Hey there guys. Ok, as you all can clearly see the redesign is now pretty much finished with just a few details and pages to flesh out thanks to some wonderful help from the amazing Pia, who also was responsible for the previous design of the site. Some things you’ll notice about this new design:
1) I now use WordPress as the back end instead of Movable Type. MT was a wonderful content management system for over 4 years for The Movie Blog, but for a number of reasons I wanted to switch. Damn near took a whole day to just move and convert the 8000 posts over, but it was well worth it
2) Much faster loading. The pages load much faster than before
3) A cleaner look. This was important to me because so much of the identity of The Movie Blog is that of being a BLOG. I wanted it to feel more like a blog. I truly believe we’ve done that here.
4) Content is the focus. As a blog, I wanted CONTENT to be the focus of the page as opposed to design aesthetics
5) Fewer bugs. Daily people would write to me about various bugs on the site from pages not loading, comments not appearing and other sorts of problems. These are now GONE.
In general, I REALLY believe that the end user experience on the site will now be greatly improved… that’s my hope anyway.
As far as The Movie Blog Uncut goes. Monday Doug, Darren and I did record an episode… but for some reason it came out sounding like we were the chipmunks. I believe I’ve found the problem and we’ll be back to our regular schedule soon. Don’t forget, FRIDAY (yes, today) Doug and I will be broadcasting our LIVE show that you can call in and get on air with us on.
The show goes live at 6pm EST and can be heard at www.nowlive.com/themovieblog. See you then!
Now the spacing is much better. Thanks!
Reduce the line spacing.
Very nice job with the finishing touches. It looks FANTASTIC!
I like the new look, even so it´s the content that makes me come here in the first place.
Just one thing: The line spacing could be little smaller, 1.0, not 1.5. (or is it just my screen?).
You are absolutely right about the loading time. I live out in the sticks (in Canada no less) and dial up is all I have. I could have watched Peter Jackson’s King Kong before the old site was loaded. Good job.
It kind of sounds like your trying to talk yourself into the fact that this is a blog rather than us. Blogging is a hobby not a profession. Suck it up and admitt it’s more than a blog site and go back to the old design.
I love the new look. Clean and fast loading.
The RSS feed works too!
-Mike G
Ha, looks cool. Like it what you done with it.
Hey John,
New design looks great. And the page always loads now.
Quick question for ya. Are you guys planning a Film 4 Food Fest in 2008?
Much better! Now it feels like The Movie Blog again! :D
Looks great. really happy with how it turneed out. nice job.
found 1 bug and 1 annoyance.
first. the text in the search box i outside the gray area.
second. when the logo/banner thing for the movieblog at the top has come to the end of the picture it restarts witht logo. would look much better if it just stopped.
again great job
Good call on the WordPress instead of moveable type. It is a much more solid platform and a lot easier to administer.
I use it on all of my sites, and can’t imagine using anything else.
Looks like some of your text is being converted to smiley’s inadvertently. If you go to the top 10 lists it comes up a lot when you list 8 )
excellent job sir!
Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback. And to Darren, those sub pages are going to have to wait a little bit.
With regards to Community… I accidentally removed it when I installed WordPress in the main directory here… but it’s not wiped out… it’ll be back online in like 24-48 hours no problem.
Oh, one last thing. The “Alvin” movie hasn’t opened yet, has it?
You can always….oh nevermind.
It didn’t take…anyway, it says under Sharon that she’s the only member of the female species on the site; yet Serena has been an active member of MB for a good month or so. Also, while I like seeing her pretty face on Myspace and Facebook, I’d like to see her mug on the about page.
I think the “blog” looking design is just fine. I hope you get to the other pages soon. Just two reminder or two, Gio: Where is Serena Whitney on the About page?? It says under Sharon Dewitt :
Forget about the link stuff. Sorry.
I´m with Johan about the titles.
Two more thigs: pagination and a link to “home” in the whole header
The rest is fine
As a designer myself I very much like the new cleaner look. To be anally picky I am not sure about the uppercase titles that research shows is 20% slower to read.
Now that it’s complete, I actually quite like it. Nice one
I’m impressed. In LA, Campea just spent most of his time drunk off his ass and high as a kite… way to pull it all together and redesign a site!
The redesign turned out great John. Being a daily visitor I had to admit I was a little concerned with it to start with when I first saw it, however I do agree it’s much cleaner than the previous one
Yes…yes! I like it, I like it a LOT!
As a few others, At first I didn’t like the work in progress, but hell…this looks great!
The design looks great…congratulations!
I was pretty harsh about the new design when you first started but I will have to say that I to have eaten my own words. This is a design that can grow on me. It does declare that this still is the Movie Blog. And the header looks great.
I appolgize for jumping the gun and critizing the new design before you were finished. It looks pretty cool! Great job!
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Post the chipmunk version!!! DO IT!!! hehe!
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The main site looks much better, but the comments still appear a bit cramped. Just my 2 cents.
I didn’t say anything before, but when you first started the redesign yesterday I was like “WTF!? He’s ruining the site!”
Now that you’re done, I eat my words. I agree with Niko, the site is pretty much fucking flawless. It’s really a thing of beauty man. I’ll never doubt you again. Except for on Halo stuff. LOL!
And you’re right, the site just flies now. Excellent job.
this redesign is pretty much flawless right now, like it a lot john.
Well turns out I just answered my own question. Cheers!
The website looks really nice John. Good work! You’ve certainly accomplished your goal to make it more content-oriented.
However, did you get a new RSS feed? Your previous one has “Audio Editon – March 15th 2006” coming out as the latest update.
Congratulations on the redesign and it looks great!