CorridorDesign.org Redesign

After two years of the same boring design, I finally got around to redesigning CorridorDesign.org. The previous version was pieced together in 2007 while I was simultaneously starting a new position as a Spatial Analyst for The Nature Conservancy in Arizona and wrapping up my year-long position for Northern Arizona University designing CorridorDesigner.

Over the next several weeks, you may broken links, changes in fonts, and other frustrations while I finish putting the shine on the site. If you find something that doesn’t work, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

New features - blog

Well, here we are. Besides the visual redesign, the most obvious addition to the site is our new blog. For the past couple years, I have been frustrated that I haven’t had a way of sharing some of the great correspondence I have received via the site. Emails from all around North America, as well as India, Spain, Ghana, and more. It’s clear that people around the world are interested in designing wildlife linkages, and even more clear that there isn’t an outlet to discuss techniques, tips, and questions. I would like the new corridordesign blog to be one such outlet.

The corridordesign blog will cover a range of topics, including connectivity and corridors in the news, GIS tips and tools, and case studies from around the world.

Are you collaborating with others to design linkages? How about writing a guest post about your experiences? I would love to hear your take on things: what worked; what didn’t; what made you bang your head on your desk. Guest posts could cover concepts and strategy, a particular GIS tool you’re using, or anything else related to corridors and connectivity.

New features - updates via RSS and Twitter

With the previous version of the site, I always had a difficult time providing a list of site updates. To be informed of new content, blog posts, and site updates, you can now subscribe to our RSS feed. If you are not familiar, you can check out these articles for an introduction, and then sign up for a free Google Reader account to get started.

Or, if that seems like too much of a hassle, you can now follow us on twitter. I never thought I would say that.

Future plans

Our section for downloading linkage designs has always been only for the state of Arizona. Over the next six months, I hope to begin posting information on a per-state basis for every linkage planning study I can find. We will probably not be hosting additional reports or data ourselves (unless you want us to!); instead, we hope to provide a one-stop shop for learning about linkages in your state. Kinda like the State Wildlife Action Plans site, but for linkages. But not quite as pretty.

You may have noticed that I removed the bibliography of literature related to connectivity and corridors. I am working on a better way to track articles, and will add this section back in upcoming months. I have become a big fan of CiteULike recently; perhaps we could set up a group for corridors?

About the redesign - tech details for nerds

In the event that you’re a nerd who wants to know some of the details behind the redesign, here they are. The site is now running on ExpressionEngine, a php-mysql based content management system that is way more fun to use than the alternatives. I developed the site templates by hand using strict XHTML 1.0 and CSS in Notepad++, a wonderful free open source text editor. The site layout is based on a custom CSS 12-column vertical grid, which while not entirely semantic, makes life much easier for me. H1 and H2 headings throughout the site use sIFR to use pretty fonts.

If you are using Firefox 3 or greater, Safari, or Google Chrome, you should see some nice rounded corners on the navigation and side bars, courtesy of CSS3. If you are using Internet Explorer for your browser, the website will look more boxy, but should still work the same. If you get tired of the boring boxy look, I highly, highly recommend downloading Firefox already.