The Session
I founded The Session in 1998. I wanted to create a website dedicated to Irish traditional music.
Originally, the site consisted of just a few static HTML pages focusing on a particular jig or reel. Every week I would add a new tune. In this way, a loyal audience of returning visitors gradually built up.
Over time, I expanded on the site using CGI scripts coded in Perl. First I added a mailing list. Then I gave people the opportunity to add comments to the tunes.
In 2001, I decided to completely overhaul the site. I wanted to make the visitors more active participants. The new version of The Session allows visitors to sign up to become members. As members, they then have the ability not only to browse, but also to add to the various sections of the site: tunes, discussions, links, etc.
The Session has evolved into a community website coded in PHP and built around a MySQL database.
The Interface
Although the coding of the site is quite complicated, I wanted to make the interface as straightforward as possible.
The interface to The Session uses tabs, but in a completely new way. Instead of loading a new page, clicking a tab reveals additional information on the same page.
I was inspired to do this by something I read by Jakob Nielsen. He claimed that tabs were a bad navigational metaphor and should only be used to display different views of the same information. Personally, I don't agree with him. I think that Amazon, for instance, uses tabs very effectively as a navigational device. Nonetheless, his pronouncement got me thinking about new ways of displaying information with tabs.
By selectively displaying and hiding information, the overall impression is that of a leaner, easier to digest page requiring less scrolling. Instead of being overwhelmed with information, the viewer can choose not to view information that is irrelevant to them.
The interface uses an elegantly simple bit of DOM Scripting to stack layers on top of one another with just one layer at a time showing through.
The Design
The Session uses a limited palette of subdued colours. The subtle browns and yellows give the impression of faded parchment. This association perfectly complements the traditional nature of the music.
The design of The Session makes almost no use of graphics. Instead, the site uses Cascading Style Sheets to determine how the content should be displayed. The decision to use this relatively new technology meant that I had to consider the implications for older web browsers. The beauty of CSS is that the content itself is not affected, only how it is displayed. Visitors with older browsers will still be able to view all the content, albeit without the benefit of the tabbed interface.
So while anyone with just about any kind of web browsing device can view the site's content, standards compliant browsers will also display the design as intended.
The pages of The Session consist of valid XHTML ensuring forward compatibility with future web browsing devices.
