The Website

Our Goal

One goal in creating this website is to have a vehicle for you, our reader, to see who we are as a team and to highlight the creativity and effort that we invest in our robots. We are very proud of our performances in the FIRST Robotics competitions and we hope that our excitement comes through in all that you see on this site.

On a more practical level, we need a tool for our team members to communicate basic logistical information as well as a means of preserving all the knowledge and experience that we accumulate over time. We offer this info-base as a legacy to each new generation of Team 159 members and as a resource to other FIRST Robotics teams as well.

Finally, we hope that this website can serve as a starting point for students who may have an interest in robotics to learn about FIRST Robotics through the example of our team. If you are a student in the Poudre School District we want to encourage you to contact us and come and be part of this excitement. Go Alpine Robotics, Team 159!

Where we Started

The old 2006-vintage website was an excellent source of information about Alpine Robotics and the FIRST Robotics competitions as well as a comprehensive technical resource for building FIRST robots. And, while still a very good website, the old structure was becoming difficult to manage efficiently and did not entirely meet all of the new communication goals we have set for ourselves.

So this year we have set ourselves the task of updating the website’s look and feel and to transition the existing content into new website structure using state-of-the-art website management tools. Starting in October of 2008, a dedicated group of amazing team members took up this task and here are a few highlights of the trip that we made to launch this website.

Chosing a Design

The first step in our process was to create a website theme and to translate that theme into a workable concept design. The old design, although excellent for its time, was becoming a bit dated visually and wasn’t forceful enough in communicating our desired messaging. The web group decided that a rework of the existing static site structure and aging code-base would be arduous and would ultimately have a relatively low chance of success in meeting the new goals. It was decided that a fresh design, executed with state-of-the-art site management and website design tools, would be the most effective way to proceed. The concept design moved through a number of iterations as purely graphic images (created in Photoshop, of course) until we reached the point of choosing a final version.

Template Creation

Now that there were a few designs to choose from, the whole web team, including Sean Whittmeyer, a Web Group alum, sat down at a local coffee shop to make the final decision. In the end, a combination of the 3 designs was chosen. Then, we got down to the process of translating the final Photoshop image into valid HTML and CSS and compiling the various text and graphic elements that would ultimately make up the site. Within two weeks, 'templates' were coded for both the Home page and a generic sub-page.

Site Structure

The new site's structure and organization was completely different from that of the previous site. Redesigning the organization of the site was probably the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire site-building process. After many drafts, a coherent structure was created. It is briefly outlined below. After the structure had been defined, all there was to do (Ha! what a joke!) was to add content to the skeleton of the site, page by page.

Adding Content

While not difficult, this was the most time-consuming part of the website creation process. All the content for the site had to be either repurposed from the old website or created by either our Web Group or, as a generous time donation, from another Alpine Robotics team members. Then, all of that content had to be organized, reviewed, edited and formatted so that it clearly communicated our message and still looked visually appealing and engaging.

Validation & Error Checking

After all the content has been added, it's time to check the site for errors and compatibility issues. Our website has been coded to meet all XHTML 1.0 Strict standards, which means that it will be internationally complaint, accessible with other devices and fitting a strict document structure format. The site has been tested in all worthwhile browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Our tool kit

With the exception of a few very complicated scripts and tools, everything in the site has been coded by our web team. We would like to take a chance to thank some WWW community members for creating great scripts, such as Lokesh Dhakar, for his creation of Lightbox 2. Also, we'd like to thank RicoCheting.com for their great PHP Image gallery script.

Finally Done!

Finally, the first leg of our journey has been completed, the website is ready to launch! Looking ahead, we will be using the site on a regular basis to chronicle the adventures of Team 159. We will be adding new media, information and resources so check back frequently. Finally, we'd like to thank Sean Whittmeyer, a Team 159 alum and our web team for a most excellent job. Well done!