Blog FeedNew Year, New Look
Well, it’s been about a year since Aelon version 8 launched, and that is quite possibly the longest I have let any of my sites ever go without an overhaul. To make up for that, I’ve made this redesign as substantial as possible, and together with creating a new logo it has probably been the most ambitious project I’ve yet undertaken on the web. So, for those who want to know the nitty gritty of what has changed, read on!
This is actually the first time in which I have become more and more excited with a design as I’ve progressed. Usually in the past, I’ve started out with a design concept and have gradually just become underwhelmed with it as I’ve completed it. Not this time. It’s also the first time I bothered to plan well ahead. I made a to-do list of several dozen dot points as to what I wanted to achieve in version 9. I’m glad to say I’ve completed all those things I wanted - though one thing I have not done yet is a redesign of the forums. Frankly they’re a chore to do over, so I’m happy to give them another week. Anyhow, here is what has been cooking:
What you see
No doubt you can see the new theme and the new logo. The theme was a fairly easy choice - I am always happy with blue, but I needed a warm colour so I chucked in a bit of orange around the place. The logo took forever to decide on, as I made quite a few and had to chose out of them. I think I have ended up with the right choice though, and it definately beats the previous one. I’m quite sure I’ve eliminated any resemblance of Star Trek with this logo.
The shadows from the top bar and the side boxes are all courtesy of PNG technology. If you’re viewing this site in Internet Explorer, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about because all of you people have to view the site in a stripped-down mode of sorts. Hell, even the icons on the sidebar had to be removed for you, because your browser just can’t do them right. I was this close to taking the other route, and not even bothering to test the site in IE, but I figured I could at least make it usable. And usable it is, but you’re really missing out if you’re not using Opera, Firefox, or some other modern browser.
The whole commenting system has been revamped. It looks better, functions better, and now there are little reply buttons, so it’s much easier to quote another comment. If you click on the “Allowed HTML Tags” link next to the submit comment button, you’ll see a small box fade in which will tell you what tags you can use. I just think that’s funky - Javascript rocks. There is also now an alert for when you submit a comment and it is put in the moderation queue -something which WordPress really should have had all along.
The sidebar is now a bit more useful. It changes it’s content depending on what page you are on, rather than staying the same all the time as before. If you’re viewing a post, it’ll give some details on it. If you’re on the Archive page, it’ll show the most commented posts, and a list of the categories we use. I thought it was a nice touch, and lets me throw more content in throughout the site without making it seem crammed.
There are lots of other minor things - the search bar is now in a useful position at the top, standard RSS icons, the nav bar highlighting which section you are in, previous/next links at the bottom of posts and the front page, better looking blockquotes, and stuff like that. External links in blog posts are now defined by a small arrow icon. All of the static content has also been redone - the About section is now just about the site itself, while the new Staff page has our bios and the contact form. The History page has also been updated, and now has slightly larger images. There is also no longer a links page. Who needs one when you have a dynamic sidebar?
What you don’t
There have been a few changes under the hood as well. One thing that has not happened though, is WordPress 2.0. I won’t be upgrading Aelon to this any time soon because the benefits aren’t really worthwhile enough for me to put in the effort, at least for now. Not with this many plugins.
What we do have though, is a few things here and there which I have been wanting for a while. The list of recent forum posts on the sidebar is now a PHP script I did myself, and works a million times faster than the previous code I had there before. I’ve also fixed that annoying issue of pings not auto-closing when the comments did after 6 weeks, so the recent activity box won’t be tricking people any longer.
There are a few other changes which only the staff and I wll be noticing - mostly removing quirks from submitting posts. Other than that, I think we’re done! I’d love to hear what everyone thinks. I am of course expecting bug reports, especially because I wasn’t able to do extensive testing in every browser - so please email me if you spot anything nasty. Oh, and you may need to clear your cache if you don’t see the new favicon. Enjoy!
1st January | Reply
I like it! I really like the whole look to it, but the logo is especially snazzy.
and it I didn’t want any kittens to die.
1st January | Reply
It is a lot of fun for me to finally see this all put together. Throughout the last month you have given me peaks and hints but to see it as a fully operating site is great. I guess like an actor feels after finally watching a movie they were in (although my involvement was minor).
I am definitly thrilled with the site overall. I love the new colors and less dependence on gray, blue and white. You have definitly grown as a web designer and it shows.
The sidebar is also a lovely piece of engineering. Being so dynamic it makes me want to cruise around the site more, and more naturally. Great job.
1st January | Reply
Wow, very spiffy! Congratulations on a great design. It’s little (in theory) things like subtle drop shadows, lovely icons and so forth that make a site look great in my opinion.
1st January | Reply
Great work, as always. I look forward to however long I have to enjoy this before you scrap it for another thumbs-up worthy facelift.
1st January | Reply
I am actually hoping to get a full year out of this one, because it’s really only during summer that I have enough free time to dedicate to doing a substantial overhaul.
1st January | Reply
Errrr… Well, I’ll get used to it, I suppose. The first impression was somewhat overwhelming in comparison to that of the previous version. Don’t get me wrong, it looks nice and all, just somewhat unusual.
2nd January | Reply
Sexy design when all put together. I’d have to agree with Grudge that it’s unusual - namely for me the white then blue background, but very good never the less. Comments look better, as does the organization of entries (I like the grey seperator bar). GG.
