Joining the Web 2.0 Workgroup
A couple of quick housekeeping announcements. First, my blog has joined an elite group of resources called Web 2.0 Workgroup. It's a network of premium weblogs that Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch (my pick for the best new blog of 2005) is working to organize. The goal of the group is to provide a list of high quality blogs that are writing about recent trends on the web. I will continue to look at these trends through the lens of how they impact marketing communications.
Second, this blog is undergoing a face lift. I am trying to establish a look that's clean and simple. Call it the 37 Signals effect. Feed readers, please take a look around and let me know how you like it. I am working with the talented Josh Hallett this week to make some CSS tweaks to the template.
Steve, change can be good. However, the subtle contrast between the gray-blue titles and headlines make it hard to discern which is which. It looks a little washed out (as is Tech Crunch's color scheme).
You can go with softer colors, but make sure they contrast better.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Dave the CFRE | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 09:18 AM
I like how you're using the Firefox and (soon to be) Microsoft RSS icon. Good move. Might have to steal that one from you!
Posted by: Stephen Davies | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 11:57 AM
I'm going to second the opinion that the contrast is too low. You can barely see the heading text on their background. The negatively kerned Arial or Helvetica headings are a bit played out, but hey, that's just an opinion.
In the sidebar you have center-aligned text for most of the page, then about 3/4 down it switches to left-aligned. Gotta find an alignment and stick with it -- good design is all about symmetry.
Posted by: Mike Rundle | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 12:01 PM
Agreed wholeheartedly. We're working on the contrast.
Posted by: Steve Rubel | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 12:35 PM
Like Steve said, it's a work in progress.
Steve implemented a new template the other day. I'm working on quite a few stylesheet and layout tweaks now.
It should be ready in the next day or two.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 01:02 PM
I'd also like to add that you should re-instate the banner. Banners give a Name Tag to the site... so that when you visit, it doesn't look like a just a page full of writing making you freak out and leave. ;) That or at least make the blog title more "in your face".
Posted by: Klim | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 01:59 PM
Of all the things you take time to respond to ... it's about your design.
That speaks volumes.
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 03:04 PM
Great stuff.
Posted by: John Furrier | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 11:05 PM
The new look, at a glance, is better than the darker, gloomier one before. Thumbs up! Adding on to the comments above, adding more colours to the site will be nice. Pastel colours, with your new clean layout will make it very attractive. I know such things boil down to personal preferences, and this is mine :)
Posted by: Razlan | Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 12:35 AM