50th podcast and our new site

Published on: September 13, 2006 by Paul Boag

I know! The launch of this new site was supposed to coincide with the 50th episode of the boagworld podcast, but then I realised I am away on Friday and Monday so the podcast is going to be released later than normal.

So in order to avoid lots of emails asking me where the 50 episode is, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by launching the new site and telling you the next episode is going to be a day late.

So here it is; the new boagworld site! As you can see, I decided to evolve the design rather than start from scratch. The main emphasis has been on making it scalable and improving some of the accessibility. However, I have also improved the site’s navigation and hopefully made it easier to find what you are looking for.

Additional functionality includes:

The ability to navigate by tag
A onsite podcast player
The ability to search the boagworld site OR our web design network
Improvements to the SPAM filters

I am intending to add a lot more functionality before too long, including a shop and a better forum facility.

I need your help

Of course, the whole thing was done in a huge rush and so will no doubt be riddled with bugs. As you spot them can I ask that you just make a note of them in the comments area of this post.

I am aware that a number of comments have been lost and that some of your subscriptions may stop working. I am very sorry for any hassle this might cause you. My advice is that if in doubt re-subscribe!

I would also like your thoughts on how the site can be improved. What functionality would you like to see added? How can it be made more accessible or usable? All feedback is much appreciated although I would ask that you be kind!

One final thing… yes I know it uses every web 2.0 design trick in the book. What can I say; I am a dedicated follower of fashion ;)

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Post by Ronalfy on September 13, 2006 3:14 PM

I find the light-green links in the body hard to read. I'm using IE 6 at 1280x1024. Perhaps a darker shade?
Post by Jabari on September 13, 2006 3:16 PM

the site looks great! it feels less congested and happier (i don't know what that means).
I especially like the liquid format. :)
Post by Sascha on September 13, 2006 3:39 PM

I have to confess, I dislike the new layout! But as webdesign is not democratic this is highly subjectiv... :-)

So congratulations to your little "birthday" and the redesign.

All the best Sascha
Post by Christian Ready on September 13, 2006 3:59 PM

Paul, you have done a truly excellent job with your new site. My suggestion for improvement would be to choose a darker shade of green for the lnks. The color is just a bit too light to read on a PC, and much harder to read on a Mac, which uses a higher gamma.

Again, a magnificent job. Congratulations!
Post by Greg Gottfried on September 13, 2006 4:01 PM

Well Done. I like that the tool tips for the navigation bar displays the access key associated with it. The look is fantastic, very easy on the eyes.
Post by Ross Johnson on September 13, 2006 4:16 PM

I love it, fluid layout and rounded corners oh my!

I will look in IE/Opera and see if I see any bugs. Firefox is looking pretty good.
Post by Sam on September 13, 2006 4:29 PM

Great site! Nice work. But... lets get some max-width in here. I've got a new Macbook with a widescreen monitor, and the text-lengths are too long.
And about the new podcast player:
I don't know if it was just me, but it was playing too fast for the most recent episode.

Otherwise great site. I like the shameless use of rounded corners, especially on the search box.
Post by Paul Boag on September 13, 2006 5:00 PM

Yeah I think you are right about the green text. Ill have a look at that one.

As for the podcast player, yes it does screw up on the most recent one. That is because I didnt have marcus around to do it for me!

In regards to max-width... i prefer to leave that in the users control. They can simply resize their browser.
Post by Sam on September 13, 2006 5:47 PM

Well, no offense (which always means: here is something that you might be offended by), but I just don't like the argument that a person could resize their browser. As an man who constantly preaches about accessibility, you know how much line-lengths can impact readability. Some people don't realize this and don't know to resize their browser, they just skip reading the text, and maybe move on to the next site.

In fact, I believe it was you who first informed me, back in a older episode, that widescreen laptops, like the Macbooks, were becoming more popular, and we have to take them into consideration.

If you really want to give users the control, I think the best approach would be an alternate stylesheet that can be enabled and disabled by the users. (like simplebits.com)
Post by Paul Boag on September 13, 2006 6:16 PM

Sorry Sam but a alternative stylesheet isnt the answer either. Resizing a browser window is much more familiar to users than changing the whole appearance of a website. We do need to be aware of these widescreen laptops but that is as much to do with font size as line length.

The truth is there is no wrong or right answers. However personally I feel that considering my audience a scalable site is the best decision.
Post by Michael DeDonato on September 13, 2006 8:21 PM

I am surprised you kept the navigation on the left hand side. I thought for sure you would have moved it to the left.

Why did you keep it on the right when the standard.... well, not really a standard but since most users spend time on other sites, and (It’s my understanding that…) most sites put the navigation on the top or left, that this is what users expect.

Thoughts?
Post by Ryan Townsend on September 13, 2006 9:17 PM

Love the new layout, in my opinion it reflects your podcasting personality or mood (if those exist...) very well. Bright, happy & colourful.

