Written on August 10th, 2007 at 01:08 pm by Darren Rowse
ProBlogger Redesign - Bedding Down for the Night
After a few hours of testing, tweaking, tracking down bugs and fixing up a few small glitches I’m happy to say that the ProBlogger Design Relaunch is looking stable and we’re tucking it into bed for the night.
Ben has also just headed to bed (after pulling a late night) for some well deserved rest.
There are still a few things that we’ll work on over the next 24 hours or so including:
- Search - the search field in the top right hand corner isn’t producing results yet
- Archives - link in top menu will produce more than just dated archives
- Print Stylesheets - while the new template does print better Ben will produce an even better option for this
- Job Board Integration - the Job Board will receive a similar makeover and the latest jobs from it will appear on the front page of ProBlogger
- ie6 bugs - we’re aware of the sidebar issue with ie6 and will produce an ie6 stylesheet to rectify this
There are also a few minor styling tweaks to be made and I need to tidy up the categories and other links in the footer a little - but apart from these issues there’s not a lot more to do to get things up to speed for the time being.
At this point it’s over to you. There will no doubt be a few more bugs that we’ve not found yet and different issues for those of you on different browsers. If you find anything that’s not covered above please do let us know.
I’d invite your comment and constructive feedback in comments below. This is a work in progress and while we’re happy with where this design takes us both Ben and I would like your help in taking it to the next level.
Once again I’d like to thank Ben Bleikamp for his amazing design work, Mike Rohde for his logo, Gary King for his reworking of the Job Board (he’s completely reworked the back end of it - we’ll go live with the new version tomorrow) and the b5media tech team for their support through this process.
PS: both Ben and I intend to write more on the process of this redesign in the coming days so those of you with questions feel free to continue to ask them and we’ll attempt to get some answers together for you.
193 Responses to “ProBlogger Redesign - Bedding Down for the Night”
Eric F.
August 10th, 2007 1:45 pm
Hi Darren,
I like the new design a lot. The new home page has a cool feel to it and I’m looking forward to checking out the new features. I like the design of the blog, as well. Quite a departure from the old design.
I’d be interested in a post about the thinking behind the new home page design, as it’s got more of a portal feel to it.
To you and the crew - good work!
Basil Vandegriend
August 10th, 2007 1:45 pm
I think the new design looks great, and is definitely an improvement over the old design - it is now much less cluttered.
One issue for me is that the font used for the article text and the sidebar headings looks ‘funny’ or ‘off’ - I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.6 under Windows XP. I like the use of a sans-serif font, but it just isn’t rendering nicely on my screen.
Steve Mills
August 10th, 2007 1:52 pm
Love the new look. Good luck to you guys getting the whole thing up and running tomorrow, if I find any bugs I will let you know
Missy
August 10th, 2007 1:52 pm
Ah! It is very Web 2.0
It looks good and if i find any bugs, i will let you guys know. Good job!
Missy.
Missy
August 10th, 2007 1:54 pm
i did not copy the above poster, he typed as i typed, we happened to be thinking alike.
WeblogHits.com
August 10th, 2007 1:57 pm
Wow…nice re-design! Surprised as I don’t see adsense…yet.
Aaress
August 10th, 2007 1:58 pm
Darren and Ben,
I really like the new design!
You both did an excellent job and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
ProBontb
August 10th, 2007 1:58 pm
Darren,
I think the design is great finaly you got something new after all this time :) I got use to see your picture and I think you should put that back!
Other things I notice on your blog is that you are missing keywords , some SEO’s say they are useless but I think they are good to be there on each post.
Also,
I hope that your SE rating will not decrease because you did change the template, and many other things. Good after all is that you placed 404 page! I like that! non of the webmasters should miss that part, every visitor counts!
Anyways good luck with your new design, I wish you could provide next week a statistics how your template change your visitor rating whether it decrease or increas.
Sorry for my English it’s not the best :)
Visit my blog sometimes I think you will enjoy it http://www.bontb.com
Mr. Rajawang
August 10th, 2007 2:01 pm
i like the new theme a lot! Wish i have one that is cool like this..:(
Mike Goad
August 10th, 2007 2:08 pm
Darren, it looks very good.
I’m envious, but on my budget, I’m just going to have to stick with the free themes - or start learning the coding myself… and that ain’t going to happen.
Very nice!
Emmet Gibney
August 10th, 2007 2:10 pm
Wow. Super cool new design, almost seems to me like a revolution in the look and design of blogs, but maybe I’m just an amateur. Gives me loads of ideas on how I’d like future sites of mine to look. Is the site built on Wordpress?
Egonitron
August 10th, 2007 2:13 pm
Much better, but the homepage is totally cluttered.
Yahoo Store Design
August 10th, 2007 2:25 pm
I’m loving the new design. Very professional; lots of whitespace.
derek
August 10th, 2007 2:27 pm
Hey…you stole my theme!
Okay, so you didn’t steal my theme - I was just trying to see how many people would check my site, lol.
The new theme looks good, although it will certainly take some time to get used to it. Your old site was so familiar and comfortable to me that this almost feels like I’m not in the right place.
What are your plans for the header? You’ve got an awful lot of white space in there so I imagine you will be adding something up there.
I have to give you credit though, I am not sure I would have been so open to a complete redesign given how successful your site has been in fear of turning people off. Good job!
motorsportBABESau
August 10th, 2007 2:28 pm
Love the new design. Has a nice fresh look and is much more user friendly I think!
