Well, It's official. I've launched my new website today. NealGrosskopf.com Version 3. I started my website back in October of 2005 basically as a means to test out new web design techniques and to become a better coder. Over those 3 years I've become a much better designer and coder. I'll have to give a big thanks to Jason and Chris for nudging me to create NealGrosskopf.com back then. I wouldn't be where I am right now if I hadn't created this website.
So why did I redesign? I was growing a bit tired of the old design and my biggest pet peeve was that I lazily coded it for HTML Transitional and not HTML Strict. (A relic from Version 1 which originally didn't have a DOCTYPE at all but I added one in half way as Transitional)
Another problem I had with my old site was the home page. It felt very long and cluttered with junk. With the new design I've hid most of that clutter in the new "Actions" flyout. Simply hover over the "Actions" link and you will see all of the family clutter from before.
The biggest thing with this redesign is usability. You will find little things here and there that I added because of usability. All the section now have links on the thread title (i.e the blog title is now clickable)
Also I've added a toolbar at the top of the site which really contains the same content as the right navigation. I believe that my toolbar is probably the only one of it's kind on the internet right now. I've been to all the trendy sites and I haven't seen a single one that uses a pop down as a toolbar. The pop down idea has already been done before but usually only for jump/skip links (which is useless if you ask me)
With a new site comes some drawbacks as well. My site requirements have increased a lot. I no longer support 800x600. I have put in some measures so it at least renders properly in 800x600 but you will get some nice horizontal scrollbars. Also the site will require a standards compliant browser. It will degrade gracefully in older browsers but you're basically going to need to be using IE7, Firefox 2, Opera 9 or Safari 3 on it. IE6 does work but there are a few bells and whistles that won't quite look the same. I also haven't tested it in IE6 since I completed the shell/template.
Also the site is a bit heavier than previous ones. This is due to me creating such a complex design but being limited to the current tools available to reach that design (CSS) The other reason is due to the large background image that I incorporated which is the heart and sole of the design.
If you like my new design there are a few inspirational websites I used as a baseline. I'll let you determine what sites those are...
There still are many things I need to do before I can call the redesign complete, but like the past redesigns, I got so anxious that I just threw it up tonight. If you run into any problems please let me know. There are bound to be a few 404 pages or 500 errors around.
