Friday, December 07, 2007

Welcome (back) to the new Coastsider

Editorial posted by Barry Parr on Dec 07, 2007 at 08:43 pm in About Coastsider • Click to email this story

NOTE: Many of you may not have seen this already. We showed this new design briefly last weekend before our technical problems. We’re relaunching it tonight.

We’ve been working on this redesign for a while and dreaming about it for a lot longer than that.

Things came together a couple of weeks ago after a meeting with about thirty Coastsider readers at the Point Montara Lighthouse. We received a ton of excellent suggestions that motivated us to finally change the structure of Coastsider to make it easier to implement future improvements.

We think the new design is much better looking, a lot more contemporary, and much more consistent from page to page. But the most important improvement is that the new design is much more flexible. We’re now using a grid that allows us to add new features and elements without undermining the basic design. You may notice that two features are missing right now. Coastsider’s Gallery and Classifieds are now closed for renovation. We will return them to the site as soon as we can.

We hope you like it. Feel free to add your questions and comments on the new design to this story. We’ll try to follow up on all the suggestions we receive.

Barry Parr
Editor & Publisher

Comments

Comment by Laura McHugh on Dec 01 at 10:41am • All my comments •

I like the new look. Crisp and professional, easier to read.

Comment by Sam Carrieri on Dec 01 at 10:55am • All my comments •

Hard for my old 68 year eyes to read the small letters. Need to be larger & darker.

Comment by Suzanne Black on Dec 01 at 11:48am • All my comments •

Several Comments:

Sam, if you use a PC, you can enlarge the type by hitting Ctrl and + keys together a time or two.

Barry, what happened to the Gallery? It was a feature I really enjoyed.

Also, on my 17-in. screen, the left margin needs to be increased. The initial letter of text is right on the left edge. The entire page, except for the banner, seems offset too far to the left.

I appreciate all the work that’s gone into the new layout, but IMHO, I think the stories are more prominent and easier to find if they are the center column.

Will you have photos on the home page to accompany stories?

Suzanne

Comment by Barry Parr on Dec 01 at 12:23pm • All my comments •

The Gallery is down for unrelated repairs. We’re working on the problem.

Comment by Suzanne Black on Dec 01 at 12:36pm • All my comments •

That’s 100% better! And the text on white is a great improvement to legibility. Way to go, Barry!

Comment by Barry Parr on Dec 01 at 12:46pm • All my comments •

Suzanne: There was a problem with the template when you were looking at it earlier.

This home page definitely looks better with photos and I think it does a better job of displaying them. You’ll be seeing more photos.

Comment by Francine Hardaway on Dec 01 at 5:54pm • All my comments •

Is this done with blogging software? That’s really the easiest to update. I like the new look, although I do agree that big stories should be in the center column. But why should I even complain? THis is a great source of information for me.

Comment by Barry Parr on Dec 01 at 8:23pm • All my comments •

I do use blogging software. The package is called Expression Engine.

Comment by Nancy Hoagland on Dec 02 at 1:47am • All my comments •

It’s looking really good. A couple of quick notes… the classifieds aren’t working (yet?), and text runs right up to the edge of your photo in the comments. Is there any way to add some padding around people’s pics to provide some white space before the text? Minor improvements I know. Thanks for keeping this place fresh!

Comment by Barry Parr on Dec 02 at 9:56am • All my comments •

The spacing on the photos is already on my to-do list. I agree it’s a problem. The classified problem is new, and I’ve moved it to to the top of the list with a couple of other bugs.

Comment by Mike Harding on Dec 03 at 1:07pm • All my comments •

Looks nice, great work!

Comment by Mary Kay Jolley on Dec 09 at 8:53am • All my comments •

Barry,
Congratulations on getting Coastsider upgraded. As a 40-something with progressive lenses, I find the print too small to read comfortably. Any chance you can bump up the font size?

Comment by Barry Parr on Dec 09 at 9:49am • All my comments •

I just increased the type one point size. I think it improves the way the page looks and increases readability.

I also commend Suzanne’s tip about increasing the type size using browser controls. Control (PC) or Command (Mac) and the “+” key to increase the size and “-” to decrease it. I use these all the time when I’m on the Web.

Comment by Mary Kay Jolley on Dec 10 at 11:40am • All my comments •

Thanks. Much better. And thanks for the Control + tip, too.

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