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CSS Drive Blog New Design up!

Date: 08/29/2009 New Design up!

The last redesign of CSS Drive was just over 2 years ago, so I'm excited that the new look- after a few months of stop and go- is finally now complete! I decided to enlist the help of the very talented Maleika of Rockatee, who caught my eye with his creativity and unconventional sense of style. I wanted a look that was professional yet slightly unorthodox, and I think Meleika delivered nicely.

Under the hood two of the biggest improvements to CSS Drive are found in the CSS Gallery section. Firstly, you should instantly notice the larger screen shots- they're now 50% larger, as the cheesy marketing slogan would say. Then there's the new Color Palette feature you can find on each Gallery Entry that lets you view and copy (in hex format) the primary colors of the site in question.

I hope you like the new look, and please share your input on what you like or dislike about it. Any bugs, please do tell as well. Currently the RSS feed buttons are not yet up, plus a few other quirks I intend to get to soon enough.

Comments (141)

I really liked the new design.

Fresher, greener, and clearer.

Thanks for keeping up with the good work

Felipe Martyn on 08/29 at 09:01 PM

yeeesh! a step backwards! The green is nice, but the layout is WAAAAAAAAAY to busy! Left aligned? On my 24" monitor, I have to sit on the left side of my desk to read the site! center it already! Still think the older one was cleaner although it did look a bit dated... this certainly is not a step forward though... still looks dated... judging by the ratings, more people dislike it than like it, so I am with the majority...sorry

a guy on 08/30 at 03:41 AM

i agree with a guy. I also is sitting on a 24" screen, and it strains my eyes with this VERY busy site. Don't left-align, plz.

also some of the paragraphs should be reworked.
font-size: 11px;
font-family: Tahoma, Helvetica, "som mac fonts", sans-serif;
line-height: 130%;

Or something like that. The text is not very scan-able.

a 2nd guy on 08/30 at 03:22 PM

Can't please everyone, I like the design it's much better than the previous one. Good job,

Tim on 08/30 at 04:43 PM

It sucks... Just saying.

My Two Cents on 08/31 at 02:18 AM

Can't please everyone? how about "pleases very few"... the responses are even broken...click the title, you get this area, click the number of responses ( one page back ) and you get a whole other group of responses to the same post! did anyone even test this first? must of been drunk to let this dry heave pass... eek, I just threw up a little in my mouth! ... X{

a guy on 08/31 at 05:29 AM

too busy... revert to the last one

Zeal on 08/31 at 08:10 AM

Wow, firefox on a pc does not render Helvetica very well at all!
This is really hurting my eyes. I have to agree with everyone else about the left alignment on widescreen monitors.

Funny I was just reading about IKEA's font blunder this morning too.

Dawn on 08/31 at 12:26 PM

I like the logo. But, needs more whitespace and a bit too busy

Yas on 08/31 at 07:55 PM

I'd have to disagree with it being too busy...

It does have a lot of content - but I really like it! The left alignment doesn't bother me, and I think the placement of the content makes it busy, but not too busy.

I LOVE IT! :)

// X96 \\

X96 on 09/01 at 12:47 AM

the left align idea is doesn't work and the site is too busy..liked the old site compared to this one

benito on 09/01 at 08:00 AM

I don't like the new design. I don't like the left-align, and there is too much grey on the right on a large widescreen LCD (must be better on a netbook or smaller LCDs). And too much colors: just on this comment page I can find greys, 3 kind of green, some yellows, red, orange, aquamarine, dark blue and skin-color :) in 'linkage', 'members', etc. icons, and I didn't mention the colors of the ads. The green-white boxes on the right side border look like scrolling upwards while I scroll down the page with the mouse wheel - it's disturbing.

But these kind of webpages are rarely visited just for the pleasure of seeing the desing. So as long as you keep the quality of the articles - I'll keep the link. :)

hellsing on 09/01 at 04:01 PM

The CSSDrive world (us) have spoken, please change this design ad respect the majority vote 66Nays > 26 Yays.... That says a lot

Zeal on 09/02 at 05:24 AM

Simply Outstanding... Keep it up...

avishek nath on 09/02 at 10:18 AM

Just one more thing: your CSS and XHTML are not W3C-valid. It's sticky for a website that has lots of 'Design to XHTML/CSS' ads.

hellsing on 09/03 at 06:58 AM

Better, but not good. Please don't left align... not usable at all anymore!!!

lib on 09/04 at 01:55 PM

Left align is the problem but IMHO a pleasing design no doubt about it.Taste differs is it not

sc18 on 09/04 at 04:13 PM

I don't know what everyone's problem is - it's an awesome design, and way better than the old one.

And for all of you saying there's too many colours - no. They all work well together, there isn't lime green, pink, and brown all on the same page, is there?

Hey - I'm sure if YOU designed it, you would've designed it a bit differently, but you didn't design it! So use it, and be glad you have such a great resource at hand.

X96 on 09/06 at 03:09 AM

On X96,

it's not the colours. I don't like the colours, but hey, thats my taste. It's all about whitespace. Way too busy. Also the menu look a bit cheap.

And the fact that the XHTML and CSS is not even validate is a shame with all those ads on the right.

Bas Roding on 09/07 at 09:59 AM

I keep coming back and staring at the new design…. I think the thing that I, (personally), dislike the most are all the ruler/grid lines at the top and around the white content area. The thin notched border on the right reminds me of some borders I saw on winamp skins back in the day.

It's not that it's bad, it just feels like I'm back in 1999 or something… compared to all the beautiful sites that are linked here. I think it's making us feel confused and uncomfortable.

And thanks for changing the font! My eyes are happier now. =)

Dawn on 09/08 at 04:41 PM

I just wanted to let you know I think your redesign is great!

Jess on 09/08 at 10:24 PM

This site very good
and nice

cam balkon on 09/21 at 01:45 AM

Cheers to the new design. thumbs up (y)

Rahul - Web Guru on 09/22 at 12:21 PM

some changes needed eg, some of the paragraphs should be reworked.
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Tahoma, Helvetica, "som mac fonts", sans-serif;
line-height: 110%;

The concept of Website Design is simple yet too complex.

Website Design on 09/23 at 10:50 PM

E che in questo caso?

peter pipers tea on 09/30 at 12:07 PM

I am trying to think of a title for a multidisciplinary studies major that I have come up with concentrating in health care...I am staying away from the clinical aspect
Skin Care

Skin Care on 10/23 at 02:14 PM

Thank you!!! It is very nice. I like this.

gingko biloba on 11/07 at 07:16 AM

Isn't the majority resolution still 1024? That being said going with a left align still caters well to all of them all the dinos at 800x600 and even the 1280 and 1400 (altho not as much) crowds quite well. Honestly the 1680+ crowds are NOT the majority and though the comments probably reflect your audience SOME, you also opened up a can of worms asking the question period because a negative opinion is more nagging at someone to post than a positive or neutral one because of peoples desire to have their voice heard when they're displeased.

Jasn on 11/12 at 06:03 AM

I love the new look and colors!

John Biondo on 11/16 at 08:41 PM

Actually,I like the logo best.laser pointer

angela on 12/06 at 05:53 PM
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