Yet Another Version
posted on november 16, 2003, tag: site
Boy, if you were to remove all the entries I've written about new designs of this website, there might not be many others to read. But, yet again, here we are.
This new version doesn't change much of anything usability-wise. It's most just a visual change. Although, I did change the sidebar to a new style, using ideas from Douglas Bowman's great ALA article, Sliding Doors of CSS. The sidebar is now built using lists (yes, everyone's favourite old ul and li tags), and I like the new look a lot.
The site is still valid XHTML and CSS, and doesn't use any tables. It wasn't too hard to do, since the last time I rewrote the code for the site I converted it to all dynamic templates, so changing the visual style only required changing a total of 10 lines in three files. That and CSS changes.
You might need to refresh your cache (especially if you use Safari), and it looks iffy in parts in IE for Windows (please, god, download Mozilla people!). Not much else to say. Give me your feedback, if you will.
Comments
There are 16 comments, comments are closed
Sharif on 11/16/2003:
Very nice...that new header really pops!
I really liked the way your last sidebar sort of hung on to the edge of the content area and seamlessly extended out into whatever extra space was left in the browser window.
But, as much as I liked the old one, the new sidebar is really clean, really subtle, and really good looking. Nice work!
Dave on 11/16/2003:
Nice design! I like the sidebar. I do miss the nice hover effect your logo used to have.
Rob on 11/16/2003:
I like the new design. I think one woerd describes it - crisp.
Later
Garrett on 11/16/2003:
Sharif: I too liked the sidebar kind of hanging, well, on the side. But, after a while, I realized that the content area was too small, and that the sidebar felt a little lonely out there and a little bit "not part of the design," if that makes any sense. Really, though, I just wanted to do this new style of sidebar, and it wouldn't have worked if it were just floating on its own. I'm glad you like it.
Dave: Thanks much. As requested, hover effect is back.
Rob: Thanks. I was just thinking this felt more crisp, actually, so I'm glad others agree.
Reid on 11/17/2003:
Looks fantastic Garrett! I love the rollovers on the header image.
sox on 11/17/2003:
Not to rain on your parade, but I guess I'm one of the few who 'really' liked the previous version. While the current design does appeal to the neat-and-clean side of me, I appreciated the previous design for its originality. It was different from other XHTML+CSS+MT sites out there that all began to look like each other (one of my main gripes about the 'our' scence). Everything about it was unique; minimal header, alignment, etc... While I think I can understand the reasoning behind this redesign, I'm sad to see the old template disappear from my daily reading list. In the end though... it's your writing that I'm after. And this IS a good design in its own right. Nice job.
pete on 11/17/2003:
I really like the hover effect on the images for the "Looking for.." lines in the header. The only bit that feels odd is the missing borders to these inputs/textareas. Other than that it looks good, but then it always does.
Garrett on 11/17/2003:
Pete: I've cleaned up the borders now, to match this new design. Thanks for the reminder (Safari doesn't apply border styles to input items at all, so I always forget what they look like in other browsers).
Reid: Thanks.
Sox: Absolutely respect your opinion, and am grateful for the comments about the previous version. It was quite different (especially for me—it was the first non-centered design since like 1999), and I enjoyed it while it was up.
There are plenty of reasons for the change. One, and the primary reason, was that I needed Maniacal Rage to look a bit more 'OS X' friendly, due to the coming launch of xPad. I wanted the whole thing to feel a little more X native, and I think this definitely does in comparison to the previous design.
I'm glad you're still able to stomach the site (and the writing...), and I hope I can keep you coming back. Thanks for your comments.
Tarsh on 11/18/2003:
looks fine in IE.. . =]
Stephane on 11/19/2003:
Your design is very nice, it does have that OS X quality that you wanted but I have a weird bug in Safari 1.1, you can see it in this screen capture.
Every thing else is really nice, the Panther rollover is a nice touch ;-)
Garrett on 11/20/2003:
Have you cleared your cache? (CMD+Option+e) I'm using the same Safari build (I assume, I have Panther's Safari—1.1 v100), and I don't have the trouble, but I did replace a few images in the top bar at one point.
Let me know if emptying your cache doesn't fix the problem. And thanks!
Garrett on 11/20/2003:
Ah, and on a side note—I knew I recognized your URL from somewhere. You did the designs for Hyatt's weblogs. And your site is even better. Good stuff.
Louis Clotman on 11/22/2003:
Very tastefully done.
Stephane on 11/25/2003:
Hi
Your site is still broken on my Safari, I do have version 1.1.1 (v100.1) witch is one dot different than yours.
Intrigued, i've tried to isolate the bug and you probably wont believe me but I found that line to bug on my machine: href="/xpad.php". Actually, its the name of the href that cause the problem, if I put index.php there is no problem, even xpa.php works but the full name xpad.php or ap.php do the bug !
It would be interesting to tell Apple if you managed to reproduce it, if not then my machine as a really weird bug... witch wouldn't surprise me a bit :-)
Garrett on 11/25/2003:
After running Software Update, I too now have 1.1.1 (v100.1), and still don't see what you see. I've emptied my cache and still no problems.
Very, very strange.