July 1, 2007 (Sunday)

Would you believe I'm re-revamping my site?

I'm aiming for a more minimalist design. I got a little tired of looking at my May 2007 creation and seeing just a lot of text. Serif text at that--and Michael Bettencourt criticized the choice (constructively, of course).

I am very impressed by sleek, efficient designs, and I'm hacking away at that achievement. I've found I can't boil down elements too much, else the website becomes too "packed." Instead, I've tried to find a balance between navigation bar minimalism without having to make second-tier menus. One result is that the website feels "faster" rather than two clicks away from page advancement.

I'm still using the basic color scheme I've adopted for this year, yet I've reduced the focus photos have on the site. That's a controversial move for me because I'm an actor; essentially, I'm making the website less actor-centric. Instead, I'm making it an internet footprint, a site for show information, and a method for viewing my past work and contacting me.

So far I think my redesign (yet not unleashed) looks attractive. However, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep it simple and minimal. I seem to be succeeding, but the true test is others' reactions!

 

 
July 2, 2007 (Monday)

Done!

So, I did it. In about 48 hours of time, I re-revamped my website!

Not everything works yet, but most things do. What I know doesn't work is the media page (which is a work in progress and will take me hours upon hours to get running properly), my news blog archives, and probably a few other minor things. But for the most part, it's up and running!

What I've used a lot (to my surprise) are expanding and contracting. I've been able to convey pithily basic information using these without cluttering up the space with details. If someones wants to read the details, she can click and, voila, it's there. At first I was going to use it just for my new upcoming page (splitting off from the news blog so that my show information is always easy to find and not burired in the blog), but then I saw value in it for my gallery, my bio (now buried in my about page), and my about page as well. The expanding and contracting were especially helpful for the about page, as I was stuck trying to figure out how to communicate a ton of information about me (from an overview to my coaching to my acting stats to other elements) without having to use many different pages of navigation bar links.

What I just realized I'd like to do is to have a random quotation display at the very bottom of the site, under the navigation bar. It might clutter up things too much, but I hope it makes things a bit more intellectually stimulating. What I've done with this new design is decentralize photographs of me in an effort to raise intrigue and make this more of a website "for all things Ben Hauck" rather than just my actor website; I do many important things outside acting work, so I'm more of a full person than a machine.

If you have any feedback on this new design, please let me know by dropping me an email here. I've designed this new site while studying its behavior inside IE7 (whcih I love), Firefox, and Opera. This time, Firefox was the most annoying, especially since it doesn't allow me to change the colors of the scrollbars to match my design. (If you see an ugly gray slider, blame Firefox!)

Cheers!

 

 
July 4, 2007 (Wednesday)

Video added!

So, much faster than I expected (but a BIG pain in the butt to create), I have video available on my media page. Click on media below (or just click here). Then, click on VIDEOS.

I had also wanted to add random quotations just below the navigation bar, but after a bit of experimentation, I found it distracting. So, for now, I'm scrapping the idea.

I still have to get my music online as well as my writing. That's later. I will also have more videos to come--stuff from films I've been in, my Yahoo! Answers webcast videos, plus maybe some old home movies. This is very time-consuming to create, but it gives me a strong sense of accomplishment once it's done!

Happy Fourth of July!

 

 
July 5, 2007 (Thursday)

I have a couple gigs this weekend. I hope you'll come see.

First up is Variety Underground. That's tonight (Thursday) at 7pm. I'm doing an improvised sermon as The Reverend Raymond Nader.

Then, there's tomorrow night (Friday): I just booked a slot at Lucky Cheng's. Another improvised sermon as The Reverend Raymond Nader. That's at 10pm.

Check the upcoming page for all of the juicy info.

Plus, more videos should be rolling out soon on the website.

 

 

The Reverend Raymond Nader improvised sermon that went on tonight at Variety Underground went great! It was perhaps my sweatiest. The suggestion I got was "gold handcuffs."

News is that the show I was going to be doing at Lucky Cheng's this Friday got cancelled. So, no show on 7/6/2007!

Have fun!

 

 
July 8, 2007 (Sunday)

I've added still more videos to the media page!

I'll have a few more Yahoo! videos to add, plus periodically I'll add snippets from major motion pictures where you can see me (but those will take time to get up). But I have some great representatives of my acting work online. So happy!

 

 
July 11, 2007 (Wednesday)

I just got Infusion Improv online at YouTube. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhP2kwFiS4I

 

 
July 12, 2007 (Thursday)

I just added my deleted scene from Garden State to the videos section of my media page.

Check it out!

 

 
July 30, 2007 (Monday)

Tonight, Infusion Improv had an informal performance in the East Village. They did long-form improvisation in addition to debuting musical improv. It was a pretty cool night of software engineers and real-life improvisers joining forces to improvise.