Pixelicious: A little redesign

A little redesign - Going dark

Friday February 24, 2006 - Permanent link to this post -

If you've been here before and you're not reading this in a feed reader, you might notice I've had a little redesign. I was going to wait until the CSS Reboot event in May, but that would have involved putting thought and time into the redesign, and I just don't work like that on my own site. When I redesign it's quick and thoughtless.

So, this design. It's a bit dark and a bit minimal. Earlier drafts were a lot whiter but it was just a bit too stark. I've made a feature of my Del.icio.us bookmarks and my Flickr photos in the top of each page. The motivation for this was the fact that I don't actually write much at the moment. I do however read stuff and take plenty of pictures. That's why I did that.

I've used sIFR for the headings. The font is Avenir and it's the same font the Rob adapted for my logo.

I've dropped the Google Ads. I've had them on and off for a over a year now and I think I'm up to about £14. They're ugly and get in the way, so they went. Also, the javascript call slowed down page-load. That happens with the sIFR too, but it seems an acceptable delay to me. Let me know if you experience differently.

So anyway, the design's not finished, but I needed to do something whilst I was putting off doing something else, so I made it live. Suggestions of improvement or changes are gratefully received in the comments.

On 24 February, 16:30, David Brent did say:
As I said in my email, I really like this design. Nice one Pete!
On 24 February, 16:55, JÃ¸rgen Arnor GÃ¥rdsÃ¸ Lom did say:
Damn! I’m just working on a design quite similar to this for a client; and here you come and make mine look like shite… Damn you, damn the broccoli and damn the Wright-brothers! :P

Seriously; love the design! (The RSS-icons are cut off at the top, by the way..)
On 24 February, 17:03, JÃ¸rgen Arnor GÃ¥rdsÃ¸ Lom did say:
...in Camino v1.0, Mac 10.4.4 and 1280×1024, that is…
On 24 February, 17:13, Peter J Lambert did say:
Thanks for the comments. I’ll look into the RSS icon thing.
On 24 February, 18:22, Dan did say:
Nice work indeed Peter. I like it.
On 24 February, 19:41, Patrick Haney did say:
Nice work Peter, I like the new digs. While I think the gradients are a little harsh and I’m not crazy about the top navigation in the upper right corner, I like the overall design as well as the articles, del.icio.us and flickr sections up top.

Oh, and just so you know, your tab order is out of whack on the comments form. I tabbed from the email input to the website input fine, expecting to tab to the actual message textarea next, only to be thrown up top to your search input box. You might want to investigate that one.
On 24 February, 20:02, Peter J Lambert did say:
Thanks Patrick. Much appreciated. I’ve fixed the tabindex thing. It’s a textpattern bug and I’d been too lazy to sort it out. Done now though.

Any suggestions on the nav?
On 24 February, 21:25, Martin Smith did say:
Nice one fella! If only I could get my shit together… can I say shit? Shit! what if I can’t say shit? Ahh f*ck it!
On 24 February, 21:53, Peter J Lambert did say:
You can’t say shit here.

Oh, bollocks!
On 24 February, 22:14, Rob Mientjes did say:
I think the logo’s really stand-out, mate!

In all seriousness, I told you I liked it before. Back then the footer was like a big pile of shit. Oops.

Poo.

Anyway. Lovely.
On 25 February, 11:29, Faruk AteÅŸ did say:
Dude, rock on! It looks good, albeit my first thought was “hmm, bit of a jump on the 2006 design trend, eh?”

Seriously, don’t worry ‘bout that, it looks good :)

I do think the gravatars should be either right or left-floated rather than occupying so much space in the center of the comment, though. constructive criticism
On 25 February, 11:54, Rob Mientjes did say:
bq. â€œhmm, bit of a jump on the 2006 design trend, eh?â€?

What is this trend you speak of then?
On 26 February, 14:07, Francis did say:
Very nice redesign, sir!
On 28 February, 12:55, Olly did say:
“quick and thoughtless”!? Bah.