Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A New Look

In case you couldn't tell, I got a bit bored with the old look of the blog and so I'm doing a bit of experimenting with alternate templates and looks.  I'm trying to come up with something that still fits the title image and banner yet freshen it up a bit.

So, what do you think of this one (ocean sunset background with semi-transparent fields)?  Does the background image cause the page to load slowly for you?  Do you find it readable?  Annoying?

Leave me a comment and let me know.

6 comments:

  1. It is OK. I find it a bit like a screen saver. As a reader who currently experiences cruising life via blogs, I'd look for switchout when you get shots of your catamaran just off a palm studded sandy beach. Not sure how that would work with white type on dark semi-transparent field and a color background pic with light and dark areas. Readability is important
    Doug from VT

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    1. Yeah, I thought about using my own picture...and can certainly swap one in...but for a stock photo, this one seemed to have a complimentary color palette. I didn't want to change my banner...I took that picture the day this whole crazy idea was first planted in my head.

      Readability is always important, but especially so on a blog. The gray was just starting to feel a bit bland to me...so I figured I would try something new.

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  2. Seems fine for me. A little slower. If others have issues, I can shrink the file size of the picture with little quality loss using adobe photoshop. I would just need a link to the original. I would then link you the finished version. Would only take a few minutes.

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    1. Thanks Dave. I've been watching some of the limited statistical info available and I'm not sure if the changes are having a negative impact or not. The background photo is a stock photo for now. Will consider swapping it out for one of my own and then I can scale and reduce color depth and all the other tricks to make it load faster. Right now I think it is the mobile view that may be the problematic one. Thanks for the offer though.

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  3. Mike I read your blog and all the blogs I follow through my Feedly reader because it uses less data and keeps them all in one place. Feedly dumbs it down quite a bit so I dont even see your header and background except for when I go to the site to comment. Depending on your internet choices when you leave you may want a simpler page that will load faster.

    Deb
    SV Kintala
    www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com

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    1. Yeah, in the land of ubiquitous fast internet connections it is hard to even judge how "big" the background image is (it was a stock image from Blogger, so I don't know). That was one of the reasons I asked.

      Still would like to do something with the look, so I'll keep playing around with it. Thanks for the feedback.

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