Redesigning The Artful Writer: Suggestions?

The ability to edit posts would be nice.

Derek:

That’s something that plugins in WordPress allow you to do. One big reason I want to switch to it. Movable Type’s commenting system is kind of sucktastic. In addition to comment editing, WP also has plugins for live comment previewing, so you can see in real-time if your formatting is coming out the way you want.

I like the freakin’ quill.

I vote for two columns, with a larger content section. You might want to put a “Best of Blog” section in the sidebar that highlights what you think are a couple of the most interesting or important posts. Also, I would change the text-to-background contrast.

I think you’re going to upgrade the site you should also upgrade the faux writing instrument. A pen makes sense, though if you’re feeling bold I say go straight to the typewriter. That would send a clear message…

The resizing is a good feature. People use different browsers and have different screen resolutions. Without resizing you either have to select a small width, like 600 pixels, or people with a 600 pixel resolution will be scrolling to read a page. I always allow resizing.

I think the three columns also work well. That allows you to place more content on a single page view at a time.

The fonts are currently resizing when a user resets their font size (use CTRL and +, or CTRL and -), which should be kept, too.

I think the analogous color scheme is nice. But, I can see where changing it is nice too. A different color scheme like blues or greens might work. But keeping the colors analogous is always my preference.

Another point about color. When you read, it’s easier on the eyes if it’s not high contrast, as it is with black type against white background. As it is now, you have the rust type against the tan background which is low contrast and very good for reading. You might notice some sites with black backgrounds that have this effect, too. Though, black may be too extreme.

Your current RSS feed has too much content, I think. It’s actually the entire blog. It would be much better to abbreviate that with just a small version of the image for each topic and then a short sentence with a link. But of course, that will require for someone to constantly type up that RSS content. Though, if the blog is coming from a database, there should be a way to automate this. Perhaps WordPress does it.

Love the name, love the QUILL…

…even love the sound of the word, “quill”.

When having a serious discussion in one of the writing rooms, I would love to be able to “lock” the door.

Lisa, are you talking about chat? Cuz that’s a whole ‘nother bit of software.

Jon, I hear what you’re saying about RSS. I’ll have to think about how to do that without using the usual solution, which is to split entries into teasers and then “read the rest of this entry” sections.

Your font is a little too small which makes it hard to read.

…and I like the quill, too. :-)

In the forum, it’s weird how you can be logged in and reading a post but if you click someone’s link to another post in the same forum it makes you log in again.

I find the overall design to be inoffensive and really, what more can you ask for?

I like the whole thing really. I like the logo a lot, and the color scheme is nice, though a touch unreadable at times, with the small font and weak contrast.

I like resizable widths, but the site is hard to read on my wife’s widescreen monitor. As monitors get bigger, support higher resolutions, and move to 16:9 aspect ratios, fluid layouts can get tricky. If you didn’t do three columns, it would be unreadable already under those conditions.

As for the columns, it’s worth noting that other than to browse the archives, I have never felt the urge to go wandering the links. They just fade into the background, and the list of recent entires is so long is almost looks like a design element. Enter the forum is big, but still doesn’t grab my eye, because it seems attached to the search field. You have a top bar type navigation (which I’ve also never skimmed) but it doesn’t match the links on the left under “Navigation”, and it also just looks like a design element. There needs to be some serious thought to prioritizing the huge amount of information you’ve got, and making it more accessible.

What the muted colors and ignorable side columns give you though, is nice prioritization of the blog itself in the eyes of readers. It almost gives you a faux static width, constraining the width of the effective content to a little less than half of the page, nicely centered, and not distracted from. I really like that, and don’t want you to lose it.

I know a number of good designers with a WordPress background, most of whom I work with. I don’t want this to turn into an advertisement for the company I work with (especially since full disclosure of their weakness would make this post longer than your request for comment), but if you’re interested, email me and I can give you contact information and some examples. They’re nice people, fair priced, and talented, though I cannot promise their availability.

Thanks for the great resource.

