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Sorry for the long absence! I was applying a new theme in this beginning of 2008 which reflects things I learned during 2007. I didn’t build it from scratch, I re-designed it instead. The theme author did a great job I think, since the theme saved me a lot of time.

A lot of changes from the old one so there may be a little adjustment to our views. As you can see, the new theme consists of 3 columns. I dedicate the first column to contents, the second one majority to links and the majority third column is advertisements.

Starting from the top, right after the headline banner lies a list of static pages. There are new pages added. Click through them to see what’s behind!

Followed by links to my articles so they’re gonna be the first things the visitors will see without having to scroll all the way down. They will picture what this blog is all about in first sight. Maybe it’s not good enough for SE robots since they’ll be reading through the title links prior to finding the content, but more important is how this blog is navigation friendly to humans than it is to bots. Aside of the articles, there’s also an RSS and email feed subscription…(btw, have you subscribed? ).

One of the navigation features I keep in this new theme is “breadcrumb”. You can find it after the menu section and before the list of articles I mentioned above (begins with “you’re here”). Hansel and Gretel used breadcrumbs to find their way home (although they didn’t work, the birds ate them). The same purpose is expcted, that is to inform visitors which category or time period the articles they’re viewing falls to.

Let’s get down to content. The content column was made not as wide as the old theme because I learned that human eyes read best in narrow columns and I see almost all bloggers do the same thing, so it’s more than enough reason to apply it. After each content I list up some related articles. This again, also ease readers when they’re looking for something more to read and telling them that there are more information related to what they’ve just read. There’s also an option to rate the articles or to bookmark them to share with others.

In the mid-section there are options to view articles in certain time period or categories. You can also find my partners and services I use in the “Partners” and “ServicesOther Interests” section. Lower, you can see the site’s stats, product offers (take a look! maybe you need one ! ) and an Entrecard.

The right most section begins with a Google-powered search box, followed by more services I use, a bunch of tag cloud, something to scratch my back and another cluster of information you’ll find useful.

What’s really new is when you view a single post and down to comments section, you’ll find that you can quote other’s comments. Just like in forums! This way, you can reply to earlier comments without confusing others about who you are replying to. Just quote’em! You can also quote certain part of content. Block a text portion and click the link above the smileys. Another thing maybe you haven’t noticed yet is, there’s no need to write your email when commenting anymore. Actually, I’ve started this since the old theme, but in case you haven’t noticed..

Well, I think that’s about all. What do you think of this new design? Would you like to suggest something? Or maybe you find a bug? You can use the comments form below or mail me at louis [at] bukiki [dot] com to get my attention. Enjoy surfing!

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