PONDERING ANOTHER REDESIGN
July 06, 2006
by: jovial_cynic
by: jovial_cynic
Back in May of this year, I overhauled my site's theme, moving from a notepad-themed display (courier-new font and everything) to a more traditional blog display. I think it was a fairly successful transition, as my readership hasn't decreased as a result of the change.
Well... I think I'm getting bored of it already.
The traditional blog (which pretty much looks like every blogspot blog out there) is useful if the only thing you have on your site is a blog, or even a series of blogs. However, if you have other kinds of content along with a blog, it might make more sense to take a different approach.
Liz, from Esme-After, told me that her brother's site, deeplyshallow.com, recently got accepted into 9rules.com, a site that pitches itself as a community of the best weblogs in the world. Pretentious, maybe. But his site was apparently deemed good enough to become a member.
If you look at his site, you'll notice that the layout covers the entire span of the browser, which is strange to me. I guess it's strange because I have a hard time disconnecting the layout of a web page from the layout of a book; a book is fairly linear, and I have a deeply-rooted expectation that a webpage should follow suit. Deeplyshallow is laid out more like a news site like CNN; it has columns and different sections in the body of the page, which makes it hard for me to find a central theme.
... and maybe that's really my biggest hang-up with sites similar to his. When I visit a site, I want to know exactly what the site is about, and I want to know that what I'm viewing on the start page revolves around that theme.
I'm sure that other folks have different expectations about a site when they browse. In the end, it's just a matter of different philosophies.
But what do I know? My site hasn't won any awards, nor has it been invited to join an elite group of "the best weblogs in the world." So, I guess I'll just keep working on a design strategy that'll capture everything I want to present, while sticking to a layout that is intuitive to me.
Well... I think I'm getting bored of it already.
The traditional blog (which pretty much looks like every blogspot blog out there) is useful if the only thing you have on your site is a blog, or even a series of blogs. However, if you have other kinds of content along with a blog, it might make more sense to take a different approach.
Liz, from Esme-After, told me that her brother's site, deeplyshallow.com, recently got accepted into 9rules.com, a site that pitches itself as a community of the best weblogs in the world. Pretentious, maybe. But his site was apparently deemed good enough to become a member.
If you look at his site, you'll notice that the layout covers the entire span of the browser, which is strange to me. I guess it's strange because I have a hard time disconnecting the layout of a web page from the layout of a book; a book is fairly linear, and I have a deeply-rooted expectation that a webpage should follow suit. Deeplyshallow is laid out more like a news site like CNN; it has columns and different sections in the body of the page, which makes it hard for me to find a central theme.
... and maybe that's really my biggest hang-up with sites similar to his. When I visit a site, I want to know exactly what the site is about, and I want to know that what I'm viewing on the start page revolves around that theme.
I'm sure that other folks have different expectations about a site when they browse. In the end, it's just a matter of different philosophies.
But what do I know? My site hasn't won any awards, nor has it been invited to join an elite group of "the best weblogs in the world." So, I guess I'll just keep working on a design strategy that'll capture everything I want to present, while sticking to a layout that is intuitive to me.