Redesign, part one
Readers who visit the web site, as opposed to getting it through the feeds, will notice a few changes, both cosmetic and architectural.
We’ll start with the obvious stuff. The blue header is a little bluer, the footer is fatter, and there are fewer entries per page.
There’s now an archive listing on every page of the site. This is by far the biggest change. Certain people have long pointed out the disgraceful lack of accessible archives for the site.
I feel that archive navigation isn’t really that crucial for most blogs. Odds are, a reader visiting your site doesn’t want to poke around to see what you really thought of Miss Congeniality 2. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be able to, it’s just that most blogs are about what’s happening today, not a year ago.
Archives are history. Most people just don’t care.
That said, johnaugust.com doesn’t function quite like most blogs. A reader stumbling across this site is likely to be interested in screenwriting, and is likely to have specific questions that I’ve addressed in earlier entries. The ability to easily wander through the 500+ posts is a huge advantage, and the new archive structure will (I hope) make this possible. Try it out, and see what you think.
There’s also a new “Recently” section beside the archives list. Off-Topic, which used to be its own page, is now part of the same footer package on every page. It’s still powered by del.icio.us, which has made it ridiculously easy to add a link-roll. (The old way involved cron scripts and cache files; the new way means cutting-and-pasting two lines of javascript.)
The new footer is hugely inspired by Hemingway, a terrific and spare theme designed by Kyle Neath. I’m calling my version “Bradbury,” which is a lame and obvious pun.
The boring and invisible change is that I’ve upgraded to the most recent version of WordPress, which is faster, slicker, and one hopes resistant to evil little script kiddies. I’ve actually had the new version running for a while on a mirror site, and it’s proved to be very stable.
If I were a Proper Designer who really thought things through carefully, I’m sure I could come up with a full rationale for why everything is the way it is on the site. I can’t. Some of it is just that way because I like it. But your feedback is always welcome.
And yes, there’s a part two. Soon.
Articles
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Glad to see the archives John, they will definitively make me read more of your old posts. I like the redesign, it looks nice. If this screenwriting thing doesn’t work out, you might have a future in webdesign, hehe.
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Fantastico design, Sir John-A-Lot. And the great thing is, the Ooompa-Loompas still created this page in just 0.244 seconds.
February 3rd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Whoah! That index at the bottom of every page — simple and brilliant! Importantly, it sits out of the way (unlike a sidebar index) and takes away no screen real estate from the important stuff (the current article). But if you need a comprehensive index, there it is, just scroll down and zero in on your topic of interest. Very nice.
February 3rd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Certain People really like what you’ve done with your archives :)
If you are using Akismet for spam control, you are going to be very pleased. It works like technology should — like magic. I’ve never had a false positive. And now people who don’t know what color an orange is can finally leave you a comment, though that might not be such a good thing…
February 3rd, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Also suddenly your RSS feed is working for me again, I had forgotten I subscribed to you. Glad to have you back!
February 3rd, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Looks nice. It’ll take some getting used to, but good work. This is probably a stupid question, but how do you get to the downloads?
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Like what you’ve done, especially the archives.
Caught this movie, thought you might like it: http://howarddean.cf.huffingtonpost.com
Keep up the great blog–those pilot scrips are tremendously helpful.
February 4th, 2006 at 3:59 am
I like the new look. Very easy to navigate and quick to load for dial up plebs like me. :-)
February 4th, 2006 at 4:03 am
Having said that. After the download navigation question above, I took a quick look at your Dead Projects section and followed the Downloads link in one of the pages. It took me back to your main page. So still some kinks to fix. Very nice and quick all the same.
February 4th, 2006 at 4:39 am
John,
You should definitely put this on the off-topic.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfODSPIYwpQ
February 4th, 2006 at 5:50 am
John, for the footer, any chance of lightening the article count beside entries in ‘by category’?
The dark grey on dark blue means you need to squint real hard to make out the numbers. For me, anyway. Maybe I need to bump up my gamma.
