CodeStore Version 6 (Phase 1) Is HERE
Here it is. CodeStore Version 6. After 3 years stagnating with the previous design this site has had a major overhaul.
There are obviously huge differences to what you're probably used to seeing. You might not notice all of the changes though. For a full list of improvements, see the What's New page.
I've called this release "phase 1" as it's far from complete. There are still some other improvements planned for the next phase. There are bound to be bugs in this phase too. If you find any please let me know, but please read the Known Issues page first.
Fancy new looks aside, I really hope the content of this site is now easier to find. If you can think of any way of making it even more accessible please let me know.
Finally, a big thanks (in no particular order) to Jerry Carter, Edsko Hekman, Sean McKendall, Anura Samara, Doug Cohen, Ben Perales, Jon Elliot and Lee McIvor for their sterling work in finding the bugs that I missed. Not only that but for telling me how I could make it more accessible to you guys.
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Not bad!
Nice, especially the larger font.
Cleaner look.
1) IMHO a little difficult to read black text on bluish background. Have to look closer at screen to read now.
2) Related to readability, the text gets lost in the codestore logo.
3) I use IE and there is a lot of space between the body and right hand side links. Might be just on my side, but wanted to pass along.
I hope you take this a constructive criticism as I can appreciate the hard work you've put into this. And I know you are a perfectionist who will figure out all the quirks eventually.
Great site regardless. I'd read if it was red background with orange writing :)
Thanks guys.
David. Do a power refresh (Ctrl+F5) to update the stylesheet. Do you really think I'd have black text on a blue background? ;-)
Nice work Jake, I really like the new layout. Not sure if this was the intention but the first word that come to mind is 'clean'.
Cheers.
Clean is good Jamie.
Ok. I've changed the name of the stylesheet to prevent caching issues.
I don't think having the external links in your main RSS feed is a good idea. I already subscribe to some of the sites that you reference in the external links so I'm now seeing stuff twice. Think of the people who might embed your feed in a web page now seeing stuff that's not actually yours appear.
Maybe a seperate rss feed for the external stuff so if people want to subscripbe to that seperatly they can.
Your own rss feed should just be your blog entries and articles ( with the description field filled in with an abstract )
I think it might be too simple and clean for me - it just looks basic to the point of being noddy? Hard to describe. It could well be the 'for the blind' font :)
We shall see, sometimes these things take time, it's not instantly crying out though.
I know what you mean Declan and it's experimental. If enough of you complain I'll remove them.
Ian. The simpler the better in my eyes. The changes should be as much about "usability" as they are about mere appearance.
Great job Jake. Design is very clean, simple and accessible. I like the minimalist design that just helps the user get to the information they are looking for. Very well done.
Wow !!
I was always against the idea of using big fonts but now need to re-think.
Looks great and is very simple.
Good work Jake :) keep it up !!
Cheers guys.
Are the fonts really *that* big? I didn't think so. Normal if anything. I might decrease them a little though if people keep on mentioning it.
I think it's great! Clean and elegant. I might even say Mac-like. I also like the larger font.
Ever consider some styling on this button? :^)
Jake, how about adding a font decrease and decrease icon at the top of every page? That should solve the whole text size issue.
Useit.com Article: {Link}
Looks great! I first thought, wow, big font, but my first 'test' was a quick 'Ctrl+' and 'Ctrl-', and it resized fine! I just love Firefox! :-D
FWIW I settled on your default size.
As you asked, I'm not convinced by the mixed RSS feeds either, maybe as Declan mentioned as separate feed. Save me having to open the homepage for the 'Elsewhere' stuff ;-)
God I hate to sound critical, keep things coming!
I'd forgotten the new design was being implemented today, so when I came here I said, "Wow! Oh yeah, it's the redesign!". Nice surprise.
Overall I think I'm going to like the changes. And I'm a huge fan of "clean". That being said, my eyes do have to work a bit harder on this site to scan for information.
While there are size variations, it's a lot of black-and-white, so I have to slow down and actually read.... stuff doesn't jump out at me at a glance. If I've got five minutes at work to stop by and see what's up, I want to scan and then go... it's always "quick, what can I use? what's new?...".
I don't like or need eye candy, but I do appreciate a color or an image that tells me, "hey (eyes), look over here!"
I'm not sure if I'm describing the experience very well. And like the rest, I humbly submit my opinion to you, Jake. Congrats on all the work.
OK, I give in. RSS is now split in to two channels. You can get to the "externals" feed through the /externals/ view or using auto-discovery in apps like FeedDemon.
Karen. Is the homepage too "busy"?
I've tried to take in to account the differeny ways people check-in to the site. Some use the RSS feed. Some visit the "homepage" every now and then. the homepage now is a kind of portal. if you're only really interested in reading blogs then maybe bookmarking /blog/ is better...
How about adding content to your rss feed, rather than just the entry title?
Dear rss reader,
No.
Cheers,
Jake
¡Guau!
