First, I want to make some comments on the reasoning behind this redesign. It’s not that there was particularly anything wrong with the old design — except that Wordpress is a far more sophisticated product now than it was when that site was designed, and we wanted to be able to take advantage of newer and improved features. With this new layout, we’re making use of “widgetized” space to create a more flexible and (hopefully) intuitive blog for Cre8asite Forums.

Thanks to Adrian for his work on the previous design!

One of the goals for this site design was to provide a highly accessible, standards-compliant, and usable web site. To meet that end, I’ve taken care to ensure that all of the code in the templates or produced by plug-ins is standardized and clear. I can’t, of course, make any guarantees about the hundreds of articles contained within!

Accessibility in the new design

One of the principle philosophies of accessibility on the web is to get out of the way. I’ve been careful to make sure that no aspect of the design creates a barrier for users with disabilities. Might I have missed something? Yep, it’s possible. If you notice it — let me know!

There’s no such thing as an accessibility “silver bullet”, but we do our best. No part of this design should be dependent on images for comprehension or require Javascript for functionality.

The site is keyboard-friendly — skiplinks have been provided for quick access to page content and to page navigation, as well as to provide access back to the top of the page at the end of content sections.

Usability

We hope that you’ll find this design easy to navigate. Where the previous design was largely focused on current posts and blog categories, this version is more focused on current conversations and popular subjects. Hopefully this will suit you well!

In the interest of usability and making this site the best it possibly can be, we’re having a discussion on the redesign in the Website Hospital. You can share your views on the site redesign there or in the comments here — in fact, I’ll encourage you to do both!

Personality

Author bios, author and commenter avatars — all things we wanted to add in order to personalize your and our presences on the blog. Hope these are appreciated, as well!

Thanks —

Thanks to Risa Borsykowsky for the logo design and graphics contributions, and to the Cre8asite moderating and blogging staff for comments along the way!