Design Done
Posted October 30th, 2004 @ 07:15pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I may have some tweaks here and there, but largely the redesign is done. What do you like? What do you hate? What would you change?
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Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 7:22pm #
Personally, I would like having a link to the homepage on the header. And I just noticed that after I signed in, the comment box moved way too far down.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 7:29pm #
I don't like the profusion of miscellaneous textual characters throughout the site, such as the brackets and semi-colons about the links under the post title, the open/close brackets above and below the category links, etc. And speaking of the category links, that single rectangle (which is really the only one on the page that isn't a header) seems awful lonely and somewhat out of place.
I do, however, like what you've done with the color scheme. The white background of the main content container is perhaps a bit harsh when juxtaposed with the green, but overall the effect is nice. Also, that orange on the right is a nice touch; it's an ingenious bit of sidebar design.
Now, things that are broken. First off, this comments page is misrendering, what with the comment box way down the page, and the rest of the comment info input field up top. Secondly, your site has gotten harder to navigate. There's no link back to the front page (perhaps consider making the "NSLog();" portion of the header linkable to the index), or to recent articles, or anything like that. Adding the latter might conflict with the more minimalist effect you seem to be going for, but as of now I feel a little constrained in navigating your site.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 7:38pm #
Sembazuru, I see what you mean about the comment box. I'll see what I can do to fix it. It appears to have to do with the "TrackBacks" thing, or the width of some things. The "Speak it" button also slides to the right when it should be beneath the text box (not beside it).
Josh, the "miscellaneous textual characters" represent various kinds of code. Objective-C, plists (the Categories to the right), etc. They won't change any time soon.
Navigation will improve. I haven't figured out where to put some of the things just yet, but they will. Most likely near that "Categories" box to make it less lonely.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 7:38pm #
You definetly need the NSLog(); to be a link back to the homepage.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 7:49pm #
Okay, NSLog(); at the top links back to the home page on individual entries (at least, they will after they're rebuilt). Also, the "comment box moving down" has been fixed, as well as the "Speak It" button issue.
Next is fixing a missing " in the "clear: both" in some of the other archives and adding some more navigation (which is now done on individual pages). The home page validates now, too. I'll worry about the others later.
MovableType doesn't automatically add <br /> tags inside of <blockquote>s. Grrrr…
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 8:14pm #
Look great on my Mac OS X using Safari but for some reason it's not rendering properly on IE for Windows. It probably the lack of support of CSS on IE. I wanted to let you know.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 8:25pm #
Fixed an issue or two with bordered images in Camino and Firefox, but neither of those browsers really properly display the orange. It gets cut off by the header. Not sure how to fix that at the moment.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 9:05pm #
Author comment highlighting
I first noticed this when Dave Shea did it on MezzoBlue. He coded his template so his comments appeared different than comments from other people. He took it a step further where he also color-coded comments from CSS/Web Design "pundits"...
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 9:45pm #
It looks pretty messed up on my Safari 1.2.3 under 10.3.5. Everything's basically in one column. It's just getting pushed down so there's no overlap.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 10:16pm #
I like the author centric background color for comments. I want to differentiate my comments and I am also interested in setting up alternating comment background colors. The problem is my layout doesn't seem to appeal to background colors for comments.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 10:27pm #
Jon, reload or something eh? Cuz you're gettin' a cached stylesheet or something.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 10:28pm #
Looking good for me in Safari 1.2.3 (v125.9) on 10.3.5. I like it! Screen shot here :
nslogRedesign.png
One thing I'd suggest is a little wider right-hand margin for the trackback text (i.e., a bit more space between the text and the edge of the dark border).
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 10:45pm #
jh, suggestion taken and implemented.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 10:45pm #
The gradient is nice... but don't really like the orange or whatever that is at the top left of the page.
Posted 30 Oct 2004 at 11:18pm #
I like it! At a glance it's unquestionably a relative of FSS, but (could you guess there was a "but" coming?) what happened to that nifty dissolve effect at the top of the screen when you scroll? That was a neat little feature!
Posted 31 Oct 2004 at 12:27am #
I am a fan of underlined hyper links. I find hyper links that are not underlined aren't as easy to notice. If a site uses plain hyper links I prefer they be a very different color from the regular text.
Posted 31 Oct 2004 at 1:05pm #
Just a note:
The popups on mouse overs on the "Boxes" (You know the heart Carry, CSS and RSS boxes on top right of main page) only show up over the bottom 2-3 pixel rows in Safari 1.3 or Firefox. IE: if you position the cursor over the box, you will not get a pop up, if you drag the mouse down to the bottom row, you get a pop up.
Interesting: In Firefox, the boxes get an orange outline when you mouse over them.
Not sure if its a bug or a feature.
Posted 31 Oct 2004 at 1:15pm #
Alex: just the way it is. I could get rid of the boxes in Firefox, but it's not high enough a priority. For some reason, Safari has always done popups over only the bottom of the image when it's linked.
Posted 31 Oct 2004 at 9:35pm #
I like the new look... it has a nice personality.
A few things... while I get what your going for with the "Categories & Archives" section it might be a little to geek-ish. It is unique... so give yourself a few extra credit points for that...
The right side needs to be a tad widder... the talkback url is over running the edge... I would also suggest you move the "build time" some place else... its a cool stat... I just don't know where it could go...
Also... in the same area the info in the orange seems a little to rushed.. it fits together well but it also seems as if something is missing... I think its just the single line comments... still a nice way to tie is FSS.. and I think the part about it that I tend not to like is the search box... I don't know why.
Finally, I know your bound by the software you use... but it would be nice to see the Talkbacks inline with comments... in the order the arrived...
Over all I like the design.. good layout...
Posted 01 Nov 2004 at 12:35am #
You're right about the reload. I forgot about how Safari can really hold onto those CSS caches. I had to reload about 5 times before it finally looked like what I saw in Firefox.
Posted 01 Nov 2004 at 12:58am #
NSLog(); - Design Done
NSLog(); - Design Done: I may have some tweaks here and there, but largely the redesign is done. What do you like? What do you hate? What would you change? I wouldn't change a thing. Bear in mind, however, that...