Navigation

This overlaps for me with the graphics/design elements part of the page. The design of the page and the navigation thereof are, at least for what I have in mind, inescapably intertwined.

I've been messing about in Photoshop and came up with a really basic mockup of what I think I'd like the site to look like. Here's the home page: clean, really basic, and while it's not necessarily as obvious and transparent what the categories represent, here's the hovertext I'd add.

Each of those categories is a link to a separate sub-page. Here's a mockup of what you'd get to if you clicked the "Stories" link: the little tiny bubble-chamber graphic would appear under each story title if you hovered over it. I don't know if there's a way to do that without using Flash. If not, then I'd make the text viewable without Flash as opposed to giving non-Flash users the PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS PLUGIN alt-text. (It's worth noting that I borrowed the bubble-chamber shot and would almost certainly have to create a different image of my own so as not to be infringing copyrights left right and center.)

And here is an individual story page. The text would appear in a new frame under the Unfound Island/stories header, with no outlines or background, so that the text would appear to scroll up without the background of the page moving.

Based on my really really simple understanding of HTML from several years ago, the splash page would have to be an image map or something, wouldn't it? I really need to get into Dreamweaver and see how it tells me to do things. The point is that I like navigation that is very very simple and very very clear: you would not have to name a link "This Link" because it would be named for the contents of the page you would get to if you clicked that link. No unnecessary Click Here To View, and as little animation as possible.