You may have noticed that Wesleying looks a little different, and I’m here as a simple guide. First off, I should note that there aren’t really any new features on the site, more just a reshuffling of visual mumbo jumbo. You’ve no doubt immediately noticed the new header which does not have a silly looking cardinal on it nor childish handwriting. Furthermore, there is now information both above and below the header image. Above you will see the featured posts, with pictures and titles, both of which link to the articles. Underneath the new header you see a menu which has replaced what was formerly at the top of the right hand sidebar. This menu includes the filters (events only and non-events only), the submission pages, as well as the RSS feeds for Wesleying (for posts and comments). Finally, at the top of the righthand sidebar you now see the upcoming events, followed immediately by the weather.
Of course, not all of the changes made might be considered for the better, or they could be improved upon. There are also bound to be bugs, even though I spent a lot of time making sure there wouldn’t be any. If you have feelings on the matter, please feel free to give your opinions in the comments or send me an email at griffindy[at]gmail[dot]com.
UPDATE: The new menu bar does not appear to be working for most users, a problem that I had not come across in my testing. I have removed the menu bar and put its content. back into the sidebar. In looking at everyone’s advice from the comments I have also attempted to resize the featured posts at the top to a more reasonable size.
24 Comments
May I be the first to say, I don’t like the new header.
1) The header looks so much better. Thank you for doing that!
2) I also like the tool bar underneath the header. Useful and succinct.
3)However, the part above the header is a huge mistake. It’s confusing and just a terrible eyesore. I don’t think Wesleying needs a features section at all, but when it was on the righthand side it was at least inoffensive. Please please please get rid of it.
4) Thanks for putting your time, energy, and skills into this site!
oh, the features part looks better now that it isn’t the red and blue. that was fast. still not my favorite, but it’s not bad anymore at all.
-#2
The new header font is a bit too “indie film” for me (see Juno, Away We Go, or Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist covers), but I can live with it. The blue and red above it is pretty terrible, though.
I agree….don’t like the features part at top. I think it works better on the side panel…
Otherwise, good!
I really don’t like the features being on top, it just looks cluttered and unprofessional. But I like the new header a lot, I just think it should be at the top of the page. I’m not a big fan of the features anywhere, but if it stays I think it should at least be on the side below the weather/events…but at the top of the page it just looks really bad. But the new header is nice!
features shouldn’t be at the top. Otherwise, it’s fine.
agreed with most of the others… header is decent. featured posts crap at the top is ugly. needs to go. don’t even like it on the sidebar. just chop the featured post thing. but header is good.
The header should be the same width as the site (970px). Also, the feature boxes at the top take up too much space.
The feature boxes and the toolbar at the top take up a ton of space. I can barely see the top of the first post when my browser is resized.
If you really want the feature boxes at the top, look at BoingBoing as an example of doing it properly. (Their new design originally had something very similar to this, and they changed it.) Especially get rid of the grey boxes unless the whole thing’s going to be clickable. They’re confusing.
The header is way too wide. Sites should generally fit with no horizontal scrolling on monitors with a 1024px horizontal width. Almost everyone does 960px (or something very similar). Besides that, wide text blocks are harder to read, and now everything’s harder to read.
The toolbar is broken. Whatever you’re using to do hover detection doesn’t work properly in Firefox 3.6 on Windows (although it works on Linux), and the fade in is slow enough you need to wait for it, which is a problem. The Firefox issue is possibly related to the fact the anchor tags don’t have an href attribute, and sometimes browsers behave strangely when they don’t. Give them an empty href instead:
href="#", or better yet link them to something meaningful. Also, the administration tab appears the same whether you’re logged in or out. (If this is a plugin, you should really find a new one.)The header on its own is an improvement, but I can’t really judge it as a whole with the rest of the page looking like it does. I’m not trying to be mean or anything here, but these things really need fixing. You’re welcome to email or IM me if you’re having trouble with any of this.
There are alignment issues everywhere:
http://grab.by/3bSw
http://grab.by/3bSx — the spacing should be equal
http://grab.by/3bSy — way too huge
http://grab.by/3bSA — gross
http://grab.by/3bSC — grosser
http://grab.by/3bSD — why is this even here?
Also, joining the menu and sidebar de-emphasizes the content — which is the most important part. Less is more, Dylan. Lose the menu bar and the top stuff.
yeah i like the features but it was way better on the sidebar. you should at least make it smaller. and the drop down menus don’t work for me either, they keep disappearing as soon as i move my cursor (i have firefox 3.5 and a mac). i like the new header a lot though.
griffindy, thanks so much!!
to readers: your feedback is great, keep it coming! and don’t worry, we’ll work on the header until it looks right. i think when it looks the way WE want it to you will all like it too. it’s not there yet, but it’s always a good sign to see things changing, no?
Not all change is for the better. The blue and red headline… I’m just wondering, is it a joke? I mean… really? Paint blue and red with little icons slammed on top. I know you can do better than this. I know I can do better than this. I know a 9 year old with basic computer training can do better than this.
I want old Wesleying back!
Holy shit that was fast…
Guys…
The header is just too big for the top of the screen. I think it would look much better somewhere else… maybe side icons?
what is this blue and red everyone speaks of? I only see the new header and the feature posts above it
I see blue and red squares, off center and different sizes, behind the links to the featured posts. I guess it doesn’t look that way in all browsers? I’m using Chrome. Oh yeah, just checked IE and the colors aren’t there. The banner is off center in Chrome too.
No squares on Camino – Mac, Chrome – Mac, Safari – Mac or Safari – Windows…
features section is too big. it’s really frustrating.
LOVE the features at the top. Makes the sidebar much more usable. Like the new banner too. Maybe you should redesign the banner to “incorporate” the features at the top so they seem less big and floaty, which a lot of people have pointed out..
don’t really like the features at the top
Why are the featured posts above the header? I mean, it’s called a header for a reason.
Especially confusing given that with the text captions, the featured posts band is actually taller than the header graphic.
And they’re not even in alignment with each other, centering-wise.
The banner is so pretentious. It insists upon itself.
yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
good work griffindy.
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