OK - it’s pretty safe to nose around the site again. I still have some pages to transition into the new design (contact / search results and photoblog), and some naggling issues like too-big photos to clean up, what to do about the empty quote boxes (like right above this post) but most of the site has been moved over. My eyes are bugging out now, and I’m going to quit before I start making mistakes.
Like most sites, the content on Boyink.com has grown organically - a little here and there over time. With over 700 entries now after two years, I’m sure happy the site lives on a database and all I have to change are templates. I can’t imagine what today’s work would have been on a static site.
Here’s a summary of the site changes:
-Centered boxed layout. For some reason I just prefer this type of layout over the previous full-screen style. Seems easier to read.
- Rotating headers. I wanted to add a bit of visual interest to the site, and use some of the pictures from the photoblog in the site design.
- Retain some key elements of the “brand”. While I’m no Coke or Gap, I have invested in business cards and stationary that use some of the design elements of the site - the blue banner with the business name, dark dotted lines, etc. I needed to keep these elements in the new design to avoid having to re-invest in the printed materials.
- Better comment formatting. I wanted more prominence on commenter name and comments called out better visually with alternating colors. pMachine provides the alternating backgrounds, I just wasn’t taking advantage of them before.
- Stronger navigation model. The business navigation is now placed horizontally in the header and hobby navigation is off to the side in a “related” mode.
- Search box on every page. I probably use the site search more than anyone, but it makes good sense to have it on every page. I tell my clients that, so I gotta do it too..;)
- Different archive access. I’m not convinced of the value of blog archives overall. If it isn’t on the home page, I’m not convinced a user is going to find it by date. I’ve compounded the issue by not categorizing my posts. This design takes the monthly archives links from out of the right column, and places them on a dedicated archive page, linked to from the bottom of the home page. I might add a main navigation item also, not sure yet. I’ve also split the home page, with 4 full posts showing on top and 5 older posts at the bottom in more summary manner.
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