Rebooted. Again
It’s that time once more, a year has passed but the May 1st Reboot is upon us again. Although the official site is a shambles and another site is trying to fill the gap the reboot lives on in spirit. This year, I have rebooted again and am really happy with the result.
Welcome one and all to blog.critical Version Four. Enjoy!
Last Year
Last year I took part in my very first reboot. I purchased one of the (slightly controversial) paid slots on the front page of the CSS Reboot site, and got some great results. I received 15000 hits in May 2006, got some great comments about the design and was featured on a number of CSS galleries.
This Year
At the start of 2007 I had already made the decision that I would participate in the reboot for the second year running. I had already grown tired of Version Three and knew I needed to give the blog a complete redesign.
I have ended up with a solid design which I am really stoked on. I designed the site using a strict typographic grid and really wanted to focus on the content. I also completely reorganised all the old posts into categories, a much needed improvement.
I will talk about the new design in more detail in the near future so for now I will just highlight some of the key features.
New Stuff
Archives that work! Version Three was a tangled mess of unordered posts, which meant finding what you wanted was close to impossible. I planned to rectify that from the very start, which means each post has been added to a meaningful category, and has been tagged with a couple of keywords.
Have you ever wondered who on earth I am? Have you ever wanted to send me abuse, or cryptic messages about stock options? Well now you can! Check out the brand spanking new about page and contact page.
What Do You Think?
So there you have it, Version Four is live and kicking, but let me know what you think. Is it an improvement? What do you like? What don’t you like? Found a bug? Leave a comment and let me know!
Matthew Anderson
May 1st, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Looking good, Andy. I’m digging version 4! I particularly like the spacing, the menu treatment and the over-lined headers. Nicely done.
Anton
May 1st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Yes indeed - good job. I like the general grid of it all.
James Broad
May 1st, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Love the re-design, very original and captivating! definatly going in my del.icio.us list!
Sherwin Techico
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:26 am
Congrats on the Reboot! …and yes, the OG Reboot site doesn’t look like its former self. I hope they clean it up for the Fall.
Anyways, congrats again.
Nick Dunn
May 2nd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Nice one Andy, and on time too :-)
The over-lined headers are a nice touch. Good job on the vertical rhythm too, it’s certainly working for the main copy.
David Yeiser
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Hey Andy, I like the site, especially the dotted line at the top and the navigation hover state. That solid line over the dotted is sweet.
The latest post on the front page looks a bit jumbled to me, though, is there a reason you didn’t align all the way to the left with the Previously section?
And do you know what the deal is with CSS Reboot? I can’t figure out how some sites are getting published while others remain in the submission pool.
I thought that maybe there was an editor who was reviewing each one and then releasing them, but then a spam site showed up there earlier today.
Anyways, long live Standards Reboot
- A Fellow Rebooter
Andy Pearson
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:56 pm
@All - thanks for the kind words everyone! Glad you like it!
@David - The latest post on the front page is arranged in such a way that the title and the “read more” link hang off the grid to the left and right respectively. The idea was to create contrast between these elements and the rest of the copy.
Stick around as my next post will explain a bit more about the design decisions that I made.
As for the CSS Reboot, it’s a bit of a shame to see the site like this, after the success of last years incredible event. Maybe it will be back for the next one.
stylemo
May 9th, 2007 at 3:40 am
Very neat. And I like the text too. Nice work. Another one to my list of inspirations.
Ash Haque
May 20th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Pimpin design