Whatever you decide, keep in mind that many (most?) of your readers have you on RSS feed and see absolutely NOTHING from the site unless we comment. So changes meant to appeal to existing readers will probably be wasted unless they are directly related to commenting.

The column bar under the Artful title, “Copyright, Credits, Glossary…” is a bit random. In fact, after a year of posting on this blog I didn’t even know you could click on them.

Perhaps you should move that under NAVIGATION?

Chicks, Craig.

Pictures of Hot Chicks Married to Successful Writers - pictures from red carpet events.

That’s what I want, at least - and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

Right, Lisa?

Ok, seriously -

Maybe make the Forum entry Even More Obvious to lure in Fresh Generation Y Blood —

maybe a Dante’s Inferno-Inspired Entry Gate.

I disagree with Derek - the beauty of online debates is that the words are there, in black and white, till the sun burns out. Making backpaddling hard and exposing liars and hypocrites easy - and fun.

Oh, and the quill’s gotta go!

<<<<<< I disagree with Derek - the beauty of online debates is that the words are there, in black and white, till the sun burns out. Making backpaddling hard and exposing liars and hypocrites easy - and fun. >>>>>

I agree with Johnny, yet again. Thus signalling the 7th sign of the apocalypse. We’re all doomed. Doomed, I tellz ya.

First thoughts, off the top of my head (might have more later):

1. My graphic artist-web design friends once told me that, on-screen, sans-serif fonts are easier to read over serif fonts. Pixels mess with the serifs in unpredictable ways (so it can be perfectly readable on your monitor, but not on someone else’s). Personally, I took this news a bit hard because I LOVE serif fonts but I objectively looked over web pages and saw that they made a valid point. The New York Times Online seems to have found a serif font that looks consistently clean & sharp.

2. From a branding perspective, I’d keep the colors or work within the same palette. That will allow you to move things around while preserving the look and feel. In my personal experience, when I visit a website I’ve visited before after they’ve dramatically changed the color scheme, I often think I must’ve found the wrong site and click back to Google and do a re-search, only to learn I had gone to the right site the first time.

Also, personally, I really like the colors - they are very easy on the eyes and project a classy ambience.

1. This is totally personal preference, but I like the look of 3 columns with the header over the two left columns and the third column to the right starting at the top. For a visual sample of what I am talking about, go here. This page has a thumbnail at the top — if you scroll down, you’ll see a full-size version.

For those of you who appreciate comment permanence, the good news is that the WP plugin that lets you edit your own comments is time-based. You get a 30 minute window (or whatever I specify, could be 5 minutes or 10 or 1) in which to edit your comment.

“appreciate it-?!

No, sir, we want it - we DEMAND it!

60 seconds is all I’d give those pussies who feel the need to retract a statement BEFORE anyone’s even taken offense to it - or worse, who want to fix spelling errors in their posts.

And how about adding a ticking clock or a flashing countdown after you hit POST ?

This comment will be eternal in 59…

58…

I LOVE apple pie.

But I HATE apple crisp.

(Do you get what I’m saying, Craig?)

Do whatever you want, just keep the quill. Please. I love the quill. And the colours. Everything else can go to hell for what I care. Just let me keep the quill.

I’d make it much clearer that there are forums that are not on the blog. There’s a link for “enter the forum” but it’s not clear that it is a portal to a whole world of discussions. Maybe a graphic? (Of, you know, a forum?) Maybe in addition to “enter the forum,” a line or two that explains what the forum is and why you’d want to enter it?

The current colors and column widths are easy on my eyes, and its open layout makes it easy to find what I’m looking for. Also, the code is pretty tight and runs well even on my old laptop, which I appreciate too. So, unless you fold everything up into a bunch of fancy roll-down menus or switch to colors that are whacked then I’d be curious to see what you come up with.

However, I really just visit for the content… and to watch Talbott and the other pros go back and forth. Still, now that I think about it, there are a lot of good things about the current design that I’ve been taking for granted all this time.

And, if it makes a difference, I think the quill is cool.

