New Page Design...?

Okay, so I've been tinkering with CSS and the Typepad interface and have made some changes to the Floridana Alaskiana template design. The logic of the site's structure demands the "By Species" and "By Locale" lists of categorical links, though they are a bit larger than is typically desirable in a clean blog design. In the past, I had these two link-columns flanking each side of the main content column; however, as a result the post-column was rather thinnish. 

I really wanted to expand this main-content column to get larger images on the main display, but wasn't sure which way to go. I could either manually expand the center column, which would make the whole blog much wider, or I could go to a two-column design, with all the links clustered together in one column. The former option was a little less desirable because I would then have to also redesign the banner -- and blogs shouldn't be too wide in the first place.

I've currently got the two column design running, with all links and categories bundled in the thinner, right column. This allows for a wider main-content column, which also means that images will appear larger in blog posts. This was my goal. 

Here's the trick: all prior images aren't automatically resized. Thus, I've got innumerable posts now with smallish looking images (in proportion to each post's expanded width. To fix this, I would literally have to repost each submission after reloading the images. Bleh. Not gonna happen.

When it comes to formatting and consistency, I'm a little OCD (and I'm not using that term lightly). Inconsistencies in visual design really get under my skin. No doubt a result of teaching technical writing... But still, I think I like the two-column presentation better. The images are the primary focus of this blog and it makes sense to have larger, clearer representations of these images as I post them.

What say you? I'd appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to comment or to email me at floridana (at) mac (dot) com. 

Comments

[yksin]

Oh yeah. Checking the diff between the older smaller-images posts & the last few, having larger image sizes makes a huge difference -- & I agree, the two-column format looks better.

I'll be wrestling with a lot of these same issues. I do NOT like how Henkimaa currently looks, but I simply haven't had the time to learn what I need to know yet about templates in WordPress to get it how I want it. In my case, I'll also want slightly different looks to different categories, & preferable different blogrolls as well. (A blogroll for writing is considerably different from one for politics, or diabetes prevention/general health, etc.!)

As a publication specialist (my day job) -- "Inconsistencies in visual design really get under my skin" -- yeah. Right with you there. I also very much appreciate the excellence of your systematic way of tagging & of organizing your blogroll. For the purposes of your blog, I think you've got it down beautifully.

One day to go, eh? Exciting!

-- Mel

[Tonei]

Have you considered implementing drop-down menus for the lists? I agree that this design looks neater, though the page is obscenely long now.

[anemec]

Agree with Mel, the larger image sizes really make a difference. Since that is the primary focus of your blog it makes sense to keep this new format.

However I also agree with Tonei that placing both of your primary lists in the right column makes the page a bit long. However, I don't think drop-downs will work because those too will be obscenely long. How about reformatting that column to have a "search" section at the top in a widget and then perhaps your 10-25 most recent posts in species listed, then your 10-25 most recent posts by locale listed. Then move everything else into a several column, very extended footer.

Actually not sure I totally agree with myself on the huge footer idea. But perhaps this might spark some ideas.

Cheers!

-Adam

[Janson Jones]

Thanks to you all for your feedback. Very much appreciated! As I tell my students again and again, it's extremely hard to objectively look at something you created. Or at least to have confidence that you are looking at it objectively...

Mel: I haven't fiddled too much with WordPress, but I do adore Typepad. The templates available are extremely interchangeable and you can also modify the CSS code. Quite malleable, though I admit I'm just now starting to really understand certain elements of CSS. Still much to learn. I'm not sure I could modify different categorical links without going into some deep CSS (that's still way beyond my ability to comprehend!) I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I do love your blog.

Tonei: Yeah, I've been trying to tinker with drop-downs, to figure out how to code them in CSS. No success yet, but the journey is ongoing. I agree that the length is absurdly long, especially when looking at a single post (instead of a full page of posts). Definitely something I want to iron out. My one gripe with Typepad is that there isn't an easy way to manipulate "typelists" -- the categorical fields of links in the right column. But there should be a CSS way around it.

Adam: Dude, I think you should just move here and redesign all of our blogs! heh. (For those who don't know, Adam is a programming guru). The search utility wouldn't be the way I'd want to go, however. My assumption is that some readers wouldn't know what to search for. They wouldn't know what's available. I'm afraid lots of folks wouldn't catch the footer, but that's an intriguing idea, actually. One of my goals is to keep it consistently easy to update. In the old version, I had separate pages for different animal types and regions. When i'd add a tag, I'd go in and manually insert the link. It worked better on the user-end, but was utter hell to keep up with. Bleh. the footer might be a nice compromise? Something to definitely consider. I'll have to see what Typepad is capable of automatically maintaining with the footer?

Thanks again, all. You folks rock!

[Poietes]

I like the big pictures. Awesome. Also agree on the drop down menu for species, etc.

Don't ask me about CSS. Even though I took a class in it, I seem to have blocked it. I changed my CSS for my WordPress template, but cannot implement it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.