updated blog template-critique

[mikelangelo]

well.. I've updated my blog design a little bit. Please let me know what you think.

I put the info about the image next to the photo to make the page shorter. Hopefully eliminating scrolling.

Do you think the vertical photos are too tall? Thanks for any thoughts on the design.

http://www.mikelangelo.com/blog/

[blinking8s+]

moved to Design adn Front-End Code section

[skennedy1217]

Mikelangelo, you must be running a widescreen laptop, or at least a 17 or 19 inch monitor. On an LCD with 1024x768 native resolution, the photo gets pushed to the bottom below the EXIF data. I'd say that 1024x768 usually accounts for 50-60% of traffic, so you might want to consider a different layout. It's a catch-22...scrolling, no scrolling, designing for the majority/minority, etc.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm seeing.



It might be possible to fit it all on the screen by adjusting the padding around the image and sidebar, but it will look somewhat crowded at the lower resolution.

PS - Wouldn't worry about catering to 800x600 res, even though I still get some visitors at that resolution. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

[mikelangelo]

dang.. you're right. I'm on a wide-screen laptop. D'OH! Thanks a ton for the info. And the pc I test on is a 21" monitor. sigh....

*edit*
I updated the style sheet so the notes are thinner and will fit at on a 1024x768 monitor.

I also moved the notes/exif data are on the right site of the image so if the user's screen is less than 1024x768, the image will still display at top, even if the extra info gets bumped underneath.

Do you think that is sufficient? Or, if I stick with this layout... should I make my images smaller to compensate for folks with smaller monitors?

[darkphoenix]

When i first viewed, the camera info was still on the bottom until I widened my browser window. I think the colors are an improvement from the previous redesign. Not sure I'm diggin the textured background though.

[mikelangelo]

i've modified it slightly and I've also made my latest post a little smaller at 650px wide to try and make the site more usable for more viewers.

I'm not sure I'm diggin' the background, yet either. I think I'm going to play with that idea some more.

thanks for the feedback.

[Joe[y]+]

that's really cool! i really like what you've done with your background and photo blend - only improvement could be a wider area for exif as it is crammed and needs new lines.

[mikelangelo]

Good point about EXIF. Thanks for the feedback!!

[darkphoenix]

Great improvement from the last version.