Spring Clean: The Reasons and Details

Well, we’ve been up for a few days now, and I’ve been tweaking on and off constantly. Now that I’ve got it to a point where I can settle in the knowledge that most of the major layout issues are resolved, I’ll explain what prompted this design change, and various details about it.

Reason #1 - New changes in life

Since I’ve begun writing on this blog, and tweaking the design, I think there have been times when I’ve changed due to how I have been feeling at the time. In this case, it was deliberate. Due to the fact that we’re leaving Australia — our home for the past 17 months — I felt it was time for a change in the blog too.

I doubt the change in location will make much difference, but it was just something that I got into my head. Life changes; design changes.

Reason #2 - New changes online

A number of weeks ago, I encouraged Mel to apply for 9rules; an online community, where some of the best sites in specific categories, are grouped together. They’re fairly strict in who they permit to join, and they judge those who apply on content, design, consistency, and a few other areas. If you follow Mel’s site, you’ll know by now that she was accepted.

However, when I was checking out the submission dates for Melanie, I decided I might apply myself too. Low and behold, to my surprise, I found ArmenThomassian.com on the list of accepted websites, along with Mel and a number of others.

Being honest, I was fairly confident that Mel would get accepted, but, I never thought this site would be. I was quite shocked.

So, I figured that was another reason to redesign. I mean, you need a new design to create a place for the prestigious leaf! (If you haven’t noticed, it’s in the footer).

Reason #3 - New layout due

The previous design was quite well received by most, and was featured in a number of articles on other websites, which is always encouraging. I don’t do my designs here for other people, but, when others recognise my work, it’s encouraging.

Having said that, the layout was based on my Bedrock Grid theme, which I had been sporting in various incarnations since November last year. That’s way too long for someone like me, so a change was imminent.

The details of the design…

The grid

This design is laid out on a 9 column grid, spanning 875px in width. Ever since I began to grasp the concept of grids, I’ve been using them keenly. They help me to keep everything in order, and develop a mental wireframe of where I’m going to place all the elements of the site.

In this case, I wanted to try something totally different, by placing the headlines of articles to the left of the content, rather than above. Using a grid helped me to use size as an indicator for prominence on the homepage, with the first article spanning the full width of the page, and the second article being smaller, and allowing the sidebar the fit in the width as well.

If you understand grids, you’ll see it in play right throughout the details of this design.

Imagery

Often one can point to a source of inspiration for a design. In this case, I can’t, except for one part: the idea to add noise to the background. This is something you’ll see Dan Rubin use on his designs, so I give credit to him for the idea.

The horizontal navigation is the way it is because, I wanted to add a touch of depth to the texture. I’m not much into ‘embossing’, so I decided to give it a ‘reversed embossed’ look, so that it looks like the letters are chiselled out instead of raised. This may change some time in the future, thanks to David Airey.

Colour

As far as colour, I wanted to use only one, along with shades of gray. It was either going to be green or blue. So, I chose green because it’s fresh, fits well with the background, and because I’ve never used a bright green on my site before.

Typography

Type is another area I’m working on. I decided to use Helvetica Neue almost throughout, except for the logo, which is using Nevis (love the uppercase), and Georgia for the serif text in the header, and for the blockquotes.

I’m aware many of you don’t have Helvetica Neue, so it degrades to Helvetica; and then should you be entirely deprived, Arial.

Little details

I’ve tried to pay attention to little details, which will enhance the overall look, and usability of the site.

• The headlines on the homepage going from dark grey to light grey, in the three different areas.
• The desaturated subscription buttons, which turn orange when you hover over them.
• The images in the about page, which break out of the content on the right, while still aligning to the grid.
• The titles in the about page, which break out entirely, to the left of the content.
• The trackbacks placed below the comments, and the ‘Trackbacks…’ title only appearing when there is a trackback to the post.

I think that’s most of the details. There’s still a bit of maintenance work to do, but, I’m extremely pleased with how this design has turned out, and I consider it my best work yet. But then, I’ve only been at this carry on for about a year! Lot’s to learn…

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