Lhmdesign Redesigned!
After a few weeks of tinkering, I am pleased today to launch the newly redesigned Lhmdesign.
I'll be posting a detailed explanation of the site's construction (particularly the theming :) in a couple of days time, so please stick any questions you have about the new site in the comments.
Thanks!
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Hi, I'm Laurence and this is my Drupal blog.
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It's nice designed (visual), but ...
Tooooo big background image !?
Glad you like the design.
I assume you're referring to the file size of the background image when you say 'too big'.
If other people are having an issue with this as well please let me know - I'm happy to look at reducing the file size, and finding a different balance between file size and quality.
I'd also be interested to know how long it's taking for the image to load on different setups.
Looks great!
Only thing I personally miss is a little more guidance where to look at.
Came to this site via planet drupal the first time and I believe the first thing that leapt to my eye was the white search area - which really looks nice but maybe the focus is on it a little too much ;)
Regarding the speed - just rough tests using firefbug and a broadband connection in Germany:
Time until FF starts rendering: about 4 seconds
Time until page is fully loaded: 6 - 12 seconds
60 requests 355KB
The background alone is 185KB and could be compressed to 35KB in my opinion as it doesn't actually needs to be pin sharp.
Thanks Sebastian, that's really helpful to know :)
I think I will cut the background image down a little - to at least under 100KB.
Hey Laurence, What approach did you take to creating the text images for the sidebar headers? By approach, I mean Font and aliasing. It looks really clean.
Hi, the sidebar block h2s are Helvetica Neue LT Std, 65 Medium, 14 point, with sharp anti-aliasing - try saying that quickly!
Hey Laurence, Looks good, one quick thing.. you can't rightclick "open in new window" on your node title due to flash, a lot of users work in tabs. Also, the pages scroll very slow? Looks good though!
Hi Chad, that's a good point you make about the right-clicking and opening in a new tab - I'll see if there's a way to resolve it.
I'm not sure why the pages are scrolling slowly for you - they scroll fine for me. If anyone else has this issue please leave a comment.
Thanks.
I really like the design! You could make the background image a whole lot smaller if you make it a jpg. Same goes for your portfolio images. Png's are great for gradients but excessively large for what you're using them for. Just a suggestion.
Hi Eric, thanks for your comment about the design. However, the background image already is a JPG (and has always been so). I've actually now reduced it in size from its original 180KB (when I launched the new design) to the current 95KBish.
With regards the portfolio images you may have a fair point, although even for these images PNG files are not always larger than the equivalent JPG, and can sometimes have both a smaller file size and better quality.
I guess in both cases it's the old problem of balancing quality vs file size
- I'm still working on that one ;)
Laurence,
Sorry, I must've looked at the image above the background in the "view image information" page of my firefox web developer plugin. Anyway, nice site... I just added it to Drupal Museum.
Thanks Eric - I guess it would be wrong to rate myself... ;)
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