Jefe, it may be that you are accessing the forum using “www.theartfulwriter.com” (or even with or without the “www.” part): if the link isn’t the same site name then the “other site” can’t read your login cookie (well, usually). I always access the forum from the main page, which skips the “the” regardless, and I haven’t had that problem. Admittedly, though, this is only a wild guess.

I really like the feather logo. It reminds me that this is a blog about American Indians and their culture…

Oh, wait. It’s not.

Craig, you’re clearly just trying to start a coolest-commenting-system arms race. This will end in tears for all of us. I suggest you instead emulate Jane Espenson’s snail-mail model, except here’s the thing — only accept telegrams.

No, Mr. August.

Carrier pidgeons.

Regarding the RSS feed. Please continue putting the entire article in the RSS feed. That is how I read the website, in NetNewsWire. It’s much more convenient than just having a blurb that links to the full article.

John:

You know me all too well.

This won’t end until we’re both on the ground. Like Leonardo and Daniel Day Lewis at the end of Gangs of New York.

I will be scratching at your eye with a quill.

You will be stabbing my neck with a brad.

the SnapShot previw is, i think, pretty useless and it makes my computer go very slow and i cannot make it disappear because i always erase my cookies (you know, porn websites…).

i like the colors, of the site, but it is true that sometimes long text or long comments are difficult to read because of the the font. and i would draw a line between every comment to make it clearer.

otherwise it is a great blog. don’t change the content of it! ;)

Yeah, the snap preview thing will probably go buh-bye.

There’s a general consensus that the font is too small, so I’ll bump the size up.

Agreed on the comments. I think I’ll probably go with an alternating background shade, which seems standard on WordPress.

Most people seem to like the color scheme, so I’ll stick with that as best I can.

And yes, I’ll keep the quill, y’all.

I’m gonna reduce the number of recent entries to the right.

The Forum link will be brought out in a much bigger way. I’m gonna lose the navbar entirely, and break the categories out in a column.

I’m going to simplify the links section down to the bare minimum.

Still not sure if it will be 2 or 3 columns (I’ll probably stay with 3, since it’s sort of basic to the site’s “newspapery” feel), but I’m pretty committed to the fluid resizing style. I just like that better.

Personally, I like the overall look and ease of use. The only thing I’d like would be an opportunity to edit, not so much to retract regretfully bumptious remarks, but to fix syntax or clarify ideas not accurately expressed in the first flush of writing on the fly.

Don’t know about the rest of you, but I find that thoughts become more clarified after getting them down and saved. That ol’ writing is rewriting thing.

I know there’s the preview option, but there’s something about the finality of a “save” that stimulates the juices to the next level.

The process reminds me of a story attributed to Somerset Maugham in which he said he became a writer because he would think of the better thing to say driving HOME from the party.

i dig the quill. whatever you change, please keep the color scheme on the lighter side. for those of us who browse while at work, dark colored websites are a like a flag to bosses and coworkers that we’re slacking off. (see the unknown screenwriter’s blog for what i’m talking about.)

cheers,

jr

To the people who can’t read or have a hard time reading this blog: Your eyes are just bad or fading to be bad (because of age or whatever genetic reaseons). I can read this blog perfectly. On the other hand I don’t hear well (which is not important for this blog). And I admit that. I know a lot of people who realized after a test that they don’t see aswell as they thought.

So, just use what Jon Raymond suggested: CTRL and +, or CTRL and -, to resize the fonts.

Tom

I’m a big fan of Wordpress, having just investigated a number of blog software, deciding on WP, and then installing half-a-dozen different instances for different blogs.

A couple of suggestions: 1) I recommend the OpenID plugin. This allows people to post as an account from another site, such as Livejournal or Wordpress.com without having to create a new account on your site. (It does sometimes require a little bit of tweaking with templates to add the new login box).

2) Use the CompleteRSS plug-in in order to send all of your post content to the RSS feeds even if you use the (more) feature (Dear Ken Levine…).

3) You should be able to create rewrite rules to make the change over seamless. For instance, permanently redirect /index.xml to /feed in order to not break existing feed subscribers.

