Behind the Scenes: Going Meta
>> 3.11.2010
When watching Matthew Stafford's AXE Hair Action Challenge videos, I suspected the existence of an outtake reel—a reel which, if it existed, the world deserved to see. I was glad to discover I my suspicions were well-founded, and the good people at AXE fulfilled their duty to the global populace.
I like blogging the way I blog: solo instead of team, independent instead of part of a network, as a hobby instead of full-time. There’s a purity of purpose, and of content, that I think is rare and special. There is, however, a downside: any time not spent writing is time I'm not writing. Answering email is not writing. Tweeting is not writing. Reading other blogs, and commenting on them, are not writing. Finally, working on my site’s appearance is most definitely not writing.
Most of those things still connect with you all, still involve share my thoughts, and are satisfying to me and to you. However, working on the site itself is isolated, solitary work that bears no fruit until the work is done. Meanwhile, TLIW withers on the vine while everyone patiently waits for me to, you know, write.
So.
The current layout is far from perfect. It roughly matches the vision in my head, but does so at the expense of being excruciatingly slow to load, kind of glitchy, and not particularly professional. According to Google Analytics, an embarrassingly high percentage of people come here, go “BLEH”, and leave without reading or clicking on anything.
I'm trying to find a balance between "clean" and "my vision". Fortunately, my vision is pretty clean, so it's just a matter of execution. I'm trying to maintain the overall impression of the site, but make it much quicker and user-friendly. If you want to track the evolution of the changes, poke your head in at http://tliwindraft.blogspot.com. BE FOREWARNED:
- Nothing works.
- Nothing looks good.
- Nothing is decided for sure.
- Yes, I know.
That having been said . . . have at it! Meanwhile, I'm going to be writing.
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5 comments:
Web developer advice:
Kill the double-right column, it's messy and they're never user friendly.
Current header image is much better then that one.
I like the wider content column, but make it wider yet (see point one for where to get the space) and increase your font size a little for readability.
Personally, I read the blog in an RSS reader so the layout doesn't matter much to me. I guess it didn't turn me off the first time I arrived here.
I mean, we're all LIONS fans. An ugly blog is still probably prettier than what we're used to ;)
I prefer the original layout with narrower columns. But the most important thing is the words, so whatever's easier man.
The new one is easier on the eyes. Keep up the good work.
Teebs
Ty, I just want to personally thank you for your insightful knowledge of all things "Detroit football." You have been left here to try and rekindle whatever ember might be left for us to enjoy, for that I am grateful. Your words are spoken true and without bias and with that you have seperated yourself from a lot of other sites. Keep up the good work and let all of the critics remember you can't judge a book by its cover. Thanks again, hopeful in the U.P.
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