Theme testing – feedback welcome

Posted on February 21, 2009 | 16 Comments

Just trying out a new WordPress theme.

I have wanted something a bit cleaner for a while so will see how this goes.

Apologise for any disruptions and welcome any feedback

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16 responses to “Theme testing – feedback welcome”

  1. Dr. Johnson C. Philip | February 21, 2009 at 4:52 pm |

    Please use something that is simple, not cluttered, and which does not distract from the articles.

    It has been good visiting your blog!

    Johnson C. Philip, PhD
    India

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  2. Ian | February 21, 2009 at 5:17 pm |

    There is an awful lot on the right columns. But I read through Google Reader so I never see much of what’s on people’s themes.

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  3. Heraclides | February 21, 2009 at 7:20 pm |

    Overall, this looks better to me.

    I don’t find the right column too long: other blogs (e.g. some at sciblogs) have truly long “sidebars”, with the effect that jumping to the bottom of the page, doesn’t get to the last comment, but someplace a long way below it! (Almost no-one seem to include a link to jump to the last comment.)

    I would suggest that you distinguish the main page elements more clearly, e.g. distinguishing the main column and the sidebar, perhaps with a vertical line between the two, or a slightly different background colour. Likewise, you might need to more clearly distinguish the two columns within the sidebar and perhaps also the site header, as opposed to the article header.

    I also personally prefer a very light grey to white as a background, as it’s easier on my eyes (but then my model of screen is known to be rather bright).

    Personally, I prefer fewer columns, so that it’s easier to scale up (zoom in) the text with creating a mess. (I find the default fonts are usually too small, and complex layouts tend to get messy or impractical if scaled up too much.)

    Another “clean, simple” layout (not saying it is the best!) in the general direction you have gone is that used at Poneke’s blog: http://poneke.wordpress.com/

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  4. Dale Campbell | February 21, 2009 at 9:25 pm |

    Hi Ken,

    I like the move to white (clean) background. Good move. I reckon that’s the main thing – you might play with the sidebar location, width and content arrangement, etc. (re the comments above) but I think the white is good 🙂

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  5. Gareth | February 22, 2009 at 5:21 pm |

    Poneke uses Pressrow by Chris Pearson, who is one of the best WordPress theme designers around. I use his Thesis theme at Hot Topic, but that’s a paid theme, not available at wordpress.com.

    White’s good. Text in comment entry box could be bigger!

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  6. Ken | February 22, 2009 at 5:28 pm |

    Thanks for the comments.
    I am beginning to think that Cutline (another Chris Pearson theme) might be better. I think it would be neater – but I will have another look at Pressrow before changing.

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  7. Gareth | February 22, 2009 at 7:43 pm |

    Have a look at Tarski here, one of my favourites, but Cutline’s good – and used on some of the best blogs.. 😉

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  8. alison | February 23, 2009 at 12:53 pm |

    I like the clean new look but the banners (or whatever you call them down the side) go all funny when I visit – well, they did this morning anyway! – & it’s all big black words & no pretty pictures 😦 And I couldn’t see which threads were active…

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  9. Ken | February 23, 2009 at 1:19 pm |

    Alison. Let me know if the RH column continues having problems. It looks OK to me now but I may try another theme soon anyway.

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  10. Matty Smith | February 23, 2009 at 5:32 pm |

    Still reading. Like the new look. Clean, easy reading.

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  11. alison | March 1, 2009 at 2:19 pm |

    Site works/reads fine for me now, Ken (don’t know what you’ve done, but it worked 🙂 )

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  12. Ken | March 1, 2009 at 2:30 pm |

    Thanks for the feedback Alison.
    All I did was tick “WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” under settings. Don’t understand it but someone on one of the forums referred to it.

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  13. stavros | March 2, 2009 at 11:28 am |

    Hi Ken,

    I like the new outlook much better! Although I think the search bar should be placed on the top of the sidebar. This is probably minor detail but this is the de facto “standard” in this case 🙂

    Content-wise, you need not change a thing!

    Cheers

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  14. Ken | March 2, 2009 at 2:58 pm |

    Thanks Stavros. I’ll probably think a bit more about what goes in the sidebar but agree with your suggestion.

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  15. Damian | March 4, 2009 at 11:23 am |

    Most of the time when I come here I check first for new articles and then for any new comments. A new article is easy to spot because it appears right at the top of the page but I have to scroll down for new comments. I’d recommend arranging the side navigation so that the search is at the top, followed by recent comments, followed by recent articles, followed by archives and followed by all the other stuff from there.

    I’m not sure whether others have the same browsing habits but that’s my two cents for what it’s worth.

    I like the new, clutter-free layout too. In fact, I’d go even further and lose the banner but that’s entirely a matter of function over form; as you may have guessed by my own blog I’m pretty keen on minimalism.

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  16. Ken | March 4, 2009 at 1:55 pm |

    Thanks Damian. Good suggestions

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