Welcome to 8 Ways to Sunday v 3.0
The re-designed 8 Ways to Sunday is now live, and everything seems to be working as it should. This is the third complete revision of this site’s appearance and function, and it’s the first that I’ve coded myself from the ground up.
There are a few things which still need to be done. For example the “About” page still has the old appearance, and the contact page has been taken offline because the URL was mysteriously landing me back on the home page. I’ll be getting to those things as I have time. Meanwhile, if you have any problems with the revamped site please leave a comment to this entry.
Hope you enjoy the new site. Have a look around, and don’t be bashful about telling me what you think. 
Update: The time stamp was screwy on this post. Probably a server-level issue. Anyway, I changed it to reflect the actual post time.
Fantastic!
Comment by Chris Vincent — March 23, 2005 @ 9:01 am
Congratulations. Your new style is beautiful! The colours are happy and it’s easy to read the text/ the entries. Great job.
I love the shadows and the “circular” (I can’t find a name of this in English sorry) borders. How did you do that? CSS?
Comment by Bibi — March 23, 2005 @ 9:14 am
Pretty!
Comment by Mickey — March 23, 2005 @ 10:27 am
Thanks for all the positive comments!
Bibi: The rounded corners are part of background graphics that I created in Macromedia Fireworks. I then used CSS apply the background images to various sections of the page. If there’s any interest, I may do a write-up on the redesign later on.
Comment by Adam M. — March 23, 2005 @ 11:38 am
Two thumbs up! Looking really good, especially the header!
Comment by Ingoal — March 23, 2005 @ 6:12 pm
Very nice, but are the flash headers really necessary? What if someone doesnt have flash? They slow it down and are totally pointless. Other than that though, it looks fine
Comment by Ravensky — March 23, 2005 @ 10:01 pm
Man, I knew someone was going to have a problem with those flash headings eventually.
I’m adding the flash headings using a technique called sIFR. It uses a combination of JavaScript, Flash, and a pinch of CSS to dynamically replace any text element on a page with a tiny Flash movie that contains the same text in a font of your choosing. It’s not intended to be used for full-body text replacement, but it gives designers a broader selection of fonts than they’ve ever had before.
sIFR follows the principle of graceful degradation. If someone visits my page using a browser that can’t handle JavaScript or CSS, then they’ll just get regular browser text. If they don’t have Flash 6.0 or higher, they’ll also get regular browser text. Repeated tests with screen readers for the disabled have shown sIFR to be completely accessible as well.
In the latest version, there’s an optional script to include a sIFR on/off switch on your web site. I haven’t decided whether or not to use that yet. It adds additional weight to the page, and I’m not sure most people would even understand what it was for unless I worded it carefully.
Anyone else have strong feelings about the dynamic Flash headings? If there’s enough interest, I’ll go ahead and add the on/off switch in a future update.
Comment by Adam M. — March 26, 2005 @ 9:07 pm
Lo mate, came from the ozzu forums! I’m loving this blog, partly because you’ve got some interesting articles on here (I now know there is a javascript packer!). I see your using sIFR on your dates, nice! I myself have no problem with using it, but I’m on broadband, so load time difference is negligible. My understanding is that the script detects flash, and if not installed, simply displays the stylesheet version,and if it’s installed goes ahead and performs to flash replacement? I think it’s a major step to getting away from common typography on the web.
Anyway, love the design.. the header looks real nice.. only thing I would add is perhaps a more interesting background around the site container? 50% grey fill is fine, but a wee gif file could enhance the depth of the site a lot methinks.. even juts one of those sleek diagonal repeating backgrounds..
see you around then!
Comment by Andy Beeching — March 27, 2005 @ 6:49 am
Andy: Yeah, the simple gray background is a little dull. I was in a hurry to wrap up the design, and it was easy. My biggest concern was making sure that the drop shadows blended seamlessly with the background. Now that’s taken care of, so I may move on to a background pattern at some point in the future.
Thanks for stopping by and offering your opinion.
Comment by Adam M. — March 28, 2005 @ 11:33 am