I particularly like the bottom section of the page.
Chuck
August 10th, 2007 2:38 pm
Looks good, Darren. Much easier on the eyes…feels much less cluttered.
Now if you can just find a way to get a little white space around that B5 Flash banner. ;-)
CNC Venture
August 10th, 2007 2:44 pm
Nice clean design Darren. I don’t suppose you will be a post in the near future explain the inspiration behind the design change and the new and interest features you have integrated in a bid to further optimise the site?
Kuahine
August 10th, 2007 2:45 pm
Very nice! (I disliked your former layout and colors, by the way.)
One complaint: The disparity between the articles’ font size and the comments’ font size is too great. If I enlarge the comments’ font display in order to comfortably read the washed-out gray text, then the articles’ font display is ginormous! So I end up having to go back and forth between larger and smaller font displays in order to easily read more than one article and its comments.
Oh, second complaint, now that I think of it: The washed-out gray font color for the comment text is unnecessarily difficult to read, and s-o-o-o- 2006. :-)
(I’m looking at your site using Firefox 2.0.0.6 on a Mac PPC G5 with a 20″ Cinema Display, and I have 20-20 vision or better in both eyes.)
Otherwise, everything looks much better, Darren. Congrats to all!
Terra Andersen
August 10th, 2007 2:49 pm
It’s coming along nicely! No bugs in IE7!
Jeremy
August 10th, 2007 2:52 pm
Hey Darren,
The front page is great - it has a lot of information and posts all within easy reach, and that’s a very good thing - especially since most people coming to your blog for the first time don’t end up on the front page.
However, I have to say your old design was much more inviting. The colors, the openness and the overall feeling were just more inviting, and felt more like a human talking to you. This new design feels like it’s trying a little too hard to be cool.
Overall, I liked your old design better and think it would work better to continue to attract readers than this one. As you have told us many times, your blog is a form of conversation between you and all of us, one on one. This doesn’t feel as personal.
Ethan Lee Vita
August 10th, 2007 2:58 pm
I like the new layout a lot better because it looks cleaner although it was a nice surprise when I got done with moving and had to sift through my hundreds of RSS feeds that had backed up in the half week I had no internet access. Anyway, besides the cleanness, I can now accurately read your name. In the old template the font was so small I had your last name inaccurate and was shocked to come across a post of people getting your wrong to discover I too had it wrong.
TextAdSearch
August 10th, 2007 3:05 pm
Cleaner, more modern, more business….does this mean you have gone all serious on us?
Summer
August 10th, 2007 3:12 pm
It looks awesome. I really like this much more than the old layout.
Mani
August 10th, 2007 3:14 pm
Nice design Darren.
You guys do it best all the time.I have a few suggestions though.
1. Include Gravatars in the comments.
2. The Subscribe box can be taken further to the top merging with the space to the right of the logo. There is a waste of real estate there.
3. Ouch those sharp edges hurt!!
Cheers!
Mani
Lifesperspective
August 10th, 2007 3:18 pm
Much better than the old design. Long overdue change, and this will only serve to improve your readership, i believe.
Jermayn Parker
August 10th, 2007 3:24 pm
Oh Baby!!!
Thats beautiful….
I like a lot peoples..
I like how you’ve de-cluttered the site (side) and put it all on the footer (actually doing the same on a new website myself)
Mohsin
August 10th, 2007 3:38 pm
Absolutely sweet! Live the lively colors and bigger fonts.
Kevin OKeefe
August 10th, 2007 3:41 pm
Very nice job Darren. Congrats.
And going through redesign and redev myself right now (after 3.5 years), I know the trauma of ‘is this right,’ ‘how about this way,’ to ‘let’s just get the darn thing up as it’s good.’
Keep up the good work. You’ve helped a lot of folks, including me.
- Kevin
qureyoon
August 10th, 2007 3:44 pm
nicely done !
a little suggestion is that to make the featured post more ’stand-out’
because the first one that catch my eyes is those video.
the list of post of the left side is a little smaller on the width, which i tend to ignore it :P
overall the theme, color and designs are very nice ^^
nice job guys
Shine
August 10th, 2007 4:02 pm
Congrats Darren and everybody working on the project! It’s cool and more “mature”.
We’ve entered a new phrase, right?
Gary Jones :: BlueFur.com
August 10th, 2007 4:05 pm
In my IE7 the ads are a bit wonkie. Everything else looks good.
Mifeng
August 10th, 2007 4:26 pm
Nice job!
very beautiful, i like it!
Vijay
August 10th, 2007 4:27 pm
Cool design Darren!
People weill spend some more time on problogger.net now.
Ya I am seeing sidebar issue its going below the post in IE 6.. Hope you will fix this ASAP.
Mike Olbinski
August 10th, 2007 4:36 pm
I love it, nice job…the bottom area with the categories and other info is very nice…I always liked that in other themes I saw.
BURRYA
August 10th, 2007 4:40 pm
YOUR BLOG LOOKS AWESOME! I LIKE THE DESIGN AS WELL AS CONTENT!!! GREAT WORK!!!!!
Garri
August 10th, 2007 4:42 pm
Brilliant, great stuff Darren - very inspiring and has made me look at how I could tighten up my site.
One thing I’m not keen on is the logo. The double P looks odd. Would be better, in my opinion, if the P was dropped and rely on the symbol, or dump the symbol.