In two words .... AWE SOME ... :-D ( Sorry , it's a spanish joke about certain famous ¿bullkiller? called 'Jesulín de Ubrique' ).
I hadn't had time to look in deep but ... it's better than before!
Good work, Jake!
Jake,
the site looks great! I think it's "easy" for the eyes. At least, my eyes. ;-) Navigation has improved, just as searching did. It's just like some comments above state: clean!
Nice work Jake - the navigation to separate areas is great as is the whole new look...
The icons look great too - was going to do something like that myself but got to the point of needing to pay for icons and well I would have ended up with the same set as you! Anyway, they end up matching your site perfectly.
Well done!
BTW - seems very snappy as well!
No, the homepage isn't too busy, imo. And maybe the suggestion of bookmarking the blog page is worth a try (for my purposes).
Perhaps after more time spent on the site, my thoughts will gel, or I'll have some concrete ideas to throw your way. Or... I'll forget this whole adjustment period ever happened and not think a thing about it!
Although, the danger of only looking at the blog view is that you miss when a new article is published. Why not get an RSS reader?
I think it looks great, but it seems very lonely without a background. I think some simple pattern would go a long way. In a photoeditor, I took this site's background:
{Link}
...made the grey a little darker (224/224/224), and applied it to the background of your site. I thought it looked pretty solid.
Jake,
Great work! My initial impression was, 'margins for rent' and more scrolling involved but I'll give it more time to grow on me.
An interesting positioning behaviour happens with the comments link for the blog entry. I have IE6 which might explain it and it may be related to the known issue but I'm not sure.
For a blog entry, click on the Read/Comments link where it appears in the following 3 locations and see if it renders the same.
1. From the Homepage click Read beside the Comments count.
2. From the Blogs list click Read beside the Comments count.
3. When the blog is open, click on the Comments link in the small box in the upper righthand side.
They're all the exact same link, but I sometimes end up with the comments beginning halfway down the page.
Regards,
Michael
Sorry Jake but I can■t be sycophantic like some of the other posts, I don't like the new look.
1) The font is way too large.
2) I find it harder to read. My eyes can■t focus on a section.
3) Why restrict the size of the site to 800 pixels. Make it scale. I'm sure that everyone reading your site has a minimum screen resolution of 1024 and no doubt much higher. After all, it's mostly aimed at the development community.
4) Taking a comment further up, it does look noddy but not clean but too simply.
I have no issues with the functionality of the site and can see a lot of effort has gone into it but I just thing the design is a step back, not forward.
Sorry!
Bottsie. Don't apologise. It's just your opinion. Which everybody has. Which is why it's impossible to please all.
I know everybody has commented on the font size, but I wouldn't agree it was "way too large". Bigger than normal maybe, but only just. If all my users are on high resolutions (which they're not) then they will thank me for making it easier on their eyes.
It does concern me that you can't focus on a section. What do you mean exactly? If the new design is so simple it can't be that hard to focus. Surely?
I need to warm up to the look! But it is easier to find stuff and to get around. The search is very nice.
Question: I've noticed that in your samples you just about alway use embeded views, very rarely do I see an agent building the view. Why is that?
Can you elaborate on:
Instead of using script to capture form submission events and trigger searches, codestore now uses "real" forms and submits the right one depending on user focus and buttons pressed.
wow jake. it's such an honor to be mentioned here. really now, i'm grinning from ear to ear reading your post today. hooowa! this is really great.
more power to you man. anytime, if you need beta testers, don't ever hesitate to count me in.
cheers
ben
Jake -
On my laptop the font size is fantastic. On my work PC it does appear to be too large, but I will adjust.
-badjoke-
Why not allow people to login and customize desired font by storing a profile document?
-/badjoke-
As for the home page, I think what people are referring to is there is very little distinction visually between each section, which makes it difficult to focus on any one in particular.
I definitely like the "lite" feeling of the design. Too many sites have too much fluff these days.
Good effort. I'm sure this will spawn a wave of better Domino development by everyone.
-- Mike
Nice work Jake. I was initially a little disorientated as I linked into this blog entry from FeedDemon, and thought - Woah! Where's it all gone!
Following the home link from the navbar put me back on the front page which looks very nice. On the blog entry page, its a bit too texty now, I think because the larger font makes you scroll so much. I think some sort of visual thing on the comments might be an idea, like alternating entry colours or the like (you can do that in Domino, right? ;-)).
Cheers
Dave
I agree with you dave, I think it needs a border with background colour (albeit a light colour) behind each blog comment, alternating colours would be OK too, just that like this blog entry for example - it has a lot of comments and when you scroll down all there is is white space and text... I also think the text size should come down a notch (I also have done this myself with IE/firefox but it's a bit of a pain with IE as when I go to another website I need to go to the menu to increase again...).
All that being said, I think the guts of the redesign is great, just a bit of fine tuning maybe.
Ok, I've given in and reduced the text sizes a smidgen.
Hi Jake!
Congratulations for the new look of the site! CodeStore is a KILLER website.
Thanks for all your effort.
