Work in progress…

By On 28 November 2009 · 6 Comments · In Blog news

As you can see, I’ve made some presentational changes to the blog over the weekend. Votes were overwhelmingly in favour of de-orangification! I’m looking for a cleaner and more professional presentation, but to retain the functionality of the old version.

I’ve decided to use the Grid Focus theme by Derek Punsalan, with some light adjustments to the header (but not much else) in order to include an image. The migrating geese (or possibly ducks) seem like an appropriate image for the blog.

The columns have moved, obviously, and I quite like the new arrangement. You will see if you click on a post that the column closest to the main post varies depending on whether the screen is on a specific post or the general home page, which has allowed me to tailor the contents slightly according to what you are looking at. There are quite a few things I cannot change, though, such as the links on header bar under the image and the slightly clumsy navigation solution it automatically offers.

There is also a new ratings system that WordPress have introduced and is enabled on this theme. I’ve allowed ratings of posts but may drop this again if (a) no-one uses it or (b) people use it to diss my blog too much!

I’m quite happy with the re-design so far, and would be very interested to hear feedback.

 
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6 Responses to Work in progress…

  1. Random.... says:
    28 November 2009 at 5:56 pm

    Needs a bit more colour :)

    And it is a little confusing having the comments along the top of the story, maybe so because it’s new.

  2. freemovement says:
    28 November 2009 at 11:49 pm

    The comments will need to stay at the top of each post… but I have added colour, in the form of the orange-ish masthead. It is a test image of some migrating birds, and I’ll see if I can find (and legitimately buy) a sharper, slightly better one from somewhere.

    I tell you, the hours I have spent tweaking this pesky theme this weekend, I hope you lot like it once you get over the initial shock of the new!

    • Random.... says:
      29 November 2009 at 5:58 pm

      It’s quite good actually. The only other comment I would make is about some of the lighter greys, an example being the Reply button. Is this your first foray into the dark arts of CSS? :)

    • freemovement says:
      29 November 2009 at 7:29 pm

      It is my second foray. But the CSS on this theme was a lot harder to manipulate usefully than on the last theme. Dark arts indeed.

  3. Amanda says:
    1 December 2009 at 10:52 am

    I like the new layout, and the fact that you have separated the UKBA ‘news’ from the real immigration news!