4) The Wordpress Mobile plug-in is very handy for generating code for mobile devices. It does tend to put ads on your content so you may want to tweak the source to avoid them.

Other handy plug-ins I use are Swift SMTP (because my host disables the mail() function), Google Sitemaps (for generating the sitemap.xml file for search engines), SlimStat-Ex (cool stats, don’t know how use they are, yet), and FeedBurner FeedSmith (redirects all my feeds to FeedBurner).

If you’d like I can do template design for Wordpress, I’m not a superstar at design but I do ok (I’ll probably get my designer chick friend to help me). I am good at development if you want anything special. On the other hand, I wouldn’t charge much (if anything) because, you know, networking and the biz and all that. ;)

It’s a mystery to me why people have sites with black or dark background and white text. Why make it harder for people to read your writing?

I tend not to read black blogs but Macs have this handy function (which was probably introduced to deal with stupid black blogs):

Press ctrl and alt and Command and 8 and all the colours are reversed. Repeat and the screen reverts back to normal.

I’m not a fan of anonymous or psuedonymous posting. Can anything be done about that? If not, then is there a way at least to prevent someone from posting under multiple psuedonyms?

• Ted

I second Ted’s suggestion, wholeheartedly.

Totally agree: the Craigslist Open Forum was a cool place once upon a time, but it got overrun with juvenile jerks determined to dish out inane insults from the cover of complete anonymity.

Even a simple “handle” registration requirement like the Forum here has seems to make members behave more maturely.

Totally agree: the Craigslist Open Forum was a cool place once upon a time, but it got overrun with juvenile jerks determined to dish out inane insults from the cover of complete anonymity.

Even a simple “handle” registration requirement like the Forum here has seems to make members behave more maturely.

Ted,

Wordpress gives you several options when it comes to posting comments. You can require that only registered users be allowed to post. Or you can require that people enter their name and e-mail (which allows multiples handles per person).

I like the current design and color scheme for the most part but agree with those who have suggested streamlining things; the stuff available via the homepage is all good, but there’s just so much that it’s a little overwhelming.

Maybe you could put links on a separate page, or at least move most of them to a separate page. For example, leave the Navigation links as they are, but then maybe just have a button that will lead to a links page and move the Guilds, Law, Writing and Interesting links there (it’s great that they’re categorized, though; I wouldn’t lose that).

You’ve mentioned reducing the number of recent entries, which I think is a great idea. Limit it to five or 10 and maybe move them to the left, then make the focus of the right-hand column a prominent link/button that will drive people to the forums. (If it isn’t there already, you might add a “forums” link under the Navigation heading, BTW; it would be redundant but might catch the attention of a few people.)

I agree that the navigation bar at the top is nice but too easy to overlook.

Would love to see editable comments and also like the idea of disallowing totally anonymous comments if possible, if only because that would cut down on the number of “Um, that anonymous comment above was mine, I just forgot to fill out my name” comments. :-)

Here are a couple of basic suggestions. I’ll try and think of more later on, take em as you wish, and good luck!

1) Include a “Best of” section.

2) Add tags. Available in MT 3.2 and up, I believe. Go back and add tags to old posts as you have time. This will make navigation much easier.

3) Change the colors up! The design as it stands looks outdated. No actual suggestions on what to use though.

4) Two or three columns are both good, but if you’re going to use three, make the main (content) column at least 10% wider than it is now.

5) Play with the fonts a bit, try something a little more modern. Like Calibri, or Trebuchet (or Mac equivalents).

6) Fluid designs or pretty much the norm right now, so I’d try to stick with that. It just makes it much easier on people with larger or smaller than normal screen resolutions. Almost make font sizes a percentage (ie: 110% instead of 12px. or whatever the case may be), so text stays closer-to-uniform across all screen sizes.

On a side note, you will have a hell of a time migrating from MT to WP with an established blog. I’ve tried it a couple of times and always end up losing half of my hair. I would upgrade to the latest stable version of MT, or at the very least wait for MT 4.0, which promises to be a lot better. WP in its stock form isn’t nearly as functional as MT, although (I’ve heard) it can be moreso with plugins. To each his own I guess.

