After hours of staring at the computer monitor, trying to make sense of CSS and .php, the new site is finally finished.
(If you are reading this on my RSS, please click through and check out the new design.)
The new categories at the right are not completely linked yet. Only the Question of the Week, and Quick Thoughts are linked, as they are the only categories with content (at this writing). But as I go along this week, I will be filling all of that in.
The only thing I would ask of all of you is to report any bugs, or any strange things you might come across. Also, if you have any ideas or comments on the design, please let me know. Just reply to this post, or pop in the Contact area.
Also, there are a few new pages that I have not uploaded just yet. A new About page, a page about Realization, and a guide to this site as well as what the various ongoing series are about.
I didn’t want to wait to go live with the new site, so as I write these new pages and fill in the various new categories, I’ll be sure to mention it in an aside at the end of a regular post.
I hope you all had a safe and wonderful New Year, and I look forward to interacting with all of you even more in 2008.
Takuin
10 Comments
Nice. Love the changes you have made! I always find BlogohBlog CSS very easy to nav with all his markups. If you need any help with anything just ask as I have already done a few custom jobs of this template.
But I love the work you did, very fresh and clean… Quick loading too.
Thanks so much, Lee.
Last year I used themes by Brian Gardener, but decided to go with Jai’s designs from BlogOhBlog for 2008. It was very easy to play with.
It is nice to know I have another brain to pick about CSS and such. I’ll let you know if anything comes up, and thanks for the help.
Takuin
Yea Jai is one of my best designers… the old guy who run blogohblog was very good too.
What i love about this theme is its so fast and is close to all CSS. I know you have some images now in your sidebar but its still fast.
One thing if you want a bit of input… The images on the side. I would round them off or maybe make them smaller in height. Also maybe come up with a nice style to pit the design better.
Thanks. I made a note of your suggestions, and I’ll go into it more deeply over the weekend.
Now that I think of it, I didn’t really have a reason for setting the images at that size. I initially threw them in as a place holder and just kept them. But you are right about knocking them down a bit.
Thanks again.
I think maybe a nice crystal style border or something to fit in with the style and colours. You only have 3 colours on the site white, gray and black and maybe blue too…
Maybe a sort of Mac style look buttons would fit in.
Hey Takuin
Happy new year….really like the new website, I think you’d agree, as always these things are a work in progress.
As regards comments above,i would agree with Lee when he suggests softening the images on the side, although i dont necessarily agree that you need more colours as i think your minamilist style works just fine and actually speaks integrity. I think other sites fail by using too many colours and giving a wishy washy, fluffy effect which just confuses the senses.
After all your providing information and not visual treats.
Speaking from my own experiences with design in general i feel there is something uncomfortable about the images, they tend to draw your attention in a somewhat aggresive way….maybe you could tone down the colours or make the blocks semi-transparent?? Also, i think the title space needs some strength to anchor the rest of the page in relation to the heaviness of the images. The content of the images work really well however and the viewer can immediatly understand the nature of the site.
Maybe a block of pastel green would work well for the title space and would blend nicely with the other colours….
@Lee
Thanks for all the input. Although I may add a light background color, I don’t think I’ll be adding anything more (unless it is to slightly modify what is already there).
@ Kris
I see what you mean about the images. It was something I did not even consider. I do think I will make a slight change or two to the images, and I am now taking notes based on everyone’s suggestions.
Everyone’s suggestions have been wonderful, and I really appreciate all of it.
Another thing to consider; this site modification is the height of my own CSS/.php powers. I am not a designer, and my only skill seems to be removing things from other people’s templates to make them less “noisy.” Haha. So, any modifications I make will be based around those limitations.
But it really isn’t much of a limitation. The less I know, the less I can mess up!
Thanks again to everyone so far, and I look forward to more!
Takuin
Yeah completely understand…my own computer skills could not have handled what you have accomplished, so far be it for me to suggest you actually need to change something….it works fine just the way it is
I had an e-mail or two about the redundancies in the sidebar. I realize I have the same info in two different places (below the header, and in the sidebar), but I just have not taken the time to remove it or change it. I’ll leave it there for the time being, and get to it after the more important updates.
You guys are really on the ball. Thanks a lot.
Hey
Like the new design very much. Has a unique, individual feeling to it. Very nice.