I didn’t think I’d be launching the third redesign of SugarBank so soon after the second but, I didn’t know Angelina Jolie was going to get pregnant either, and her vagina’s something I care about almost as much as this blog.
The prime reason for the change is continuity. I want people who visit any of my blogs to know where they are, and what to do without having to learn a new layout. The old SugarBank design was too complex to make it easily transportable, and relied on large images, which look great - unless you’re on a mobile device or ancient computer.
So here we are - SugarBank 3.0. I’ll explain the ideas and the thinking behind the information architecture in bullet-point form. Reasons to be cheerful, one through five:
- No graphics built into the design. At all. It’s not the prettiest layout possible but it is very compatible and it loads fast (I think it’s pretty, but I’m a functionalist with a Physics degree.) No graphics also make these pages easy to load onto a phone or PDA. Light-weight means I can put more posts on each page without slowing things down too much. Long pages mean more words, and more search-engine love all round.
- All the hyperlinks are blue. That’s something people immediately understand. No one looks at these pages wondering what they can click on. It’s about the content, not forcing readers to learn new things (and most blog-readers see the feed, not the website anyway).
- Valid HTML and CSS. Thanks to simplicity, there are no IE hacks used to make things work. When IE 7 removes (lessens?) then need for hacks, these pages won’t need to be changed.
- Smarter search. The search tool will now find any word in any post (if you didn’t know it didn’t before - it didn’t. On most Wordpress blogs it still won’t). Results are now sorted by relevance, not date.
- Recent comments in the right column. Even if you haven’t subscribed to the comments feed (also in the right hand column) you can see who’s talking about what or who’s responded to what you’ve said.
It’s also easy to tweak and/or expand - so I’ve got that going for me…
Well, I was a graphic design major, and it looks good. Very clean. If it were ugly I’d say: Sam, it’s ugly. I am now vomiting on your blog.
But I’m not saying that.
What are you using for your new and improved search?
I love the new design. I am a HUGE fan of less is more. Also a graphic designer I battle with information architecture, typography and design daily.
Great job on the approach.
Sabrina - thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you like it. As for the search, try this: http://www.semiologic.com/software/search-reloaded/
Groovemonekey, I’m in the same camp as you. It’s tragic how long it took me to get to this little (and how many way more elaborate designs I built and almost ran with). I hope even the people who aren’t fond of it, will find it easy to ignore in fairly short order.
not sure if you ever check out the gents at http://www.37signals.com/svn/.. they think the same as well… great work, great apps, and unlike this industry… they are fans or things that are small….
I really like this look. It’s simple but very classy. It has the Mia Seal of Approval…
…which is why you did this, admit it.
Dude get the 9rules crew to give this decent design. It might meet your requirements but it is downright fugly.
I see your reasoning, and it makes sense, but I prefer the 2.0 design - it was hot. The way you used crsip photos, made sugarbank more like reading a magazine. This design is fine, and yes most people are reading from an rss aggregator, but your 2.0 blog was one of the best designed around. If it were me I would have cleaned up the second column graphics and left the large ones. It’s a real pain in the ass trying to design for 800×600, 1024-768, cell phones, psps, ipods, and all of the variants within, I know.
All in all probably the best choice is what you have got going on, but I still miss the graphics…
Jess - sorry you’re not pleased. As I said, it’s designed to be easy to read and useable. Pretty I’ll leave for other people to push (and there are some beautiful blogs out there).
Steve - I’m glad you liked 2.0, who knows when 4.0 will hit, or what it’ll look like. The images here are 50% smaller than they were, and I was very concious of leaving the magazine-like feel I’d established. In future, with a more image oriented blog, I’ll undoubtedly do something as visual again.
This design will allow me to take get blogs launched without spending too much time designing pages, or working out how to brand them similarly.
For those who hate it. Sorry (you should have told me you liked the last one! It makes a difference!) and don’t worry - progress will continue…
i like the new design; Good work Sam
P.S.:When is the next podnography coming out?
I like it! It’s certainly a lot cleaner than 2.0 was. 3.0 is a little bit less arresting and immediately engaging, maybe, but it’s also less cluttered.
Thanks Mike - exactly what I was going for.
Well, it certainly does load faster. And yeah, function is the most important part of design really. That said, I did prefer version 2.0. The photos were engaging and had a cool “satori effect” in that they were as lush and bright as the images you might expect to find on a porn blog and yet were generally safe for work. I don’t think I saw version 1.0, so I can’t say anything about that.
What about the idea of doing two versions, one for browsers and one for mobile devices? I’d guess (but am not sure) that there’s a way to serve the page based on the device…
Really, I only read blogs in RSS anyway, unless I click through to comment. But I will miss the photos… It was always kind of fun to see how they would relate to the content without being explicit.
Spooge! Great design, it looks very nice in Opera Mobile. Now…how about a new Podnography…? I”M GOING INTO FRIKKIN DETEASE SAM!!!!!!
BA - when the networks in place, I’ll probably start looking at the next evolution of the site(s) and might even hire someone who knows a hell of a lot more than me who can combine speed, lightness and glamour. The nice thing about this layout is that it contains no Web 2.0 cheese - so many blogs look alike now. That said - you can’t please all the people…
I like it the design, and actually don’t think it is out of line with “Web 2.0″. Part of the new philosphy is to make things lighter, faster, cross-platform. I have been thinking along the same lines for my own pathetic site, as I reinstall and start a video blog.
“I like it the design …”
God, I am The Suck when it comes to typing.
Tim W - would you believe me if I said I’m working on the new Podnography right now?
Coderonin - on that level you’re right. Lighter, faster, standards friendly. I think it’s a grower.
I like it.
Remember the discussion we had about photos? ;-D
I’d be curious to see how this looks on a Treo. I’ll send you a screenshot of it on a Tungsten T3.
Thanks Viviane, I’d prefer large images but they won’t work in this context. I’m interested to see what your Treo does with it. Great stuff.
Awesome SS! I can’t wait! I guess I’ll have to stick with my addiction to this music video I found. “Everyone else has had more sex than me” http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/bunny.php
Maybe you should use the bunny in the video version.
It’s cool, Sam — to be honest, i’m hear for what you write and not the decorative tzatskes. i love the Sugarbank, however it looks. Always interesting, always fun.
Minxxxxxxx
And for “hear” please read “here”.
I hate when that happens. Too much whisky, not enough sleep. Mea culpa.
Not a huge fan of the new design, though I appreciate the merits you list. However, in my browser (Explorer, because that’s still what a vast majority of my readers use) the right sidebar isn’t on the right; it’s at the bottom of the page. And the two remaining columns use up less than 800 pixels, meaning more than half my screen real estate is blank whitespace and I have to scroll-wheel like a crazed monkey in order to read. Fixed-width designs aren’t user-friendly, because they prevent folks from reading at a window width they prefer.
Bacchus,
Email me a screen-grab. That shouldn’t be happening and my Explorer checks are fine. Are you on 6.whatever? (I hate IE because it is ‘teh suck’)
As for fixed vs. variable width I think differently. Text is hard to read at long line lengths and ‘bouncy’ designs tend to break down stylistically when pushed. I don’t build for 800 - I build narrow and leave as much of the screen to readers as they want. If people need larger text, it’ll scale in these templates, but the design won’t stretch. I could make everything scale in proportion but frankly, that’s beyond me right now.
Anyway - thanks for the testing, email me a grab and I’ll see if there’s anything that can be done (without falling into the IE hole). The last tmeplate was many-times more complex, this one should work everywhere.