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A brand new look

“Did you do something with your hair? Lose some weight? Get contacts?” Well, I’m glad you noticed*. I did spend some time this weekend performing the first real overhaul of this blog since I started it three years ago. I needed to move the site to a new server (since the deal I had on the original one was expiring), and in the process decided it was time to migrate the site from the old blogging software, Movable Type, to WordPress. And, since I was moving the site and changing software, it was as good as time as any for a new look.

There are still a few tweaks I’ll make to the design in the coming days, as well as fixing a few technical glitches from the transition (for example, the old permalinks won’t work for the time being, although the posts themselves still exist; use the search field to look for a particular post if you need to access it in the interim.) Also, if you subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, use the updated feed URL. In addition, any comments made after Saturday night were unfortunately lost during the transition.

If you have any feedback about the redesign, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

* Actually, I haven’t done anything with my hair, haven’t lost any weight, and still wear glasses. But thanks for asking.

18 comments to A brand new look

  • Not bad, but it was nice to see the number of comments without having to open comments.

    In moving from MT to WordPress, did you manage to preserve old permalinks?

  • Dwayne Day

    I do not like the new look. Font is too small and too hard to read. Comes across as light blue on white. Can you do a larger, thicker font, black on white?

  • Dwayne Day

    I would also add that it would be helpful if you could make the entire image at the top of the page a hyperlink to the homepage. Searching for the little home icon is annoying, and being able to quickly return from the comments page to the homepage is always a plus in my book.

  • Bill White

    I do not like the new look. Font is too small and too hard to read. Comes across as light blue on white. Can you do a larger, thicker font, black on white?

    I agree with this.

    Oh, and add a preview button. And spell check.

    And a pony.

  • Dwayne Day

    I too vote for a pony.

  • Spacejunkie

    Third vote down on the font.

    Too small and too faint.

  • admin

    Thanks for all the feedback; keep it coming. I’ll tackle these issues as soon as I can.

  • I, too, agree with Mr. Day. My eyes are too old for this. Other than the font, though, I like it.

    Also, what happened to the “remember personal data” click box, so we don’t have to type that in every time.

    Thanks!

    — Donald

  • oops, never mind regarding the remember personal data. . . .

    — Donald

  • Dwayne Day

    I don’t consider myself old…

    I note that the two text boxes fill up only about 60% of the width of the screen. But a lot of that is wasted on the right-hand column, which is too wide considering that most of the information that it contains is a listing of months and years, which are short–in other words, a lot of wasted space in that right column and a lot of wasted space on the overall page.

    Why not reduce the size of the right column a bit, and expand the left column a lot, and go to a larger and thicker font? Looking at this for any period of time really causes eyestrain. I’m noticing it right now.

  • Danielle

    I am not old, but it’s too small and faint for me as well. I also agree about the column widths — Qwilm is originally a three-column theme, hence the size of the content column, but in your case, widening this column and shrinking the sidebar would definitely help. Good luck! :)

  • I love the new look!

    Your former one looked old and “bureaucratic.” This one seems to look a lot more alive! ;-)

    PS

    Did your blog roll disappear as well?

    PPS

    If so, would you mind adding mine? (if not, I’ll still visit your site).

  • Brian Dewhurst

    I think the font is fine, and I like the new look. But I’ll agree that Dwayne isn’t old… yet.

  • Brian Dewhurst

    PS: Maybe it’s because I’m using Safari? Yet another reason you should all have Macs…

  • Andy Motherway

    Very classy.

    Before I felt like I could read this blog shirtless but now it seems inappropriate.
    Oh well, lets get back to bashing NASA :)

  • Bob Sevigny

    I like it. Nice look — somewhat easier to use. Keep up the good work.

  • Dwayne Day

    THE FONT IS TOO SMALL!

    Sheesh. Can’t you people open up two windows at a time and compare them? You’ll see that the font size is smaller than on similar websites. I also think that it interacts poorly with the light blue borders.

    As for Mr. Dewhurst, he’s not qualified to comment on my age. As the old saying goes, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. Well, Brian _is_ a dog.

  • You know, if you want to have a blogroll that includes most of the space blogs out there, and if you don’t mind dealing with blogrolling.com, I’ve got a ready-made space blogroll for ya, available here.

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