Get Your Blog Into Gear - New Design!
VOILA!
While I was in Tasmania, I tried my best to keep up with some of my favourite blogs. One such blog was creative designer, David Airey’s, and his post, “What does your website say about you?” really caught my attention. It helped me to see that the design I had on this blog, was definately not sending out the message that I wanted for my visitors. So, after some thought, I began to work on something new, and you’re viewing the progress thus far right now.
I’m quite happy with what I’ve achieved, and I think it more accurately represents this blog, but I would be interested in your thoughts. I am still working on getting everything put together the way I want, but it’s really only tying up loose ends.
Please comment, and let me know of any issues, and your suggestions.
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Comments
15 Responses to “Get Your Blog Into Gear - New Design!”
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It’s cleaner than before, more tidy. That’s one big header image you’ve got there!
I like your sidebar style, similar to what I have. The mouse-overs make it very easy to see the navigation. I’d prefer you to make the horizontal nav more obvious though, as the small white text on black can be made more legible.
According to the image, you’re stuck between third and fourth gear. Is that the impression you want to give?
Hope all’s well down there mate.
Love the clean look and navigation! Some might consider the page stark, but I think it’s an easy-to-read design.
And I like the idea of where you’re going with the header image but it’s is far too large and a bit generic & bland. Maybe consider a header image with just a dash of color to add some pop.
Looks good Armen! I’m really digging the sidebar as well. Nice separation and colors make all of the side navigation easy to read and navigate through.
I think the horizontal navigation font size could be a bit larger, as they seem to small compared to the large header. That’s my .02. I think it’s definitely a step up and in the right direction.
I like your slogan, maybe a different picture for the gear knob, perhaps a hand on it, action shot?
Jamie
Wow, that is quite a difference!
Very nice, I agree with the above points on the horizontal navigation, and the header image could be a little more dynamic, but it’s not end of the world stuff.
Very nice
David - Thanks for your thoughts my friend. I don’t mind a large header, as long as the title of the first article is above the fold.
What about the navagation menu now? I thought it would be more clear, fill up whitespace in the header, and move the content up slightly.
Am I stuck between 3rd and 4th, or am I moving from 4th to 5th?
If I was in 5th, I might be suggesting there is no more room for improvement.
Everything is good here to thanks. Nice to be back in South Australia.
Rob - Thanks for the positive feedback. The header maybe looks better now with the menu in it, what do you think?
Deron - It’s always good when a web designer approves
What do you think of the menu now? Any better suggestions?
Jamie - Could you elaborate on action shot? It was very difficult to get an image of a gear knob that fulfilled my needs. A hand would kill the clean look, unless it was executed in a very professional way, and I’m afraid I’m not that good…unfortunately.
Chris - Thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback.
I guess getting the right photo can be hard. I imagined something like this
Gear Stick
Something stainless, maybe photoshop your key words where the numbers use to be? Flickr has some good ones you might be able to use.
Thats my take on it.
Jamie
I like the new look. I could pick up some tips from you on how nicely your sidebars are organized.
And I like the gear-shift image. It’s sorta pink!
Armen: I definitely like the navigation better there, than where it was before! Nice work! This may be to “outside of the box,” (and much more work than you want to put into it) but one thing that crossed my mind earlier was having your navigation links as each gear. Similar to what you have now only in place of “Design,” “Ethics,” and “SEO” you should put your nav links there. Probably to much work as you would need a different image of a gear shift (one that had all gears visible) and it would take some CSS mastery, but it’s doable. Anyway, just throwing that out there.
I do think it’s very appealing as-is though.
Armne, the header does look better now with the menu embedded within it, but it’s still a little shy on pizzazz.
Thanks for all the input thus far folks, I really appreciate it.
Jamie - If I owned the cars that Jay Kay owns, then I might be able to take a photo like that myself
Do you mean I should try making the words look like chrome?
Rebecca - My most recent article might help you to tidy things up a little.
Deron - lol…I suppose I ought to expect such suggestions from a designer! Nice idea my friend. Would the image have to be at a level gradient, or does CSS allow you to angle text in some way? I don’t think I would be in much of a hurry to implement that, but it might be interesting to try sometime when I get bored with how it currently looks.
Rob - Thanks. I suppose there are always going to be some ways in which it could be improved, but I’m content for now.
Armen - The easiest solution would be an image at level gradient. I believe CSS/Javascript combo will allow you to angle text, but from my understanding it doesn’t work well across different browsers.
[…] most of you know, I’ve just recently changed the design here, but I really hope to keep it like this for some time, except for very minor tweaks that may […]
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