In early 2001, Macromedia and Allaire, a Web development company known for its product Cold Fusion, which allows for dynamic Web page creation, announced that they would merge.
Once the two companies began the merger process, they recognized immediately
Macromedia is a software company that
makes applications for Web professionals to create relevant, compelling user
experiences through an open, integrated Web development
platform. In early 2001, Macromedia and Allaire, a Web
development company known for its product Cold Fusion, which allows for dynamic
Web page creation, announced that they would merge.
Once the two companies began the merger
process, they recognized immediately that they would need to integrate their two
existing Web sites into one online presence. The task involved two main goals:
incorporate the best features from each of the two Web sites and create a
unified look and feel.
Integrating the two sites was no easy task.
Both sites were extensive, professionally designed and professionally
architected. The Macromedia site was static (in that it used HTML), using
Cascading Style Sheets, Flash and Dreamweaver templates. The Allaire site was
dynamic (in that it used ColdFusion files), using Font tags, dynamic objects
(CFM code) and ColdFusion templates.
The direction had been set: The newly merged
company would visually synthesize the sites, effectively “reskinning” pages; the
other thing that would need to be done is to create an entirely new dynamic site
in ColdFusion.
Contributors continued to add content to both
lives sites as the redesign of the new site was started. The design team was
able to work simultaneously by copying the macromedia.com site to a new server,
which acted as a “staging” server for the cosmetic and structural revisions.
The design team soon instigated a content
“chill” on the existing site (all changes were recorded) and later, a content
“freeze” (no changes at all). Immediately after the freeze, the redesigned site
was copied over the existing site. For a short period, any changes made to the
live sites had to be re-uploaded to the redesigned site as well in order to
synchronize the content.
For the redesign, the team narrowed site page
types down to four basic templates:
- One column
- Two column
- Two column with navigation
- Three column
Most of the redesign-related changes came in
the repeated elements (such as server side includes and Flash navigation).
Because the allair.com site is dynamic, the team reports that it was easy to
“reskin” the pages by modifying objects within the ColdFusion templates. The
site was tested on the staging server and files were adjusted there when
needed.
The newly re-designed site
was completed on January 12, 2002.
Web Design 