Anyway, I can find my away around your blog now and nice to see the absence of adsense ;-)
Andy Merrett
August 10th, 2007 5:04 pm
Went to bed (UK time) on the old design and wok up to this. Pleasant surprise - wasn’t sure what I was expecting but I’m impressed. Hats off to everyone who has worked so hard on this - the blood sweat and tears is what puts me off doing major redesigns on my sites, so respect for pushing through.
It felt a little cramped on my laptop - the articles on the left column felt less important than the video or the sponsors - not a problem though. It looks great on my main monitor.
Good colours, too - I was never a great fan of the orange :)
‘Grats all around.
Andy Merrett
August 10th, 2007 5:07 pm
Sorry, that should be “woke up” not “wok up” :)
By the way, what time zone is ProBlogger working to. This post says 1.08pm on 10th August. Either you stayed up all through the night and are going to bed in the afternoon (possible, I’ve done it) or your time zone is set way ahead! :)
Problogger didn’t have exact times on the posts before, just the date - what made you change your mind, if it was a deliberate choice?
Gerard McGarry
August 10th, 2007 5:13 pm
Nice one Darren. It’s all looking so much more professional. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be rid of those orange-coloured links!
I’d be interested to see what the difference in pageviews is with the RSS readers coming back to take a look at the site…
manica
August 10th, 2007 5:22 pm
It’s cool. good work! ;-)
Andrew Boyd
August 10th, 2007 5:32 pm
Hi Darren,
I liked the old blog better than the new blog :)
Three reasons, putting my consultant IA hat on:
1. it was what I was used to as a reader,
2. you now look like everyone else that followed Brian at Copyblogger, and
3. the photo of you at the top of your page helped with your branding more than any logo redesign might.
That said, the content is the same, and I doubt you will lose many readers over it, so the implications are fairly surviveable. New readers will see a format that they are familiar with, so you’ll probably even profit from it.
Are you going to publish RSS/hit figures after a month or so to show us what effect you think the new format had on readership levels? I’m not sure how many other people would be interested, but I know I would (as I tend to stick to a bog standard K2-with-two-sidebars layout and just change the header graphic) - I’m open to customisation as an option if there are real benefits.
Cheers, Andrew
MJ Ray
August 10th, 2007 5:36 pm
Can the main text be made max-width 100%, please? It’s too wide for 510px (window width when you have two browsers side-by-side).
Otherwise, great improvement. These colours seem much clearer.
Shankar Ganesh
August 10th, 2007 5:37 pm
Wow! The design looks so slick and highly professional. I love it!
Eniac
August 10th, 2007 5:46 pm
clean and professional, congrats!
Laura
August 10th, 2007 5:58 pm
Nice, crisp and clear at last!!!
Stefan Happer / Politikportal.eu
August 10th, 2007 5:58 pm
Just to let you know that I am also running a site using a P-logo :)
Ross Hill
August 10th, 2007 6:07 pm
I really like the new homepage but the single post page seems very sparse. Being an RSS reader it won’t affect me much though :)
Good work guys.
Jan
August 10th, 2007 6:08 pm
Darren! Great revamp of the site!
1 remark: The archives by topic still do not show up.
Kudos to Mr. Bleikamp
Jan
August 10th, 2007 6:10 pm
My bad for not reading well… it was on your to-do list!
Mikael
August 10th, 2007 6:18 pm
Great work guys. At first I thought I had hit the wrong page *lol* but I must say that it looks good.
I’m glad I wasn’t the one doing all the work :)
Bane
August 10th, 2007 6:52 pm
ok, very nicely done redesign! not smacking the older design…but me likey likey!
ok, time to click around here a bit and check out the new digs! great work :)
B10G
August 10th, 2007 6:53 pm
Darren, Great Design absolutley love the new design, tbh not so keen on the logo but hey I can live with that. Really clean look and the sidebar has improved ten fold.
Martin Muehl
August 10th, 2007 7:04 pm
The print stylesheet will save me a lot of time! Maybe you can get rid of the Navigation, Sidebar and the footer Links, too. And I would put the new problogger logo at the top of every printed site.
Napolux
August 10th, 2007 7:49 pm
I don’t like this layout. It was more “problogger” than this. This one seems to be a reworked one starting from one of that free templates you can find on the WP site… ;)
Deelip
August 10th, 2007 8:15 pm
New design is definitely better than the older one.
Congratulation Darren for the new site.
blogging tips
August 10th, 2007 8:15 pm
love your former design. this new design also beautiful. great job!
Jeba
August 10th, 2007 8:59 pm
All I have to say is Neat!!
Daniel Scocco
August 10th, 2007 9:01 pm
Good job Darren.
Matt
August 10th, 2007 9:11 pm
I like the new design, nice and clean. I always found the navigation on your old site to be non-intuitive. Great choice.
Luis
August 10th, 2007 9:30 pm
I use IE 6 at work, no other option is available, and your site does not comes right. The right column skips it position and goes all the way down on the page. Check this out it may be easy to fix.
Other than that, great page design, I really like it.
Cheers,
Luis
kunal
August 10th, 2007 9:32 pm
hi darren…its a lovely design. We all know you are rolling in riches but I would really like to know the impact of chucking out Adsense ads completely.
Allan
August 10th, 2007 9:40 pm
Darren,
Its seems there’s a bug - The site can’t load properly in IE 6; the right sidebar shifts to the bottom. Whereas in Firefox it just works fine.
