[CitizenTony]

I've just got done building a new theme for my site. It's run by WordPress and the last theme was a quickie and hard to navigate. I finally got tired of it about a month ago and started casually working towards a new look.

For some reason I started out with the default WP theme and built from there, which was so much harder than just starting from scratch. But I was too far in by the time I realized I was serious about changing the site up.

The site is basically a news site about MotoGP. I wanted to keep it pretty basic, clean, and very easy to navigate.

Any feedback is appreciated. If it sucks, tell me, I can take it.

MotoGPreport.com

[scratt]

It looks ok. It's functional and clean...

But perhaps a nice top banner with some MotoGP pictures would be a good idea? At the moment it's very bland.

And I'd go easy on the donation requests, personally.

[CitizenTony]

Thanks. I'm currently looking for some nice pictures for the banner area.

The donation page was a big decision. I looked around at sites like mine and most were doing the same so I decided to go for it. I've actually gotten a few and it's better than a bunch of ugly ads. I know that right now there are two links to the page. One in the side bar and the About link at the top. But I'm working on a new about page right now that will replace that one. I don't want to be in your face, and plan to only have the link in the sidebar and the page a bit less "wanting".

I did go with AdSense too, but have it to a minimum hopefully. Two ads on the entire site. One in the sidebar, and the other under the posts when you are reading them individually. I tried to make them disappear and put them out of the way if you don't like ads.

I think I'm getting rid of the cafepress junk, because I understand that their stuff is indeed junk.

Anything else?

Update: Removed the Cafepress link and updated the wording in the sidebar a tiny bit.

[scratt]

I am a big fan of Google Ads, if done tastefully. So cool on that one.

I'd love there to be a better alternative to Cafepress.
For our site (which is being updated, and woefully needs it) I get a lot of requests for T-Shirts from clients, but don't really want to sit on a bunch of stock.

My main problem with Cafepress is there is no API to put the products into a store of your own. If they did that I could live with the low margin, as the convenience of offering a massive diverse range of stock is really neat.

Basically for the margin they offer they should offer an API, rather than a paid store sub-domain.

[CitizenTony]

Anyone or anything else? Anything is very appreciated. I'm working on getting an image for the banner. It'll be around the area that says News. Probably just under it or replacing the gray area behind it.

For reference. Here's a screen grab of the old look. Hopefully it's better now.

[CitizenTony]

Well, I've gotten an image header in there now and cleaned up some of the spacing.

[dmegatool]

I think it's way better on that screenshot.

I personally would add some color on that header to get rid of the monochromatic effect.

A little bit like Applenova... well, oh fuck.

[709]

I like the colors in the screenshot much better. The light blue background is a little weird (for my taste), and I prefer the Google ads and side text to be contained instead of floating on the background. Also, I can't see your image header in Camino (1.6.3) either.

[CitizenTony]

That's crazy. Thanks for the Camino feedback. It works in every browser but that one. Wonder what gives. I'll look into it.

Edit: FF 2 and below are doing this as well. Somethings wrong in my CSS I suppose. It validates, but I have something messed up. Thanks for pointing it out.

I've been thinking about containing the sidebar and am working on a prototype that does just that.

I had another photo, but the guy who took it couldn't let me use it and I had to fall back on this one. The other one didn't have any blue in it and looked much better. I may just change the background color to get away from so much blue. I don't like the monochromatic feel too much either.

How does this background look?

[CitizenTony]

Camino, and by effect, FF2 work now. They don't like a negative z-index that I used for IE6/7 so I had to clean up some things. Should work in all main browsers now. Thanks.

Background was changed to a greenish shade too, I think it helps with the overly blue feel and is a bit easier on the eyes.

I didn't like the darkness of the old one anymore and wanted it a bit brighter and cleaner.

Thanks for the feedback, it's been a real help. Keep it coming.

[CitizenTony]

By popular demand, I've reverted the background back to dark gray. Actually, it makes the page stand out much better so I quite like it.

Thanks for the feedback, it's a great help.

[CitizenTony]

Wow, it's been almost three month's since I did this. It's all done now, or, it was month's ago. I wound up with a dark gray/blue color in the background.

I removed all of the ads, not that there were that many, but because I hate ads. The small income they brought in wasn't near enough to justify giving up space and cleanliness on the site.

I'd love to hear any suggestions or feedback on the current design, though it seems I'm the only one talking in this thread . It should work in all browsers with a few broken spaces in IE7 and below.

motogpreport.com

[ezkcdude]

Now that's a sharp looking site. Clean, subtle tones, well-organized. And no fucking music. Huzzah!

[CitizenTony]

You mean putting in a flash intro and a catchy tune won't make it better? I can make the intro non-skippable, that's what everyone likes right?

[Bryson]

That's right. Oh, and I hear that Frames are really cool these days.

Seriously, though, nice work: Not too fussy, not too much going on. Easy to read the content! It even looks OK in Internet Exploder 6. The header and the content aren't exactly the same size, but still, it seems to work.

[CitizenTony]

I forgot about this thread. I never could get that theme to work very well with the sidebar floating off to the side as such. So I went back to the drawing board and went with simplicity. I really like this design a lot and think it's easy to use.

ETA: I moved the sidebar content to the very bottom. Tons more room to work with down there and doesn't draw the eye away from the content you're there to read. I have columns for recent articles and race results separated out, which is nice too.

Check it out if you like, tell me what you think.

MotoGP Report

[turtle]

I like the new design.

[jdcfsu]

Awesome! I really like the top bar. Looks great. Colors all go together well. Very nice redesign.