In my tradition of getting utterly sick of the design of this site at regular intervals, I’ve done another overhaul of the visuals and functionality of the site once again. This design tries to be clearer and more usable than the old site, and is also formatted for today’s larger screen. The small percentage of you still at 800×600 will just have to deal – the world has moved on.
You’ll also know I’ve added AdSense ads to the site. This site doesn’t cost a great deal to maintain, but it would be nice to at least break even. Plus, in a few months I’ll have a rather momentous personal change that will mean that I’ll be pinching pennies until Abraham Lincoln cries uncle. So, you’ll have to deal with some unobtrusive text ads for the moment. There’s an ad bar along the right-hand side and also one before the comment boxes. I’m not a big fan on online ads, but they do help pay the bills, at least in theory.
I’m a typography fanatic, so I’ve been looking at ways of improving the contrast and typographic style of the site for some time. As always, Mac users get the best view of the site – they have the great Gill Sans font as one of their standard system fonts, so that’s what they get in the sidebar. Sadly, PC users are stuck with a second-rate font. Then again, they should be used to being stuck with second-rate by now…
The main body text and headings are both the excellent “Georgia” font, one of the best for online typography. Serif fonts are normally difficult to read on computer displays, but Georgia is one of the more readible font options, and it isn’t as blaisé as Times New Roman has become. You’ll notice it’s the same body text as the new New York Times website uses – if you’re going to steal, steal from the best, I say.
Undoubtedly, I’ll be tweaking things as I go along. I’m not sure about the archive system yet, or what needs to go where in the sidebar. I’m never quite happy with designs, and since I have the luxury of eternally tweaking various elements here and there, you can bet that I will.
If you happen to notice any problems, leave a comment here or click on the author link at each post to send me an email.
Wow…..referring to The New York Times as “the best”. Could it be that the redesign comes with a new left-of-center perspective in preparation of the blue tsunami racing towards us this November?
Only in terms of design…
I’d say both are as likely as the Pope announcing that his favorite movie is “Brokeback Mountain” and George Clooney taking a vow of silence…
What’s the big personal change on the horizon? Are you going to law school? I think I read that at one point on this blog.