22 replies to this topic

[lee.n3o]

Well I thought I would put a plug up for Bill ;-) ...

Just had a look and it seems Bill has got Mike to do his Wordpress magic and come up with a new look for SEO By The Sea.

Looking very nice nice / clean and easy to read ... Liking it alot

[Abhishek]

"Bill"ieve it or not .. lol !! I was only reading SEO by the SEA the other day and was telling myselves, it's High time the site got a make-over! I was even to email bill, volunteering to do the theme for him and presto, he decides to change it himselves... hehe!

Wait that's not all, yesterday morning, I was day-dreaming on starting a GSM service company down here in India and then teaming up with one of the bigger Search engines to provide Search Services to Mobile users and Voilaaaaaaa! Today I flip through 'The Economic Times' and see Steve Ballmer shaking hands with the CEO of an Indian GSM company and the duo launching their new search and other services for mobile users!

Anyways, nice theme Bill ! Cheers

[JohnMu]

Nice, Bill. Really nice. I like it .

John

[Respree]

I like it too. Great job.

[rmccarley]

It's like a fishysuper version of 'almost spring'! (I mean that in a good way)

I like the starfish.

[ukdaz]

I like the starfish.

Yup me too!

Daz

[bragadocchio]

Thanks!

Mike developed a tremendous theme there, and I decided that it was something I wanted to use before I realized that he was the developer.

I may change the images some, though it may take a little while. I really like how accessible it is, and how well it handled change when the text size was increased. I made some SEO related changes to the code, and I'll likely make some more.

It is more readable than the old version of the site, and I'm going to be working on some new features that I didn't have before. I've added a site map, and will be working on some others that make the site easier to use.

I'll have to put it in the web site hospital sometime soon.

[Ruud]

Nice, clean. Like it a lot. In the right sidebar some section show the default texts still.

[bragadocchio]

Thanks, Ruud.

I'm still working on those parts with the unfinished text. I hoped to be a little further along than I am now, but had a few problems last night that required me to do some revisiting of the changes I had already made.

Cheers.

[bwelford]

It's got a really fresh appearance, Bill, and I like it very much.

It got me questioning my almost reflex attachment to two column themes, with the 'extras' column to the right. I guess I still feel that three columns works better in a newspaper, but it certainly uses the typical 1024 pixel width better.

Part of my conviction has been because I've wanted to deliver a good user experience to a 800 x 600 visitor. I know they may be only 20% or less of my visitors (? how do PDAs figure in that calculation), but there are some others with wider screens who surf in a smaller window.

So as I deliver a good experience to the 'narrow' people who are in the minority, am I delivering a less satisfactory user experience to the 'wider' people who are far in the majority. How should I balance these two sectors' experiences in deciding two columns or three columns. I'm still in the two column crowd, but you've made me question that, Bill.

[Jozian]

Wow! I really dig the look. And the functionality is cleaner than clean.



-jeff

[bragadocchio]

So as I deliver a good experience to the 'narrow' people who are in the minority, am I delivering a less satisfactory user experience to the 'wider' people who are far in the majority. How should I balance these two sectors' experiences in deciding two columns or three columns. I'm still in the two column crowd, but you've made me question that, Bill.

Questioning change is good. If you have a pda or other handheld, take a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks, Jeff. Still some tweaking to go on that functionality, but I'm really very happy with most of what the template offers.

[eKstreme]

Me likes it very much! Excellent work Mike, and if Bill sure deserves such a great theme for a great website. Congrats

My only comment is how about adding a hint of blue? It is, after all, about doing SEO by the Sea...

Pierre

[SEOigloo]

Oh, my, it's just lovely, Bill.
Very crisp and easy to read! Love the starfish, too. Well done!
Miriam

[bragadocchio]

Thanks, Pierre and Miriam

It's a tremendous theme from Mike, and I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

[A.N.Onym]

Barry, you can use fixed layout for that (show 2 columns for the 800*600s and all the rest to the others). Though I'd imagine fixed layout has more disadvantages over a fluid one anyway.

Btw, there are about 17-19% of those with 800*600 (last I checked at http://www.thecounter.com).

[bwelford]

Though I'd imagine fixed layout has more disadvantages over a fluid one anyway.

I don't want to take this topic off-track, Yuri, so I won't get into the other issues raised by what you posted. However I couldn't leave this one alone. Jakob Nielsen recently said he used a 2048 pixel width screen and thought that:

Within the next 10 years, I expect monitors of, say, 5000x3000 to be in fairly common use, at least among high-end business professionals.

If only IE respected max-width, then that would be the way to go. However until then, I'm still in the fixed layout camp.

[wobular]

It looks frighteningly like a quick re-design (ripoff) of Beccary's Almost Spring to me... So of course it looks nice.

Well done

[swainzy]

wobular
what exactly are you trying to say?

Bill, I loved the skiff boat photo (it looked like a post card) but this looks great too! Nice job.
Donna

[joedolson]

If "using roughly the same color palette" is a ripoff of a design, then the world of design is in big trouble...

The fact is, Mike's theme is vastly different where it counts - under the hood.

-joe