Does This Design Make Me Look Fat?

If you're a regular visitor, you'll probably notice we made a few changes around here. The old design is gone. We're now using a different color pallet, a new header, and different content for our sidebar(s). Speaking of which, we added a new column to keep important information near the top.

What do you think?

• Is the information you want to see easily to find and read?
• Is the new design easy to use?
• How do you like the new search feature we've added? Is it where you would want it?
• Is anything missing that you would like to see?
• Do you get ANY VALUE out of the calendar on this or any other blog?

If you would like anything changed, please leave a comment on this post. We would appreciate any feedback you are willing to give us. - Cam Beck

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Cam,

There's lots to like about the new design, but... You had to know it was coming. This is what friends do--we are honest with each other. The three-column format, as designed here, puts lots of weight on the least important stuff. The two columns on the right detract from your posts and seem really busy to me. For me, the page tilts to far to the right. On the other hand, no one ever accused me of being a designer.

[Jim Stroup]

The new design looks terrific - I like the extra column idea - may look at that, myself. I also like to see the comment thread style you have - I think that is very helpful and encourages people both to comment and to follow the threads - good stuff - congratulations on a nice job!

[Cam Beck]

[In response to message not retrievable by Intense Debate]

Phil - Thank you for your input. What I'd REALLY like to do is make the content column fluid, but I'm a bit CSS challenged, and I'm not sure how to do a variable width without messing up the way the banner looks. Plus, when I tried, the vertical rules did not stick with the two right columns.

I will need to do this eventually, as the new content column width is smaller than the old one, which will cause some problems with older posts that made use of the entire space.

If you know how I can overcome these issues quickly, I welcome your input.

[Cam Beck]

[In response to message not retrievable by Intense Debate]

Thank you, CK - I removed the calendar for now, as it doesn't appear as if it adds any value.

The Dallas skyline thing is my feeble attempt to demonstrate some unifying theme for all three contributors.

I was going for something unique and meaningful in a limited amount of time. I'm not sure it's right, but it's at least right now. :)

I've asked my brother for some design help, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen anytime soon.