It's always tough love with layouts. The minute you feel you're finally done with one, and it can only get better from here (HA!), things start going downhill. With jetpacks. I guess it's the fact that you finally get used to a layout, and after that, you can't go anywhere but down. The text looks too big, the graphics unappealing, the loading time slow — and then you figure it out: you really don't like your layout that much anymore. That said, here's the big and entirely unexpected surprise: my parents are bonobos, and I got dumped in the human end of the gene pool.
Okay, maybe not that. But I am redesigning my site. The new (and very lovely) layout is entirely valid, the code is light, the CSS is satisfactory — and therein lies the problem. Internet Explorer 7 hates my guts.
The anatomy of a layout
I felt pretty proud of myself this time around. First, I sketched the layout on a piece of legal pad paper that I didn't even refer to while I was making the layout (it was that hammered into my mind). To make sure I wouldn't repeat mistakes, I wrote down all the faults of my old layout and then drew a way to fix them. Where the layout was a little too wide, it became fluid. Where the navigation wasn't very prominent, I made it evident instead. Where I didn't seem to have much room to write before, without it becoming strained, I am now the proud owner of an optical illusion — by making the margin between the right column and the text in the left larger, and by making the font-size smaller, I will be able to fit more text into a given area without overcrowding it, or leaving myself without enough room to write.
I haven't added accesskeys yet because I'm weighing the necessity. Good accessibility practices say to add them, but I don't especially value them, nor do I want to try to make them prominent and evident. When trying to balance semantics, accessibility, and having a pretty layout, often some things just get left behind, and I'm feeling accesskeys are among those things. Besides that, certain keys are already integrated into a browser's UI. Even though I want to scrap my 1-9 numbering system, I pretty much can't. Bye bye, accesskeys!
The style
I'm very inspired by grunge, but because I have a color palette of pinks, mauves, and grays, I decided to soften the grunge and make it feel more like...paper. I think it adds a romantic touch to the layout. The only problem is, while trying to save file size, I did lose a little quality (it's only evident on a few images) but I hope it plays into the style rather than throwing it out completely.
I maintained two columns because I'm eventually (hoping) going to add [Google] advertisements to the sides; hopefully, I can maintain that without clogging them with images and bullets and things I've been unable to throw away. I'm a bit of a packrat, even with file space. I'll manage to save a good deal because most of my images are background images, which saves at least 10 KB. In addition to this, because the HTML and CSS are very lightly done, I'll probably save a few megabytes of file-size. Take that, giant Movable Type files!
The nitty gritty
Internet Explorer 7 was supposed to be wake-up call, and for the most part, it is. But it's irritating — Explorer still doesn't like margins. Not only does it double them, but sometimes, it flat-out ignores them. I have it fairly consistent throughout the three major browsers I have access too — Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera — but, goodness, Microsoft! Can you make it a little less ass-tarded to make a semi-complicated layout?
Why can't I see it?
It's not quite ready yet, but you'll be very aware when the time comes for the switch! For one, I'll be extremely exuberant, and secondly, you won't have to wait for about three hours to see the main page. And then, the most magical of layouts will unveil itself, and all will be awed. Or, if not, toss me a bit of criticism! I very sincerely want to build an igloo out of the multitude of comments I've been getting, and this seems like a perfect opportunity to legitimize both the commenting and the hate-mail I hope will ensue.
Read 4 comments (Leave a comment?)
Jenny said:
I haven’t actually seen the new IE7, and even so - I suppose I’ll refuse to change my site (if it looks bad, and because my layout is just percentages, margin and padding - it probably does) because there’s always the text version that uhm, looks okay.
I’ve never actually tried that thing with the paper, I’ve wanted to but I usually just begin to code to the liking - that being said: you should post those blueprints!
Really, I quite like this layout so I suppose I’ll be quite thoroughly impressed with the next. ;)
Posted on November 26, 2006 8:38 AM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Actually, instead of downloading the browser, try installing the IE Tab extension for Firefox! It’s really easy to use, and it gives you a pretty good idea of how your site will look in IE :) I don’t actually know how many people have switched to IE7 yet, but at least the add-on is cool!
Definitely, but scanning them will be tough. Legal paper was never meant to fit perfectly in a scanner, so I’ll have to make it smaller :)
I like this layout, but it feel so cluttered. The next one will hopefully be good deal better :)
Posted on November 26, 2006 11:53 AM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
I’ve downloaded IE7 and I can say that besides fixes in the bugs and security holes…
IE6 was better.
I can’t stand the new layout, their tabbing isn’t as smooth as Firefox.
IE7 hates my dropdown menu, but so does Firefox. I still need help on that damn thing…
Posted on November 27, 2006 9:09 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Yeah, it feels too bloated. But what’s worse is that, unless you find a tutorial on how to stop it from overriding IE6, IE7 overrides it which is no fun for anyone. I would much rather fix my site for IE6 than growl about tiny errors in IE7 that I can’t fix without feeling a bit guilty that I’m somehow increasing the longevity of the American cockroach by doing so.
Posted on November 27, 2006 9:29 PM; Permalink