Ryan Ilg

Well after many late nights, and code packed days, I have finally gotten around to writing about the latest project I launched… almost a month ago. Morgan Crossing,  a new real-estate development based in South Surrey, BC. The site itself has a great feel, with its large background images, slick JavaScript animations, and subtle elements that pull it all together.

I was brought onto the project, once again by Vancouver based design firm Free Agency Creative, before the designs had been fully flushed out. That turned out to be a great opportunity for me to throw my 2 cents into the mix and add some personal touches. Integration of a large size photo gallery was one of them. Rather than a boring, common, small size photo gallery, like you would find on to most development web sites, we pushed the boundries. Using jQuery to supply multi browser integration of animation, it allowed us to give the user a different experience. One where they can open the gallery from any page, without losing the information they were currently browsing. Along with a well placed cookie (another of my ideas), the site saves which ever image the user has currently chosen, so when they visit a new page, it will automatically load the same image in the background. Sort of creating a custom website for each user. The whole site was built on Drupal 6, which allowed for a lot of customization and expandability right out of the box (or zip file, I guess). Using a few modules (including CCK, ImageCache, and Views, among others) and custom templates, ontop of the default system allows the client to easily update the site, add new floor plans, or rearrange information. All the headers are generated dynamically via sIFR3, and Videos are embed using the great open source Flash media player by Jeroen Wijering. Be sure to check out Morgan Crossing, by far, one of my favourite development sites I have created so far. Cheers.