Here it is. My completely (I mean somewhere near complete) new theme.
I’m still not sure what I think about it or how comfortable I am with it. Change is hard sometimes. I’ve struggled with what elements I wanted to include for hours tonight, trying to get something to work right, hoping for that feeling I get when everything is right with the world and the design gods are smiling down on me.
Well, I didn’t quite get that feeling I was hoping for, but I decided to throw the new theme up anyway. Maybe my readers can help me put the finishing touches on this thing.
One of my goals with this theme was to bring some of my work with WordPress to the forefront. There wasn’t enough attention given to my themes before, so I put together something extra at the bottom of the home page. I also wanted to shine a little light on my new feature: my custom design service.
I orginally had only one post excerpt on the home page but felt like it took away from the blog part of the site. Now, I have three post excerpts on the front page, but it pushes the emphasis on the WordPress themes and custom design service below the fold.
Things I like about the theme
- Less clutter.
- The design feels more open.
- Emphasis on content.
- Smaller sidebar.
- Fresh design.
Things I don’t like about the new theme
- Main content area may be too big for readability.
- Not sure if I’m satisfied with the colors, especially the background.
- Not particularly ecstatic about the sidebar links.
- Not sure if I like only having excerpts on the home page.
- Doesn’t feel complete.
A work in progress
Since I don’t feel the design is complete, I’ll have to mark this as a work in progress. I’m sure I’ll update little bits here and there throughout the week. I’d rather go ahead and put it up even though it’s not finished, so I can get a feel for how it works with my blog.
Feel free to give me your input. Do you like the new theme? Hate it? What do you think would make it better?
Great. I think it it is not complete, but it was the right decision to change the theme. Good year!
Very clean theme Justin. Great job with mixxingbowl.com as well!
The theme looks great, It would look great fluid width though, as there aren’t any fixed width element, but the typography is great
The theme looks great; very clean and tidy.
Any chance that it might be available for use ?
It’s nice and clean but I was liking your jQuery builds.
I think the new fresh theme looks better compared to the old darker one.
My general input would be the usage of more (background)colors to create a visual distinction in content. The header of a post for instance now looks the same as a header of your sidebar widgets.
Ruben B
Thanks for the input. What do you think would help it be more complete?
Jon B
Thanks. I like MixxingBowl’s cool header they’ve added.
Anirudh
Thanks for the input. I’ve never been a big fan of fluid-width designs though. Maybe that’s because they’re so hard to get right. I’m actually releasing a fluid-width theme sometime soon though.
pkj
Actually, if/when I change designs, I’m sure I’ll release it to the general public as I’m doing with my last design.
If enough people tell me this theme’s not right for my site, then it might become a free theme release.
James
I had to take a slight break from jQuery. I did try out the tabbed sidebar when I was building this theme, but it never felt right. There needs to be more distinction between the sidebar and content for it to come off better, which I still may do. Thanks for mentioning it. Plus, only around 1% of my user base doesn’t have JavaScript enabled, so it may be a good route to go.
Dennis
I was actually thinking the same thing. I wanted something that felt more open, but this doesn’t give the distinction between the content and main sidebar. Thanks for the input. I’ll see what I can do about changing this around to create a more visually-pleasing experience for my users.
I see you have changed the sidebar. There is definitely a better dinstinction between content and sidebar. Are you happy with the change or does it still feel incomplete?
Dennis
I’m definitely happy with the change in the sidebar. I think I have something I can continue building upon in the future. I might change the top navigation links or add a tabbed sidebar section.
Right now, I’ve got too many other projects to worry about than what my site looks like. I hope to continue to improve it though with little tweaks here and there.