A needless theme change 3 comments
I read this great article on A List Apart offering 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web. In tip number three, the writer offers this bit of advice.
Don’t rush to replace a good design: you will grow bored with it long before your readers do.
Well, if you have been to my site before, you’ll notice that I simply ignored this rule. And I told myself I wasn’t going to. But I did. But I had a good reason for doing it, besides being bored with the old design.
I had a complaint about the readability of the site. The main body text was light gray on dark gray. Admittedly, the contrast could have been a little better. The navigation menu’s contrast was arguably worse.
Bad contrast in old menu
This site is about disability, which makes it even worse to have such bad menu. So what did I do?
Introducing Andrea, the most beautiful WordPress theme ever made. Or at least that is what Lucian Marin, the theme’s designer says about it. While it is a bold proclamation, it definitely gives a lot of WP themes I’ve seen a run for their money. It’s simple and clean, which I’m a sucker for. But even in its simplicity, it creates a mood. In fact, it allows the content to set the mood, which is the mark of a good design.
Besides its pleasing aesthetics, it solves some usability issues for me. The body text is bright and draws the focus of the reader. The menu has better contrast than the old one. The comment links draw more attention because they are inline with the heading. Visitors to the site should find it easier to spot, and use, the comment links.
On a lesser note, I liked being able to incorporate my stairs logo into the design. It was quite painless to customize.
So let me know what you think. Is it easier to read? Is there anything missing from the old theme from a usability standpoint? I appreciate your feedback. We will get back on disability topics next update.
3 Responses to 'A needless theme change'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'A needless theme change'.
-
Thanks for the detailed comment hossenphepher. Usually, all I can get from you is a “meh” or a “w00t” or something. :-)
About the comment link… it does show the number of comments. I actually agree with you about the positioning. Positioning the comment link at the end of a post is more intuitive than placing it at the top. On the other hand, I think the heading helps attract attention to it. In the end, it seems better just to stick with Lucian’s initial placement of the link.
/Insignificant reply to a pointless gripe about a needless theme change.
-
Awesome theme you’ve got here…I’ve been researching them ALL weekend too and finally found a new one i like-now just working on some headers. Everything reads really well here and I like the blues!
…I like everything (almost).
The colors are spot-on. It’s both refreshing to the eyes and cool as a fall breeze. The only complaint I have is that the comments are near the title. After reading the post, you have to scroll back up to make a comment.
Not only that, but after reading an interesting piece, I often want to see how many comments have been made. (I may have a *FIRST!!* Fetish… leave it be) But noooooooo…. I have to scroll back up to the top, thereby loosing valuable Brain RAM and sometimes even forgetting what I was going to type, or in extreme cases… forget what I was going to do.
/Pointless gripe.