21 November 2006
Version 3.0, Revisited
Months ago, I began to rethink the visual identity of this site. Moving from Blogger to Wordpress made the material far more searchable and browsable. But the look of the site took a turn for the worse. Under Blogger, I had a bland looking tech theme. Under Wordpress, I have a bland looking cartoonish theme. It’s hardly ideal. I quickly designed an incremental theme but advice seemed to say my 1998 design abilities weren’t quite right. So I’ve sat on it, thinking about the needs of the site and have come up with this.
Initially, you’ll notice that many of the content boxes have disappeared. Topics and search are the only two remaining boxes. The banner, solid under the current site became a Blue/Grey gradient under the first mockup. I’ve now turned it greener and reinforced the tech image with a library shelf of programming books. Search and navigation are both merged into the big header area. Smooth curves transition the site from chrome to content. Content flows to the far-left edge, unimpeded by common distracting left-hand navigation. Site browsing features float to the right, offset by a pale gradient descending from the header. The little-valued byline of the current site is rethought, with the tags moved into a “see also” section under the article, my name removed, the Digg link removed, and the date remaining on a simple line of its own. Finally, the RSS feeds have been emphasized by a large glowing icon under the topic list.
Inevitably, there will be another spin of the design before this site adopts it. A logo is under development by talented colleague and it will need to be integrated into the design. The colors will hopefully go more aesthetic still and other minor points will be smoothed out.
Please comment on this design. This content is available to be used and its used by people just like you.
