August 18, 2007
Redesign complete
The "quick redesign" is mostly finished (but, as always, it wasn't as quick as I had expected). I still need to finish adding some content and tweaking the design, and I haven't fully tested it with a full battery of different browsers/platforms. Let me know if you run into anything weird.
The design is a bit of a departure; I hope it doesn't offend your sensibilities. It's very simple, partly because of time constraints, and partly as a reaction against... well, the "Web 2.0 look" (also seen to some degree in OS X and Vista, especially the widgets). I wanted to keep it very simple and readable (yet still recognizable) without including any of the following: gradients (and gradients and gradients), rounded corners, dropshadows, glossy/glassy elements, reflections, 3D elements, and lots of bright happy highly-saturated colors.
I had to relent a bit by including one (um, completely saturated) color because the totally grayscale design was pretty bland. But aside from that, I kept all those design elements out. Hopefully you can still bear to visit, look, and read.
[ I should clarify: My gripe isn't necessarily with the "Web 2.0 look" itself, or even with many of the sites that use it. I'm quite fond of the look (or once was) and my first instinct was to design something with many of the elements I listed. The look can work really well and some of my favorite sites use it. I guess my gripe is just that it has become terribly overused - by corporations, designers, bloggers... (especially now that everyone and his mother and her cousin and his cat has an inane blog that uses a template full of gradients and rounded corners.) This design is my curmudgeonly "hmmpphh". ]
18 Aug 23:37 | Link | Category: Site/Life News