My New Blog Design

You may have noticed that my blog design has changed significantly. Once I had the chance to use my old blog design for a few months I discovered it had a number of short comings so I decided to change to a new design to improve the usability and effectiveness of my blog.

Changing a website's design is very easy if you are using a content management system (CMS) such as Blogger, which I use, or Wordpress, which is also very popular. All you need to do is go to a website that lists lots of different template designs and pick the one that's right for you.

These are the key features I wanted the new design to have:

  • Two column design so the page was less cluttered.
  • Sidebar on the right so the content is the first thing that users and search engines will see.
  • Large text and clean font for easier reading of posts.
  • Large posting (content) area to allow for longer lines meaning less scrolling and wider content such as images, videos and tables.
  • Horizontal navigation that is highly customisable.Link
  • Simple and clean design for faster page load times and easier reading.
I went through quite a few different designs before I settled on this one. This design is called 'Twenty Ten' and has been adapted to Blogger (by The Man Who Walked Thru Wall) from the most recent default Wordpress template. I would have liked to have something a bit more unique, many Adelaide Bloggers use this design, but in the end this one has the least number of problems.

Change Log

These are changes I have made to the template code:
  • 11/04/2011 -Optimised title tags to show the post name instead of the blog name.
  • 11/04/2011 - Added copyright info and link to this post in the footer.
  • 11/04/2011 - Removed the large header image. I don't really have a relevant image to put there at the moment and I like the idea of having a small header to have more content viewable 'above the fold.'



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3 Responses to My New Blog Design

  1. My experience has been quite similar, the further I progress the more I realise that I just want a theme that is simple, fast and reliable!

  2. Hi Nick, I hope the layout works well for you.

    I use this same template on my own blog, but with a few tweaks it's been really easy to apply my own themes and corporate branding. I've been pretty happy with the results.

    I'm sure the next time you visit you'll see the similarities... and the differences.

  3. Nick Morris says:

    Thanks for the comments Anna and Loc (or is it Adrian Brien? :P).

    @Anna - I like the way the template works on your website and the changes you've made. I think I'll get a logo done and put it up in the header along with a tag line, that should help give it a unique brand.

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