WebDesign Filter: Can I design this myself?

June 25, 2009 4:26 AM

A beginner needs help figuring out if she can do something with a website on her own or needs a professional.

I make artist books. I want to be able to put an image of the cover on my website. First click, book opens. Second click, the accordian fold 'centre' of the book unfolds to show what it is. Hovering enlarges each separate image on the pages.
What app should I consider, or is this going to be so hard to do I should just pay it off and consider a professional?

posted by Megami to computers & internet (15 comments total)

If you want this to be animated (it kinda sounds like you do), you can do this in flash. You can achieve a similar effect with html + javascript/css, but it'll be substantially easier to do it without animation, it will look less slick than in flash, and possibly be harder to execute. There might be a plug-and-play flash application that'll do this for you already, try searching for "flash book flip" or something along those lines; there's a lot of results, so you'll have to do the filtering yourself. Failing that, you should probably just pay somebody to do it.
posted by beerbajay at 4:37 AM on June 25

Yes, sorry, I left out that I would prefer it to be animated (kind of the point!)
posted by Megami at 4:39 AM on June 25

You're going to have to pay somebody to do this.
posted by unixrat at 4:50 AM on June 25

Or a talented youngster eager to show people what he's capable of - a son of a family friend for example.

But ultimately, if you can't conceive of a way to do something on the web, you probably need to pay someone else to do it, or spend a few weeks learning how.

As an editorial aside (and I'm new to Ask so this may be inappropriate?) you may want to consider whether or not a 'book' metaphor is your best bet for a website. There are a lot of real life interfaces (books, remote controls, cellphones, &c.) that don't translate well to a point and click environment.

That said, these actually look quite good:

http://page-flip.com/
http://www.flash-filter.net/page-flip-effect-online-demo.phtml
posted by doublehappy at 5:01 AM on June 25

javascript is the new flash, but yes, not the thing for a novice in either flash or javascript.
posted by mattoxic at 5:39 AM on June 25

Here is a component in the open source joomla gallery software. Might take some noodleing to figure it out.
posted by shothotbot at 6:12 AM on June 25

And here is a tutorial about how to do it in flash. May be just me, but the joomla option looks easier.
posted by shothotbot at 6:15 AM on June 25

a son OR DAUGHTER of a family friend for example

Ahem.

You could also call up a local college and ask if any students are looking for paid work, an internship, or a project for credit.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:18 AM on June 25 [4 favorites has favorites]

When considering a friend's younger son or daughter or local college students, the benefit is (of course) the price, but also remember that in web design, as in most things, you usually get what you pay for.

Or, to be more precise, when you try to get professional-quality work done cheaply or for free, you get what you deserve.
posted by toomuchpete at 7:19 AM on June 25 [1 favorite has favorites]

I turned this CSS image map tutorial into these zooming images without much trouble. Don't know about animated though...
posted by Chuckles at 10:21 AM on June 25 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thanks for all the comments folks. Looks like a professional.
As an editorial aside (and I'm new to Ask so this may be inappropriate?) you may want to consider whether or not a 'book' metaphor is your best bet for a website.
I obviously wasn't clear - this thing is to display my artist books, which are 'real' hardcopy objects that I somehow adequately represent on a website for potential clients to see. The only way I could think of doing it (other than just static photos of the books) is what I was describing.
posted by Megami at 12:19 AM on June 26

I just ran across a portfolio that was accomplishing this, or at least pageturning/zooming, using Issuu, and it reminded me of your question. Probably not as seamless or flexible as you might like for showing your work, but it could be an interim solution.
posted by carbide at 3:02 AM on June 26

Thanks carbide. Are you able to link to the portfolio?
posted by Megami at 8:57 AM on June 26

Sorry Megami, that would have been a helpful thing to include! Portfolio (Kristen Mueller) , which turned up on the archinect feed.
posted by carbide at 2:02 PM on June 27

Kristin, not Kristen. Mispelling extraneous detail is the worst.
posted by carbide at 2:03 PM on June 27