February 4th, 2006 at 9:18 am
I may not be the brightest of young men but after the redesign I could not find the links to Josh Friedman, Wordplayer and all the others.
February 4th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
The foliage on the sides is nice, too.
February 4th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
The trees make my eyes swim. I think it’s b/c my wallpaper is similar.
Your beauty hurts, John August! Keep it to yourself!
February 4th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
John:
Very cool footer menus and submenus. I’m envious. But I’m mostly curious about the trees, the trees, the forest full of treeeeeeees….
Also, were you at the Huntington Gardens last weekend? I was walking out and I saw someone walking in that looked like a human version of the pictures of you, and I thought for a brief second that I’d say, “Hey, John?”, but then the other 99% of my brain dedicated to avoiding human interaction overruled me with a brief discourse on how it wasn’t you and if it were you, the whole thing would be awkward, so I kept pushing the stroller.
I hope it wasn’t you.
Anyway, I love the subarchives. I shall have to see if Movable Type can muster up something similar.
February 5th, 2006 at 12:29 am
Any change is good and fun. Interesting to hear the tidbits behind the design, but, I’m someone who can barely spell HTML.
February 5th, 2006 at 9:58 am
Speaking as a professional web designer, I can say with the utmost authority ;) – great footer! You’re right to place a great deal of emphasis on that area; it’s (hopefully) where everyone ends up after reading to the end of an article, so you don’t want to make them have to scroll back up to the top of the page to work out where to go next. A good footer is an excellent design choice (as Kyle knows) – good job.
Just discovered your site this afternoon while trying to find a Word template for screenplays that I vaguely remembered seeing several years ago – screenwriting resources seem to have come on in leaps and bounds since the last time I was looking into it. :) Subscribed, and I’ll be back to dig through your archives in due course!
February 5th, 2006 at 11:57 am
Hey John, I love your work, you are an inspiring screenwriter and I truly admire you and of course your work. By the way, I’m a huge fan of your ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, I loved the outcome, I was truly impressed and entertained, so thank you!
By the way, I emailed you with a question on IMDB, I sure hope you will be able to answer my question, I’ll really appreciate it. So I shall thank you first.
You are indeed one of my favorite screenwriters. :]
Anyway, have a nice day.
Kacesi.
February 5th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
I don’t know. I’m definitely glad for the archives, but why not just stick them on their own page? If you want archives, click on archives, and go to the archives. Seems unnecessary to hang them on the bottom of every page whether they’re wanted or needed for that visit, or no.
I love the way they are organized, though.
rd
February 6th, 2006 at 1:47 am
“I don’t know. I’m definitely glad for the archives, but why not just stick them on their own page? If you want archives, click on archives, and go to the archives. Seems unnecessary to hang them on the bottom of every page whether they’re wanted or needed for that visit, or no.”
I agree here, all that stuff at the bottom of the page seems overkill and excessive server to client material. Why not move that to its own page and stick the word ARCHIVE… in the sidebar?
Also if you are not going to use the sidebar, then how about using at least half of its space for the content?
Wordpress 2.0 is good, but make sure you look at 2.0.1 if you haven’t already – at lot of .1 bug fixes in their.
February 6th, 2006 at 4:59 am
chris> Wordpress 2.0 is good, but make sure you chris> look at 2.0.1 if you haven’t already – chris> at lot of .1 bug fixes in their
Oh, he wouldn’t have gone through an upgrade without obtaining the latest version would he? Just kidding. The same thing nearly happened to me. I downloaded 2.0. Then lost about 3 days. Then went to build a dev site, only to learn in the NICK of time, that 2.0.1 had come out the night before.
John, consider a WordPress page, maybe as a subcat to Geek Alert?
rd
February 7th, 2006 at 2:46 am
Rick,
The real problem is the draw to 2.0.1 is because of security threats, you really need to keep ontop of the releases to avoid getting hacked. HOWEVER, I’m not that sure 2.0.1 was the best move! I’ve noticed a few issue lately and a lot of people with problems since the upgrade – so expect a 2.0.2 real soon!
Chris
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:23 am
nice