2nd January | Reply
That’s my bad. The new background image has the same filename as the old one, so you’ll have to clear your cache to see the new one (which does fit with the blue much better).
2nd January | Reply
In Reply to #8:
Wow, I cleared my cache and now the site looks even better. And you’re right, that fade-in HTML box = awesome.
Also, I don’t blame you for not going to WP2 right away, people don’t seem to be terribly happy with it (I haven’t had any problems so far, but it isn’t like I have it running at anywhere near full speed).
Awesome redesign, and I can’t think of how you’re going to top yourself next year.
2nd January | Reply
Very slick new look, I dig it
2nd January | Reply
I really would have had no problem had we kept the old version. While I like some elements of the new site better, I liked the old version’s color scheme more as Brown to me is rather unattractive to be used that heavily.
I’m also not thrilled with the graphic for comments but It’s not something I really have a strong opinion on it just looks a bit on the over-stated side.
2nd January | Reply
a (1) : not plain : ORNAMENTAL (2) : SWANKY 2, POSH b (1) : of particular excellence or highest grade (2) : IMPRESSIVE c of an animal or plant : bred especially for bizarre or ornamental qualities that lack practical utility
2nd January | Reply
I like it but I have one suggestion, and it is really just a personal thing.
I spend a lot of time staring at Excel spreadsheets and one of the things I always do is freeze the top panes with the headings so I can see them wherever I am on the page…not that anyone who reads this site really needed all that explained.
So, how’s about making the top of the page: the logo, the archives, all those fun buttons frozen so that however far down on the page I scrolled, I can hit them up.
Or don’t.
Its a classy site and you obviously know a thing or two about style. Just me two cents is all.
2nd January | Reply
In Reply to #13:
That is actually achievable - a toggle link to choose to have the nav bar stay up there or follow your viewport. I just spent 5 mins getting a little prototype working on my offline version of Aelon and it’s going already. The PNG shadow actually makes it look kinda cool.
I’m going to the drive-ins tonight though, and getting it to work in IE will be a pain (maybe I’ll skip that) but I will give it a shot tomorrow.
2nd January | Reply
A big “Hurrah” for the redesign. There’s really nothing in the design that I can fault at this stage beyond the problems with the Apple WebKit which, in all honesty, is Apple’s problem and I’ll be interested to see if anything happens. However, the site looks great in both Firefox and Camino and the colour change is excellent - I no longer shiver when going to Aelon.
No further suggestions at this time.
3rd January | Reply
Head881 - I’ve made a small preferences page, which I haven’t yet linked to from anywhere else on the site, because there’s not much there yet. There is one preference to choose from so far, and it’s what I believe you’re after.
I’ve tested it in Firefox and Opera and it works. I know it won’t work in Internet Explorer, but there’s nothing I can do about that without going to far too much trouble.
4th January | Reply
Ooo…it looks nice (from what I saw of that screenshot you gave me).
From my, IE perspective, it looks kinda plain. Maybe I should get Firefox…
4th January | Reply
In Reply to #16:
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was talking about.
And it looks hot.
4th January | Reply
I’ve tried the navbar staying at the top, and while I prefer the defualt, it is pretty neat.
And just for a laugh I opened the site in IE and I love the “Aelon doesn’t like Internet Explorer…” button. That’s just comedy gold.
4th January | Reply
Which all reminds me yet again that I need to get an avatar. Love the new look though. Look I’m even trying out Firefox!
Still going to use IE though, not to make you angry, but because I love Microsoft Outlook Web Access and for whatever evil reason it just offers so much more functionality on IE.
4th January | Reply
It’s ok Plag, I don’t take it personally. As long as you understand that the site literally can’t look good in IE because of it’s PNG issues. IE7 should fix all that though, hopefully the public beta will come out soon.
As for getting an avatar, the Gravatar system we use has been plagued by technical issues for a while now. I’m not sure if new accounts are allowed at the moment because of that.
4th January | Reply
Lookin’ good! Nice, sharp edges. Not suitible for children under 3. I like it.
5th January | Reply
I am all about the fixed nav bar now. I love that drop shadow.
6th January | Reply
This is the slickest looking design/layout you’ve created so far, it’ll be interesting to see what you’ll come up with in a few months time when you deside to change it again ;o)
Even though it doesn’t show up 100% correct in Netscape 7 it still looks great, I may have to download the latest version.
- Blade -
11th January | Reply
Looks good to me.
17th January | Reply
dear chris, your email must not like me very much, as it regected my thank you note, so here i go again…
thank you very mucho for the beautiful button!
-katy
p.s. i do have a sister, but she’s not nearly as witty or clever as i. not to mention her boyfriend. sorry.
17th January | Reply
That’s very strange, katy. I did actually get your note - infact, because of a bug on my mail server, I got it about 10 times! Not sure what the hell that was about, but it’s fixed now.
18th January | Reply
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5761/aelon5vt.png
have a goosie gander. as you can see a lot of the none ie functionality is working with IE7. the fixed links bar at the top seems to be the only thing that isn’t happening (when you turn it on you can see a tiny white stripe above the links bar but it doesn’t stay at the top when you scroll down). this window even has the cute little A in the background. just thought you’d be interested to see!
18th January | Reply
That’s pretty cool. Still a couple of issues, but once I get my hands on the browser I’m sure they’re fixable.