Published in Fiftyfoureleven on Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Over the last year I've worked up several new designs for this website. Too busy to finish any of them, when I would pick up the work again I'd have tired of the old-new design and would decide to start again.
The motivation for the new look was, as always seems to be the case when redesigning here on Fiftyfoureleven, to shoehorn the site into the latest version of our CMS. Another ongoing theme is that the other design was never really finished (see The last 10%), and that the layout had become quite busy with bits that I had added to it.
Now though, I have a huge urge to write about a mountain of things that have been banging around in my head since last year, and I also feel like having a little design outlet where I can experiment and tweak and just do some things that I feel like doing with some images and CSS. So this weekend I bit the bullet, picked my favorite design from the bunch, updated the DB and have now flipped the switch.
That's it for now. I'm off to write some stuff for the blog, and over the next month or so I will try and figure out how exactly I want the site to look and feel.
Note: I've re-implemented the comment author hilighting, so if you comment, click remember, and give an e-mail address (don't worry, it won't be published), you're comment gets hilighted just for you :-).
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I started freelancing by diving in head first and getting on with it. Many years and a lot of experience later I was still able to take away some gems from this book, and there are plenty I wish I had thought of beforehand. If you are new to freelancing and have a lot of questions (or maybe don't know what questions to ask!) do yourself a favor and at least check out the sample chapters.
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Like the other books listed here, this provides a great reference for the PHP developer looking to have the right answers from the right people at their fingertips. I tend to pull this off the shelf when I need to delve into new territory and usually find a workable solution to keep development moving. This only needs to happen once and you recoup the price of the book in time saved from having to develop the solution or find the right pattern for getting the job done..
Comments and Feedback
I like the new design very much, it's very sharp and clean! What I don't like is the hidden text, and I question the need for flash in your page, but that's just me... ;)
Hidden text and flash? Que?
Ahh, the siFR. Yes well, I felt like giving it a go. Not sure I'm going to stick with it, though, as I do like a nice bold Georgia as the headings...
It's design is very good ;)
I do not think you really have to focus on the design. Usability is a lot more important than the design and this is pretty good
My favourite aspects of the redesign are the colours (the beige/sand colours look sublime together) and the readability. Nice one, Mike.
Thanks Andy! Not quite done yet, but it's good to hear that someone else likes it. Was satring at it for too long over the weekend :)
Ahhhhh. Looks awesome Mike. I like the width as it's a ton easier to read. Wow you must be busy...
You know it, but I do like to play with this site at least on Sundays :-)