Vincent Chow
August 10th, 2007 9:42 pm
The single post is good, but the homepage doesn’t looks any like a blog anymore.
Darren Rowse
August 10th, 2007 9:47 pm
thanks again - we’re aware of the ie6 issues (see the post above) and hope to have it resolved in the next day.
Vincent - if you prefer a more traditional blog layout then there is that option (click the ‘blog’ link in the top menu).
We will be continuing to massage the homepage though to highlight the recent content a touch more but it is a purposeful shift away from presenting it as a straight blog. I’ll write more on the thinking behind this in the coming days.
Kay
August 10th, 2007 9:47 pm
Frankly speaking, this design is just too “normal” if compare with your previous design.
The logo in normal too. And I don’t see any color to represent this blog(previous I think it’s orange).
There is no more your photo on the top of the page. That’s the trademark I think for problogger but you just put it below of this blog.
Side bar is full of advertisements. It’s so obvious that you are using sidebar to advertise and making money.
Categories had been moved down too. Seems like it’s hard to look for your previous posts.
Sorry if I am wrong. I just prefer your previous design. It makes you so different from other blogs and that’s why make you look more pro too.
Darren Rowse
August 10th, 2007 9:49 pm
Andrew Boyd:
You can track subscriber numbers from the chicklet counter - and I’ll try to remember to post other stats in the coming weeks once things have settled.
Darren Rowse
August 10th, 2007 10:01 pm
Kay - thanks for your honesty. We’ll keep working on things here and your comments will help.
In terms of the ads in the sidebar - the blog does have to earn its way and my thinking is that rather than the 12 or so ad units that used to be scattered across ProBlogger that now there are just 6 in the one defined spot.
In terms of colors - I hear what you’re saying. The problem with the orange was that quite a few readers found it a difficult color to read on their screens due to older style screens and also some who had eyesite problems.
I do hear what you’re saying though in terms of branding and ‘normal’ - but I think we’ve got a few little plans in mind that will help with this. Didn’t want to roll everything out at once though :-)
Categories are down the bottom - but on the previous design they were at the bottom of a very very long sidebar. Now they will also be featured in the ‘archives’ tab at the top of the blog (we’ll add that tomorrow) and now they are now more prominently featured on the top of each post.
Not saying you’re wrong with your comments - they’re actually helpful - but my hope is that with a few more tweaks and a bit more exploring that you’ll find some of your concerns alleviated.
TheHobbyGuy
August 10th, 2007 10:09 pm
I like the new design, very clean and crisp! Keep up the great work.
MattRearden
August 10th, 2007 10:41 pm
Darren - Love the new look. Much cleaner and easier to read. I agree with Kay that your picture on the main page was a nice touch. When I found your site that picture helped me connect with you (not sure why…maybe I flet like I had just stepped into Darren’s office).
Looking forward to exploring more and finding out all the new features.
Matt
richie k
August 10th, 2007 10:46 pm
Great Redesign darren :)
love the site front page…it is somewhat a trendy nowaday with
a news like front page….
but as couple of comments stated, the font are not read friendly in my end…and also the orange is gone..i always think that the orange is a symbolise of problogger:)
anyhow i prefer this theme than the old one tho..Great!
Vincent McBurney
August 10th, 2007 10:55 pm
@Kay I agree with you, the old design had character and I’m finding it hard to like this new one. There are some elements to the new design I like so I’ve done a mashup of the old and new designs on my blog. I think this design would get some of the old style charm back if there was some colour and some enticing links across the top of the page rather than down below.
I am looking forward to seeing more changes rolled out.
Kay
August 10th, 2007 10:55 pm
Thanks for looooooooong reply.. I do hope for better design in coming days. :D
By the way, your sidebar drops to bottom in IE 6. Take note take note.
And one more thing, I can’t get use to read your blog without seeing your photo…feel weird.
blog contest
August 10th, 2007 11:04 pm
I like the portal layout for your home page. It is a nice departure from the traditional while still being usable. Great job.
Chee Kui
August 10th, 2007 11:05 pm
Wow! Nice new design ;) I love it!
Steve
August 10th, 2007 11:15 pm
First, congrats on the new design! I think it looks a LOT better.
Having dumped an old style myself for a new template (I use Wordpress), I know what it’s like to jump to a new design. Will people like it? Won’t they?
The thing I didn’t realize was the amount of tweaking and custom work I’d done in the old design that didn’t make it into the first cut of my new site. I’m happy to say it’s fixed now, but I did have a few “where did that go….oh, yeah!” moments.
Now I have everything in widgets, and it’s a lot easier to keep track of.
Niranjan
August 10th, 2007 11:17 pm
Hi Darren,
Nice work ! :)
i just took a peek into your page source.
Its having a double end tag
ProBlogger Redesign - Bedding Down for the Night
i think that was a mistake. pardon me if i was wrong nu inteded it to be there :)
i liked the colours ! :D
Niranjan
August 10th, 2007 11:19 pm
oh sorry that got formatted.. what i meant was… the title tag has got two end tags. which isnt necessary ? is it?
:)
Sharon
August 10th, 2007 11:34 pm
The only thing I don’t like is in the “best of problogger” 3 of the best articles are posts about your redesign. Maybe you could hand pick 10 articles that you think is your best work instead of relying on a plug-in or most commented on or whatever your using to determine the best.
Ibrahim Faour
August 10th, 2007 11:43 pm
Nice redesign, Darren. Yet you have to work on the IE6 issues asap. I know you mentioned that as a priority but they really wasting the good job made on the design.
