Written several weeks ago, thought I’d just post it and get it out of the way.
Yes, I’ve done it again, killed my “brand look” and gone for something different. However there is a good reason behind this… no, honestly, there is!
First up I should maybe take a moment to explain one of the reasons behind the OLD design. Remember those, slightly too large post headings? ALL CAPS and very prominent on the page. Well the reason behind them was two-fold.
- They marked the beginning of a new post – nothing I hate more than scrolling down a page and not being entirely sure where one post ends and another begins.
- The main reason was that they were supposed to make me think about my posts, to consider what I was writing a little more than usual as there was no hiding place for a “silly wee post”.
A lot of my posts start out as one idea, one line, one thought. Others, the ones which are reporting on real life are a lot easier to write, but the “one idea” posts have always been something I enjoyed doing but too often I’d give up on them. Having such large obvious post headers was my way of trying to lend the posts some gravitas and, hopefully, influence my writing/thinking about posts.
And some people say design isn’t important! Sheesh.
On to the new design then, and one key change is the size of the miniblog. I swithered over this for a while but thought I’d at least give it a bash – the other option is to ditch it and have “link dump” posts every now and again in the main column – and see how it works.
The idea is that the main column, where you are reading at the moment, will hold the posts that I’ve given some consideration. The miniblog (on the left) will be slightly expanded as I often felt a little cramped when writing posts for it previously.
I don’t have a set rule but I wouldn’t expect the miniblog posts to be much longer than they are at the moment, and I don’t expect I’ll be posting the main column, “longer” pieces, as often. The key reason behind the latter decision were the posts I published whilst we were away on holiday in July. They were all written in advance, edited and re-worked and published with a gap of a day or two between them. Not sure about you but I certainly felt that they were some of my better posts, they certainly gathered some excellent comments.
To summarise – longer posts in the main column, shorter posts/links in the miniblog. Simple.
The rest of the design followed on from that decision. I didn’t want to lose the miniblog too far down the page, so shifted the navigation up to the top of the page, losing a few of the options on the way.
There are still a few things I’d like to do but the LOOK won’t change for a while.