Added March 10, 2026: I added links to older versions of the sites I was talking about here using Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Otherwise this post was all dead links and no context.

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When I started my job at Hodges, I knew 95% of the designs I came up would have to fit in the UT template which is heavy on text, brown/beige, and table based, with minimal CSS.(lib.utk.edu as it appeared in August 2006) When these templates appeared in 2003, Matt Grayson and I were working on a new site design for SIS, so we were forced into the design, but we still used CSS.

Based on that CSS centric idea from 2003, I was once again making a CSS version of the templates, this time for Hodges. The SIS site had evolved to the point where I couldn’t use that as a base anymore, it was too integrated with Drupal. Neither Matt or I had any of the pre Drupal code saved anywhere, so I was starting from scratch and dealing with new bugs and browser issues. I was almost done when I heard about a new design/templates coming soon.

New templates were supposed to arrive in October sometime, and the new design for utk.edu was supposed to debut January 1. Units could roll out designs based on the new templates on or after that date. But the templates never came and January has come and gone.

Well this week the new design for utk.edu appeared and it looks good. (utk.edu as it appeared in March 2007) Much improved over the old design. I’m really glad that even with the delays, they took the time to get it right this time and got some feedback from other UT web folks along the way.

The lead designer for the new look, Darren Hughes, has a nice blog entry about the design process (That I found again with the Wayback Machine). My hat is off to you Darren, I can only hope you’re well paid for all your headaches.

While the templates based on the new look aren’t quite ready yet, hopefully they will be soon. Then I can let loose with some work I’ve been waiting on for quite a while.