New site design
Posted by Chris @ 7:52 pm
So, as you may have noticed my site has had a redesign. Let me talk you through it.
Firstly why? Well as you know this site was a personal C.V (see way back when) and then morphed into a blog, and on the way took up this blogger template. Whilst I hacked it up a bit, it has never really got away from that. So this my attempt to stamp my design ideas and styles onto the site.
Secondly it is coming up to the year anniversary to me launching the blog, so now is a good a time as any for a redesign.
Finally I wanted to make the site a bit more accessible, making the posts easier to read, and removing some dead wood, like the style sheet switcher and links.
So what are the new features of the site? Well...
- The navigation has moved and is now in the header. Whilst this will take a bit of retraining for you guys, I'm sure you will soon pick it up, and it means the main links are easily found on every page.
- The header has a selection of 8 background images that it selects at random, and all the images are taken from photos I've taken and you can access in the photos section of the site. Also the header text has a funky CSS only drop shadow.
- There are now some links to translate the site into Spanish and French. Since I work for a translation company it was about time I added these in!
- The side navigation has been updated to include "code projects", and also, on Jakob's recommendation, the "most popular posts" on my site, based on site traffic.
- The site feed is now represented by a new icon that some people are trying to make the standard for rss and atom feeds.
- The family tree pages have had a full makeover (with some help from Tony) to be styled like the new site, and remove the need for frames.
- The site now renders better in FireFox, in particular there is no longer any annoying horizontal scroll.
- The photos section now includes links to view the photos / sets in Flickr to let you add them to your favourites and make comments a bit easier.
Planned changes are to update the archive to make it more intuitive, link it in better with the tags, and also show a mini tag cloud for each month when you click on it.
So there you have it, my new site design, the reasons and features of it. Let me know what you think, and if your comments are valid, you never know I might take them on board!
4 Comments
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 7:43:00 pm
Like the new look of the site! It is clean, sharp, cutting edge, etc and all the other phrases peoplr use at times like these. look forward to reading new postings in your clear font style.This comment posted by Anonymous
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:24:00 pm
Yeah well done like it so far, not so sure on the colour scheme but nice improvement.Only comments are:
- miss the tv link on the header
- I'd put the code projects etc above the blogroll like it was, your stuff is more important than anyone elses
This comment posted by Anthony Main
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:25:00 pm
few more things- image blog cloud still aint right in firefox
- wheres the german translation
- translations screw up your title
This comment posted by Anthony Main
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:32:00 pm
Cheers for the feedback. Colour scheme is a throwback to my first site, blue is in the links, orange in the borders.TV link - if you all use it that much it might get a promotion to the top nav!
Did think about the code projects placement when designing, but I use the blogroll to see if I should check out other sites, so to that end as its my site its more useful to me above the code projects.
Image tag cloud and FF, yeah I know, going to get round to it, but it is a project so ain't officially meant to work in all browsers, yet!
Not enough people speak German compared to Spanish and French. And the translate links need fixing as it cocks up quite a few things, cheers for highlighting the issue tho!
This comment posted by Chris
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