New Design is up and running

Written by Editor in Chief, Pick The Brain - 18 Comments
Categories: site related

I’ve just gone live with a new design. If you’re reading through a feed reader come check it out.

The basic structure of the site is the same, but I’ve upgraded the presentation to reduce wasted space and make it easier on the eyes.

Please let me know if anything looks broken. I’ve tested it a bit, but not for all platforms. I’d also love to hear any other feedback on usability or presentation. I’ll continue to tweak it for the next few weeks until it’s the best it can be.

  • http://www.empowerwomennow.com/news-women-entrepreneurs/ Ponn Sabra

    John,
    I absolutely love it!

    The colors and organization makes for a simple, clean and pleasurable experience. Honestly, I came over for your great content. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the ease on my eyes, and this unusal “happy” feeling I feel right now by being here :-)

    It’s hard to explain, but I have a cheerful grin on my face right now ;-)

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Ponn,

    I’m glad you like it. :)

  • http://slastlancer.blogspot.com/ Doe

    Compared to before, it’s stripped down, easier to eyes, fonts are smaller but readable.

    All good for me. :)

    Doe a.k.a Abdul Rahman

  • http://md-solutions.se Mattias D

    What’s up with you americans and design? It’s not ok :P

  • http://www.todayisthatday.com/blog/ Today is that Day

    Very cool – I like it a lot better than the other version.

    Having re-done my own blog not too long ago, and also having just built another site, I know what you have been through to make this change happen.

    Much obliged for you making an already cool place even cooler than it was before! :)

  • http://www.goal-setting-college.com Goal Setting College

    I liked it for its simplicity, ease on the eyes and yes, it definitely loads much faster than before. But the the right hand column gets displaced in the main page. Perhaps it’s because I’m still using IE 6.0.

    Btw, I love that little brain logo you’ve got… suits your domain name better, though I kinda of miss that polar bear :P

    Cheers,
    Ellesse

  • Dax

    Simple and nice :-)

  • http://www.transhumanists.org Christopher

    It looks great but now you’ve lost the title for the world’s largest RSS button.

  • gdoc

    Quite nice, clean and easy to follow. My only criticism would be the little box at the top-right, the lavender one for subscriptions.

    It also includes links to Google feeds, and bloglines. These are functionally different from the subscribe elemtn, and I would put them underneath (i.e. outside the subscribe box itself).

    Apart from that, looking good.

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    That’s a good point gdoc. I’ll probably move the GoogleReader and Bloglines chicklets some place else or remove them entirely.

    It’s funny, the colors look a lot different on PC. I designed it entirely on a Mac so this the first I’ve seen it. The fonts are also a bit different too.

    Thanks everyone for the feedback.

  • Mike

    Did I miss something? What happened to the polar bear?

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Haha, it got nixed, but you aren’t the first one to miss it. Maybe I’ll find a way to incorporate it somewhere.

  • http://dmiracle.com Dawud Miracle

    I like this too, John. Nice job. I like how clean your design is. And while I liked the polar bear, I definitely think changing to ‘the brain’ was a good move.

  • http://www.buildyourlifetoorder.com Mark McManus

    Very nice John. Nice and clean. Easy for us readers to navigate.

    Mark

  • http://www.rubyfleebie.com Frank

    I don’t hate it, but I really prefered the other one. Fonts were bigger and easier to read… I just like big fonts. (Ok ok… I know I can do ctrl+ to increase them). Also I think I will miss the polar bear =)

    But hey, the majority seems to be happy with the new design so forget my complaining. hehe!

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Yes, font size was something I considered. I guess I got tired of how big and clunky it looked before, but I didn’t want to lose readability. The size is still as big as most blogs.

    Seems like a bunch of people miss the polar bear. I liked it too, but went to a Brain Logo since it fits the domain name. I thought the bear could be confusing.

    Also, has anyone else noticed a significant color difference between Mac and PC. I designed it on a Mac and the color of the subscription box looks light blue. On a PC it looks lavender. I don’t like it as much, but it could be worse.

  • http://www.positivityblog.com Henrik Edberg

    I like the new design too. The only thing I find a bit irritating is the sharp yellow color of the Feedcounter (small thing though :) ). Also, I kinda miss the polarbear.

  • http://www.mauder.com/ Dave M

    Eye candy John! Great job! You and I have been spending our time on similar efforts lately. I just finished converting my entire site to a WordPress blog (instead of having a separate blog section). I figure about 1000 more hours and I’ll have all the content converted over too! :)