Responsive redesign for CFI

The proven division of content with a focus on the presentation of realized real estate projects was to be maintained. That was the list of requirements:

• New, more generous page layout with larger images.
• The content adapts flexibly to the page size(responsive: reacting or responding to something). This also includes that control elements that can be easily clicked on a desktop computer remain operable on a smartphone. A menu item thus becomes a button that can also be operated with the fingers.
• Technical redesign of the project overview on the map of Germany, because Flash is not supported on many smartphones. Today, this can also be realized with JavaScript and HTML5.
• In the header of the pages, a picture slider should let you wander through photos of realized projects in an endless loop. Again: no Flash but JavaScript.

The proven things were kept:

• No Content Managent System (CMS): static HTML pages will still be delivered. In the last years, not a single update of the system was necessary. No security hole had to be closed, no plugin had suddenly become obsolete or incompatible.
• At the same time, the delivery of static pages is the fastest of all. Since the pages are always "ready" on the server, there is no need for a caching system to speed things up.

One disadvantage of using static pages: Even a small change to an element that appears on many pages (e.g. the logo) must then be made on all these pages. But there are good solutions for this, too: Static page generators. For the website redesign of CFI GmbH, Hugo has now been used for this purpose. The "small change" is now implemented in a template file and with one command all pages are regenerated by Hugo and can then be uploaded to the web server.

Published: 22.7.2018
Categories: Web design