Color combination is perfect and it’s definitely better than the noisy orange.
Good Luck.
Sharon
August 10th, 2007 11:50 pm
oops. I do see you have a tab for Darren’s Fave’s but really, it doesn’t seem right that 3 of the 10 best posts of all time are about your site redesign.
I don’t usually see your site because I read it in my RSS reader, but I do like it and the way its organized now makes it more likely that I’ll go directly to your site and look around.
Claudia
August 10th, 2007 11:56 pm
I REALLY like it. Much easier to read, but less crowded… a great improvement.
Ron
August 10th, 2007 11:58 pm
Darren, really like the new look, congrats…
Releaselog
August 11th, 2007 12:16 am
very modern, very neat, but I HATE this font! you can’t see a difference between “o” and “e” and reading is very uncomfy!
Simon
August 11th, 2007 12:20 am
I’m assuming you’ve taken the decision to highlight the “pro” rather than the “blogger” with not just the redesign but the move away from the classic blog layout. I’m undecided on the design, but I never make a decision within the first few minutes of seeing a new design. The only thing that strikes me immediately is that its a much more generic design. If I had multiple windows open I could very easily see which one was problogger (I tend to read longer articles in sections, especially if there are lots of links to follow), I can’t say that now because it looks a lot like other blogs. You may also lose some of the feeling that you’re just a blogger (albeit one who’s doing very well) with a more corporate look, not sure if that will put people off or not.
One other quick thing, the submission form for the 31 days readers writing project doesn’t seem to be showing up in FireFox on OSX.
Hope you get through the always stressful redesign period.
Iantrepreneur
August 11th, 2007 12:27 am
there seems to be an issues with the sidebar with IE but with FireFox it is great!
John Hewitt
August 11th, 2007 12:27 am
Hi Darren,
The general layout has a nice, sleek look, but for some reason the text is A LOT less readable for me. I upped the Text Size and it was still pretty hard on the eyes. I’m going to have trouble reading your longer articles in the new format and will probably have to stick to the feed if this doesn’t change. And no, I don’t have vision problems.
Jon Symons
August 11th, 2007 12:29 am
Hi Darren & Ben,
I’d be curious to know how you setup wordpress so that you have what would be a normal WordPress home page at problogger.net/blog and yet your permalinks structure is still the old one without the word “blog” in it?
Did you install WordPress into a folder called “blog”? Or are there some redirects in play?
Thanks.
Jens P. Berget
August 11th, 2007 12:34 am
Hi Darren,
I really like the new look. It´s more refreshing and more modern than the old one. And I like your frontpage as well, I think that your visitors probably will stay longer at your blog. It´s seems to be easier to navigate.
You might want to change your favicon to the new logo though.
Martin
August 11th, 2007 12:35 am
i made the screenshots for you, may be there are more people with this issue:
what i see:
http://i9.tinypic.com/4pxhbh1.gif
what should it probably look like (screen from friend):
http://home.arcor.de/b00nz0r/problogger.JPG
Rich
August 11th, 2007 12:36 am
To me the most interesting thing is it is now less of a blog and more of a Web site (ie, a publication-type site)—without the full or at least long post contents and by making the blog hole on the front page so narrow, it REALLY deviates from what the user expects of a blog site.
I’d be interested in the thinking that went into that decision in particular.
I think standard UIs — and a blog is many things, but it is also a very standard user interface with specific user expectations about how it looks and acts — are hugely important in software/Web apps.
It is very brave — but I’d also say risky — to deviate from it.
Natasha
August 11th, 2007 12:38 am
Hi Darren,
Your silent observer here :P. I like this new layout. The other layout was nice as well, but this is a lot brighter and there’s more space for all the information that you provide on this site. The first word that popped into my head as I looked at this new layout was “portal”. If that’s the look that you were going for, then I think you achieved it. I haven’t attempted to view this site in any browsers other than firefox, but in firefox it looks good.
As for the logo.. I wonder if your intention was to emphasize that you are more of a blogger rather then a “pro”… I like the color choice, good contrast.. Anyways, that’s all I’ll say for now… Be safe.
~N
Rich
August 11th, 2007 12:42 am
Wow, I didn’t even catch it at first, but you actually have a separate “blog” section:
http://www.problogger.net/blog
Which makes me even more interested in the decisions about how to piece together the new home page/site entry point.
I, myself, find it a bit disorienting….you made me spend ten minutes figuring out how the site works. Now I was *interested* in learning that, but most readers aren’t. They want to know how a site works at first glance and get to using it.
Can’t wait to read your discussion of the decision-making and follow your experiences with the new design.
Lara Kulpa
August 11th, 2007 12:53 am
Darren - I’m in LOVE!
This is fabulous… simply fabulous!
Jay Tillery
August 11th, 2007 12:57 am
Cluttered. It looks like everything is coming at me all at once. I would have sat in the redesign phase a little longer. It looks rushed or like you slapped a template up and are scrambling to organize everything. Maybe in time it’ll get better. Right now, you should put back up the old site. :)
Jason
August 11th, 2007 1:09 am
Much more corporate looking. I like it!
Ian Stewart
August 11th, 2007 1:25 am
This is an awesome redesign! It won’t be long before every WordPress Theme comes with a
home.phppage modeled after this one. It’s something I’d been thinking of myself. I’m glad someone that knows what they’re doing has been too.One thing I noticed (someone else may have too — I can’t read 80 comments) when I hover over the “Blog” link in the menu while on an archived page. the cursor is an arrow instead of the friendly “link-hand”. If this was intentional, that’s fair, but at least you know one reader found it weird.
