December 22nd, 2004

Filed under:
About This Site
24 Comments »

Welcome to DarrenBarefoot.com, v. 3.0

This site started out like this. Then it moved to the familiar green version, and now we’ve got a kind, gentler version 3.0 (beta, heh). As you’ll see, things are ‘under construction’ at the moment, as the other top-level pages lack content and the archives are still using the old template. We’ll resolve these issues over the next week or so.

Many, many thanks to Ray vanderWoning, who did the redesign and has gone above and beyond the call of duty. Ray’s excellent to work with, and I’d definitely recommend him as a designer.

Once it’s done, in addition to just refreshing the look and feel of the site, the redesign will accomplish some technical goals I’ve been ignoring. For those interested in such things, here’s a little historical look at the design’s evolution:

  • Before Ray got involved, I had this
    misguided idea    . I decided that was a bit too egotistical, even for this
    self-centred medium.
  • Ray made three original mockups: 1,
    2, 3.
  • Then things evolved to something quite close to the finished product, with
    this
    page     and then this
    page    .

If you want a preview of some of the other pages (and if you’ve gotten this
far, you probably do), you can check them out here.

Comments: 24 Responses so far

jo
December 22nd, 2004
9:49 am

I like the left category bar. Very useful since I’m not organized enough to keep links! I kinda miss the times of your posts, but I’ll get over that I’m sure. Overall I like the look of the new site.

Congratulations on the new look.

[Reply]

Darren
December 22nd, 2004
9:51 am

Well, we’re adding the dates back in. If others miss the time as well, I’d consider adding it as well.

[Reply]

heather
December 22nd, 2004
10:27 am

verra nice!

[Reply]

Chris
December 22nd, 2004
10:32 am

I like the new site design. Keep up the great writing. :-)

[Reply]

Mimi
December 22nd, 2004
10:54 am

I guess I’m a decenting vote. I kind of expected an edgier design.

I did like the superman mock-up. Maybe use it for special occassions? ;-)

I’ll live. I keep coming back for the content.

Write on Darren.

[Reply]

Jon J
December 22nd, 2004
11:15 am

It doesn’t match-up for me unless I resize my window. Then again, I do like the color scheme and the nifty “mug-shot” on top.

Looks nice.

[Reply]

Janine
December 22nd, 2004
11:21 am

Looks, great Darren. Have a great Christmas!

[Reply]

Bill Stilwell
December 22nd, 2004
11:29 am

Looking good, the only completely minor quibble I’d make is that your favicon is no longer in line with your site design.

[Reply]

ritchie
December 22nd, 2004
11:33 am

i like the site :) very impressive!

[Reply]

timsamoff
December 22nd, 2004
11:47 am

Looks nice, man.

[Reply]

Ray
December 22nd, 2004
12:16 pm

Hmm. Indeed.

I need to make up a new favicon for DB.

Thanks Bill.

Now, maybe you could turn your sharp eye to the broken individual archive template? I’m operating on about 4 hours of sleep, and I’m missing something fundamental. That navigation isn’t supposed to be floating off to the left like that.

It’s supposed to look more like this:
the test page

[Reply]

Ray
December 22nd, 2004
12:21 pm

And, yeah, I know it doesn’t validate. It was broken when it did validate.

The validator returns an error on the closing wrap div at the end of the page, but, as far as I can tell, the wrap div doesn’t close anywhere else in the page.

There has GOT to be a closed div somewhere in there that is breaking the layout. Heck, I even ran the stylesheet through the validator, and it comes up roses.

A line-by-line parsing by my tired eyes didn’t turn anything up.

[Reply]

Dean
December 22nd, 2004
1:37 pm

Hey, I really like the Superman design. A lot.

[Reply]

Bill Stilwell
December 22nd, 2004
1:49 pm

The close div that appears to be unmatched by an open is:

</div><!– close thanks div –>

Removing it makes the page look fine.

The validator here reports this as an error:

http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/001555.html%23comments

[Reply]

kris
December 22nd, 2004
2:16 pm

I like the new layout… good stuff. I do miss the the little barefoot logomark though. :)

kk+

[Reply]

Swade
December 22nd, 2004
6:04 pm

I think I’d go edgier too, but this does look pretty organised compared to the previous layout. I’ll also vote for a return of the bearfoot logos here and there.

[Reply]

champ
December 22nd, 2004
6:16 pm

I do miss that barefoot logo. I think you should add that too.

[Reply]

Richard
December 22nd, 2004
6:45 pm

Very pretty design. Strong work, as Darren would say.

[Reply]

Richard BF
December 22nd, 2004
6:52 pm

Love it. Looks much less nerdy. :-) Although yeah, the logo is missing…

[Reply]

Anonymous
December 22nd, 2004
11:42 pm

Very nice design. I like the monochrome look, the simplistic design.. I think it’s clean cut, stylish, and although I do miss that logo, I do like the new photos you have on the pages. I also think it has a nice personal feel to it now.

[Reply]

Justin
December 24th, 2004
12:54 am

Looking great! I love simple elegant designs like this.

[Reply]

Will Pate
December 28th, 2004
1:18 pm

Good job Ray and nice new site Darren. I really like how you have the “professional” pic on the front page and the “walk in the park” pic on the individual entry pages - subtle levels of intamacy, it works.

[Reply]

Darren
December 29th, 2004
9:52 am

foo

[Reply]

Gail
January 6th, 2005
5:43 pm

I prefer this one to the last incarnation, it’s easier on the eye, layout-wise, colour-wise.

[Reply]

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