FINALLY updated my site theme (thanks to Melooon)

[Dan Q]

I've been working on a new theme for DanQ.me for... well over a year. It never seemed finished (it still doesn't!).

But, mostly inspired by @Melooon's "Is is Web Revial?" quiz (huge thanks, man!), this week I bit the bullet and asked "what's the absolute minimum I could do to launch this... and then maybe I can fix it up with anything else I want to change along the way".

I've got like a bajillion half-implemented ideas that I'd originally planned to wait on... but that's just not the Web Revival way, is it? So yeah: release today. Fix another day. That's the Web Revival way.

So yeah: I've relaunched DanQ.me and I'd love any feedback.

Here's some of the things I'm proud of:

• "Danaboos": animated avatars I've drawn of myself (and my dog), that change their hair and t-shirt colour based on the user's selection via the "dress-up" menu
• Less clean-and-boring layout, colours, and special pages, plus lots of underlying changes that make it easier for me to make weird one-off pages without breaking other stuff
• New "lightboxes" (I've talked about them on the forum before) including alt-text-on-demand
• A handful of wacky fun Easter eggs (try clicking the "under construction" icons on the homepage!)
• Most of the (thousands) of pages I already have seem to mostly work 
• Still got belting performance, which always pleases me

It's hard building on top of a site that's going on 30 years old while trying not to break anything that already exists. But Melooon's quiz reminded me that it's okay (perhaps even good?) for things to be a little bit broken sometimes, and I need to be a little bit bolder and a little bit more-adventurous. 'Cos that's how we make a Web that's more-like the Web I want to see!

[Noah_S]

I just happened to visit a few minutes ago. Color looks good

[Melooon]

This is cool, I'm glad my quiz had an impact (I rewrote it 4 times trying to get it right!). I really enjoy the dress-up feature and the way it spills over into dressing up the site as well as your avatar, that's an idea I've never seen before 

If you want core critical design feedback, you could look more at where the depth on the page is. In some places you have drop-shadows suggesting depth, but other things on the same page have no shadow and appear flat. On some pages you have things that are really deep like the podcast episodes that float up, but then the nav has no depth at all, its fully flat; and then background is suggesting depth, but the page elements are not making use of that yet.

Its not a hard rule to get stuck into, but Id figure out a loosly-standard idea of, what is foreground, what is background, what is floating, and what is heavy, then use that as a guide to decide shadows and animations. That's all CSS balancing though and stuff you can easily work into it over time.

Overall though its more inviting than the stark white page before and it sits really well! 

[John]

I really like the redesign! It's a harmonious amalgamation of the more straightforward, professional style from before with more playful and charming design elements.

Also, but this might just be my strange brain, I find the site easier to navigate. With very sleek page designs I feel like my eyes just glance off the content. I need something to grip my attention and your new design manages to do that.

The only glaring problem I see is the inconsistent finger count on your avatars. : P

[Dan Q]

he only glaring problem I see is the inconsistent finger count on your avatars.

Oh shit, I thought I'd standardised! I taught myself Inkscape for this project, so my style changed and improved a lot from the oldest to newest "Danaboos" (and I'm calling them).

Edit: I think I'm good: four fingers and one thumb every time, right???

[John]

The Danaboo peeking over the nav bar appears to only have three fingers (plus a hidden thumb) on each hand, though he may have broken an index finger or little finger to bend them out of view, of course. : P (The observation was meant more as a joke, though, since I didn't have any other, more substantial, criticism.)

[rnottelovesowls]

it looks really nice! dare i say it, less "corporate-looking" than the old layout. so basically, an inverse of the typical modern website revamp hehe also, love the little dress-up game you have with your avatar. my only real complaint is the nav-bar, because since it's always open, it takes up a lot of space. maybe instead it can have drop-down menus with the blog filters and dress-up options, etc.? but, aside from that, it looks great. well done!

[Dan Q]

the nav-bar, because since it's always open

That sounds like a bug: the 'blog', 'dress-up' and 'filter' sections should be drop-downs and hidden away most of the time. What browser are you using?

[rnottelovesowls]

That sounds like a bug: the 'blog', 'dress-up' and 'filter' sections should be drop-downs and hidden away most of the time. What browser are you using?

i was using pale moon on windows 7, with ublock origin. the drop-down menus worked on firefox on my iPad, though. so, hehe, i suppose it was just a "my browser stinks" problem