Sadly, this recent onslaught of work has prevented me from regularly updating my blog. I’m still here though, taking photos and posting to Flickr when I can.
I guess in this economy, you have to appreciate the work you have.
All work and no play makes Jon a dull boy.
I’ve been meaning to redesign my website for awhile now. I’ve played around with a few designs before finally sitting down over the holidays to bang out the website you see before you now. This redesign has been long overdue, to say the least.
There are so many inspiring blog designs I’ve looked at over the past two years, and every time I stumble on one, I think “Oh, I want my website to look like that.” I obviously don’t have the time to redesign a wordpress theme every time I see something new, so I created some goals for my site.
Goals:
Recently, I read The Elements of Typography by Robert Bringhurt. It lists, in excruciating detail, every proper rule written about typography. Much of the book is written for print, but most concepts such as a reasonable line length and the golden rule are very relatable to web. Typography-wise, the book itself is a pleasure to read and very helpful if you work in design.
One of the best things about digital photography is the ease in which you can post your photos to the web. Many of the design elements of my old site (such as the faux wood background and image borders) seemed to detract from the photography. Simplifying the design and keeping the page clean creates more emphasis for the photo.
More photo emphasis, less filling.
After reading Andy Clark’s Five CSS design browser differences I can live with, I’ve been itching to try out some of the techniques he writes about, including CSS pseudo elements and the border radius property. I can’t wait until all browsers support these features.
Looking at my Google Analytics, it seems most people who visit my site don’t pay much attention to my blog navigation. More commonly, they click on my flickr badge to see my most recent photos or use the previous/next links to navigate page by page. I moved my blog navigation to the footer to make room for more photos in the flickr badge and emphasized the previous/next buttons at the bottom of the page. This should better support my visitors browsing habits. And no, I don’t mind if visitor are leaving my website to look at my flickr page.
So that’s about it. I’m pretty excited about this current design, but I still have a few tweaks to do. I would love to know what you think about it, so please leave me a comment below.
One day back from our trip from Birmingham, we ventured out to experience the light rail grand opening.
Even though there were some operational glitches, most people were enthusiastic about the light rail, including Debby.
It was a balmy 45 degrees as we waited at the 38th & Washington Street Station. That may not sound cold compared to where you happen to live, but for Phoenicians, it’s freezing.
The trains were pack to the brim with people from all walks of life. Light rail seems to be the great equalizer.
I’m excited about our new light rail system and I can’t wait to see how it affects the developing areas it runs through. Though its route is not practical for my commuting situation, I’m going to try and use it when possible.
Especially during the light rail pub crawl on January 10th. Hope to see you there!
