I have announced a redesign more than a month ago, but since WP 2.2 has been delayed, I decided to delay it as well. It’s finished now … well, almost. The upgrading process and the redesign exhausted me. So this post will just be a placeholder. Place your comments here, but I will surely edit this entry later.
I was just worried about some things the upgrade did to my database, it seems that some non-Latin characters was converted to something else. I will investigate on this matter after I wake up later this morning.
*after waking up this afternoon*
After years of having single color accents, I’ve decided to take on dual-color accents to be used on this new design. I just love having complementary orange and blue on almost anything, now they’re on my Web site as well.
Some pages still wouldn’t work, and some are still being rewritten. The new Projects page will be used to organize all my work including Web development and WordPress plugin development pages.
This design has been tested on Firefox 2.0.0.x, Opera 9.x and Internet Explorer 7. I may include some bug fixes for Internet Explorer 6 as I discover it, but don’t count on it.
Credits go to Feed Icons for the standard feed icon, and to FamFamFam for the cute little Silk icons I’ve used throughout the whole site.
Thanks to Arvin for pointing out that my comment form didn’t work. I’ve only used id attributes on the form elements that browsers handling HTML-compatible XHTML wouldn’t process as query string variable names like what they do on name attributes.
Criticisms are welcome. 🙂
Comments
19 responses to “Redesign At Long Last”
nde pako sanay sa new skin mo. hehe. ambibilog ng text 😀 at may google ads na din! hehe. bakit nasa frontpage ung live archives mo? wala lang..
For usability lang kaya nasa front page ‘ung archives. Hindi naman ako nag-change ng font mula pa nuon, Lucida Grande/Lucida Sans Unicode pa rin primary font ko. Siguro dahil medyo nilakihan ko kaya nagmukhang mabilog para sa ‘yo. 😛
ahh.. hehe.. nde lang cguro ako sanay. basta parang anlaki talaga ng mga text sa site mo ngayon lahit ung navigation.
I like it. 🙂 Of course, you already know that. 🙂
@Arvin: It was supposed to be a Web 2.0 theme that’s why the fonts aren’t so small. But since I really don’t know how to create a full-blown one, I just call it, “Web 2.0-ish.”
@Lexie: Thanks. But, of course, I’ve already told you that. 😛
I like that’s clean. I just think the fonts are spaced too wide apart. But I like it over-all.
galing!! cleaner and better! aja pa!!! san ka pa!! ^_^
I think I like the old one better despite it having smaller text (if my memory serves me). This new template seems too generic where as the old one seemed to have more personality. Sorry, I can’t help but compare. =)
One more thing: I don’t think it helps having this much letter-spacing. Maybe, if you’re really up for this, add more line-height too to compensate.
Also, maybe a darker shade of blue for the inline links? =)
Like Kuya Arielle, I like the previous one better. But I love this one, you know that. Kailangan ko lang sanayin yung sarili ko sa bagong mukha ng iyong blog. I just realized that we’ve been blogmates for months now at ngayon ko lang nakitang nagbago ng theme ang blog mo, so it requires getting used to.
Most surprising are the ads, haha! There’s something about the bottombar that’s bothering me. Maybe I just find it too crowded because I’m more used to a smaller font size in your site. Oh yes, the letter-spacing as well. Parang it makes your blog harder to read. And grr, I was supposed to use speech bubbles on my comments as well on the current layout (which, I find out, sucks in IE6 haha…I care? LOL) but got tired of experimenting.
Medyo nalilito rin ako dahil hinahanap ko yung submit button for the comments, akala ko nawawala, nasa left side pala.
Rawr! Ang hirap pag sanay ka na sa design ng blog ng ka-blog mo! Haha!
PS: What is with the WordPress upgrade anyway? How’dyah fix what it did to your database. Grrrr.
Thanks for the comments and criticisms. Maybe I did overdo the
letter-spacing. How is it now?Arielle, I really don’t get why you think this theme hasn’t got my personality. AFAIK, if it’s orange, it’s still me. LOL! Maybe Shari’s right that, Besides, I had my past theme for more than a year.
Shari, yes, the ads. I actually think it helps me. Haha! But, click only if you want to, or else you’d make me end up losing my AdSense account. Thanks for the complete(?) review of my theme.
