Comments for Testing out a new design

Testing out a new design

2005-12-02T06:48:14Z

I have been playing with a new design for my blog in preparation for a planned majordojo overhaul that is coming soon. I think like most blogs, majordojo has grown pretty organically over the years. Its architecture within Movable Type has grown a little unweildy. It is interesting to consider what has shaped the evolution of blog. For example, I used to believe very strongly in the "one website - one blog" approach, which forced my blog to become more complex as I added more and more and more and more channels that people could subscribe to. ]]> blogging tools I have come to believe that it is actually easier in some respects to use multiple blogs to power a single website. I create one blog per channel. Doing so actually makes it easier to manage the site as a whole because I rely more on the defaults defined by Movable Type, and less upon my hacky custom settings. So... I am now in the process of rearchitecting and reorganizng majordojo. Aside from a new design, I also plan to: * restructure the primary navigation away from my entry categories, and have the primary navigation center around directing people to one of my many projects * use Media Manager more to maintain a more diverse set of items for my sidebar * continue to evolve my CSS and class heirarchy * use tags... because... you... must... use... tags... yes... you must. Now, if only there was a way to have as many blogs as I want, but only have to maintain a single blog! If you have any thoughts on the new design I would love to hear them!

Comment from Lola on 2005-12-02

2005-12-02T13:36:20Z

I like the new design . . . make it a bit wider so there's not too much white space on either sides.

Comment from Robert Waugh on 2005-12-05

2005-12-06T02:31:11Z

I really like that inset Reading/Watching/Surfing list. I've seen David Raynes using something similar. Center columns are under-utilized on the internet so they make an impression. And images of books or DVDs can add visual appeal and help to keep one's design from going stale... as long as the list keeps moving. (This is starting to sound like a fashion show.)

Try to read books with flashy covers.

Last month I did the opposite as you -- archived my multiple-blog weblog to start a fresh one-blog blog. Ahh! Simple.

But when I had my multiple-blog weblog, as an experiment I set up another blog to publish the templates for the other blogs. Essentially I was using Movable Type to publish a custom-made interface for managing my other Movable Type templates. What fun!

And there's one reason I love Movable Type. You don't need to learn a crazy programming language to do crazy things.

Comment from David Raynes on 2005-12-07

2005-12-07T16:20:05Z

I agree completely (and not just because MultiBlog is my baby). Splitting my blog the way that I have (personal blog, plugins blog, and book blog) has worked out wonderfully for me, and has driving development of MultiBlog even further.

If you have any specific requests/requirements (assuming you're using it at all), please let me know.