August 2008 Archives
After the redesign of El Canasto, it was time to redesign Brain tags, which had been using a MT default template for some time now. I found the excellent Mid-Century templatea good fit, and after some minor modifications I applied the style.
I also took the opportunity to change the publishing model from a fulle static model to a static model with some dynamic components for some sidebar widgets. This allows me to include recent information (entries, comments) on all pages without having to rebuild them and while still taking advantage of the higher performance of static publishing. This is a very nive feature of the new 4.2 release of Movable Type.
Read more about the redesign on Brain Tags.
I have just upgraded Movable Type to version 4.2, and am really thrilled with the new features. I updated the templates of Brain Tags to see how the new features work ou, and can't wait to implement some of them (threaded comments, cached widgets, include modules, ..) on El Canasto.
I also like the way I can navigate between templates now, having all template categories on a single page.
The first step in the redesign process was creating a new logo. As my graphical skills are far below the required level, I posted a design contest at 99designs, with incredible results. Meanwhile I already tweaked the MT templates to improve SEO and to adapt them for my view of a presonal productivity site.
When the logo was finished, I settled on a colour scheme and crafted the stylesheets and images for the new theme, with great help of my princess.
This week I published the new design with very positive results. I immediately saw an increase in visitors and forum activity and received many positive reactions on the new design.
