Site Redesign

13 March 2004

I’m closer to starting a complete site redesign here. If you’re willing to help, let me know. I’m going to need someone who really knows Movable Type and standards-based design. If you’ve also got an eye for graphic design and how to do a makeover, we should talk.

Among things I want to deal with:

Update the logo

Add some color, subtract some color, mute some color
Change to MySQL as the underlying database
Close comments after X days
Spellcheck every entry before posting
Get to valid CSS and XHTML where practical
Change the look of blockquotes
Number the comments with oldest listed first
Implement CSS or style switcher (Is this called ”skinning?”)
Expand the use of PHP where useful and appropriate
Change the look and behavior of links (is this hover or rollovoer?)
Improve the site navigation
Move some sidebar items to separate pages
Improve the use of disk space, particularly with images
Take advantage of plugins where applicable
Alter the sidebar script that handles ”On This Day”
Rethink sidebars, blogrolls and additional pages of resources
Should titles be permalinks? (Is this even the right question?)
Improve and expand the use of RSS feeds – including excerpts, extended entries, RSS feeds for each category, etc.
List the top 10 most frequent commenters

This is a quote from the Asterisk* site:

First I have to disclaim that I feel Asterisk* is a personal Web site, built with weblog technology and with a blog component.

There is much more to this site than the weblog.

I like that. It fits the way I’m thinking about my own site as I move forward.

Goals include:

Don’t lose or damage entries dating back to January of 2002

Give the site an improved platform for expansion
Lose some weight in lines, type and images
Learn more about how to use Movable Type
Make the site more appealing to visitors

Watch for this entry to be broken out to its own page of design goals and attributes as I move forward with the effort. What I’m hoping to accomplish won’t likely happen in a weekend absent some serious help from a skilled web designer and developer.

I have identified 40 recent entries from a list of expert designers and sites.