In case you didn’t notice (Lynx users?), The Daily PIng underwent cosmetic surgery last week. The new site’s visual design came first through a couple of sketches I drew up, and then implemented in Dreamweaver and Fireworks. From there, Ryan and I worked on the scripts and such (and I almost crashed the server once, which, uhm, is not good.)
The only downside is that the main page’s left-side text is way too small for X Windows users to view. Ryan and I are mulling over solutions at this point. Part of the problem, to be honest, is the shoddy implementation of font/text control across various browsers: good control just doesn’t exist, which is a sad thing.
As I mentioned to Ryan, however, our problems were nowhere as big as those of Salon, which also went under the knife. Its first major redesign brought total outrage from its readers. The front page became cluttered, had far too many images, and took about 1.0 – 1.8 forevers to load. Salon caved only a few days later, and brought back some of its old design – but not all of it (font control is still sketchy – something I can empathize with.)
Bottom line: remember your users when you redesign, particularly if you’re a .com. -pm
Posted in Technology