Design Renovations at Write It Sideways, Sept ’10

This is a guest post by Peter, my husband, who doubles as the technical and marketing brains of Write It Sideways. I prefer to stay away from the technical stuff and focus on what I do best–writing!

Suzannah asked me to write a post about the new site design I put together, and to show you how I can help you take your website to the next level.

The Original Design

The original design for Write It Sideways was in place for 14 months with few changes.

I’ve been plotting the demise of that original design ever since, but you know what they say about mechanics’ cars: they’re the last to be worked on…kind of like websites in the house of the IT guy.

The real challenge, however, was to convince Suzannah that Georgia font was not going to be part of her site’s future.

But that’s another story…

The New Design

As you will read around the web, the major pillar of building a quality blog is content.

Snapping at content’s heels is design.

You know, I’d be embarrassed to invite friends around for dinner if my house had garish 1950s wallpaper, complete with modern furniture, mixed up with ornate Victorian pieces.

Sadly, I see the equivalent of that scenario played out in websites everywhere on the internet.

Tasteful design really does help visitors feel comfortable at your place–whether it’s your home or your blog. That’s what we wanted for the new design here at Write It Sideways.

The Goals of the New Design

My approach for Write It Sideways had the following priorities:

• Content will be the main focus
• Clean and minimalistic with more modern fonts (a bit of Zen Habits inspiration here)
• Easier access to topics and recent articles
• More useful content in the footer (there was nothing there in the last design)
• Improve mobile device browsing
• Setup areas to accept some paid advertising

I believe these are all taken care of, but you–the readers–are the final judge and jury.

Behind Write It Sideways…

There are a few mentions I’d like to make to finish my inaugural guest post on Write It Sideways. Each are essential tools and resources that contribute to bringing Write It Sideways to your screen. Suzannah and I both use and highly recommend them all (affiliate links to follow).

Mentoring

Suzannah is a member of the A-List Blogging Club run by Mary Jaksch and Leo Babauta, and has been for almost a year.

The Club is the most motivated and supportive group of bloggers you’re likely to come across, due for most part to the culture that Mary and Leo have cultivated.

Check out what Mary and Leo offer at the A-List Blogging Club by clicking here.

Hosting

We’ve been Hostgator customers for over a year, and it’s where we host this site. As an aside, I manage a customer service team in IT support, so I have a high expectation of how customer service should work when it comes to technology.

Hostgator haven’t disappointed, and their customer support has been great. Check out the web hosting plans from Hostgator here.

Theme

We use and recommend the Thesis theme for WordPress. Write It Sideways is currently using the latest version of this excellent theme.

If you’re considering a new theme for your site, I would encourage you to check out the Thesis theme alongside the competition.

If you have any questions about it, please contact me via Dimension ICT.

Design and Support

Suzannah might be a little spoiled with this one. She has a live-in “IT guru” (as she likes to boast to her friends and family when their computers don’t work…)

If you’re interested in taking your own site to a more productive level*, please head over to my website at Dimension ICT, or message me on Twitter.

* Sorry, I can’t be anyone else’s live-in IT guru, that offer has already been accepted

Your Opinion – It Matters!

So, does the new design work for you?

Are you finding any issues when browsing the site? Do you use a mobile phone (iPhone, Android etc) to browse the site? What’s your experience?

If you do have an issue, please comment and let us know what operating system and browser version you are using.

Thanks for reading!