I'm considering making some changes to this blog. I was inspired by this little gem and it got me thinking that I could do a lot to make this page work better. This post is a call for suggestions. What styles, features, etc., do you all think would make this page better. You're the ones that read it so don't hesitate to offer suggestions or comments and I'll see what I can do to make improvements for you all.
clarification: I wasn't planning on picking up the design from the MyDimension blog I linked to, just looking at the mini icons that identify off-site links. I'm not sure the icons are the right thing to do but marking the internal and external links differntly seems very useful.
further explanation Neither was I agreeing, when I clarified that I wasn't planning on using that design, with any of the people that criticized it. Truthfully, I didn't even pay any attention to the design. I was so tickled by the very cool use of CSS for solving a very interesting usability issue that the colors or layout of the page went mostly unnoticed. Perhaps that's a good place for me to start - making my content interesting enough that my layout goes unnoticed :-)
(william, sorry if my linking caused you any bother. i really do like your mini icon feature and was completely sincere when I called it a gem.)
No pop-ups on the comments section, and I'm happy.
Posted by: Martijn on May 6, 2003 01:39 AMI like it just the way it is... and the site you linked (little gem) is just ugly :)
I use serendipity as weblog, it's PHP, not CGI :)
Posted by: Tom Sommer on May 6, 2003 05:19 AMHave the "link bar" (menu bar?) on the right hand side, not the left as it is now.
Since you are write in English (to a mainly English-based audience) people will be in the habit of scanning the left side of the page to see where the content starts. (This is because English is a left-to-right language.)
People are used to reading text (books, newspaper, magazines, etc.) starting at the left-most position of the page.
More information regarding this can be found at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html
Posted by: Lost on May 6, 2003 07:49 AMHave the "link bar" (menu bar?) on the right hand side, not the left as it is now.
Since you are write in English (to a mainly English-based audience) people will be in the habit of scanning the left side of the page to see where the content starts. (This is because English is a left-to-right language.)
People are used to reading text (books, newspaper, magazines, etc.) starting at the left-most position of the page.
More information regarding this can be found at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html
Posted by: Lost on May 6, 2003 07:51 AMI like some icons (I did that in my blog) personally. Makes it more visually appealing, and easier to navigate.
Posted by: Robert Accettura on May 6, 2003 09:10 AMIt's a bit plain, but I like it just fine. It gets to the point, without trying to be flashy.
I think the links are obviously links, so they don't need an itty bitty picture to designate them as such.
Posted by: alanjstr on May 6, 2003 09:18 AMthe "little gem" hurts my eyes, at least in green. The other scheme (blue?) has lots of eye candy distracting from the actual content.
As to wether menus go left or right, site navigation is commonly on the left, no matter if that's arabic reading or not. I guess there are many pages one could reference for having navigation on the left, pretty sure for no reason but hysteric ones.
I prefer barebones, or let's say three or four colors max. I see seven or eight on MyDimension, that's too much.
Posted by: Axel Hecht on May 6, 2003 10:42 AMHey Asa,
Your current blog design (which is the default Moveable Type design, right?) is not bad. It is a little plain, though. (On the other hand, minimalists and Jakob Nielsen would love it.)
You can take a look at Blogskins.com for many premade blog templates (with the Moveable Type and Blogger variables inserted, as far as I know). Also, feel free to use any of the designs from my Blog Your Design site; you would have to manually insert the variables for MT, though.
Hope that helps,
- Jay
Posted by: Jay Sheth on May 6, 2003 10:53 AMPlease, don't try to imitate your example, its horrible.
I also like the comment in a seperate window, I prefer, reading several blog rather one blog with several comments.
My advice would be to stay simple, a little icon here, a little line there, that's what makes a good design.
If you want help, contact me.
Posted by: Stephane on May 6, 2003 04:22 PMJust to echo Tom Sommer's comment, your plain current page looks a LOT neater than the color intensive "little gem".
I completely agree with Martijn. The big advantage to getting rid of comments popups is that you don't have to execute a cgi script every time someone wants to read the comments.
I'm sure you're perfectly capable of figuring this out on your own, but here's a nice article that describes how to do this:
http://www.yarinareth.net/caveatlector/archive/week_2003_04_27.html#e001628
Posted by: jacob on May 6, 2003 04:29 PMthank you Asa for your kind comments.
for the others here who have "comments" about my site, please see my followup article: http://my-dimension.com/article/little_gem_or_major_pain/
Posted by: William Cox on May 6, 2003 10:26 PMAsa, I accept your apology but honestly I don't think you have anything to apologize for. I trust your intentions. I'm more concerned about the people commenting here.
Posted by: William Cox on May 7, 2003 07:42 AM