Those who scoffed at my declarations that I was satisfied with the last design change here at PB.net (and you know who you are) may now commence to chortling. For others – first-time readers and such – welcome to the new digs. The layout scheme in which you are now soaking represents the fourth design for this blog since I adopted Chris Pearson’s Thesis theme framework; the second design that I could honestly call my own invention; and the first that represents a deliberately, consciously (and more or less successfully) achieved result. Opa!
The immediately previous blog design was fairly popular, and was generously noted in a recent list of ‘ten great Thesis customizations.’ That recognition gave me pause as I considered making a change, but ultimately I didn’t have much choice. I was unsatisfied with the site design. Worse, I was unsatisfied while having – theoretically – a means of correction at my disposal: a flexible theme framework that could produce any WordPress theme I could imagine, if only I imagined clearly enough.
I had no choice but to make the attempt, and so I did, and now I’m…rather pleased, actually.
So: a clean and open design sparing of visual cruft, Twitter output given proper due as an avenue of expression (topics too ephemeral even for a blog), visitor comments awarded well-deserved equal status as a building block of the site. Most important, however, is the elevation of post content: the single blog entry, whichever one you’re reading at a given moment, now treated as the most important element of the website. The post no longer has to compete with sidebar lists or images running alongside. Indeed, the single post no longer has to compete even with other blog entries. The silo effect of vertical / reverse chronological presentation is no more. In its place: one reader, one post, at a time.
Time now to let the blog be the blog, then, while I turn my attention to actual content. Which is the point, after all.
