Related Pages:
This Web Site
Purpose & Plan Task List Development History Milestones How to Add a PageMore About...
These Photos Future Plans Independent Threaded Travel Retiring Younger Useful Resources Tips & Tidbits Vagabondboots Story Links this Web SiteGetting In Touch
Tidbits & Thoughts
Get your own copy of Cascading Style Sheets by Molly E. Holzschlag. Read it on vacation.
Web Site Plan & Design Overview
Web Purpose
To encourage baby boomers to approach retirement with the same enthusiasm they approached their careers and to rekindle old dreams of traveling independently.
To inspire others to let go of their fears and travel independently.
To provide and example by sharing my own experiences of requiring less, letting go of fear, retiring younger and then doing something else that excites me.
Target Audience
Born between 1946 and 1966
Educated or highly curious and adventurous
Approaching or are already empty nesters
Middle to upper middle income but probably not upper income.
Younger people or persons not approaching retirement but who want to
travel vicariously.
Goals/Objectives
To generate an interest and comfort level in traveling independently (without a tour company).
To provide an example of going through the retirement transition.
To generate enough first time and repeat traffic to this site so that I can develop a means to make it self supporting (except for new development) within 2 year.
Use my background in software development and project management and learn new skill in web design and development so that I would be proud to use this site as a reference if I decide to do web management for others.
My Philosophy
What I have experienced over the last 3 years could be valuable to others approaching the same place in their life that I did 3 years ago. All baby boomers will go through this life transition in one way or another. I am just in the front of the pack.
The web is a perfect medium for the associative thought process.
Strategy
Take online courses in HTML, CSS, Web Design and Web Graphics.
Use MS FrontPage for initial prototyping and to reverse engineer the HTML
it creates to reduce my learning curve.
Use the above tools with my ideas and materials to create a respectable
1st version.
Publish the web site market it and then immediately evaluate it with my
new knowledge and skills and any input from unknown visitors.
Initial Thoughts
Allow people to see photo chronicles of our world travels.
Create a web that allows easy associative thought type navigation
Quick loading considering photos are an integral part.
Works well, easy to navigate, no matter what page a visitor enters first
Intuitive with clues and cues to help
No sideways scrolling
Down scrolling kept to a minimum and used to maintain the flow of a story
or article.
Rules, Conventions, Standards and Other Details
-Small photos used as thumbnails are about 100x135 pixel jpeg files which usually take up
2-7kb on disk.
-Standard photos are about 300x400 pixel jpeg files with compression set
to 20%. Each takes up 20-45kb
on disk.
-No page takes over 25sec over 28.8
-Guides,
Indexes and cross references on every page
-Indexes and cross references organized from more than one interest
perspective
-Tables are built for page sizes be relative to the size of the browser
with a frame inside the table so the information does not collapse to
smaller than 640 wide.
-White space on pages will be filled with Tips tidbits and Thoughts
related to the information on the page.
Browse...Thumb through the pages
& enjoy yourself here...