Steven Rigney
August 11th, 2007 1:34 am
I love the change. The new color scheme is easier for me to look at, and the page itself seem to be cleaner. The ProBLOGGER logo is very chic. Congrats!
Starfeeder
August 11th, 2007 1:42 am
this looks great, omg like way way better then the old design :) props! To be honest if your content wasn’t as good as it was I would have not checked out your old site for longer then 15 secs.
This feels fresh, clean, “organized” and my eyes aren’t hurting…
zawadi
August 11th, 2007 1:53 am
The site looks great. I can access some topics allot easier with the Categories links.
I was just getting used to the other template colors :-)
Emma
August 11th, 2007 1:54 am
I like it! Very cool. The new look is modern and sleek, the colors are great. Maybe now I can find all of those archived articles I need to study up on. Best of Luck, Emma
Kate
August 11th, 2007 2:23 am
I really like the new design! I found the previous design very hard to read, and hard to find information. I don’t mind the ads seeming prominent now, as they don’t distract from the main content.
Looking forward to finding my way around better and keeping up with your 31-Days challenge!
Sue
August 11th, 2007 2:32 am
Don’t forget to change the favicon!
Other than that, absolutely great redesign. The colors are very eye-pleasing, and it’s much more readable. My only concern would be for those on higher resolutions. This appears to be a fixed width, and with the explosion of wide lcd monitors, I see more and more visitors to both of my sites with extremely high resolutions. It caused me to change my static site to fluid widths. I truly believe that’s the way to go.
With that said, it looks perfect on 1024×768, but quite narrow on higher settings.
Ramil
August 11th, 2007 2:38 am
Like the new design. It doesn’t look like a blog anymore, but a portal of making money online ;)
Info4Beingrich - Earning Money Online Made Easy
August 11th, 2007 2:52 am
Darren,
This template is marvelous. This actually suits the personality of your blog. I cant wait to write about it on my blog and inform my readers about your design change.
sandossu
August 11th, 2007 2:53 am
It really looks very nice. I’m also thinking of a custom design, but i haven’t had time for it yet.
KimC
August 11th, 2007 3:21 am
Clean. Very clean.
One thing: I don’t much care for the idea of putting important info in the footer - I rarely look at the footers of the blogs I visit. But I do appreciate that you are trying to unclutter the main body and that appeals to this amateur reader.
Your ad section is also refreshingly easy on the eyes while still highly visible. Nicely done.
Practical Archivist
August 11th, 2007 3:28 am
Oooo! Even the comments section is sparkly clean. I am a strong advocate for uncluttered design and I think you’ve done a fantastic job in that sense.
I do miss the photo at top, though. (I realize you’ve kept the photo at the bottom of the blog and also on the About page). It feels more personal with a picture of you at the top. In the same way that a comment on a social network that includes an avatar feels more personal than one without. You are your brand, as they say.
The “What next?” section is brilliant. Once I escape blogspot purgatory I plan to nick that feature and add it to my blog. ; )
Jen / domestika
August 11th, 2007 3:42 am
The front page will probably take a little “getting used to” but I looooove the post pages, all bright and clean, and agree that the “What Next” section is a brilliant (and eminently swipe-able) idea! Thanks especially for a colour scheme that’s easy on the eyes. Well done, design team!
Jon - FreelanceFolder
August 11th, 2007 3:43 am
Darren, congrats on the new design it totally rocks! :)
I didn’t know Mike was working on a logo for you, that is so cool!
Mary Frances
August 11th, 2007 3:54 am
There’s a small goof in the next to last sentence of your About page.
“Please can stay in touch with what ProBlogger.net is up to best through one of our subscription methods.”
Todor
August 11th, 2007 4:05 am
Hi Darren,
I like the new design. I believe it is a matter of a week to get used to it and to feel comfortable with it.
One of the main benefits from the new theme is that the letters are bigger and you can read much easier then before.
Good work!
Dean Taplin
August 11th, 2007 4:18 am
First impressions - cracking design. I like it.
KiwiPulse
August 11th, 2007 4:20 am
I definitely like the new theme and the logo is very attractive. The ads are very soft and don’t affect my navigation!
Pat Gundry
August 11th, 2007 4:23 am
I’m finding the gray, smaller type more difficult to read too. It’s making me spend less time on the site, which disturbs me because I think your site is one of the most valuable on the net.
KingJacob
August 11th, 2007 4:31 am
Love the new design, It was definently needed though your font color could be darker.
Ginene
August 11th, 2007 4:55 am
I like it! It looks great!
Henk ter Heide
August 11th, 2007 5:41 am
Great minds think alike :)
I was planning the redesign of my site for this weekend.
Nice use of the footer.
MO
August 11th, 2007 5:46 am
Very first comment on your blog even if I’ve been reading it for a long time. I thought the launch of this new design was a great opportunity to let you know my appreciation of your work. Thank’s for all those tips and lessons.
And by the, I love the new architecture of this blog. :)
AL
August 11th, 2007 6:06 am
Now that’s a blog design worthy of an A-lister! Great job you guys!
Michael from Pro Blog Design
August 11th, 2007 6:13 am
The design looks fantastic, it really does. :D
What about re-adding the slogan though? For first time-visitors, I think it would be helpful in letting them know a little more about what this site is about.
