It’s Not All About Formula One
Behind the scenes here at BlogF1 can seem like a one-man-band much of the time. For those familiar with the comedy show Little Britain, I not only star in the show, but I also write and sing the theme tune too. Currently, the theme tune is going through a process of being rewritten. Or to put that into better language, BlogF1 is being realigned, and as per the usual at this time of year, I would like your input…
It isn’t a big overhaul and the basic design will remain untouched – why change something that still garners praise every now and then!? However, some things are being shifted about a little as the website evolves and hopefully the moving around will make things easier to find and just work and flow a bit better.
It was when I was tinkering about this evening (or early morning, if you insist) that I realised I was missing one vital ingredient. You see, BlogF1 is for you, the person reading this. So below I’m going to outline the things I’m doing to the site in the background (it’s in a top-secret underground lair) and then I would like for you to add to or remove things from the list. I want your input because often, as a one-man-band, I miss things that others see as obvious.
- Featured posts will rotate automatically through the most recent x-number.
- Number of other posts shown with picture and excerpt reduced from 8 to 6 (two rows of 3).
- Daily Debate feature added and displayed in a new right-hand sidebar (most recent 5 with just title, question and comment link).
- Caption Contest moved to a more prominent position.
PrettyColourful buttons added to link to things like Calendar, Teams, Standings etc…- “Older posts/newer posts” links added to homepage (it’s actually numbered pages, like what you see on Flickr).
- Video and all the current stuff found below are likely to remain there aside from the Caption Contest which is being moved up.
- During the season, recent results posts will feature more prominently, making them easier to find straight from the homepage.
- Links in posts will become more obvious.
- The whole site should run a bit faster, I hope.
As you can see, the realign so far is mainly about the homepage. Is there anything you would want to add or take away from it. Also, is there anything about the single post pages that you would alter? Is there enough information in the sidebar, or too much? Is it even necessary to have that information there? I’ve also reignited my interest in bbPress – forum software written by the same people who develop WordPress (the CMS that runs BlogF1) – but would you folk be interested in a forum?
Let me know what you want or don’t want, and I’ll see if I can do it. Comments, as always, are welcome.
Kris
February 11th, 2009 - 1:57pm
I’ve moved to RSS, so don’t really use the homepage on a day-to-day basis. I can add a couple of suggestions to the article page though.
If you’re having a move-round, I’d ask you to take a look at the right hand column, which I feel is a touch too wide. (perhaps reduce by 25px, donating the space to col6?)
I also think you could reduce the vertical spacing (line-height, style.css line 700?) between lines in both the boxes in the right hand column, and the bottom boxes (popular articles etc). It looks like both are controlled by the same magic 20px
I’m not talking about a revolution, but a few pixels here and there would probably save everyone a little bit of scrolling without leaving things all cluttered.
Other than that, I’m really at a loss to think of anything I’d want changing even if you had an unlimited amount of tinkering time.
Oliver White
February 11th, 2009 - 3:07pm
Oh no, somebody actually looked at my messy CSS, how embarrassing!
Thanks for the input Kris, it’s appreciated. The sidebar on the post pages has already been reduced, by about 50px at the moment although it’s still a work in progress, that bit. Great idea though.
The text line height… does anyone else feel the same on Kris’s idea to reduce it it a little? I ask again because I quite like having the text spaced out, but I also agree that scrolling is annoying. I worked hard on trying to ensure the homepage is as short as I can make it, but didn’t bother thinking about the post pages. I also like having a uniform line height across the site (well, almost uniform). I’ll have a tinker though. I’m considering changing to Helvetica/Arial as well, which has thrown up new typography issues, so the line height will probably change anyway.
Thanks again though, you’ve given me some things to think about.
Oliver White
February 12th, 2009 - 10:50pm
Click to see it at 100%.
BF1 v6.5 on top, current on bottom. The “Posted on…” lists will fall under the picture, when I get around to it. Also, the picture will be lightboxed. Main column widened as sidebar narrowed. The whole site is 30px wider. Line-height reduced a little, although I’m still not entirely happy with it.
Kris
February 17th, 2009 - 12:47pm
Sorry for missing the teaser: I’m not sure whether you’ve disabled it or if you never got it working in the first place (its 403′ing)
Oliver White
February 17th, 2009 - 5:13pm
Oooh er! (Worked for me and a few others at the time.) Okay, I’ll try embedding from Flickr. If it doesn’t embed, the link is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olliewhite/3279905179/sizes/o/
Kris
February 18th, 2009 - 1:42pm
This makes me *very* happy
Great idea moving the picture to the right hand column too: – that’ll even things up slightly, and I hadn’t thought of it.
Although not exactly CSS related, my attention has turned to quotes in comments
1: I have no idea how to do them here
2: wouldn’t it be nice if they were labelled with the quote’s source?