What a blog redesign means to me

Today’s question, folks, is; “What does a blog redesign mean to you?”. Lets dive right in, shall we?

For me, a blog redesign means quite a lot. It means the opportunity to hone my skills, experiment with new ideas and techniques and put a fresh coat of paint and a new engine behind my blog. Let me elaborate on the paint and engine for a moment.


Over the past few months, I’ve designed and developed at least 3 new themes for this blog. By the time I reach what looks like the end of the theme, I’ve become bored with the design or feel the code is now “old” and would prefer to start again on a new design idea I’ve come across while scouting around online for inspiration. This has proven to be a vicious cycle whereby the ultimate goal is never achieved: a new blog design.

Why not just get someone else to do it?

It comes down to personal preference on this one. I’m a professional web developer and am trained and qualified as a designer, so why not design and develop the theme myself? In addition, am I not letting an opportunity to show my abilities get put aside? In addition, at the end of the day, I can say that I designed and developed the entire theme from the ground up, which makes the achievement that much sweeter.

The search for perfection?

Designers often run into this, from what I’ve seen. There’s always something that can be done to improve a design further. Pixels can be shifted around until blue in the face… but will it ever be finished? The same goes for development. That one line of code can be optimised, written and re-written over and over until it becomes almost meaningless. Does it really improve or contribute anything?

Yes, it does. Does it have to be done right this very second, though? If it’s not a life-changing development decision, or an integral part of the design, probably not. Having the code as optimised as possible is great… but if no-one sees it, what good is it doing?

Final words…

With that said, I’ve come to a new conclusion (and am writing it in this post for posterity): a blog’s design is never truly “finished”. With the web evolving at the rate it is, it makes perfect sense to revamp your web presence every few months… kind of like putting a fresh coat of paint on a house. Therefore, I’ve published this redesign as is and will continue to work on it and make improvements. That way, the design and development will remain constantly fresh, and I’ll be able to hone my skills and experiment on things on a more regular basis, rather than tying that down into a phase of “I am now redesigning my blog, therefore, let me experiment”.

If you spot anything that could do with some more cowbell, give me a shout and I’ll get right on it. 🙂


Comments

6 responses to “What a blog redesign means to me”

  1. Clean and simple. Looks great!

    My 2 cents. The entry-meta could do with less top padding and a seperator below it, between the blog posts.

    1. Thanks Mark! Will do. 🙂

  2. Congrats on the new design, now bring on the content!

    1. Thanks Mikey! You know it. 😉

  3. Clean and simple Matty. Nice.

    You just need to start blogging more!

    1. Thanks Jason. Good point, definitely need to get blogging more often. 🙂

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