Surprise! I’ve changed the site design (pretty significantly). I really like this design: it is set up so that at a glance you can see the most recent entry in all categories. I realize that some of you might not like the new design, but I ask that you bear with me: humor me, and you might actually end up liking it. I know I have.
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The site redesign is in.

I decided to buckle down and finish the site redesign tonight. As you can see, it’s about 90% functional (and if you can’t, clear your cache and reload, you’re probably using a cached stylesheet).

– Navigation is functioning.
– Layout is mostly functioning (in the gallery, I’m happy with the index page, less happy with the per-entry layout).
– I still need to make the links page (shouldn’t be hard, just haven’t done it yet).
– The search page still needs the new layout applied to it.. The comment section, too.

I’d appreciate feedback on the design, even if it’s just a “I like it” or “I don’t like it.” I’m going to try and finish up the last few things tomorrow sometime, so in theory the few things I’ve broken will be working again by the beginning of next week.

Hope you enjoy the redesign!

Designing (or in this case, REdesigning) a website is a process, much like designing anything else. There is the brainstorming phase, then the process of fleshing out a concept you like. Once you’ve got an idea pretty squarely in your head, the process of creating a mockup, creating a one or two page mini-implementation just to see if the concept works in practice, and to refine the little things that give a site polish. Then comes the task of implementing the changes. If you’ve done your homework, then the implementation should be relatively easy. Otherwise, it becomes an arduous task.

Well, brainstorming is complete, and mockup is complete. I’m implementing the changes on my local machine first, at which point it will be a very easy, smooth, and quick transition. It might be an unrealistic expectation, but I plan to have it implemented by the end of the week.

A temporary link to a static (non-working) mockup is here.

This is a little overdue. First the things I’ve already done:
1) I’ve changed the link colors to make them stand out more. They continue to be fairly soft, mellow colors (intentionally), however.
2) I’ve reorganized my links list. It is now alphabetical by category (first is friend sites, then webcomics, then projects I’m affiliated with). I also moved the wedding gallery out of the external links section and into the internal links section.

The things I’ve slated for the next few days:
1) I’ve got about two dozen links that I would LIKE to add to my links list, but that would make it an unwieldy list at best. Instead, I’m planning on making an actual links page, with category headers and everything. If I get particularly ambitious, I may even add descriptions of each site.
2) I need to propagate the rest of the changes that I’ve made to the main page that haven’t yet made it into the rest of the site. Such as the wedding gallery link, and the color changes.

Check back in a few days to see if I actually did it.
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Some general site updates:
1. The individual entry archives for the image gallery now has a “First” and “Last” (ie, most recent) link in the navigation menu, allowing you to go to the first image uploaded and browse forward if that suits you (requested by my wife).
2. I’ll be uploading my last five prepared images shortly. My next “project” will be redacting this winter’s trip to Hawaii, and getting some images up from that.
3. I’m taking a semi-vacation this coming week. I’ll be in Seattle looking at apartments, and I’m not sure what sort of connectivity I’ll have, so no new posts from me for a whole week! (Well, unless it turns out I have reams of wireless access everywhere I go, and free time to post.)

Hope both of my readers have a great week!

Mickey brought up an interesting point last night: internal links should really be kept together.

Makes sense, really, since generally the goal of a website is to encourage exploration of their OWN site, not to have their viewers immediately scamper off to other places.

I’ve rearranged the navigation on the right side of the screen so that recent entries and archives are above the links section. The change has already spread through the rest of the site.

Just a quick entry saying that I’ve updated the visual gallery… all older pictures, but ones that I’ve been meaning to put up. I’ve got a folder full of redacted images that I’m going to be finally putting up, four per day until the folder is empty.

You can either click on the “Visual Content” link in the upper right corner of the page, or click here to be taken to the gallery.

I’m planning on doing an actual post later today, by the way, after some sleep.