It's that time of year again. Or is it that time of quarter? I don't know. Either way, I'm tired of looking at my current site design and so I'm creating a new one. I've actually been sick of my current design for awhile now. It's just that I haven't had the time or effort for creating a new one. Plus, I needed to update my template system to play nice with any new templates that I create. Anyways, I finally got motivated and you can check out a preview of the new design here:

Update: WebNV is now using this new site design!

Now, as you can probably see, it's still a work in progress, but at least you get a basic feel for the new design. With this design I'm going for a more neutral or muted color palette. My current one is just too in-your-face, at least for me. So this new design will be more calm. That way, I can easily give emphasis to items that need it. I'm also going back to a more standard blog layout wherein the home page has multiple articles listed with my side bar blocks/widgets floating to the left or right.

The biggest hurdle so far (besides revamping my template system again) has been creating the CSS file for this new design. With my CMS I can easily position my blocks/widgets anywhere on the page (top, left, right, or bottom). Creating a CSS file that can accommodate these dynamic, moving blocks has been a pain, but I finally got it to working. If there are blocks on the left or right, I need the main content to shift and make room but also not to overflow or overlap the entire sidebar column where the blocks end.

I also plan on adding a lot more javascript into this template. Using my new best friend, the jQuery library, I want to add some cool effects here and there (like hiding individual blocks/widgets or the entire block column). But I have to remember to be smart with my javascript and not get too carried away with it. I don't want to leave my one percent of visitors who don't have javascript enabled out in the cold. Thus, javascript won't be used for anything important like site navigation or posting comments.

As for browser support, I wasn't planning on supporting Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) or less. I only wanted to focus on the main browsers of today (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari). But surprisingly, my new template is looking good in IE6. I only had to make one or two little changes to the CSS file to get my new design working with it. Let's hope it continues that way.

Other than that, I think it's coming along OK. Probably won't be done until sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to style the side bar blocks/widgets. I don't want them to blend in with the main content, but I also don't want them to distract from it. So that's my most challenging part right now. After that I need to figure out how I'm going to style my main menu. I got some ideas in the works, but won't have a winner until I preview them all in a browser.

Finally, I need to figure out a site logo. I hate this part the most, thus I'm saving it for last. Some people say you should create the logo first and then design the site around that, but I don't like doing it that way. If anyone wants to do me a huge favor and save me a lot of late nights, then create me a logo. I won't give you money, but I'll definitely give you credit.

So let me hear your guys opinions. I need to know; what looks good and what looks like shit. As always, your comments and criticisms are much appreciated.