Anonymous posting sucks.

Anonymous posting RULEZ!

Please keep the full feeds. Its difficult for me to follow partial feeds, and if you search google you will see a lot of evidence I’m not the only one.

Finding a way to eliminate the double and triple posts of comments would be great.

I’m going against apparent consensus here, but I think the whole quill thing is a horrid cliche. Smacks of junior high lit mags. The screen behind the banner at the top is also very murky and looks like about four dpi. Most everyone is highspeed these days, so a sharp, tight graphic would be a lot more eyecatching. The tired 18th century faux font could go, too. That sort of thing has become an internet cliche.

Ted:

There’s really little I can do in an open system to prevent multiple pseudonyms, which is why I do nothing to prevent anonymity either.

What about guest columns from other screenwriters, so you can have a new post every day, or even more than one a day?

“What about guest columns from other screenwriters, so you can have a new post every day, or even more than one a day?”

That’s actually a great idea…from that no name bastard.

Hm, you could check with the Zoe people to see how they determine if multiple people are signing in from one computer - it appears at the bottom of any ‘name bio’ you click on.

It might give pause to some of the anon-trolls.

Also, the CL Open Forums, where I was a very active member on occasion under the handle of

(I just know I’ll regret this)

“Hunter” did occasionally require registration during times when “trolling” was really bad - and it did seem to curtail the problem.

But for whatever reason, they would always go back to the open “no registration required” style after a while. I’m not sure why.

As a matter of course, I’m obviously not a big fan of anon posters, and I’m certainly no fan of trolls.

However, in the long run, the easiest way for me to run this place with the least hassle is in a laissez-faire style, and unfortunately my ease of administration is a large consideration for me.

I do think that the best prescription for trolls is, and always has been, very simple: don’t feed them.

Travis,

You’re Hunter from Craigslist?!

I’m pretty sure you gave me herpes.

Please keep the 3 columns.

There’s a whole line of typographical/graphic design research that describes how narrower columns make it easier for the eye to scan.

Quill: unless you want to change it to an ink-brush/scraping tool, please keep. The contrast between ye olde-worlde tools and the discussions is what characterises the site.

I’m no website pro, so cannot comment further.

Big up for the site, Craig!

I think it would be interesting to redesign the logo and have a piece of art come out of a typewriter…

The brown tends to depress me…

(my two coppers for what they’re worth these days)

I’m no php or design guru, but I do love wordpress due to the amount of plug-ins available that’ll do everything from sorting through your junk mail to ironing your sweatsocks. I do agree that getting rid of the quill and “grandpa-slacks brown” color theme would spruce the place up.

Kill the Quill.

Love the Quill, don’t change the freakin Quill, unless you decide to put a feather in its cap!

Love the Quill, don’t change the freakin Quill, unless you decide to put a feather in its cap!

Love the Quill, don’t change the freakin Quill, unless you decide to put a feather in its cap!

Can’t you just download the templates and other bits you like from Wordpress, then just paste them into your own html code?

I always think Ted’s posts are your posts when I first start reading them. Sure, the name at the bottom is different (and so is the writing style) but it still confuses my feeble brain when I start reading something in “your voice” then realize halfway through that it’s actually supposed to be “Ted’s voice.” Maybe you could give him a different background color? Like your posts could be Artful Writer brown and his could be Wordplay green or something. Just a thought.

Dammit, and here’s where that editing feature would come in handy. I obviously meant “wordplayER green.”

I suggest stripping it dow and muting the colors. As an example check out Emily Had An Afro.

Any more thoughts about this in your copious spare time, Craig?

I left off blogging for a year in part because I was experiencing such a steep learning curve with WordPress. I restarted a couple of weeks ago and am finding WP 2.3 much easier. Plus I found a nice clean theme I like very much, and I like how easily modular the sidebar features are, as well as the wealth of user-designed plugins and widgets. Consider it.