Redesigning Lhmdesign

So, long-story-short, I've decided it's time to give the whole Lhmdesign site, including this blog, a redesign. It's been about a year now since the current design went live and, well, you know what designers are like - fiddlers!

Anyway, as this blog is written for you, I'd like to get your input on what features etc. you think should stay/go/be introduced in the redesign.

Currently, I'm thinking:

Staying

  • Most recent posts block
  • RSS subscription options

Going

  • Random tags cloud block
  • Sponsors block

New Stuff

  • Most popular posts block
  • Top commenters block
  • Subscribe via e-mail option
  • Recommended block
  • Categories block/page

Any thoughts?

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Posted by Laurence @ 11:53AM on April 22nd 2008
Tags:

5 comments

1
GerardApril 22nd 2008 @ 03:24PM

Funny, I'm going through a bit of a redesign myself, so been thinking about blocks, modules and what to include and not include.

Personally, I'm thinking about going with a fairly wide two-column format, possibly with additional space in the footer for 'extras'. Nice big graphical header and tasteful colour scheme.

I like your site's design, but your header pushes the content down quite far, even on my huge monitor! Wouldn't mind seeing a little more *above* the fold.

2
LaurenceApril 23rd 2008 @ 04:46PM

Interesting point about the content Gerard. I agree with you that content higher up would be a good thing to look at integrating - thanks :)

As for the number of columns, I was actually considering a no-column approach with the posts being split out across the page - although not quite sure yet how (or if) this might work! Time for some Photoshop...

3
LaurenceApril 23rd 2008 @ 04:51PM

LOL - I meant 'one-column approach' not 'no-column approach' - that would be a pretty minimal website!

4
GuestApril 30th 2008 @ 09:50PM

Tags Clouds = useless ... I never even look at them on any page I visit.

5
katholicgirlJune 9th 2008 @ 01:33AM

hey there laurence,

i came across your blog while trying to find a possible solution to a redesign problem. i would concur with the comments posted above. i would almost love to see a contents page if that is possible, just because i'm an amateur, closet techie who, perhaps, spends way too much time teaching myself bits of code. that said, your categories column is much more helpful (& easier to scan through) than most.

i was wondering if you could offer a suggestion to a fix regarding, surprise surprise, firefox/explorer page view. i'm new to the drupal community, so i'll likely be posting this question there too. ff is fine; explorer has defaulted the background color of my content from white to a terrible shade of pink, and is also blocking some images (although the icon shows that the path isn't broken). i'd read about z-index, but i'm not sure if that applies to the images, plus it all started to hurt my head. could you take a quick look? the in-progress redesign site is morenamedia.com/index.php (firefox is how it should be, explorer is doing it's own thing -- also, i purposely got explorer to ignore the search bar in the header as it was causing me too much grief, so the difference there was intentional).

thanks for a really resourceful and easy to follow blog!