A Weekly Dose of Architecture, v2 Beta

For the last few months I've been slowly migrating my weekly page from old-fashioned html to WordPress. While I'm not even half way done I've decided to link to the new site to get some feedback on the v2 Beta version and to tweak it before the whole site is migrated. About five years worth has been put into WordPress (245 "doses" and 36 book reviews) with more added every week. Click the image below to visit the future home of a weekly dose of architecture.

weekly2.jpg

I'm currently using the Neutica theme, with some slight revisions, nothing major. I think it's a cool theme, even though the content is sometimes overshadowed by the other two columns; it's not a widescreen format in any way. If you have any comments on the design, layout and any features on the site, please post them on my v2 Beta page. I'm aware of some areas that need improvement, particularly the archive page and the shifting sidebar on short posts, but I'm sure there's plenty more that I'm not aware of. Any comments are appreciated.

Comments

  1. I like it, it is a lot easier to navigate... which is something I don't like about the current page, specially when I'm just browsing.
    I think the background color might be a little hard on the eyes though for long readings. That might just be my eyes though. You might want to space the title a little more as well.
    Looks good though, keep it simple and let the content speak for itself.
    Cheers,

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  2. I agree with Dustin.
    As you said, and like in many modern websites, I think there's also too much of the total space dedicated to the columns for article titles and details (author, date etc.) and to side nav (recent comments and so on) which leaves only a tiny half of the available width for main content... This is even more annoying on large resolutions where the main content is only featured on a small piece on the left of the screen (1920x1200 isn't rare for your main audience, mine is 2560x1440).
    Last thing: what's the point of the "recent doses" section if your articles are already ordered by date ? the last ones are on the left anyway...
    But the overall work is great, I hope to see the final version online soon !

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  3. This comments goes in the same direction as the previous.

    But I would like to add that I very much appreciate the colors chosen. It has something a little bit Old School about it and makes it fresh and different from the other blogs.

    Keep up the good work!

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  4. don't forget to migrate this amazing collection of links and blogs you have on your sidebar!! whenever i want something ew to read or check out i always try a new link from these! please?

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  5. Dustin - Regarding the current page's browsing, I'm not sure if you're referring to my weekly page or the daily blog. The latter needs to be updated, as it uses Blogger's old formatting. For my weekly page I've worked hard on making the archiving browsable in different ways, especially the sortable archive. I'll probably keep that page as an archive for full and half doses for both the weekly and daily pages.

    Damien - Given that WordPress is open source, I'm going to look into reformatting the main column to at least 600 pixels. Right now the images are small (taken directly from the old pages) and are clickable larger views. A wider column will enable some of the pages to have large enough images they don't need to be enlarged.
    The "recent doses" shows up on all pages, so comes to a specific pages on the site by a search engine then they can see what is recent.

    super_marchitecte - I like the color, too, much better than the yellow of the default Neutica. I chose something between that and the current weekly page orange.

    Pharaoh - The sidebar isn't going anywhere, because this blog is staying put. (But I'll admit, as I did with Dustin's comment, that the blog needs some reformatting to make browsing easier.) It's just my old weekly page that is migrating. For most people having two pages is probably confusing, but I started the weekly page five years before the blog, so I have a hard time absorbing it into the blog. The structure of the weekly page is more formal than the blog, so it makes sense to me to keep them separate.

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  6. It doesn't have an hirargie through color. It needs an support color. Like you have here light and darkgrey and orange. And perhaps you could tone down the black to a dark grey for an easier/softer contrest.

    The layout is very good.

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  7. Colors look like chocolate. And cafe with cream with an alfajor.

    Horizontal lines fill the space giving a nice an overall read, and I like the fact there are no vertical lines.

    Very monochromatic. Very simple.

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