We just launched the new Northeast Pools & Spas website. I think Dave and Jason did a great job on the visual design and Liz did a fabulous job on organizing and helping to write the content! I worked primarily on the functionality for the construction and portfolio pages. The site is implemented using semantic XHTML, CSS, jQuery, and Zend Framework.
The cool thing about the construction and portfolio pages is that they use progressive enhancement. What this means is that users without JavaScript (i.e. search engine robots & screen readers) can navigate the content by fully reloading the page on each click. You can try this out yourself by disabling JavaScript in your browser. For users with JavaScript, each click on “next” or “previous” (on the construction page) or each portfolio feature (on the portfolio page) will cause their browsers to load the appropriate content dynamically into the right spot on the page without needing a full page reload.
One of the common problems with this type of JavaScript navigation is that you often break the browser’s back and forward navigation capabilities. Another common problem is that you can’t bookmark the page or send the link to a friend and have the same content loaded. Because these pages update the browser’s “hash” we get the browser’s back and forward capabilities as well as bookmarkability. The “hash” is the part of the URL that starts with the “#” character. For example, assuming you have JavaScript enabled you should be able to navigate right to the waterfall photo using the following link:
http://www.northeastpools.net/portfolio/#feature/waterfall/
Critiques are welcome!
