Topic: weblog redesign

I've been redesigning my personal weblog, not really touching the layout too much, just the colours/style. It isn't finished yet, there are still things I need to do:
+ Sort out about page
+ Improve a few of the provisional colour schemes.
+ Separate CSS and JS files from rest of page
+ Make header graphic/incorporate into header.
That last one is the main problem at the moment. I don't know what to do with it, i've tried a few things, but can't get anything I like the look of. Any suggestions..? It's mainly that, but any other comments would of course be appreciated.

[edit="changed URL. grrrrr"] http://members.lycos.co.uk/quis/plog/recent.php [/edit]



[This message has been edited by quisja (edited 05-16-2003).]

Getting a 'page cannot be displayed' error =(

Can't really say I like the menu. It didn't strike me as a menu at first, but I figured it out after a while. Having the archive and the colors like that might work, but you should have the menu more easily accessible and viewable. I would also drop the partial 'l33t speak' in the menu. Whenever you change the menu or not you should make the link to the page the user is currently on stand out from the others and make it non selectable. With the menu in the form it is now you could achieve this with having the link to the current page be one shown at the top of the selection box. This way the user would know what part of your page he is watching. Same goes for the color selection.

I find the background image you use behind the blogs really disturbing to look at. Can't really say why, but right now the background is somewhere in between having a pattern and not having a pattern.

You should add some more padding/margin between the 'main content' and the 'side menu'. They are a little bit too close. Increasing the magrin between the different entires might not be a bad idea either. The space around the images posted in the blog entires could also be increased without harming anyone.

The text in the 'side menu' should be left aligned. It would make the text easier to read. I know that it isn't a lot of text there to read, but it is still enough to justify left aligning it imo.

On the 'about' page you should add some more padding above the different headings. Right now they flow too much together.

The background color you use in the 'welcome' section should be the same as you use on the other pages. The green that is used now breakes the color scheme dramaticly.

What is the Quisja.tk link? It looks like an ordinary menu item, but it loads a different page. You should change it so the user is aware that this link is different than the others and maybe add some explanation as to why it is there as well.

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 05-16-2003).]

+ l33t speak dropped
+ Can I change which is the default option selected with Javascript? (It couldn't be server side because of the way the colour scheme works)
+ I wasn't sure about the background either. It was an experiment. I've left it so others can see what they think...
+ Paddings and margins increased here and there.
+ The reason that text is left aligned is because, as you said, there isn't much of it, and secondly the flow then converges to the centre line. Which I thought looked better than having it left aligned.
+ The about page was a mess when you saw it, still under development as I said initially. It's almost done layout wise now.
+ Welcome page has gone. The green was a relic, which I've fixed on the display pages too.
+ quisja.tk is my main site. That's explained on the about page.
Hmmm. Still more work to do...

I've made a few more minor changes. There are cookies to remember the colour scheme selected, but I'm not sure if it's working. Is that happening for anyone else? Also does anyone know how I change which of the colour options is selected, or should I post in the JS forum?

The cookie thing for the color isn't working for me...

I think you can set which option in an <select> is selected by setting the selected attribute to true. If that is the case the javascript code would look something like this:

var a = document.getElementsById('nameOfTheThing');



a.setAttribute('selected') = true;

Not sure though since I've not used <select> that much before...

I like the banner you've added to the page, it fits the style of the rest of the page

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

For some reason none of the pic links would open up, I could only access them by right clicking and selecting to 'open link in new window'

"nuff said"

Browser, OS? Does it still happen after you restart your computer? Anyone else getting this? Works fine for me in IE5.5,6 and Firebird.

The pictures work for me on Mozilla, Opera and IE on winXP. Might be that Xpirex is using a pop-up blocker...



_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

You seriouly need to find a decent web host :P

Apart form that it's great, well, as long as you?re not claustrophobic.

Margins, padding, line spacing, justification and more margins. Learn them. Know them. Use them..... please.

CSS is a real boon to us web developers. It lets us control one of the most vital parts of the written medium -- Topography. So, if you?re going to design a web page, please spend some time learning about topography. Right now, your type treatments look like half-hearted afterthoughts.

That aside, I think it's wonderful. =)