I like the tag functionality, and I would guess that also helps Googlebot?

For those who arn't quite as sad as me and haven't looked at your XHTML, I have to point out your comment:

"Always nice to have a couple of spare divs in case of emergency ;)"

Funny, very funny indeed.
Post by [MC] on September 13, 2006 9:34 PM

I LOVE the new design, I think it's gorgeous and a perfect example of site evolution. I also love the in-page podcast stuff and the cool search box DOM script when you switch between "search network" and "search site". Searching by tag is also excellent. I could go on...

Damn nice job.
Post by john on September 13, 2006 10:21 PM

I like the new site and it works brilliant in IE7. Im using 17 inch wide screen on my laptop and it views fine.

Its a very modern and up to date looking site. Even though I did like the old version of the site alot this version is also a great show of your websiting abilities.

I must also admit that this site design shows more that you vale the content you are conveying to the viewers fo the site then on having a over complex site with lots of navigation to get to the main information you have to offer the web community.

Congrats and keep up the amazing work
Post by Simon Douglas on September 13, 2006 10:44 PM

Looks really nice, good to see you've kept the Orneryboy images! I know you don't care, but looks lovely on the Mac - even the light-green links pop out of the white background on my MacBook Pro.

I do agree with Sam about the problem with line length when the browser fills these new widescreen monitors.
Post by Russell on September 14, 2006 7:31 AM

Hi Paul,

I use the flicker discussion area quite a bit and liked the way I could see a list of topics on discussion without having to scroll down.

Is there anyway you could add this back in so I don't have to sift through the comments.

If it is there and I just can't see it can you let me know where it is?

Thanks.
Russ.
Post by Paul Boag on September 14, 2006 8:42 AM

Simon,
I do care what it looks like on a mac. I test as much in safari as firefox and IE because a large percentage of people who visit this site use Safari.

I just dont use a mac personally :-)
Post by Gary Hides on September 14, 2006 9:16 AM

Very fresh design. I prefer it to the old one, as you can see the last few previous posts without clicking on archives (that annoyed me a little).
Also like the fact that your posts are in a green border, to distinguish you from us minions.

2 points:

Not sure about the readability of the blue links on the horizontal nav.
On your SPAM comment, you've put - please BY patient.
Post by Bob on September 14, 2006 9:16 AM

Very pretty Paul. Although I too don't like the wide text area on a widescreen monitor.

The new logo is very nice though.

The hosting too seems ultra slick and very well put together :)
Post by Paul Boag on September 14, 2006 9:25 AM

Could that be anything to do with the fact that you have arranged the hosting Bob!
Post by Zeke on September 14, 2006 11:42 AM

I like the site, especially the "shape" comment boxes.

I very much dislike the sun-earth logo thing. Seems too clipart/template looking.

Maybe you should put a image of you smashing a mac, or even better a SUPER animated flashy .FLV. lol. ;)

The link color is fine to me, but my screens are calibrated. (macbook & Dell FPW 20")

BTW my macbook is the best web developing computer ever (the heat makes me code faster, j-k), I have parallels running win 98, 2000, XP, Ubuntu, and SuSE. It makes it very easy to test my code in all the browsers. ie4-7 firefox, safari, konquer, etc.

So I say Marcus should get a Mac. I love mine.
Post by Ben Bishop on September 14, 2006 1:53 PM

Congrats Paul, nice work. I really like it!
Post by farrell on September 14, 2006 2:05 PM

Bug?

In Firefox, I get "Access Key: [1]" and subsequent numbers with rollover on navigation bar choices.

FYI, I like the site design a lot. Very Web 2.0
Post by Paul Boag on September 14, 2006 2:49 PM

Farrell,
that is not a bug. It is telling you the keyboard shortcut for each of the main navigational items.

Interesting that you found it confusing though.
Post by Frank Sattler on September 14, 2006 4:06 PM

Hi Paul,

I've been listening to your podcasts for quite some time now - I'm a Front-End Developer and have been doing it for years, I still pick up new stuff, tips and tricks from listening to them.
First of all, I love the design (very Web 2.0 ...). although there seems to be a little bug lurking somewhere: I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.6 on XPSP2, and your AdWords don't show up (I can only see a 6-7px high box with a grey border and the "Do't forget to visit Headscape first" tagline).
Works fine on IE6, though...
As far as I'm concerned, if you have a certain amount of conent on your page, liquid is definitely the way forward - people notice when the line gets too long for them to read and resize the window automatically. I'd only go for a fixed layout if I hand't enough copy on a page, so that a liquid layout would look silly (widescreen browser window with only one or two lines of text).
Two niggles though: the green links which have already been mentioned in other posts (they're definitely difficult to read on a 1600px CRT, and probably even more so on a cheap LCD).
Also, the lime green borders around your responses in the comments make me dizzy when I try to read what you've written - the border's fighting for attention with the text.
I do like the logo though!
Post by [MC] on September 14, 2006 10:49 PM

If you're using Adblock or similar extension in Firefox you may not see the Google ads :)
Post by Russell on September 14, 2006 10:51 PM

OK Paul,

Found the flicker link in the text.
I was used to seeing it as a button.