I’ve written up a review of the new design if you’re interested in hearing it?
Eric Lander
August 11th, 2007 6:23 am
Very good stuff… Much better than I had expected, and it looks and feels great.
Simon
August 11th, 2007 7:07 am
Another thing I’ve noticed, some archive posts are displaying a little wonky with paragraphs changing styles (check out this post http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/11/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2007/ ), on some the text has gone incredibly small. I seems to be a problem with lists and paragraphs which have different styles applied. I’m on FireFox by the way.
vepa
August 11th, 2007 7:16 am
When I came to the website to check what is new my first thought was “I misstyped url” :) Till I found post at the top saying problogger redesigned. Looks great !
And where are adsense ads? we miss them ;)
Linux Operating System
August 11th, 2007 7:41 am
Great Job Darren! and congratulations for your team, I also liked your video! :) nice, it is something different.
Patrick
August 11th, 2007 8:04 am
A definite improvement! Good job.
Riihele
August 11th, 2007 8:54 am
Hei Darren.
CONGRATS on the new- look look! Vastly improved, for twas rather hard to see the trees from the wood in the old lay-out. This one is clear and non-cluttered with the clear lines of each section. Grand job. Keep writing, keep well.
Jason
August 11th, 2007 8:56 am
Very nice. It’s going to take some getting used to, but I like it.
Barbra
August 11th, 2007 9:01 am
Nice job! I would suggest changing the black background colour of the bottom-most section. It’s so hard to read text against a black background.
BMW European Delivery
August 11th, 2007 9:14 am
Are you going to release the old theme as a freebie? I’m sure a lot of people will love to use that theme and feel like Darren Rowse for a while, even though making less money :)
Brad V.
August 11th, 2007 9:28 am
I love the new design! Just one question: how do you determine when a blog is in need of an overhaul?
Alexandre Affonso
August 11th, 2007 9:49 am
It looks a bit strange on Safari for Mac.
Ryan Paul
August 11th, 2007 10:12 am
Sorry guy… I’m just not feeling this new design. It would be superb for an e-zine or something else… but not a blog.
I want to see a blog-type layout when I view a blog website. This feels too e-zine and commercialised.
The old design was better.
adam
August 11th, 2007 10:18 am
nice redesign — i especially like the new logo
big kudos darren, you inspired me to do a top 10 this week also =)
Darknight
August 11th, 2007 11:01 am
Cool New Design!! Really like it and look really proffesional with this new design!
Billy Chia
August 11th, 2007 11:14 am
Love. Love. Love the clean new design.
PC
August 11th, 2007 12:19 pm
Don’t really like new design though, prefer old orange theme!!!!
Love the new logo by the way.
Alex
August 11th, 2007 2:03 pm
Looks fabulous. Cheers on a great change!
Bali Tour Guide
August 11th, 2007 3:33 pm
I like this design more than the previous one. It looks great and the colour is softer too.
Mike
August 11th, 2007 4:56 pm
Looks great. A change is as good as a holiday!
dharana
August 11th, 2007 6:47 pm
Darren, in the front page the “featured post” is 2-3px wider than the two columns below them. Apart from that I would also reduce a little bit the size of the dates of comments or better yet I would make the comment’s text completely black. It may not look as aesthetically good but it would make reading the comments a lot easier. Right now both the comments timestamps and the text from the comments texts seem to be fighting for the protagonism.
dharana
August 11th, 2007 6:53 pm
I can’t find a way to subscribe to new comments on this entry. I think it was here before, just after the entry itself.
dharana
August 11th, 2007 6:57 pm
And one last thing, while browsing entries in ie6 the sidebar appears at the bottom between the left column and the footer. It also happens on the front page.
Steve
August 11th, 2007 7:11 pm
I really like the new design! Was it an in house template? Cause i am thinking about redesigning my site in the future and i like the basics. If you could let me know who designed it, it would be great thanks.
http://www.crenk.com
Dave
August 11th, 2007 8:20 pm
Hi Darren,
great to see that Problogger has finally been redesigned. Initial impressions are good, I like the clean, semi-corporate look that has been developed, and the front end leads you into exploring the site nicely.
Couple of small issues that you may or not be aware of -
ie7 on Vista, your sponsor sidebar is slightly messed up, with the graphics going to pot after the first two advertiser links,
Second one, using FF on NT, the very top links of the site (home/blog/archivse) etc are not flush like they are in IE.
Cheers
Dave
Philip Voice
August 12th, 2007 12:32 am
Well, I am now convinced that Darren is going to sell up.
This has more the look and feel of a corporate blog and the design looks to be a tidy up in advance of an announcement of a sale imo.
Who is likely to be the buyer?
Markk
August 12th, 2007 1:20 am
Looks like this is the year of makeovers for many blogs. This new-look is fresh and invigorating. Overall, a great job. However, there’s one minor grudge about the body text. In italics, it’s not easy to read. The post text should not be in italics because it weakens readability and not so legible. The sidebar text can stay italics for contrast. Most designers will have the same opinion.
Joe
August 12th, 2007 2:20 am
Hey Darren,
New design works well, looks great.
I didn’t read all 145 comments so I don’t know if anyone mentioned that the Old Logo still shows on the RSS Feed.
I also like the Footer, but you might want to recheck some of the spelling and things like “and” where it should be “an”.
