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Read about the evolution of the look and features JSO has developed since its launch.
Included are screen captures of the past layouts which you can click on to view them full size.
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Version 1
April 20th 2006 - October 30th 2006
The first JSO layout was very simplistic. Its base color theme was just a variant of greens
with the links being a very dark green and the background a diluted mint color. The navigation
consisted of the banner above with simple text links centerized below it. The site was constructed
with simple frames through the navigation links. Much of the main content was already present
from the initial launch. The gallery was very simple with just scaled down versions of the pictures
in a clickable format. Unfortunately a screenshot of this first layout does not exist though we do
still have the banner from that version.
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Version 2
October 30th 2006 - October 1st 2007
The second layout got much more complex. The color theme consisted of light and dark blues, white and gold.
The layout was styled from the usual layouts you may see associated with performer fansites on the web.
The navigation was a simple image map, frames, and we also had a scrollable news feature which had important
information on the current shows Jim was involved with. A lot of new content was added including an easier to
use gallery involving javascript, radioblog players for the audio sections, a page listing cast recordings
and, perhaps our most popular pages, the show information archive.
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Version 3
October 1st 2007 - July 2008
Our third layout took a risk in both color and design. Some people loved it, while others did not. The layout design used extensive
image mapping and frames. The color theme was based off of Fall, when it premiered, and consisted of light greys, browns, oranges
and whites. No new features were added at the launch, previous content and pages was just expanded upon. Through an unseen glich,
the FAN pages were not featured on the navigation and thus were missing from the site since the redesign; despite being coded for
the new layout. The information about Jim's "current show" status was added much like in the Version 2 layout but was an image map,
not scrolling text.
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Version 4
July 2008 - Present
In our fourth layout we returned to the bright and vibrant colors that were missing since Version 2. The inspiration was to
make as dark of a website as possible while still keeping it cheerful. The color theme is a bit extensive this time around:
light and dark blues, white, bright yellow, bright green, and bright orange. This layout also marks the first time where the
portal page is noticeably a bit different than the other banners in the main layout. This wasn't done purposefully but because the
few images that were used as the anchor to the design were so limited in number. The overall style is similar to Version 2 though
there is much less content on the side bar so it doesn't look as cluttered. The navigation uses image mapping but this is the first
time that there are no frames used at all in the design. Since the Guestbook only had minimal use over the years it was gotten rid of and
replaced with a "Chat Box" on the side bar. It features real time chatting for visitors to the site. Some content that appeared on
the launch was the reinstatement of the FANS section which included a new section with letters Jim wrote to fans through the message
board. A film archive section was added that is basically the same as the already popular Show information section. This page which
features past layouts and another for news archives were added and are up to date. Other sections due to their sheer size were altered
to allow for more efficient navigation. This version also featured the debut of our own Coppermine photo gallery allowing not only better
organization but bigger versions of pictures previously released on JSO.
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