Still would like the idea of seeing the list of topics without having to enter flicker.

Don't know if you can do that though or if you already have it somewhere. :)

Regards

Russ.
Post by prisca on September 15, 2006 12:20 PM

Paul

very nice evolution of your site - love the liquid layout. This was somehting that was bothering me about your previous set up, especially as it was somewhet 'glued' to the left hand-side.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the rounded corners and soft drop shadows - so I am still not keen on this polished web2 look... but that's just my taste.

Have to agree with Zeke on the logo - not the most original looking logo - looking a little like shiny clipart..... shame as your content is so good ;)

All the best :)
Post by Frank Sattler on September 15, 2006 12:23 PM

@[MC]: D'oh! Xo)
Post by marcus on September 18, 2006 4:14 AM

I don't like the look, but I do like the layout and how everything is very clean, and there are only a few buttons,
Post by Tami Savage on September 18, 2006 10:50 PM

Broken Link: http://www.boagworld.com/archives/2004/06/rss_explained.html

Paul Boag: That should be fixed now.
Post by Yehuda Katz on September 18, 2006 11:01 PM

Paul,

I'm a big fan of your work, having listened to all of your podcasts on my commute to work over a several week period (basically, that means I listened to a podcast or two a day, as my train ride is around 45 minutes).

I find your insights, in general, spot on. I also like that you take a moderate approach to the more tension-filled issues, like the legitimacy of the term "Web 2.0."

That said, the new website look far too much like one of those dynamic websites that comes up when one accidentally misspells the URL for a common site. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the immediate sense that I get as a user (my first reaction to the site was: "Did I misspell boagworld.com").

Keep up the good work on the podcast and your articles. I've just started listening to the Practical Web Design podcast, and it's quite interesting (if a poorly veiled advertising vehicle for the magazine, at times).
Post by Mathew Patterson on September 19, 2006 12:54 AM

Looks really nice and fresh Paul. There is just a one pixel difference in position of the blue bars for navigation and search (Safari 2) that niggles me. Otherwise a tasty treat.
Post by Eric Gauvin on September 20, 2006 3:39 AM

feedback on the 100% width design... For some reason it just gets on my nerves. I don't know what it is, but I like fixed width or something with a little bit of a margin much better. Couldn't you add 100 pix margins on the sides? What would be wrong with that. I feel like your site is going to slip off my browser window...
Post by Richard Quick on September 21, 2006 2:56 PM

I love the new design, but I've been noticing a few bugs in Safari.

First is that on occasion there's a white and grey "bar" going accross the middle of the "Search for entry..." panel. I think it's the one above the nav bar which has been extended too far.

Also, on several pages I get a horizontal scroll bar which "sticks" to the page. Eg when you scroll up and down it moves with the page.

Never seen this before - so you must be exploiting a pretty rate Safari bug.
Post by Lee Jones on September 22, 2006 4:07 AM

Hey Paul,

Love the redesign, looks good on my 14" Mac iBook running Camino.

2 Questions:

Since you evolved the design, I wondered about how much of the original code is still in there and how much is new?

Also, for the nav bar and section headers... is that just a 2 color graphic? I creates a very nice effect.
Post by Paul Boag on September 22, 2006 8:27 AM

Very little of the code is left from the original site Lee. I have learnt a lot since boagworld was launched and wanted to clean up the code.

As for the headings; no its not simply two colours. Its actually a gradient. The top half is solid while the bottom part fades.
Post by Kristiina on September 28, 2006 1:43 AM

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm completely lost on this new site. I don't seem to find anything and I tend to hesitate a moment before clicking f.ex. some links (like using the search: which one whichone??).

Somehow the site seems a lot calmer, though. Peaceful almost. It's the less-dynamic rounded cornes combined with the colour scheme I guess. And the ticks on the visited links are really helpful on top of the clear change of link colour.

And the heading does stand out! (Not sure about the sun-thingy...)

Excellent site, perhaps I'll forget the older one and get used to this one. Maybe that's part of the reason I feel lost.

(Oh my goodness the tooltip on "Email Address" is just the cutest!)

---

With this comment I'd also like to thank you for making the podcast. It's fun & easy to listen. After listening to most episodes I feel like I might actually know something about web stuff.

Also a big bonus is the way you, Paul, use a lot of allitterations. To me as a foreigner, having studied English only at school, that was really interesting to realise. Sounds amazing!

(I'm sorry I missed the "I listen to Paul & Marcus, do you?" t-shirts. Oh well, guess I have to make my own.)

Keep up the good work.

A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Latest shows

Have your say

Posts by tag

50th podcast and our new site

I need your help

Comments

Leave a comment

Additional Information

Interesting links

Supporting boagworld

Speaking and writing