HAPPY 10TH VIDEO BLOG!

I recorded something special for you for our 10th Anniversary! This video blog is an update as well as a preview to a new project I am working on with ProTips4U! Stay tuned for more on that!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Reflecting on the First Ten Years With Webmaster Lisa Patterson

How much have you changed in the last 10 years? If you're anything like us, you may have had several makeovers! Having worked on the site from concept to creation and renovation upon renovation, I thought it might be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and chronicle some designs of the past!

Unfortunately, the first few site designs cannot be visually chronicled since we didn't have the foresight to capture a screenshot at that time. I'll do my best to hit some of the early design basics, though.

When the website first opened in 1999, Dominique was in the midst of a competitive comeback, so we opted for a site design that would reflect her Olympic past & spirit. Those of you long time visitors might remember the first design: a white background, with Olympic ring inspired menu buttons. Each "mouseover" photo holder/menu button was a circular ring (red, yellow, blue, green & black) linked to a different subpage. The main page and its accompanying pages were adorned with exclusive photos from acclaimed sports photographer Dave Black. Dave was one of the first people to know about Dominique's new website and he immediately sent over a stack of photos for us to use. Talk about immediate support! We are forever thankful for his contribution as his photos have become a mainstay both in the "Through the Years" photo gallery and on the profile page. I wish I had a screenshot of the website on Opening Day....but I hope I was able to give you somewhat of a mental picture....

The site evolved later in 2000 to have a navy blue background with red & white writing throughout. Do you remember the floating stars that used to follow the mouse around the page? This was an immediate favorite feature for Dominique & her fans. When we switched to the navy (and later black) backgrounds, we retired the Olympic rings menu motif, but "kept the torch lit" by implementing an Olympic ring photo collage as a fixed image. (We opted to retire the menu buttons since they took too long to load!) To accompany the new navy background, we also incorporated a Macromedia Flash "site intro" when that was the trendy thing to do. The flash intro was set to music by Robert Miles and matched the site as it flashed photos of Dominique that were bordered in red & white. Scott Einuis was kind enough to host Dominique's site and provide us with additional photos until about 2001. Again...no photos or screenshots at this stage of our evolution....

....Which brings us to 2001. Dominique was looking for a more 'girly' and 'fun' site design after the Sydney Games came and went. This was also the year that we unveiled "La Boutique Dominique" for the first time...if I remember correctly.


We used a Pam Mayer photo from the 2000 post-Olympic tour and built the site around that. We tried out a 'frames' version of the site which was believe-it-or-not inspired by an old design from new (at the time) recording artist Mandy Moore. We used the very thin top and bottom frames to display purple & white colored menu buttons and "Did U Know?" fun facts. As you would navigate from page to page, the frames would stay in place and the content (in the middle of the site) would change. To keep things fun, we changed the color schemes on each subpage. The only requirement was to make sure that the subpage colors would coordinate well with purple and white. For instance, the "Contact" page was blue and teal.....



"The Latest" page was teal, aqua & purple....



One of my favorite pages on this site design was was the "Profile" page which was black, light & dark pink and dark gray. Once again, the profile page was adorned with photos from acclaimed sports photographer Dave Black.



Do you remember the red & purple "Diary" page? Every month the photo in the upper left hand corner would change. Most times, these were photos from Dominique's personal collection.



The next screenshot you see below is of the front page that was unveiled around May 2002. As Dominique began to explore many roles outside the competitive arena (such as coach and clinician), we wanted to refocus the website to help showcase Dominique's personal and professional evolution. We simply changed the front page of the site at this time, and kept the subpages from 2001 in tact.



About a year later in October 2003, the site underwent a full transformation. More than anything, Dominique was looking for a bright, fun & energetic site that was more fan focused than ever. Though we opted to keep the same 2000 tour photo on the front page, website content was significantly revamped. One of the most notable additions was a VIP section which allowed fans to login with a personal password and get exclusive content, wallpapers & more! This site was pretty bright, wouldn't you agree??



In May 2005, we unveiled one of my favorite site designs to date. This website also represented a significant overhaul in content and organization. The site, itself, though designed in HTML had many Macromedia Flash components to satisfy Dominique's goal of really livening things up! You'll also remember the the Dominique Moceanu Bobblehead Doll was introduced during this era! The "VIP" section was replaced with a password-free "Fan Zone" since we recieved feedback that the previous password protection idea was too cumbersome. (You talked....we listened!)




As sad I was to see the last design go, Dominique was maturing and looking to change up the website in 2006. The main photo was taken during her engagement photo shoot with Mike. We took advantage of the beautiful spring/summer photo to put forth a very feminine and simply lovely design concept! You might remember that Dominique introduced her DVD, "Dominique Moceanu's Golden Moments" very soon after we unleashed this new design.



....and now we are up-to-date. In 2008, Dominique wanted to refresh the site and invoke the Olympic spirit once again! We opted for a classic 'gold medal shot' for the main photo and played off the Atlanta 1996 green color on her medal to build the site's color scheme. For the design, we opted for something that we described as "sleek & sporty." What do you think? Did we succeed?



10 years is a long time, but in many ways it has quickly come and gone. It's been quite an experience, both personally and professionally. Having a venue to communicate with you is exactly why this website was estabished, and I continue to feel like we are fulfilling that purpose as we had set out to do from Day 1. I can honestly say that Dominique puts you, the fans and website visitors, first whenever she's makes decisions for the site, and to know that she continues to have your support & interest "after all these years" is pretty great!

On that note, we continue to seek out your feedback and welcome it. Please send us your thoughts, suggestions & reflections on the last 10 years by replying to this post!

Here's to 10 more!
Lisa Patterson
Webmaster