Reader Opinions Needed On New WordPress Theme
I have been working in my sandbox section of my blog and I wanted to share with you all my latest theme in development. I am seeking honest opinions. I want to invite you to check out my most recent WordPress theme in development and then drop me a comment with your feedback. Don’t hesitate to speak your mind. I need accurate feedback. If you are hesitant to leave me feedback about how you truly feel then please leave an anonymous comment.
Before you all tear into me, keep in mind that this theme is not done yet. The individual post pages are going to be different from the home page. At this point in time, I have got the overall theme complete. I still need to work on the individual post page, add social bookmarks and doctor up a few things in CSS. However, I think I am at a stage in the development where I can invite everyone to check it out and offer up some good feedback. Please let me know what you think!
You can see this new theme here.
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13 comments
Hey, I like the concept! The widget at the top of the right sidebar is pulling my eye away from your post though.
The human eye will gravitate toward a human face anywhere it is on a page. You should bump that widget down and maybe include a small bar right above your post with your face or maybe get some pictures of several facial expression of your face and then post the one that represents how you are feeling next to the post headline.
Just a suggestion to pull the eye to the content. You can always test with a heatmap. Otherwise I like it!
I like this one. The colors are great and it runs smooth. Not hard to look at and figure out where everything is. Good job!
Gary,
I really like your new design. There must be something going around, because I just redesigned mine too.
OK, you asked for honest input so here goes.
The logo text in the header is riding a little higher than center. That may have been what you were shooting for.
The text in the post content area is not centered. There is a little more space on the left margin.
The sidebar is interesting. I like the ad icon box but I assume you will put your RSS subscriber stuff directly under it if not above it somewhere.
I find the text in the sidebar a little bit difficult to read for a couple of reasons. First, because it is wide, you have to move your eyes to read it so it can’t be read at a glance. Second, the shading might be just a touch dark on the left side reducing the contrast.
I love the small column gradient headers. Perhaps you might consider creating similar headers for the wide column divisions or at least provide a little more space between segments so they don’t run together.
I’m not a designer nor do I pretend to be. These are only my opinions. The design seems to be perfectly useful but these are the things I would do differently.
You asked.
@ Thor,
Would this site be more of an example of what you are talking about?
http://www.howdoimakemoneyonline.com
@ HomeMom3,
Thanks! Do you like this new theme better than the theme that is live now on the main site?
@ Fred,
There are a few sites that have done some really nice updates… I am not sure, but it must spread like a cold.
@ Ad Tracker,
Yes! This is the level of feedback I am looking for! Thank you and I hope others will offer the same level of feedback, criticism, and suggestion.
Thank you so much!
The right ’sidebar’ is very wide and draws just as much attention as the content if not more. I think the pleasant faded green that is in it, as well as the faces of people help it draw even more attention; and the top the green makes the text look like it is in bold, drawing even more attention. I don’t know if this was your intention, as it would mean lots of clicks there but less reading of the content.
In terms of colours it is very clean and easy on the eyes, I actually like the different colours of the titles in the sidebar.
There is lots of sidebar space further down, so the widgets you have aligned next to each other could go on top of each other if you want to make that column thinner to draw less attention do it.
Overall the colour scheme is good, but the balance between then 2 columns could use some work.
First of all, I think it’s looking good, I prefer it to your current theme frontpage – I think the header is a bit overpowering for my tastes, if that makes sense, that and I’m not a big fan of the mix of colours, but that’s just a personal thing.
Post Summaries – Clear and easy to read, clickable post title links and a decent space between each one – I like this as they are!
Sidebar – I’d agree with what has been said by Ad Tracker, in that the fading effect, certainly on the left side, looks a little strange and seems to draw my eye to it too much on first glance – perhaps a solid colour may be better?
Iconbar – Again, I think it makes the sidebar stand out a little too much, have you thought about placing it underneath the header image? Either within the header box or within another one attached to it? Perhaps in a similar way to the contect icons on uVme Blog?
Sidebar Headings – I like the graduated fill of these headings, I’d perhaps be tempted to make them a little more consistent in style (white inner, black outline on differently coloured graduated fill backgrounds). Also you could take these headings and apply them to the Most Recent Posts / Most Recent Comments etc which would help separate them out a bit more?
Those are my initial thoughts from looking at it, I’d be happy to give you my opinions on the individual post pages when they’re done. I’m no design expert, hence why I’ve been quite limited in my own theme customisation, but hope that helps in some way!
Just a few quick things:
1. The left side bar overpowers the content. Not sure how to fix that. I think it is because the size is very similar to the size of the content.
2. I like the color scheme, although using a solid background might be easier on the eyes.
3. The footer does not blend in at all with the rest of the theme.
What do you want your visitors to do? When I visit the blog, I first saw the content, then my eyes went to the sidebar and saw the top page ads, they don’t interest me so then I saw the recent posts. Is that what you want visitors to do or do you want them to purchase your services, which are kind of hidden away down below the fold? Or do you want them to do something else?
All in all I like the direction the theme is going.
It loads a little slow but I like the homepage look and the colors look good together!
I like the concept. I like the way the side bar starts out as a single column, then goes into 2 columns. That’s pretty cool.
I agree with Kyle on the colors. They work well together. I’ve always wanted the ability to design sites like this, I think you’ve done a great job.
Hi Garry,
*kidding
Just view things.
1. the design looks really amateurish. do you do that by your own? get a designer man, i think your top sidebar ads pays it
2. what make you like borders so much? get out of the box. you don’t always have to put borders to make your sections clear separated.
3. and gradients? did i already say amateurish before?
4. i think this your current theme is so much better. it just it needs some new touch.
eg.
– remove the border on this middle section. or change the color of the border into #ccc or #efefef or etc.
– make your header higher. and remove the bottom border.
– give your post title a make over. separating the post title, post content, and post footer will make it so much bettter, probably.
5. hm.. i think you need to pay me for more
oh and i forgot to tell you about the ugly black border on the left and right side. just look at your wrapper border. i think the default wordpress theme has a better separator.
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