JB: How long did it take you to develop the site, and what were some of the initial challenges you faced.
JW: Two weeks were spent building a prototype, which was a static HTML mockup of the site which only ran in IE5.
But that introduces the major features:
The world map interface.
Clippings.
Multi-column text.
Drop down navigation.
Then about 4 months of heavy development which included:
Coding the publishing system.
Writing the article parser.
Coding a template system.
Designing the site.
Coding the JavaScript
Writing the editorial interface.
Creating the templates
Only two of us (myself and zoned) did this work, it involved long 16-20 hour days, 6-7 days a week. It was grueling. One of the biggest challenges though was the IHT hated the final design. They wanted to go with a design based around an earlier sketch I had done, which had a very poor layout. It came to the point that I was going to quit the project, even though it was only two months before launch. I just knew the design was the best one I had produced. Fortunately the IHT finally came to terms with the design once they were able to use it, although I did have to change the color scheme to appease them. Which is too bad, the other color scheme was much more powerful and unique.