BTW, you just said that you found out something sucks in IE6. Which one? The one you’re making, or this? I have no IE6 to test with anymore.
I actually got the reply
formdesign idea from WaSP. But, I didn’t copy any code, I just emulated the look they have there.I am still researching about what the upgrades did to my DB, and I am planning to post something about it. I think it has something to do with the
wp-config.php. I’d update you with the post after I gathered all my references.Hahaha, no I didn’t mean this theme doesn’t reflect YOUR personality. (Honestly, I wouldn’t even know what that is since we only know each other online.) What I meant was that the previous layout, compared to this one, seemed to have ITS OWN personality because the design and layout combination isn’t as generic.
And by generic I mean, a masthead that has some sort of computer part enforcing some kind of technical catch phrase; for one thing, i.e., a partial shot of a laptop computer trying to enforce a theme “blogging with standards”– trite, no? Whereas in the previous template, the masthead alone seems to be communicating something… well… original, or if not, at least it was trying to communicate a cliche in an original way. Ano nga yung catch phrase niya, “fast-paced thoughts in slow motion”? Catchy (pardon the pun)!
The pages don’t have to be orange and black, really. You don’t even have to retain the old catch phrase. It’s just that, artistically, the older theme has more value than this one. Again, it’s not really about the colours but how they actually come together with each other, with the imagery and with the stock verbal content. And the old theme was able to mix and inter-mix those elements quite well.
But then, you’ll have to forgive me for being too critical– that’s just how I am with the work of people I respect. =) Otherwise, I wouldn’t even care to comment. Hehehehe!
Letter-spacing’s better. 🙂 Re: the ads, of course I’ll click. I always click on friends’ ads whenever I visit their sites. 😀
My layout. The sidebar goes all the way down on IE. I know how to fix it mainly because it’s something I forgot, but I’m too tamad to do anything about it.
The DB issue has something to do with the collate and charset lines in wp-config.php. Upgrading from a previous version with those lines would do crazy things on your blog. Pero deleting them solves the problem naman. Baffled din ako nung una kung ano nangyari eh.
BTW, I know it isn’t me…You changed the header image. Haha. Yun yung first reaction ko. 😉
Arielle, I got your point. I just didn’t know someone has been looking into my themes that much artistically. And, after more than a year of being presented, I found it has somehow lost its meaning—at least for me. I don’t actually place much emphasis on design, and I think you know that—I’ve been trying to provide more meaningful and relevant content. But, still, I thank you for the insight. 🙂
Shari, most probably, the
paddingon your boxes is the culprit. You know how it is when IE handles the box model. I’ve fixed thecharsetproblem myself. But, since I’ve found out the default encoding WordPress uses for DBs islatin1, I’m looking for a good and safe way to convert the DB encoding toutf8, and not rely on the character set handling by WordPress.waw redesign.. ganda.. talagang di mawawala ang ORANGE. haha.. by the way.. kuya.. pasok ako sa bes sec! confirmed! hahah
wow! ganda ganda ng bagong layout!! hehehe. sobrang techy!! bagay na bagay sayo, header pa lang. hahaha! ^^,
ang cute nga pala nung mga speech balloons sa comments! hehehe, astig! tapos kulay blue pag ikaw yung nagcomment, haha! galing!
i was wondering if the rss feed (entries – atom) works? i tried to put the feed on my blog & it didn’t work. and also the photo ‘baby aja yawning’ doesn’t load either, no matter how many times i hit refresh.. like the new layout though! it has a nice clean look. i envy how much resources you have in making all those sites & this one too! i have a simple cbox on my blog, could you buzz me or something about the ‘rss feed problem’ i’m having.. really would love to add yours to my blog feeds 🙂
Thanks, thanks, thanks! 🙂
Jane, yes it does. Maybe your feed reader could only accept the
http://URI scheme. Try changingfeed://to that one, instead. 🙂And, I still haven’t updated every page yet, so excuse me for the broken images. I was actually trying to find the original photo so I could upload a higher resolution version. 🙂
Awesome!!
Gratz on the new theme!! Looks great Aja 😀
Yeah, the padding. *sighs* I wonder why I haven’t fixed it yet. Lazy much?
Have you found a safer and more future-proof way of fixing the database encoding thingamajig? Hay. So tired.
Aside: I’m losing passion. In everything. AGAIN.