New Theme and Further Updates (est. Version 9)
Following the post I published last week, I have switched to a new theme, which is aimed at addressing many of the issues that you have commented on. The site was due for a new theme anyway, as the previous one involved advanced editing to change any of the sidebars, plus each page/post/index required a separate edit (more advanced than it needed to be).
Without further ado, I’d like to present the new theme – comment below and provide your feedback. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time editing it yet, but want to keep the theme as simple as possible.
Addressed Areas
As you’ll be able to see, some of the main areas of the site have changed, and they will continue to evolve as the site grows.
- Next and Previous Links are now textual, rather than using images, making it easier to determine what direction you are traveling. Further customization of the theme adds a “Continue Browsing” area beneath the posts to view the next and previous posts without returning to the main page.
- More Social Bookmarking Options have been added – the ShareThis plugin is back in use, located in the light blue box beneath each post, with quick links to bookmark/share the post in Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, as well as Subscribe to the Feed beneath this bar.
- Possibly Related Posts can be found to the left of the subscription/social bookmarking/sharing links as a further organization method.
- Posts are Excerpted, except for the main post, which will display in its entirety.
- Browsing Through the Past is now much easier. The archives page has been greatly expanded with an integrated search box, posts by date, a listing of all posts, tag “list”, category “list”, and popular posts listing by number of views.
- Additional Archives Views were added with the styling of the theme. Simply click through the drop-down menu in the sidebar, and you’ll be presented with a listing of posts (number according to number displayed on main page), along with the post date and number of comments.
- Better Typography. In my opinion, the typography (at least a majority of it) is easier to read, as the font is larger and better separated. There are still some areas that have to be addressed (i.e. below the posts).
- Subscribe More Easily using the “Get Free Updates” in the header of the main sidebar. This is much easier than the previous option, as there is no comments feed link – only an RSS and Email subscription link.
- Commenting is Easier using a larger box and “Subscribe to this comment feed using RSS” link beneath the comment form.
- Unwelcome Changes - You’ll likely notice more advertising. I have decided that it is time to open up greater advertising options – thus, the advertising page has also been semi-updated with more ad formats being available soon. This decision comes primarily because I haven’t generated much income off this site to date, and I want to give more advertisers options as it comes to advertising. It is still a fraction of what other sites have.
- Problems – Posting comments still returns a 404/Not Found page, and this error appears to be common among blogs running WordPress.
- Overall the changes are for the better, in my opinion, giving the same clean, simple theme that the other version had. There is still some content to be added/rearranged, but for the most part, everything is complete.
Click on image to preview the new design.
Feedback
I need your feedback for this new theme – is it for the better? What changes should be addressed or made? Without your feedback, the current design will remain intact.
Take this poll to give your quick thoughts on the theme.
Updates
Feedback has allowed me to rethink some of the configuration/layout/design, outlined below.
- Extra space has been removed between post title and content/post meta area, making the these areas more connected.
- Ad has been removed from above posts/pages in single view, as it was a hinderance to the viewing of the post. This will be re-looked in the future, as it is a prominent placement for advertisements.
- Sidebar has been widened by 60 pixels, allowing more space for “left” and “right” sidebars (smaller).
- Footer error fixed (during update).
- Text beneath posts for related and bookmarks has been increased in size and is no longer italic.
- Comments fixed to accommodate larger sidebars.
- Plugin added to subscribe to comments via email.
Overall I like it. Similar clean looks but more attention to details.
Typography is overkill. Especially on top of post (title is totally disconencted from content) and in related posts area (tiny, unnecessary italics). Too much text in too many different fonts and colors.
Sidebar is too thin for that number and few-words-length of categories.
Some tweaking and it will look as awesome or even better than previous one.
PS subscribing to comments via RSS is hardly popular, there is great “Subscribe to comments” plugin that provides optional email subscription to specific posts when you comment on them.
The new theme is better than the old one
In the “Updates” area above, I listed the main problems you’ve addressed.
Typography-wise, this theme promotes good use of it, but I did clean up some of the areas (i.e. below each post) so there weren’t multiple colors. The overflow of text in the sidebar is now fixed – only two of the categories are long enough to flow over to the next line.
I didn’t add the “Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS” link to the theme, but I will be adding that plugin as well.
Again, thanks for your feedback. Let me know if the improvements help.
Yep, better overall especially after post.
Title is still bit disconnected. I can’t find link but I remember reading study that said – anything between title and content summary drastically reduces probability that visitor reads both. On my blog I’ve recently redesigned it that there is nothing between title and content at all. Moved meta stuff above title and to the bottom of post.
It’s a pleasure when feedback from readers is taken seriously (I try to alway do that myself), keep up good work your blog is good and deserves that attention.
@Rarst – I’ve made the following additional changes:
- On the Index page, I removed the author and tags, so all meta information (date and number of comments) is directly below the title – as is the case for a majority of blogs that I looked at. A large percentage have either the title and author above/below the title, the main category and number of comments displayed in this general area.
- On single post pages, the date is still rather large, and the author’s name and tags have been made smaller, placed above the bar (not within content).
I don’t feel that bringing the title closer to the content will work as well, as the content would “smash” together.
I also added pagination to the search and main page for better navigation.
If there are any other specific issues with the changes, please let me know – this is an enormous help so that I don’t have problems down the road.
I take nearly all feedback and apply it to the site, as what I view as “perfect” isn’t to my readers – those who support the site. This is what I feel helps the site grow and create more benefits for the visitors.
There is nothing better than some thing new nice post.
Unfortunately, I never saw your old theme so I can only comment on the new one. I think it is very clean and professional in appearance. I found it easy to read. Great job.
@L. Web and Bob – Thank you for your comments.
The old theme did work, but I received comments that it didn’t work as well as it could have (i.e. I needed a new theme). You can find the old one here (not that I made some major modifications to it – http://www.wpelements.com/2008/05/29/introducing-the-massivepress-wordpress-theme/.
I didn’t design the theme, but customized it and implemented it on the site, so props have to go out the designer, Drew Strojny.