…and I would love honest feedback.
THANK YOU!!!
This is a book review and discussion blog written by a philosophy professor who reads anything and has special interests in ethics and gender theory.
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Meta
oh… nice…
I like it.
Oooo. A very cleanly analytical look. Perfect.
I like this new look. I’ve always liked your avatar. How does it know who I am?
Love it. Didn’t really like your old formats in all honesty. This is bright and clean and fresh.
I really like it, especially the use of red in the color scheme. And I love your avatar’s glasses. I need a pair like those.
Thanks folks! I’ve got one complaint so far (vie twitter) — about the gray sides… which I asked for. Will ponder.
@tumperkin: NOW you tell me??!!!
Nice. I do wish that, as part of the makeover, the “Comments” link had moved to the bottom of each post instead of the top. I never know whether I want to read the comments until I’ve finished reading the post, and the way it is now I have to scroll back up. That’s my only quibble.
I like it! Lots of white space, more compact main column, and classy classic header. I do love that avatar.
I like also! The background is nice and easy to read.
I like the new you. I was just thinking the other day that the ‘look’ didn’t match your avatar and now it does. I like the grey sidebars. They leave the focus on the central column and tone with the colours of your ‘brand’ eg. the colour of your sub-headings. I also like the serif font. The tag line being under the name of the blog works better for me because they are more closely linked now and it is easier to see what you are about. It is simple and clean looking. Well done.
I like it. Easy to navigate, easy to read and gentle on the eyes.
I like it in general, but the “related links” are much too large. They look like they’re part of the post, and are visually messy, especially compared to the smaller font of the comments. Perhaps a horizontal line to indicate the post’s end (and the start of related links), as well as reduce and indent the related links to offset them a bit. The only other factor that I find off-putting about the design is the variety of fonts . There’s one font color/size for comment name, another for comment date, a third for the body of the comment, and a different setting for the leave-a-reply area (with three different font sizes in the lines below the “post comment” button). Same variety is going on in the right-hand column, and visually it really messes up what is otherwise a clean layout.
I’d also suggest looking at the site’s use history, and see whether more people click through via tags or categories, and whichever gets the most traffic, move it up higher for easy/quick navigation… and shove the meta (which only admins really care about) all the way down to the bottom on the right. As a tag-user, having to scroll all the way down is one thing, but scrolling past things that are superfluous to most visitors is another matter altogether. Alternately, make the categories a drop-down list from the top bar, and replace categories (on right) with the tags, to shorten the sidebar a little but still provide the same amount of access.
…and now I’m looking at it in Firefox3 (last comment was via Safari4). I guess something changed between getting the RSS feed and when I finally replied (seeing how I didn’t refresh the page before commenting, after having it open all day), and the Related Links are gone, so I suppose disregard that, eh? Aaaand the tags are moved up. Man, I’m just so not on a roll today, am I. Note to self: refresh, next time!
Firefox is a little cleaner, font-wise, though it’s still varied enough that it’s still not as unified as it could be — plus the distinction between comments remains pretty soft. The gray background on alternating comments is so faint that I have to squint to see it, and the soft-yellow of your comment thus stands out even more, making my eye track down to it (and skipping over other comments). Not really sure how to alleviate that, just reporting how my eyeballs track.
Other than all that — you DID say you wanted feedback, right? — I like the generally soft scheme with the sharp red, though I wonder how it’d look if links were red (and went to blue when hovered). Right now it’s kinda, well, red-white-and-blue. Heh.
Thumbs up from Hawaii!
(and surf’s up!)
I like the color scheme and your avatar. My one suggestion would be to use fewer fonts, as Kaigou noted, there seem to be several different ones and it looks a bit cluttered.
@kaigou: Actually, I had noticed some of the same things. I got rid of “related posts”, and moved some of the widgets around. Great minds…
@Meri: I agree with you, although I hadn’t noticed what made it look cluttered until you wrote that. Thank you!
Thanks everyone!
I like the gray. it’s simple and clean.
Much more readable!
Hmm, I’ve never before noticed your cousinly resemblance to Agnes (sans the Hitman). With added craniofacial transubstantiation
@RfP: My god, it is so funny you said that. I just started listening to the audio and I noticed the same thing. I swear the resemblance is accidental – you can see from my photo on the about page that I really do look like her!
Love it!! Love the heading and love the grey too, very cool and chic
I like this one a lot better
you’re just revamping everything, arentcha?
I think I agree with Meri on the different fonts, and with RfP on the Agnes resemblance! I do really like the font size in your articles, though. Is it larger than before, or is it just the white background that makes it easier to read?
I never thought there was anything wrong with the old look but I guess I will get used to the new – kind of like when ones favorite products get repackaged and you think they are strange for a week or two and then you don’t even remember the old packaging.
I like the overall design. Very clean. The only issue I have with it is the colour choice for text links and the post header. Red is bright enough to make me squint a bit. Probably because the stark white background makes that particular shade of red somewhat intrusive. It works for the header, but not so sure about blog post headers. The light blue link in blog post text is a little too pale. I think I’d have liked it if it was a little darker or has a bit of contrast somehow. Other than these, it’s fantastic. Congrats to you and your designer.
Change, I haz trouble wid it…
(it’s me, not you, honest!)
… so I had to look twice to make sure I was on the right place. I like it, the lighter colors give it an uncluttered feeling.
Mostly I like it – I just find the stark white background to be a bit too stark.
I use the computer at home in a semi-dark area and clicking on this page had me literally moving back from the screen and squinting because of the brightness.
When scrolling through the comments I found the slightly darker shade of white to be a much easier read.
Overall, I like it (I love red-red is always good) but the white background is blindingly bright on my computer (running latest version of Firefox on a PC here). I find myself squinting while I try to read the page. It’s just too harsh and too stark. I also find the comments font ugly and generic looking. I feel like I’m typing in Word on the default settings. Of course, it could be worse, it could be Comic Sans…
But the content’s still great, so while I’m not totally sold on the makeover (I actually rather liked the original), I’ll still keep reading here.
I really appreciate these comments. I do plan to make a number of changes — get rid of the blue, fewer fonts, less bright white, better distinctions between comments, etc. — but it may take some time, as my web designer is very busy right now. So thank you for bearing with me and the blog!
I love the gray.
Very clean revamp. A better frame for your very fine observations.
I think this look suits “you”–your smart and funny blogging persona–better than old ones.
But what I really want to know is, now that your blog has had a make-over, will a studly Navy SEAL blog come and sweep it off its feet? Or perhaps that best-friend’s-big-brother blog it’s been secretly in love with for years will finally notice it?
@Liz:
A girl can dream can’t she?
Any chance that we could get comment numbering?
@AQ: Would you consider making your personal comment color selection slightly darker? When you do block quotes within your replies, the two colors are a little too similar for me. Actually that seems to be true when the comment color is the lighter as well not just yours. It didn’t matter before when there was no color differentiate but now I mind myself using that as a reading cue.
I think I can do both those things … or rather have friendly knowledgeable and helpful people do them for me. It may take some time, though. Thank you for the suggestions.