My personal blog

Okay, I did mean to get around to doing this 4 months ago, but I forgot...I mean things got in the way. Without much ado:
http://cyan-light.co.uk/
Try not to kill me with your thoughts ^^

It's nice, very clean design. The only problem I have with it is that your content almost starts below the fold... given the fact that content is the most important thing on any website (especially blogs) I would considered getting rid of that pointless image or at least make it smaller, and reducing the huge white space between the image and the top logo/navigation area to bring your content higher up on your page.

Very nice design overall, clean and easy to follow. Only two things I didnt like:

-Why is there such a large space after the links at the top and start of the header? Just seems like the header should be moved up some.

-I think the W3 validation buttons look horribly tacky on any website. Congrats on the validation, no need to mess up the design with them though. If you have to have them, why not a few small links in the footer such as "Valid XHTML" "Valid CSS" that link to your validation?

Regards,

Drew

I've reduced the whitespace and cropped the images a little (plus made them a little more relevant.) Should be more comfortable now.

Good point on the W3C icons, I was going to drop them but forgot to midway =/

I've been to your site several times and I like the clean layout. Plus I like orange too ;)

The one part that I'm not keen on is the roll overs on your main nav. The blue text is real hard to read and it clashes a lot. I would think it would look better to display:block the links and change the background to possibly a lighter orange color on hover.

Cheers harbinger--it now changes to a softer peach color which is less stressful on the eyes.

I've been to your blog a few times. Very nice design, clean and coherent. But the homepage doesn't validate :eek: (heresy!). Also the contact page appears to be blank.

Nice site overall, I liked the about page ^^.

Beautiful.
Pages look really bad with no content.
Only one small thing. Perhaps a small icon on hover for RSS etc;

I've been to your blog a few times. Very nice design, clean and coherent. But the homepage doesn't validate :eek: (heresy!). Also the contact page appears to be blank.

Nice site overall, I liked the about page ^^.
Validation is WordPress's fault, if the stupid thing let me write my own XHTML everything would be fine :( Fixed now, though.

Contact page will be updated eventually, but I'm hesitant to give out my email address and forms = evil, so I'll implement an article from A List Apart sometime in the future.

Realized the footer link to the contact page was broken, fixed that. Which reminds me that I need to do the 404 too.

What do you mean, twodays? And I'm thinking of making little content image things...pretty ^^

The article I think you are thinking about is a good one.

The design is nice and pleasing, but I'm concerned more with the content. There is no direction what your site is about until you start reading a post. The name of the page makes you believe you may be producing crayons, and then as you read you realize the author has a propensity for death threats.

I'm going to throw this out there, even though I know you already believe you have enough reason to knock me off. If I'm going to read a blog, I'm going to want it to be consistent in its content. Your style is to talk about personal and web design topics together. I am just unsure who your target audience is, and not sure if you do either. So may I suggest making clear categories for your posts, and keeping them focused. Perhaps you may choose to only write personal posts, or posts related to web design, or whatever, but people are not likely to want to be reading both. I'm not saying stop your attitude, which I doubt you can, but rather focus your posts for a specific type of reader and you will do better attracting them.

Add something on the homepage which gives a quick description of your site, its purpose, and why someone should read it.

When you hover over RSS, Home, atom etc; have an icon appear to the left. Something fancy. A color change is not enough

The design is nice and pleasing, but I'm concerned more with the content. There is no direction what your site is about until you start reading a post. The name of the page makes you believe you may be producing crayons, and then as you read you realize the author has a propensity for death threats.
1) Crayons? It doesn't look crayony to me.
2) ...*eyes dart everywhere* Ssshh!

I'm going to throw this out there, even though I know you already believe you have enough reason to knock me off.
I think you're cool really. But your time will COME.
If I'm going to read a blog, I'm going to want it to be consistent in its content. Your style is to talk about personal and web design topics together. I am just unsure who your target audience is, and not sure if you do either. So may I suggest making clear categories for your posts, and keeping them focused. Perhaps you may choose to only write personal posts, or posts related to web design, or whatever, but people are not likely to want to be reading both. I'm not saying stop your attitude, which I doubt you can, but rather focus your posts for a specific type of reader and you will do better attracting them.

I don't have a target audience nor did I ever intend there to be one. I write for me. *shrugs* My style is very hard to untangle...but I guess I'll try ^^

Add something on the homepage which gives a quick description of your site, its purpose, and why someone should read it.

Noted, brushed up something on the sidebar which I know you'll love :rolleyes: and the title of the index page is more...*cough* descriptive.

When you hover over RSS, Home, atom etc; have an icon appear to the left. Something fancy. A color change is not enough

I'm not sure, but I'll look into it. Appreciate the input ^^

There is no direction what your site is about After all, if you don’t know what a blog is by now you should be shot. :D 'Nuff said.