Friday, May 17, 2013

A New Look!


Welcome to the new look for the Living Free . . . blog. It's been a while since I've done anything to the graphic appearance of the blog, so I thought it was about time.

My regrets for being a little lax in posting new content over the past couple weeks. As you can see by the tabs on the left side of the blog, I've begun categorizing content to provide expanded information. This categorized content will be accessible directly from the Living Free blog or by niche audiences going directly to those sites.

It has become my prime interest to expand my writing endeavors. You can tell by the titles of the tabs where my writing interests will focus. So, this is an evolutionary and developmental process. While I've covered all of the topics as part of the Living Free blog, it just seems a natural process of spinning them off into their own topical areas.

All of the content of the other categorized tabs will be previewed on the main Living Free blog with a link to the rest of the post content in the various categories. Posts specifically about my Living Free philosophy will still be posted in full right here.

I've attempted to make the new look of the blog easier to read and navigate. The background is not one of my own photographs as the last background photo was. I've migrated the earlier photograph to my travel category since it fulfills that purpose better over there. This new background photo is a stock background I've put in place temporarily. I wasn't able to locate an appropriate photo that represented my visual image of Living Free in my own photo files. I may not have one. So, until I take more photos and find one that fills the bill, I'll use this stock background.

I'd appreciate your feedback.

How does this new look impact your?

Does it appear brighter?

Is it easier to read?

Is it easier to navigate?

Is it attractive at first impression?

Does it make you want to come back for future content?

Do you have any other thoughts about the appearance and navigation?

Your assistance is very valuable since I want to make this blog as user friendly with valuable and useable content.

Thanks for bearing with me as I make these changes and, hopefully, what you'll find to helpful improvements.

6 comments:

Jenny Johns said...

Looks good Ed.You may want to consider making the font color for the sidebars in a higher contrast to the background for us old folks;-)

Linda Sand said...

I like have the main text in a solid colored box. I found myself scrolling the sidebar so I could read the text against the clouds rather than the sky. The background is so bright I almost reached for my sunglasses. :)

You captcha is sometimes so hard to read I give up trying to comment rather than fight with it.

Tinabeane said...

I like the new layout, a lot easier on the eyes to read.

Ed Helvey said...

Thanks, Jenny --

I agree with our point. I did modify them a little to bring out the contrast. I hope you find it easier to read now.

Cheers,
Ed

Ed Helvey said...

Thanks, Linda --

I used a transparent background behind the text on the previous background photo. That photo was one of my own taken, probably in the badlands somewhere while I was tooling along at 75 mph or so. This present background photo is a stock photo from Google. It's not my favorite, but it was the only one I could find that game me a feeling of freedom. I'll change it out again when I finally come up with a new photo of my own that will give me the feeling I'm after. But, it definitely is bright. Actually, the white behind the text is not true white, it's a slight shade of gray. Pure white would have been really blinding. I tried it.

As far as the captcha - that's the stock Blogger captcha. I've found the same situation that you mentioned when I've been leaving replies on other people's blogs using the Blogger platform. It really has stopped the spam posts I was receiving, though. But, in general, I wish no one had to use any form of captcha - but that would be in a perfect world - and we know the world as we know it sure ain't perfect.

Cheers,
Ed

Ed Helvey said...

Thanks, Tinabeane --

I appreciate your feedback. It still needs a bit of tweaking, but making it easier to read was one of my priorities in the redesign. Hopefully I'll have a new photo of my own for the background that will represent my feelings and attitudes about living free in the not too distant future.

Cheerio,
Ed