Now Reading
Phase 1 of The Blog Herald Design Upgrade

Phase 1 of The Blog Herald Design Upgrade

You might’ve noticed that things are looking a bit different here today. If not, then you’re probably reading in your RSS reader (please visit the site) or need to clear your web browser cache (Ctrl+F5 in Windows or Cmd+R in OS X usually does it).

So what’s new in this upgrade?

  • Three headline posts on the front page.
  • Popular series graphic pushed to the right of the headlines.
  • Wider content columns, perhaps not ideal for reading (fine-tuning will follow), but great for images.
  • Sidebar cleanup.
  • The hot topic tag listings have moved from top left, to the sidebar.

There’s more to do, however, In fact, there are two more phases in this design upgrade. The second one should roll out next week, and involves the Guides section. This is one of the reasons I’ve decided to widen the content column: To fit better descriptive images.

Please report any bugs or weirdness in the comments. Hopefully there won’t be that many of them, but surely some. And if you, like me, think that the top of the front page look a bit messy right me, don’t worry. This should work better when phase 2 rolls out.

See Also
blog editing

Have a great weekend!

View Comments (5)
  • I really like the wider content column and I’m anxious to see the changes that the other 2 phases will bring. You’ve obviously put a lot of work into this!

    Hafta say though, it still seems that the content is overshadowed by the find a surprising amount of distracting clutter scattered across the page. That there are even ads in the header section seems a bit excessive.

    Will your header be getting a refresh too?

  • Looking good Thord! I like the rearrangement of the sidebar content. The one area I would have comments on is the top of the content area. The Welcome section has a 1px letter spacing, and when you’ve got upper and lower case letters, the general rule is not to use letter spacing, for legibility. Also, it seems the yellow should be 100% of the width of the content area. I would second Rob’s comment that the first impression is big time clutter. My eyes don’t know where to go first. Featuring posts and series up there is a nice idea, and the graphics to go along with them is nice too, but because there are so many other graphic elements, ads, etc. up there it’s all just too much. You mentioned though, that you thought the front page was still a little messy- so I’m looking forward to seeing phase 2! :)

  • I really like the featured posts and featured series part (might like it more if they were balanced vertically – maybe, maybe not). I also personally like a wide column because I feel like it puts the focus on the content and helps reduce the appearance of clutter.

    For some reason the search box looks a little out of place to me. Maybe it is just the color. Is the “using the form to the right” part really necessary? I agree about not putting ads in the header, but I can understand if that creates a lot of revenue for you.

    Overall, it looks good.

  • Thanks for the feedback, all! Phase 2 isn’t ready just yet, but I did clean up the front page a bit more, and made the featured area somewhat more sober. There is still some things to tackle on that front, though.

Scroll To Top