The Daily Spunkmeyer

[Spunkmeyer]

Hey guys, – I’m new to the forum, but thought I would ask your opinion about the template i’m working on (when I say I’m working on it, I mean, I’m really working on it. A template is ALL it is right now. There is no content as of yet.). It’s basically going to be a personal site/blog, tailored to users running ie 6 and above generation browsers. I know, I know, I should probably go all the way back to some god awful version of netscape, but decided I had to cut the line somewhere. I am however trying to minimize HTTP requests using css sprites for those people still using 56k.

The site runs on a mix of XHTML, CSS and PHP, as well as a customized version of movable type as a CMS. I’ve gotten good feedback from a lot of people and would love to hear what you have to say. Certain aspects of the site (ie, the images) take a long time to make and cut, so I don’t plan on re-doing any of those. You’ll probably notice that "The list" which is a link list, uses the same colour as the archives section. Well, it was only a last minute addition to the site, so I dont think it really needs it’s own colour.

Anyhow, take a gander and let me know what you think.

http://www.thedailyspunkmeyer.com

[cssgirl]

Nice. :)

The only thing that bother me with the actual flow of the background design is that on the right hand you have the ribbon type image going down, and it fits under the syndication box really nice, flows around it great, but the next box (search) it has a huge gap around it and it completely breaks the flow for your eye. Also the black link text on top of the orange RSS symbol is kinda hard to see. I’d scrunch that text up onto the white side of the image, so it’s not overflowing on top of the orange.

Honestly, I’d get rid of the "sections" header. Not really necessary since your links are there, and you have a nice breadcrumb action going on. People know it’s the nav/menu/section chooser, so you don’t have to tell them.

Also, I would give "the list" it’s own color. I think since you have done this with the other sections it would only fit if you completed it. Recoloring the images wouldn’t take long. Just fire up photoshop and pick one image. Than do a CTRL + U and change the color/hue/saturation until you get the color you want — than make sure you save that hue that you just used. Save the image for the new section, and open up the rest of the images you need, apply the hue/saturation you made for the first image and wah-la there’s your new color scheme. Than all you need to do is match the color in your CSS.

It’s kind of hard to give more feedback without content, to see how your posts look, and the interactions of the design with the content. Even if you put in dummy content it may be more helpful. Also, the design and name of your site don’t really give us an idea of WHAT the site is about, so make sure you keep that in mind as you go. I’m not saying be literal with the design, but some people will not stay on your site if they can’t figure out what it’s about in the first 3-5 seconds.

Also, looking at it again, I think that you’re hover colors for the menu/section links should change to match the color scheme of the section. I could be wrong cuz maybe it wouldn’t look good in action, but I think it would be interested to have the background blue when you hover on "archives", green on "photos" etc.

[Spunkmeyer]

Hey there,

Thanks for the advice! Concerning the right side column with the background, there’s actually going to be a "categories" box there as well that will grow in size as categories are added to it. Unfortunately, since I haven’t gotten around to fixing up the movable type end of things, there aren’t any there yet. But yes, I agree with your comment about the spacing. Once I know the rough height of the cat box, I’ll re-arrange the padding on the bottom to match and make it more aesthetically pleasing.

About the sections – I’ll take out the sections header and see what it looks like. I agree that the list should have it’s own color.. It just makes it difficult because of the sprites that are used as images. I not only have to make the images, but have to add those images to the master sprite image. Which I could do. In terms of the content, yeah, I’m trying to get around to that, but I really want to make sure the template is rock solid along with the code being a simple and clean as I can get it first. I don’t want to run into the problem of having to come back and change something template wise down the road.

I think the link hover color is a good idea, and I did think of it. The only issue I have with it is that the first page is orange, and not many other bright colors go well with it. So, for example, the green looks a little bad on the orange. Red is fine, and blue looks great.

[Spunkmeyer]

Hey guys, just a quick update. I’ve been working on my site for the past while, trying to iron out kinks etc. Anyways, I’ve actually added fake content to show what it’s actually going to look like. It’s not done, not even close, but it gives you an idea what it’s gonna be like in the end. Any comments would be helpful.

Oh, one more thing – I’m using wordpress and have a seperate stylesheet for ie versions lower than 7. Interestingly enough, it seems to link to the stylesheet, but does not display anything but the background. Any idea what’s going on?

<style type="text/css" media="screen">
@import url(‘<?php bloginfo(‘stylesheet_url’); ?>’ );
<!–[if lt IE 7]>
@import url(‘http://www.thedailyspunkmeyer.com/wp-content/themes/dailyspunkmeyer/ie6_style.css&#8217;);
</style>
<![endif]–>

Thanks!

http://www.thedailyspunkmeyer.com

[pab]

Try not importing it and just link to it normally.

Hope it helps.

By the way I saw you work with movable type what do you think of it?

[Spunkmeyer]

Hey Pab,

I actually work with WordPress, not movable type. The top of this thread is old. I decided that MT wasn’t very user friendly…. and moved over to wordpress instead. My current site is running on WP.

Movable type seemed pretty powerful though.

[Author]

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