Sorry, don’t mean to be critical, but I do really like the new setup.
David / Homeopathy Zone
August 12th, 2007 3:16 am
Nice and clean redesign!
My only comment is that the comments are hard to read on my 15″ SXGA+ (1400×1050) laptop screen. The text color is too light: one or two steps toward black would be better. (This also applies to the list formatting: why should it be lighter than the paragraph text?) Second (though perhaps less essential if the text is made darker), I would love to have the text slightly larger (it seems there is a wide right margin which could be narrowed, allowing the text-size to be bumped up slightly).
Markk
August 12th, 2007 6:12 am
Guess I’ve to come back and make another comment regarding the font. I’m not sure what you’re using. It’s visually weak in tone color. I guess you don’t want to use the common Arial or Verdana. A good sans serif font for body text would be Stone Sans or Myriad. Try it and see how it works out.
I also noticed that after I mentioned in an earlier comment about italicized text, you have gone ahead to change it to roman. That was quick response.! Kudos. Now it reads better. The next step now is to change to a sans serif font with more character as mentioned above.
Ben
August 12th, 2007 6:44 am
Markk - the font is set to Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif…we can’t use Myriad or Stone Sans because we need to use a font that is used on everyone’s computer. The italicized text hasn’t changed in font, it simply has a better line-height now.
Pat Gundry
August 12th, 2007 9:47 am
After a couple of days surfing around on the new design I’m finding myself among those who fervently wish for the old design back again. It’s not the same atmosphere, not so easily navigated in some ways.
Maybe what I’m saying could be summed up by it does not seem like a personal blog anymore, and the new design defeats the community atmosphere the old one had. That’s a serious flaw, I think, because it was the sense of being able to interact with a real person, Darren, and with each other on very practical and useful information that made this the great blog it’s been.
Now, it’s like we’re in a large open space–big building with shiny hard floors, needing to ask for directions. Whereas, before, it was a well loved and familiar place, with a real person there, accessable and friendly. And, in the comments, many opportunities to interact and visit commenters’ blogs. Now, everything is divorced from everything else, nicely linked, but the personal and group elements are muted or missing.
Don’t know if that’s constructive criticism or not. I am not even thinking of what I’ve said as criticism, but as a reporting of my own experience. It has been offputting enough for me that I’ve switched problogger.net to a link in my bookmarks rather than as my home page on my Netscape browser, which it was before the design switch.
Markk
August 12th, 2007 9:50 am
Hi Ben! Yeah, I totally forgot that Myriad and Stone Sans are not the common fonts on everyone’s PC. Now I believe you understand typography and I’m sure you’ll help fine tune the text.Cheers!
Fadzuli
August 12th, 2007 11:39 am
Wow this is really nice!!
waterylife
August 12th, 2007 11:54 am
nice, clear!
I browse it on IE6.0, find some bugs: the sidebar is not on the right of the content-body, it is under the comments. Can you see the bugs?
I am here in china, sorry for my english, hope you can understand what i say.
Vishaal bhat
August 12th, 2007 3:10 pm
Quite an interesting new design. I have been visiting your blog off and on and have benefited from it quite a lot. thanks for the helpful advice you give.
Keep up the good work and quite a pleasant surprise to see a new design after so long…
Amusis
August 12th, 2007 3:38 pm
What CMS/blogging software is this?
Asako
August 12th, 2007 5:21 pm
Wow, this is a great design, absolutely professional, and differentiate it from most of other blogs I look into. It is definitely “pro”blogger.
I am very interested in learning the thought behind the design as well as how you could execute this design with WordPress. I did not know you can have different templates between home page and post page.
And finally, I am curious if the design will have contributed to your $ increase and traffic increase, after a few months!
The logo is so cool. Do you plan to leverage the branding on other things as well? (e.g. T-Shirts, cups, pens)
Il Giornale di Copenhagen
August 12th, 2007 6:57 pm
dont find any bugs with safari. It will take some times to get used to the new design but it look nice.
Good job
Angling
August 12th, 2007 9:59 pm
Darren
I am not a fan of the new design at the moment, but I will give it time.
I am surprised that a blog for bloggers seems so far away from a traditional blog. You are showing people how to monetize a blog yet this design looks more like a drupral mash!!
Also as stated above you need your image there right at the top. The photo now hiding in the footer is PROBLOGGER, come on mate you tell us about creating a market identity and then in one you move you destroy your own………
Anyway the content is great as always and may be this is how blogs will all look by 2008 (I hope not though)
Kind regards
Jamie (The retro blogger!)
Rob O.
August 12th, 2007 10:07 pm
I’m digging the new look & added functionality! The logo is awesome and I really like the way comments are formatted now. Top notch, Darren & Ben!
Paros
August 12th, 2007 11:28 pm
Great Work Ben!!
Better SEO , Better Design, better logo, better advertising space SO BETTER MONEY !!!
Some META and it is finished
Steven
August 13th, 2007 12:38 am
Ben did a short write-up of his goals and ways of accomplishing them over at his website. I’m surprised no one linked this before me, but I have the inside ’scoop’ with Ben.
http://www.bleikamp.com/2007/08/11/redesign-of-probloggernet/
Enjoy
Ravi
August 13th, 2007 1:24 am
My blog has good traffic but i do think that if i redesign the same it may help in increasing traffic. Can you suggest a place to get blogger template as i am not using own domain.
thanks
Jason C.
August 13th, 2007 1:37 am
Hate it, it’s too