Obligatory post regarding the new design
By William M. Hartnett on Jul 28, 2007 in meta
I’ve been using the excellent Hemingway theme “temporarily” for more than two months now, and finally decided it was time to switch to something a little more permanent. For one thing, Derek Willis has been using a beautiful white version of Hemingway for some time now, and Will Sullivan’s very cool recent relaunch of Journerdism is partially based on a heavily modified version of a modified version of Hemingway. Also, it turns out that not everyone is a fan of light text on a dark background. (Sorry about that, Mindy.)
I also needed a way to keep my semi-coherent journalism posts separated from my off-topic ravings. The totally flippin’ sweet Simplicity theme over at solostream.com fit the bill perfectly, with a “featured article” function that separates and highlights, in my case, the not-quite-junk from the usual junk. So I’ll put the journalism stuff in the featured slot, and all the other nonsense will go in the regular post stream. (Same old all-in-one feed, though.) I’m obviously not a designer, and, even if I was, I’d be a lazy one. So, if you have a suggestion or request, it might help if you also let me know how to do it! 
(Reading this in your feed reader? Why not click on over to check out the new-look wmhartnett.com?)
Matthew Wensing | Jul 30, 2007 | Reply
Have you tried black text with a white background for the page title and subtitle? While I could probably get used to it, it just seems a little out of place right now . . .
. . . okay, so I just used Firebug to check it out with black text and a white background . . . and I definitely think it looks better. The changes I actually made:
h1.blogtitle { color: #111; }
#header { background-color: #fff; border-top: 1px solid #000; }
p.description { color: #333; /* You could also try #222 or something */ }
Just a thought. Overall I like the new design much better than the last.
William M. Hartnett | Jul 30, 2007 | Reply
Yeah, it is a bit distracting having that big black box at the top of the page. I’ll probably mess around with it tonight.
Will Sullivan | Aug 1, 2007 | Reply
I think you should make the font smaller and less contrasty.
William M. Hartnett | Aug 1, 2007 | Reply
I considered black text on a black background, but there were certain usability issues I couldn’t quite sort out. I’m still working on it, though.
Tim | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
I really like the cleaner look and of course, the continued great content. But (always a but, isn’t there?), as a regular reader (I check in daily) I don’t like having to scroll down from the Feature Article (which doesn’t change daily) to get to the new posts.
William M. Hartnett | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
Hmmm, that’s a good point that I haven’t considered. Mostly because I never anticipated having regular readers! I like having the semi-serious journalism posts highlighted at the top of the page, but maybe I’ll try shorter summaries to get the regular posts up a bit higher.