Wordpress theme pondering
Written on Dec 30, 2006 // Design, Site.I’m currently switching back and forth between a lot of previous wordpress themes and new ones, trying to figure out what I want. My wishlist for content and bits of pieces I want to display on the front page is quite large, and I still haven’t found one that satisfies me 100%.
I want Hemingway blocks, widgets, latest posts from the forum, latest pics from the gallery, latest entries from the other blogs, the latest entry (a la popurls.com) from a couple of sites I always read, some site stats, albumcovers of stuff I’m listening to at any given moment (using data from last.fm), books I’m reading and other bits and pieces.
And of course, it has to look good. Easy on the eyes, minimalistic yet glossy, and the hardest part given the amount of stuff I want to shove onto the page; it shouldn’t look crowded. Which is extra tricky because a lot of you are still using low resolutions, 1024×768 or less. So to some degree the design has to be fluid or scale properly, seeing as I also want to make good use of screen estate for those of us with higher resolutions. Personally my screens use 1680×1050 and I’m sick and tired of all the layouts that are still fixed to 800×600. That’s half the screen empty.
Oh oh, AND I want to fiddle with loops to break up the monotony. Most themes still have columns going straight down, so there’s one column going down with all the blog entries, one or two columns with nothing but widgets… boring. So I’ll have to fiddle with the loop code to break it up a little, so for example you’ll get one blog entry, then a widget/block, then another entry. I think that’ll look nice.
If you want to know more about me, my blog or the rest of the site, check out my
CommSie
Dec 30, 2006, 16:20Lots of people use less than 1024*768? D:
Lots to do and get, will be very interesting.
And that’s a lot of spam comments blocked D:
XIII
Dec 30, 2006, 16:311024×768 45%
1280×1024 30%
800×600 6%
CommSie
Dec 30, 2006, 16:43Interesting o_o You probably already know, but with the current theme the link to the forums is missing a “/”
For example:
http://x111.com/boredviewtopic.php?p=34630#34630
http://x111.com/bored/viewtopic.php?p=34630#34630
And love the CDs (album covers) of the moment.
XIII
Dec 30, 2006, 23:17Thanks, fixed. Hadn’t spotted that yet. And yeah, the cover thingie shows the most played albums according to last.fm, although it isn’t quite correct. For some reason several albums I know I’ve played a lot don’t show up there and the only reason Christina’s listed is because I’ve listened to ‘Hurt’ a couple of times. It does load faster now, the cache didn’t work correctly.
SlugMan
Dec 30, 2006, 20:08I think the best idea would be would be to design it for 1024 and say screw anyone that still uses anything lower (and maybe make it fluid for anything bigger?). Then I think the best way to layout all the information would be to stack it in a sorts of way. The primary content (blog and forum info?) probably should be the main focus and obviously stick out more. So I’d maybe have then side beside consuming most of the view in a double column view? Then start stacking other stuff beneath it in multi column format. Ok, that explanation may not be the best, but the thinking is coming from this guy - http://www.bleikamp.com/
XIII
Dec 30, 2006, 21:25Yup, that’s sorta what I had in mind, except I hope to make it look less boxed. As for that link… whoopee, another fanboy writing a newb entry about how to set up Wordpress on a Mac with a link hoping he’ll get on Digg. Too damn lame, that’s more for the Paul Statiwhatever.com crowd.
Ben
Dec 30, 2006, 2:10What about my entry made me a fanboy?
XIII
Dec 30, 2006, 4:05Wake me when you post something I haven’t seen on a million other Mac user blogs before. So no ‘how to set up Wordpress’ which is so incredibly simple that if you need a how to for that you should find another hobby (this site runs on a mac btw, so I’m not dissing Apple, just you). No silly list recommending Quicksilver, TextEdit & AdiumX because it’s all been done to death before as well.
So yeah, fanboy, because you don’t really have anything substantial to say about them other than the ‘I’m a big fan of Apple computers’ on the front page. Add the ‘Digg this’ for comedy value because it’s all been dugg all the way to the frontpage countless times before and you’re left with just another copycat site.
SlugMan
Dec 30, 2006, 8:13well i wasn’t saying the content was anything to scream about, but he does have some interesting posts on web design for people like me (web design n00bz0rz!!!) :P I had been on a spree browsing quite a few websites reading design articles and looking at site design with wordpress, so that’s how i found his site.
lalala
http://x111.com/?p=238
XIII
Dec 30, 2006, 14:25lalala indeed:
http://x111.com/?p=91
But enough with the off topic comments. ;)
*burps*
Back to enjoying a hangover.