Posted on March 1, 2007 in Site-News, with 3 comments.

My goals, aims, whatever you wanna call them, for my new design.

I want a more traditional blog layout.

With this current design I was really trying to do something unique, and bring some fresh concepts to the table. The entries would all be written on their own pages, with just an excerpt showing on the fron whitespace.

I liked the solution I came up with, but I think as I move onto version 2, I really want to have more of a traditional blog layout (entry after entry, around 7-10 on front page with ‘forward’ and ‘backward’ links). I think a lot of the time, my older entries can easily get lost in the website’s layout. With this current design, an entry will only stay on the front page until another entry is written, forcing me to pace myself, and write less. While this may be good for some, I finding it more and more a pain.

I want to be able to blog, say 2-3 times a day some days, while less (or none) other days, and not have anything get lost. With my current layout, if I wrote three times in one day, only the latest entry would stick up on the front page, and it’s possible any visitors would miss 1 and 2.

I want separation between ‘entries’ and ‘articles’

A lot of times, I have trouble writing, because I pressure myself into thinking they all need to be in-depth, well thought out articles. So in separating the two, I still give myself the option of writing long articles, or just short snippets.

I want more whitespace

Maybe it’s because there is so much brown on this current style, I am craving a lot more whitespace and overall cleanliness in my next design.

I want to concentrate a lot more on typography

This design was heavily inspired by illustration and color, but the typography still feels a little empty. I could’ve done a much better job with the typography, and I’m looking forward to the redesign to experiment with different typefaces and get a better feel for typography on the web overall.

I want my design to be flexible

This one started off as: I want my design to be modular. Before launching this website, I had this idea. I wanted all the content to be in boxes, or modules, and I wanted to be able to move elements up or down, or across depending on what I wanted.

Well it seems the modular idea sounds good in theory, but in practice can be quite dificult. So I adjusted my aim, and am going for something flexible instead. While the layout of the new website won’t be changing much (until my next redesign ;), there will be a lot more flexibility to add elements to the sidebar, subtract them from the document, or create special layouts for a particular section (like work, or portfolio). This current layout, is pretty fixed and structured, and while it is possible to impose that sort of flexibility, the new design will be designed from the ground up with that in mind.

I want my website to be about me, my design portfolio, and my blog. Not just my blog.

I started this site with little to no experience in maintaining a blog whatsoever. What I have learned though, is that when I point people to my site (say to show my work, if applying for a job) it seems the blog aspect of it can be fairly overwelming. It can be argued that on this current design, my portfolio isn’t the first thing that pops up at you. In fact you almost have to be looking for it.

The new design in going to incorperate my work into the front page, and give my porfolio equal weight as my blog, and articles.

I want a more professional online appearance

While I love this current design, it isn’t one you would readily associate with ‘professionalism’. As I move forward with my career in freelancing, I want a website a bit more down to earth, than this one.

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