The Old Has Gone, the New Has Come

Perhaps that header is a little inappropriate on Easter Sunday to herald something as insignificant as a new website design. But I’m just in that kinda mood. And it’s nice to say goodbye to a site design that was based so heavily on the basic WordPress template. I imagine that I’ll continue to tweak it, because I’m just like that. But this feels a little more like home to me.

You like?

As a side note, I finally got the chance to take a look at my site on Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows. And for those of you who have visited the previous incarnation of the site using that browser, I apologize for the many weeks that my gargantuan sidebar headers screamed at you. I think that I’ve been able to tame them, so they should prove quite docile in the future, which is just how side navigations should be.

Oh, and while I’ve got your attention, IE users, you should really think about getting yourself a real browser. I’m serious about this. Do it for tabbed browsing alone.

OK. Enough browservangelism. I’m sure that berating about 70% of my audience goes against all sorts of conventional blogging wisdom. I’m just a rebel like that.

But to make it up to you, I’ll post some Easter reflections, even if they are about an hour too late.

9 Ripples from “The Old Has Gone, the New Has Come”

bestman says:

March 28, 2005 at 10:03 am

I like.  Some of the fonts are a little _too_ small in my oh-so-conventional IE window, though.

cheryl says:

March 28, 2005 at 3:03 pm

I do like the look.  One practical note - the red tone font that indicates links to other pages is pretty subtle - I found it a little difficult to distinguish against the body text.  Does an amateur like me have a right to make such a comment to a professional designer?

zalm says:

March 28, 2005 at 3:03 pm

of course you have the right, cheryl.  and now that i’ve seen it on a few other monitors, i think you make a good point.  i’ll see if i can find a solution that works better later tonight.  if i can’t find a color i like that pops more, maybe i’ll bold them or turn the underline back on.

since i’m doing this site for fun and not for work, i’ve certainly not subjected this design to the same kind of cross-browser, cross-platform testing that i’d usually do.  and i’m quite open to making changes to make the site more user-friendly.

speaking of which, what fonts did you find small, mr. man?

bestman says:

March 28, 2005 at 6:03 pm

That was at work.  At home they look fine.  Hmm…

zalm says:

March 28, 2005 at 6:04 pm

it could easily be the difference between how explorer6 renders type under win2k and under winxp. 

and really, you’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of how hairpullingly fun it can be sometimes to design for the web.

zalm says:

March 29, 2005 at 3:03 am

ask and you shall receive, cheryl. 

i think that works better and i hope that you agree.  i’ve gotten into the habit of taking off the underline from links on other sites, because it generally looks cleaner.  but as you pointed out, that only works if the color contrast is strong enough.  and since blogs are really about conversation and linking, i think that putting the underlines back in makes a lot of functional sense.

and now i sleep…

bestman says:

March 29, 2005 at 3:03 pm

You’re probably right, Zalm.  I am on win2k now, and the type is small/faint on everything below “Put Your Oar In” (nicely done, btw, Judge G.) and above “Preview”.  It’s also small/faint on the site names and post titles below “Other Fish In the Sea” and “Recent Tales”, respectively.
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