Extreme makeover
As you might have noticed, buytaert.net got redesigned. The previous incarnation was getting a little old and the header was seriously out of date now that I left the university and co-founded Acquia and Mollom. Thankfully, Michael Angeles of urlgreyhot created a new theme for my Drupal site. Michael is a world-class information architect, user experience design consultant and long time Drupal contributor. Thanks Michael!
First reaction?
In French :
Clair, léger et élégant ! J'aime beaucoup !
Jérémy ;-)
April 11, 2008 - 13:12Nice and simple, easy for the eyes :)
April 11, 2008 - 13:42Very clean look!
me likes :)
April 11, 2008 - 13:45I think I would prefer a different color for the background (something lime greenish or so), but the overall look is quite nice.
Why did you lose your own pic in the banner? People won't recognize you IRL anymore! :P
April 11, 2008 - 14:03Light, easy to the eye, but with a cushy tension. Suits your style.
April 11, 2008 - 14:08Very clean (good) but very white, which makes it NOT so easy on the eyes imo. It makes me squint. The yellow color when hovering over links in the right sidebar reduces the readability of the link instead of accenting it. The blue wave in the header image is rather generic. Cutting of a wave by putting a box around it like that somehow doesn't feel right, for a wave. The old design had a lot more character, this new design is rather 'naked'. Maybe this will grow over time though.
April 11, 2008 - 14:39White / wit, wow...
April 11, 2008 - 15:22Dit doet bijna pijn aan mijn ogen.
Ff wennen in ieder geval.
It looks nice and clean; but the yellow links in the header are hard to read (too much contrast). I tried some colors and maybe with an FFF690 it may look more "smooth" to the eye.
April 11, 2008 - 17:16Nice theme :)
Maybe I'm just too old, but I find the text in the header area to be hard to read -- especially the links. I find I miss the color from the old design, but that may be just expectations out of habit. However, I'm curious how many of your visitors have 800x600 resolutions, requiring such narrow layout. It's not a problem, but just unexpected.
Mollom doesn't seem to like me, either. ;)
April 11, 2008 - 17:51It sure got better.
April 11, 2008 - 19:48I don't like the header, rest is perfectly fine!
April 11, 2008 - 20:34Hmm. I was a great fan of your old layout. This one does not get thumbs up, sorry. A bit cool. You had a nice human touch with the foto in your last one. What might make a huge change is to make the page background (but not in the content area) a bit greyish so the focus on the content area is better.
But still: I am a fan of changes, so good to do it!
April 11, 2008 - 21:46I have to say I do not like this design at all. The header looks like a silk bed sheet, and the yellow is just bad. Even the slim, tall font is sending the wrong signals.
It is really an inappropriate theme for a personal blog. Maybe more suited for a pharmaceutical company selling an anti-depressants or sleeping pills. Sorry. :\
April 12, 2008 - 02:43I dig it. It doesn't scream "student blog" anymore. :)
April 12, 2008 - 02:51I have to agree with Steven and Laura. I _LIKE_ the design, but I think it could be implemented better. A 1024 layout would be the first step in the right direction, with the wave header, the site might look better open ended on the top (instead of boxed in), and the links are definitely a problem. I like the design though, it's a nice change.
This is super rough, but I thought it would get the idea across (just trying to be constructive): example.
April 12, 2008 - 03:21I don’t know about this new look you’ve got here. Yes, it’s clean. Easy to naviagte. But....dull, dull, dull. Very passe. Sorry to say, but it looks like the type of site a predatory business concocts.
Now, I'm all for spare design (someone actually called my aesthetics "Swedish"… whatever that means.) But you definitely need some flare. Too many people have a blue and white theme out there with a flowing wave.
April 12, 2008 - 04:03Good but the header lacks your picutre :-).
April 12, 2008 - 07:31Well, on popular demand, I've added a picture in the sidebar.
April 12, 2008 - 14:58Quite better than the old one. It's more pleasant and definitely more modern.
April 12, 2008 - 14:02Just a little detail I like: the header HTML includes text which is displayed as the logo and the links to Drupal/Acquia/Mollom. Great for SEO! :)
April 12, 2008 - 15:16I like the overall feel and colors, but I agree with the satin sheets critique of the banner. I really like your pic in the sidebar.
I don't have a problem with the narrow design. It clearly communicates, "This is a blog."
I think when you have a portrait-oriented pic like the lovely shot of Anders, that you shouldn't allow the horizontal width of the pic to full up the main column because then the vertical length becomes too long and the pic is too big for the page.
I think the bigger question is... this blog has been a successful combination of blogging about your family, Drupal, and sharing your photography. I think it is a rare successful integration of personal and work life. However, I would expect that you'll blog about Drupal stuff more often now at the Acquia site.
That's fine with me if you go in that direction.
Everything evolves.
April 14, 2008 - 06:40It is not to bad, not that great either though, our designers could whip you up something far superior to this theme.
April 14, 2008 - 23:12Liking the new schemes, the layout is nice and simple, no clutter which makes viewing the site that extra bit more enjoyable. Also the colour scheme is cool and good idea with posting a pic on the right hand side.
April 15, 2008 - 16:56Bah! No more search box! Now I can't search for that post you wrote 6 months ago about... :(
April 16, 2008 - 01:26Oops, I re-added the search in the navigation menu. Not sure how that got lost.
April 16, 2008 - 07:45I don't like http://buytaert.net, I'm ok with http://acquia.com/ and like http://mollom.com/ very much.
April 20, 2008 - 01:34Post new comment