Background

In January, 1996 I joined NetObjects (employee #13) as product manager for added-value components. NetObjects released NetObjects Fusion, the first visual Web site development application later that year.

The job

Fusion was designed for non-programmers and non-designers. My team’s job was to define and develop several dozen styles that would ship with Fusion.More accomplished u sers could create custom styles as well.

All Fusion sites were hierarchies. Knowing hierarchical relationships and page names, Fusion could automatically link all site elements and create all page banners and buttons from the graphics in the selected style. Add a page and Fusion would automatically add and name a button. Conversely, delete a page and Fusion would remove the button from the nav bar.

Job descriptions are never rigid in a startup and I also served as a beta tester, trade show demonstrator, and frequent conference panel speaker.

All NetObjects Fusion styles included a banner, primary and secondary nav bar buttons, data list bullets, and standard line elements.

When the site was published, Fusion would automatically generate unique .gif files by overlaying page names on buttons and banners from the chosen style.