Back to basics
This entry was posted on November 29, 2007
If my site looks smushed to you, press control + f5 to refresh. I hope you like my new theme! I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible. I know that my strengths don’t lie in beautiful graphics, and I’ve always been a fan of clean and simple layouts. I’ve tried to put my strengths to good use, and play down my weaknesses.
What we have here is a clean and simple theme. There is a lot of whitespace which I’ve softened by making it ever so slightly off-white (for the geekier of you out there, my background is #FEFEFE rather than #FFF). I’ve gone back to basics with everything and really thought hard about what this site is and the best way to display the content.
I’ve removed my “goodies” page for several reasons, and after my “review” from the Internet Police, I’ve renamed my “misc” page to “domain” which should make it clearer what that page contains.
I’ve tested the theme with Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 6, both on a PC running Windows XP. If you could test it on your own browser / operation system configuration, it would be much appreciated.
Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. I know this theme may not be to everyone’s taste - some of you may find it too plain, even boring. If that’s the case, let me know how you think I can “jazz it up”, and I’ll see what I can do.
30 lovely people have commented
Can I ask what plug in you are using for the subscriptions? MY brother could use that!
I like the new theme 
Maybe a bit to white, but altogether nice and simple
Carly, the plug I use is called Subscribe to comments (for want of a better name).
Emsz, it’s OFF-white! 
I can tell you that it’s looking good in Epiphany, FF2 and Opera (9.24) on Ubuntu 7.10.
I like this kind of simple themes, very clean and it’s good :).
More padding between the content and sidebar, please
Agree with Jem about padding, it seems a little squished. Love it though, good choice of color scheme!
How’s the padding now, ladies?
@Hanna - thank you for the testing. I knew I could count on you to have an obscure combination.
I’m not really a fan of the font — too squished. Maybe it’s the black on white that’s throwing me off; have you tried a dark gray for the font?
Michael, it is dark grey… In what way is it too squished for you?
hmmm… you could always experiment with text-align: right; in the sidebar. Does feel like it needs a bit more padding…Thank you for the link I just looked at your code in firebug, and was confused that you haven’t floated your content, but used margins…! I’ve never done that before, cool! It’s bugging me that your comment box doesn’t let me press enter… so I am going to retaliate by posting a really long comment for you to read all in one paragraph…
Ok, I beat it by pressing shift + enter…
I WIN!
*takes deep breath and pastes on large smile* Right…
The design in itself is not bad, however it is rather bland. Monochrome designs are hard to pull off, however if you DO decide on that it’s imperative to have at least one image. You need some sort of decorational shape on the top part of the layout, also known as header image.
The text “I give free hugs” is a motto right? As such it shouldn’t attract so much attention, not to mention that it is practically glued to the site title.
Make the font smaller (but somewhat larger than the size for the regular text), and place it below the site title. For example see Jem’s site.
There should be more space between the content and the sidebar. My personal preference would lean towards 40-45px, but I guess 30-35 could be alright as well. ideally, a different colored background (a very light gray) for the sidebar would also be welcome. Also have at least 5-7px of padding on both right and left part inside the sidebar.
The hover “stripe” for links on the sidebar is welcome for the main navigation, but rather sudden. It’s all white, making it very easy to be ignored. I suggest you also have some default background “rectangles” (differently colored), to make them stand out more.
I don’t think the categories and archives need the differently colored hover background. A change of font color would be ore than enough.
To be more aesthetically pleasing, you could have some very light-colored bottom borders (dotted style), whose colors change along with the text color upon hover. But a different colored background is too much. There’s no need for so much emphasis on these links. They are not part of the main navigation (menu).
The RSS button and the search form are badly placed, especially he RSS button. It just stands out from the rest of the links/content… not really part of anything. Place it elsewhere, along with some meta-data information category.
There is no need to have the search form at the top of the sidebar. After all, I’ve yet to see anything. So why would I already want to search? Put it below the main navigation.
The individual posts, are mostly alright, but the comments could use a bit more styling. Specifying a border around the li tags is not enough. Have a span tag (display:block) for the information about the comment author. You should emphasis this a bit more than the rest of the comment. To make it clear that this is the “contact” info of the commenter.
And some differently colored background for the li tag would be also good.
The comment form looks good, with the exception of the allowed XHTML tags. It’s ok to have it smaller, to put less emphasis, but if you want it to be read make it readable.
I like the footer very much
All in all, your layout does have potential to be interesting, but you sill have a lot to edit. As it is right now, it’s incredibly dull. The message most of your visitors will get upon seeing it is: I’m lazy. Plain and simple.
P.S. yes, I am mean. Feel free to return the favor
Of forgot:Mozilla Firefox 2.0.10, 1280×1024px screen resolution (win xp pro sp2) 
So much for my eyes being accurate with color!
Perhaps padding the lines from one another a bit more?
It might be plain but I still like the layout.
@Michael - is the spacing better now?
@Vera - girl, you need a boyfriend! Thank you for the long comment though, you gave me a lot to think about. I’ve made a couple of changes (such as the link hovers in the sidebar, and the placing of the RSS button).
I’ll be leaving the search box where it is, though I have made it slightly smaller so it fits all on one line. The width between the two columns is a percentage, so will vary in size depending on your screen resolution.
Oh, and if you’re going to be really nitpicky about my code and stuff, please at least notice that my comments aren’t marked up using a list.
Yes ma’am! Looking great!!
YOU don’t have a boyfriend.
Also, I wasn’t giving you a full review. Just a first impression kind of thing. You’ll have to wait 6 months for a full review 
I saw a guy wearing a shirt today that said “Free Hugs,” and thought of you. <333
You know how unskilled I am with design, so I won’t comment
Love, love, LOVE it. Simple, unobtrusive layouts like these are my favorite kind.
- Lighten up the font a little
- Either increase your font size a bit or get rid of the georgia
Get rid of those and it should be great. I don’t particularly like this purple colour you have going on but that’s my own personal opinion.
@Vera - *I* don’t want a boyfriend!
@Aisling - you don’t need to be good at something in order to have an opinion on it.
@Sean - what would you rather see instead of the purple?
Well, as a fan or well organized sites, it looks to me a little unorganized. I’d have headings in the sidebar, and I’d definitely consider Vera’s suggestions.
The thing I think it’d make a huge difference is your site title. In my opinion, it looks a bit bland. Why not trying to make a logo or something?
Overall, I like it better than the last one, but I’d do tweak a few things here and there to make it more “you” and less “it looks like a wp theme”.
Hope you don’t mind.
Regards
Ouuu; I like it! Simple, although it does seem kind of plain. I love the blue you’re using. I can’t notice the off-white background, though
One thing that bothers me is the background of the content links. I don’t think they need that much emphasis!
^ The thing I like the most is the background of the content links :0)
Hahaha.
This looks really great! Loving the simplicity.
I love the colours you’ve used; but I would really like some new fonts on Calm Banana. The main navigation links might need a tiny bit more padding. Other than that, I love it!
It doesn’t “work” for me. Not in the sense that I don’t see but…well, because there isn’t much to see.
Maybe if there was just a very tiny little something…Like a different color for the main background or a dinosaur at the top? Or maybe have a background for the header?
I like the new theme but I miss the header you had. 
I liked that tree! That’s just personal preference though.
The simplicity is good but I’m not sure about all the off-white… =/
I like the added header!
How does it look with a left justification?
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Carly said:
Looks great to me!