WordPress Redesign – Criticism Requested

Right away I am bothered with the lack of margin space. It really cramps the content together. Also, this is debatable in the web design world, but I am not a fan of the flexible line-length in the far left column. Typographical design rules say 7-10 words per line for readability. If you’re really stuck on keeping it flexible, I’d recommend making the left-column type a few em’s or px’s larger to visually separate from the rest.

I like your graphics.

Yes, I agree about the margin or padding issues.. You need some whitespace to allow a space for the eye to rest. This is important, without space for your eye to rest, it becomes too much to take in and comes off as busy or cramped.

I do like all the things that you mention, as those are all very important points, but dressedinvalue is right about line lenths. I would specify a width in em values and then you can still accommodate visitors with larger type, smaller viewports, etc…

I like the stark contrast of the graphical parts of the site, everything is good there. Nice work.

— T

one word: whitespace

Is everyone looking at the same site that I am? Why is everyone going on about whitespace? There’s enough spacing between the two columns and the spacing between different vertical elements is fine.

Your content column is too wide for my taste and makes it difficult to read as the eyes must travel too far across the page. Also, consider lightening up your post titles and darkening your date titles.

Just some suggestions.

WiBu:
I’ve changed the layout of the site in response to some of the feedback people have given me. Originally, I had the the sidenotes in a third column but have moved them below the main posts.

chrishes:
I’ve made the changes on my local install but haven’t uploaded it to my server.

Everyone:
So how does it look now? I know that the main column might be a bit too wide for some people but I can’t really do too much about that (at least not that I’m aware of). Note that there is some REALLY funky rendering problems in Internet Explorer with the Sidenotes section that I’m trying to figure out right now.

I think people are used to seeing centered content with whitespace on either side. Try wrapping the whole thing in a DIV called #wrapper; center it using margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; .. and see how that looks. ??

Looks great to me. Keep up the good work. I like the layout.

Alrighty, I think I’ve addressed everyone’s criticisms and concerns. Take a look and tell me what you think!

All of the “things to note” I posted in the beginning of this thread still apply except for the flexible width part. 800×600 users shouldn’t need to scroll horizontally though as I’m pretty sure it’s less than 800px wide. ??

much better.

I must say I preferred the flexible width, but the rest looks much better.

-Layout doesn’t fall apart when you increase the text size.

When resizing fonts in IE 6 the right column moves to the bottom of the page.

Except for that you’ve done a nice and clean layout.

is this meant to be a minimalist blog? still, i can’t stand the black header and the white background. it is too contrasting. otherwise, it looks fine to me.

Much better on the layout. Maybe in your sidebar links, undo the underline, there seems to be too many horizontal lines. Also, the post dates maybe make them smaller than the post title.

But looking good, I like the mono color scheme.

any thoughts on releasing it?