Well, now that the CSS Reboot is officially done, I'm gonna start redesigning the site. However, in a "twist" of sorts, I think I'm gonna do it live—that is, rather than work on it offline and then upload the template, I'm going to make changes to the design on the fly. The basic underlying structure of the page resembles what I had in mind anyways, so it won't be a huge leap to start changing things around.
Something that really matters to me when working on a site is user-centered design. On my most recent major project at work, I had the opportunity to actually run a user test with a potential user (namely, a high school economics teacher), and the experience was amazing—in spite of all the usability best practices I incorporated into the site, there were a lot of improvements that, as a developer, I was completely unaware.
So along those lines—how could this site be improved? I'm not necessarily asking from an aesthetic standpoint (ie. colors, typography, graphics), but more along the lines of user experience—what sort of things do you want to see or do when you visit the site? What works well, and what doesn't? What's hard to do or find and could be improved? What sort of things do you want me to write more about? Web design? Food? Day-to-day happenings? Monkeys? Ninjas?
I already have a few things that I'd like to improve—better access to archives and vignettes (that one's for you, Nathan), incorporating a search feature, and more visible navigation to other sections.
But what else could I work on? Please let me know in the comments.
You could finish your New Orleans entry.....the March of the Nerds must be properly described.....
Oh yeah, you have to finish that, becuase I need to copy it for my LJ. And I'm bored and want something to read.
I want the vinettes back.
I like to see you try monkeys and ninjas
Eh...I have seen the ninja, and the monkey isn't half bad, but I really like the pictures, and your amazing storytelling ability that describes them in detail, the hunts were a lot of fun as were the guessing games, as long as ground rules were established, 33 random guesses was not cool.
Weird, I am stuck in a parallel universe between your redesign and the old site. I for some reason see all our avitar's and our names in the black, and comments in white...it is very odd, thought you may want to know this.
the only thing to add to the site for improvement is more cowbell.
Monkeys, ninjas, and cowbells. Check.
'Cus you know this site has a fever only one thing can quench.....