A New Look

There have been some changes around here; the site has a new look. The previous design had been around for about a year, and had started to go stale in terms of what’s hot and what’s not in web design. Sure, it was responsive, but I think we’re seeing a transition from a lot of content to “even less is even more”, where metadata is being pushed away to favor readability: Less noise and clutter, larger fonts, more focus on typography and more white space.

When I started to look for a new WordPress theme, I was looking for something like what you see on Medium, which is very clean and an absolute pleasure to read. They also have a new approach to commenting where you typically comment on a single paragraph and not the entire post. It’s bold and I like it. Ironically, I was invited to write on Medium the other day, but I don’t feel that I can produce content of the same quality that I usually see on the site.

After having spent quite a few hours last week browsing through hundreds of WordPress themes around the web, I finally decided to go for North, a premium theme by Okay Themes. Throwing $40 on someone for a theme that will be used on a non-commercial site is borderline insane, but I’m hoping that a change of design will somehow kickstart my writing again, and if it does, it will be totally worth it.

I did feel a little cheated, though, when I, minutes after having bought North, discovered Twenty Thirteen, a new - and very free - theme that will be released with the next version of WordPress. It is basically exactly what I had been looking for. But that’s the way the world turns: At least now I’ve got a more unique theme - many sites will start using Twenty Thirteen - and I help keep Mike from San Francisco, California afloat with my $40.

I’ve spent a few hours this weekend fine tuning North to my needs, and the end result isn’t all that bad. The image handling has been re-written and a new script is being used to display images. Click one and give it a try. Everything is responsive, to the site should be readable on mobile phones and tablets as well as on big screens. I think I’ve removed most of the bugs, but if you find anything, please let me know. Oh, and I haven’t tried the on any iDevices, but I’m pretty sure Mike did.


Feedback

Do you have any thoughts you want to share? A question, maybe? Or is something in this post just plainly wrong? Then please send an e-mail to vegard at vegard dot net with your input. You can also use any of the other points of contact listed on the About page.

Caution

It looks like you're using Google's Chrome browser, which records everything you do on the internet. Personally identifiable and sensitive information about you is then sold to the highest bidder, making you a part of surveillance capitalism.

The Contra Chrome comic explains why this is bad, and why you should use another browser.