I'm going to cease fiddling with the blog for the next little while and let what I've got sink in before making any additional changes. Even I need some distance from the thing to properly evaluate what works and what doesn't and endlessly tweaking it isn't the way to do that.
As things stand now, though, there are two issues I want/need to fix, above and beyond anything else.
1. The arrangement, size, and hierarchy of the two columns. There's something subtly "off" about the current column layout, not least of which being that one or both might be too big and thus squeezing the post column overly much. If anyone has any practical suggestions on this front, I'd be very appreciative.
2. The Search box brings up a page in the center column but that uses some other element's color scheme, so it's impossible to read. I need to hunt down what element it's emulating and fix that, but if anyone knows offhand which one it is, it'd save me much time.
And this will be the last layout-related post till Thursday at the earliest. My apologies to everyone suffering through this transition. I do appreciate your thoughts and criticisms; I've found many of them very helpful. Given the number of readers the blog has these days, I feel an obligation to make it as legible and esthetically pleasing to as many of you as I can. Thanks so much for helping me along the way to doing just that.
My iPhone doe snot like.
ReplyDeleteIs there a "mobile" toggle you can flip on yuor blogging software?
The right column can be differenced by moving the blog archive up; the text of the archive might help juxtapose the graphics on the left. I'd move the "dragon's lair" element left too. Too many picture elements on both sides gives it a sort of "driving down the highway looking at billboards" appearance.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't care for the "fairy purple" center column, but it's at least legible. I do like your font choice though. :)
I think the pinstriped background tends to draw my eye up and to the right, so that may be the cause of some of the subtle offness.
ReplyDeleteI'd second the "move the archive up", and move down the Dragon's Lair, too.
Here's some very specific suggestions you may take or leave as desired. ;)
ReplyDelete1) Colors and background texture look good.
2) The intra-box padding could easily be half of what it is now, and the vertical padding should really match the horizontal padding, which it doesn't do currently. I'd consider 5-6px between content boxes.
3) Please, please consider setting the current width of the center column as a -minimum- and letting it spread outwards to fit the user's screen. Give the side columns padding to the border that matches whatever you decide to use between them, but for Pete's sake, we have widescreen monitors for a reason, and it isn't to see 4 inches of background pattern on either side of an article... it's to see more of the article.
overall looks good, but you need to widen your center column on my humble opinion :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that the center column looks a bit "cramped"...but then I don't want to see the line length for the center text increase from where it is now.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I like the change overall.
And James, you are a class act all the way.
Just keep the dark text with light background (although I bet that was a given).
ReplyDeleteDark text and white background makes me cry. I liked it much better the other way.
ReplyDeleteMy beef is having white (or light text) with a dark background - it's virtually unreadable for me. The old scheme was a tan background with some darker text. That was fine, and this is fine with me as well.
ReplyDeleteI like the new grey background with dark text!
ReplyDeleteIs there a "mobile" toggle you can flip on yuor blogging software?
ReplyDeleteNone of which I am aware. What about the new layout is specifically giving your mobile device a problem?
2) The intra-box padding could easily be half of what it is now, and the vertical padding should really match the horizontal padding, which it doesn't do currently. I'd consider 5-6px between content boxes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the padding isn't quite right, but I lack the skills necessary to fix this easily. Any pointers on how I might achieve this?
3) Please, please consider setting the current width of the center column as a -minimum- and letting it spread outwards to fit the user's screen. Give the side columns padding to the border that matches whatever you decide to use between them, but for Pete's sake, we have widescreen monitors for a reason, and it isn't to see 4 inches of background pattern on either side of an article... it's to see more of the article.
Again, I'd love to do this, but am uncertain how to go about it. I'm working from a template in Blogger rather than directly with the HTML and CSS codes, so, if this requires me to tweak either of those things, I need more specific information on how to do so.
overall looks good, but you need to widen your center column on my humble opinion :)
ReplyDeleteI agree. This is a text-heavy blog, so a wide posting column is important. I just to find a way to do that without dropping the third column, though, in the end, that may be impossible.
I agree that the center column looks a bit "cramped"...but then I don't want to see the line length for the center text increase from where it is now.
ReplyDeleteMore and more, it seems that I may simply need to ditch the third column, but I'd hate to do that if I can find another solution.