It’s been over a month in the making, but version 13 of this site is finally done and fully functional. This is the most comprehensive update since the first WordPress-driven version from June of 2005.
New
My biggest goal with this new site was to really start taking advantage of the power WordPress has, and that meant a switch to themes. Once I figured out the basics I was very impressed with the options that are available and how easily they can be configured. Versions 9 through 12 of the site ran off of a clump of PHP files that pretty much sat outside of the WordPress umbrella. It really worked in spite of itself, which I think sums up my feelings about it.
In contrast, I was surprised by all the options the theme system has to offer. The search function worked right out of the box (except for one day when it mysteriously didn’t), and now I have a 404 page and real category pages.
The other big reason for the switch is the fact that almost all the good WordPress plugins rely on the theme to do what they do. The contact form is a good example of this; it’s generated using a quicktag and therefore had to be set up as a WordPress page. And thanks to pages, my menus no longer have to be hard-coded.
Improved
Usability was next on my list of priorities. I’ve already mentioned the 404 and Search pages, but I also added PHP redirects on the old _____.php pages that push the user to the current page rather than a 404. Also, thanks again to the themes, all category listings are now clickable.
You’ll also notice the wider comment display area on the single pages, and, just for jb, clicking the header now takes you home.
Just Plain Different
Aside from this pretty new design (I swear, I DID NOT steal the banner idea from Jonathan Snook!), there are two more notable changes. The first is that I’m done with del.icio.us. It worked fine for links, yes, but since installing WordPress 2.0 back in February, I haven’t been able to make it play nice with Magpie RSS. Rather, I mentioned using a Javascript approach but that didn’t please me either, partially because it wasn’t searchable and partially because something in the way it was set up never displayed properly in Internet Exploere (not even 7!).
This time out I’m going mainstream and integrating the links right into the main body. They’re pretty easy to pick out, since they don’t have titles and have a cute little border thing applied to them. More importantly, they now have times and dates applied to them, and it’s one less service to rely on.
The other big step is a brand new logo, as you may have already noticed in a number of places. For now, suffice it to say that I like it much better than the old one and I’ll write more later.
That about wraps it up. What do you think?
jb said:
looks righteous. i’ve clicked the header at least 2 or 3 times already just to make sure it really works. and it does! this is making me want to finally redesign dabootski.com but then again i am pretty lazy and it wouldn’t look half as good as this.
22:02 on 31 Oct 2006
PDF said:
What happened to the big pink graphic that expanded beyond the width of my 1280px wide browser window and had the grungy fades at the edges? I think I liked that one better.
It’s cool to see the elements that kinda stick around from version to version. Seems like you’ve pretty much always had dotted lines and bold, negative letter-spaced nav text marking it as an altm product.
It’s pretty. Nice work. More bloggy than before. Still have to gripe about the narrow comment textarea though.
01:56 on 01 Nov 2006
PDF said:
Eh, so WP allows
abbrbut notsuptags.01:57 on 01 Nov 2006
matches said:
PDF, that pink graphic got thrown away. I didn’t like it so much after awhile and I wanted something cleaner.
I did indeed try to keep some consistency to the elements, but I hope this is less boxed out and easier to read that it used to be.
And you’re right about this comment box; it sucks.
PS: That’s what
™is for.08:27 on 01 Nov 2006
PDF said:
Funny how typing in a comment box makes my brain not work sometimes. I blame it on the width. But don’t you mean
™?™is so pre2k.I think I liked the other header partially because it better matched your author comments. But clean lines are always rad too.
13:23 on 01 Nov 2006
Jonathan Snook said:
We must be drinking some of the same design juice these days. I swear that I was tempted to put stars on my web site. Craaaazy. The dotted outline on the header made me think I had given it focus and I kept clicking elsewhere so that I’d drop the focus. Anyways, I’m liking the design…well done.
16:42 on 01 Nov 2006
matches said:
Jonathan, now that would’ve been embarrassing.
18:55 on 01 Nov 2006
Jonic said:
Great reboot!
I love the feel of the site, it’s nice and open.
The banner rocks too, and I love the author’s comment indication.
Is this your first proper WordPress theme? It’s a damn impressive job if it is, although I have a couple of suggestions:
Due to the placement of the comments form, an internal link to it at the bottom of the comments would be really handy. My only other thing is that I always prefer text to be justified when it’s in paragraphs, but that’s just me.
Great work!
20:17 on 01 Nov 2006
matches said:
Jonic, thanks for your feedback. This is indeed the first time I’ve ever worked with themes, and I’m pleased with how it turned out.
Text justification is certainly a subjective thing, but direct links to comments are not. That is on my list of things to clean up. Thanks again!
21:17 on 01 Nov 2006
Jonic said:
Andy: I actually meant a link to the comments form itself. It would save scrolling back up.
Maybe you could take the fixed comment form idea from Jonathan’s blog? ;)
00:09 on 03 Nov 2006
matches said:
I’ve certainly noticed that too, Jonic. It’s something I’m looking into, depending on the length of comments on future posts.
00:20 on 03 Nov 2006