Bye
Valdecir Carvalho - S■o Paulo - Brasil
Its all great Jake - although font is a little small ;)
Very nice site. Like the new look and feel. Didn't get a chance to see the big fonts, because I only logged on just now.
One minor issue: the search form has become too large. It's good that you can customize what you are searching for, but the form should fit on one screen.
If I'm performing a search, I don't want to scroll down more than once to enter all search options I'd like and then click the search button (or hit enter).
Just my 2 cents, of course :-)
I'll always be a daily reader of your site, no matter what you change.
Good point Jean Marie. On my to do list. Although, if you're a daily reader, where were you yesterday? ;-)
Hi Jake,
I won't congratulate you on the superb redesign, enough people have done that and I wouldn't want you to get a big head.
I had an idea for your articles section. What about if you also displayed it more like the table of contents of a book? Do I need to elaborate more about my idea?
Ed
P.S. Great redesign
Classy site Jake, Just one thing, On the About page there is an incorrectly referenced graphic for Rockall Design..
Good work man...
Jake
I found your new design cooler than the previous one. I like it.
In Sandbox view you should add (like in Articles and Feedback views) a link in every title and not only in "Read more" text.
In Feedback view titles are in light blue underline font and in Articles view they are in black.
I think the site should be wider, modifying #container and #content widths in your store.css.
Regards and congratulations!!
Edward. How is it not like that already? Elaborate. Too late on the big head front I'm afraid. I'm talking litereally though. I've got a physically massive bonce!
Aden. Cheers. Fixed now.
I found a small problem on the sandbox view. Click on the "Last" link, after which is shows "3 of 3" as well as the "Next" and "Last" links ( which it shouldn't).
Clicking on the "Next" then shows "4 of 3". Something going wrong with the counter.
Well yesterday, I did open the site and had problems with the new stylesheet not being downloaded.
Thought, well he'll probably change this by tomorrow and look: I was right :-)
Jake,
I like the slightly smaller font a lot.
Mike wrote (above) , "...there is very little distinction visually between each section, which makes it difficult to focus on any one in particular." To that point I offer you this:
h3
font-size: 1.4em;
background-color: #FFF8D4;
border-bottom-style: dashed;
border-bottom-width: 2px;
border-left-style: dashed;
border-left-width: 2px;
border-right-style: dashed;
border-right-width: 1px;
border-top-style: none;
border-top-width: 0px;
border-bottom-color: #FFEB8C;
border: 1px dotted #FFDC31;
Throw that in your stylesheet and then look at the change. To me, that one addition of color guides my eye to each section and tells my brain where one starts and the other ends. Large and small fonts just don't do that as clearly.
Now before you try it (if you try it), I threw this together in five minutes using your blogs homepage. Hey, I'm at work here! I'm in no way suggesting the color or anything else about it is a finished work. It's the theory, not the design. And the code itself could be compacted - like I said, I quickly threw it together because I'm at work.
Anyway, I just hoped to clarify the issue, that's all. I've gotta' get back to the coding that pays my mortgage now.
I see where you're coming from Karen. I made a change that's a little more subtle but introduces a line to each "section".
Is that what Mike meant by section? Rows of a view? I assumed he meant different areas of a page. Especially on the homepage with all the boxes.
Jake, I really like the new design. It's very intuitive. I have one small suggestion:
Move the home/house icon from last position in the "top-nav" to the first position in the nav. It makes it easier to find and more logical (at least to me)
what do you think?
-- fredrik
I like the redesign of the site. The only thing I think you could do better is with the visual apeal. As others have mentioned, I think a darker background would help to set off your content from the background. I agree with fredrik about the Home link. Why not make it text like the other links on the link bar and move it to the begining.
My only other comment on the redesign is that there are two searchs close together. Why not move the searchbox with the go button down beside the other search and label the other one Advanced search, or move the advanced search link up after the quick search.
Other than that good work as always!
Jake -
You wrote:
"Is that what Mike meant by section? Rows of a view? I assumed he meant different areas of a page. Especially on the homepage with all the boxes."
You are correct. I was referring to each different box on the homepage. But, I do think the line helps with breaking up the blog entries. Sorry about the confusion.
Do you have any plans to allow sorting of search results by date? I figure if I search for "CSS", for example, the most recent hits would be more relevant than the hits with the most references to "CSS". Just a thought.
Thanks again for taking the time to do all you have done with codestore. It's my first stop every morning.
-- Mike
Guess I should have read What's New a little more closely.....
Mike. You can searh on date published but you can't order on date as yet. I'll add the SearchOrder {Link} parameter in phase 2 (or before if I get bored).
I get bed ridden for a couple of days, and I miss the event of the year.
Jake, I was wondering when I was going to see those icons from Simplebits making an appearance. You've used them wisely, sir.
I have to admit, I'd prefer to see a #333333 as the default text colour, but until my css improves who am I to critisise.
Thought about cookies for respose details? Hopefully that will be in my next version.
Love the clean header and main nav.