Layout ideas?

[teyla]

I want to do something new and shiny and exciting about my LJ layout. I lack ideas, though. I think I want to keep the header, even though I might change its colors. I am also still very fond of my font, Trebuchet MS, so I want to keep that, too.

Any ideas what I could do differently?

(and no, neery, I am not making the font any bigger! *gg* Well, I might. But only if it fits with the layout!)

Comments

[wihluta.livejournal.com]

mmmhhh... if you know how to do it, you could change the colour of the background into something more cheerful. Like canary-yellow or sky-blue and then make the writing pink!
And you could switch the sidebar to the other side...

(sorry that's stupid, I know, I just feel a little crazy rigt now) :-)

[teyla]

Like this, yes?

sample text sample text lorem ipsum blah blah blah

... not quite sure if I'm the type for colors like this *gg*.

[wihluta.livejournal.com]

LOL... OMG,

and please no no no... it will burn peoples corneas. Well, another colour then, maybe something less crass (grell). :-)

[neery.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. *hand-waves condescendingly* Like I haven't already completely and utterly defeated you on that count. *pets Firefox default font settings* ;)

I'd put "entry tags" as the first category in the navigation bar on the side, just because that's usually what I'm most interested in if I visit someone's journal. Whatever you do, leave the tags list available somewhere! They're so convenient.

I personally find the page summary thing both ugly and pointless, because it's not like anyone uses subject headers, anyway. And I don't know what you'd use a calendar of the current month for - those are the entries that are going to be in "recent entries", anyway. Unless you're using it as an actual calendar, of course.

Other than that, just make sure to keep the contrast between the text and the layout colors high. Most people prefer to read dark on white, but it's not as pretty.

Other than that, co actual good ideas.

[teyla]

I must find a way to shoot down this default setting function in Firefox. Everything in Times New Roman size 12!! *dies from teh horrror*

All that sidebar stuff is, basically, not a question of layout - more one of style. I'd simply have to go into my journal settings and turn a few things off/on and shift stuff around. Although I'm not sure if smooth sailing style offers the option of rearranging the sidebar blocks...

Calender must stay. I want to know on which days I wrote entries ^^. Page summary thing is ugly and pointless in my journal, but nice to have when reading the f-list.

And yes, tags are gonna stay. I hate journals without a tag list.

Hmm. Might have to come up with some actual layout ideas myself, after all... *gg*

[neery.livejournal.com]

You will not defeat me! *cackles* (Although I really do wish I didn't need to use that function - it overrides the "small" tag, which I like, damn it, and some websites really do look like crap with it because they're not up to any accessibility standards. But it's made using LJ so much more convenient, I can't even tell you.)

I have lots of layout ideas, but our tastes are too different, I think. I really do have to get that paid account now, and then I'll make you turn them into code for me. *cackles some more*

[teyla]

Heh, and I will find out how to code a code that overwrites the firefox default settings and integrate it in your LJ, then I will lock your account with a new password and WILL WRITE A STYLE WITH BLACK BACKGROUND AND DARK GREY, TINY TINY NON-TNR FONT!

Yes. I will do that. *gg*

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

Light background, dark text. Light background, dark text. Light background, dark text.

[teyla]

Uh... *ducks*

Can I infer from that that you think this layout... kinda sucks? *gg*

(well, in my defense, I don't post my fic in my journal... only to comms that have the default style turned on for the comment page ^^).

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

I have my settings so that if I'm reading from my friends list, everything shows up in my journal style, which for comment pages is the LJ Default. But if I'm following a link from elsewhere, like this one (from my e-mail notification), it shows up in whatever style the journal's owner has chosen.

Frankly, I won't read anything that comes in a light text on a dark background. I know I can add "?style=mine" to the end of the URL, but there's a lot of stuff to read out there and usually I just can't be arsed to do so -- not just because of the time it takes to type that code and wait for the page to reload, but because I assume that people who post their stuff on unreadable layouts just don't want me to read their stuff. I mean, if they wanted me to read their stuff, why would they make me strain my eyes to do so? There are writers in the House fandom whose stories I just instantly bypass when they show up on my flist because I know they have awful layouts on their sites.

So yeah. I'm kind of bitchy about this because I'm visually disabled and it's not like we're in the '90s anymore. Sorry.

[teyla]

*gg* That's okay, I don't resent your opinion ^^.

I know that there's the mystyle button thing, which is why felt I could go with my own preferences rather than general readability considerations when I designed this style - and as I said, I don't post fic in this journal, only links. I didn't think about the email-thing.

It's just that I really like it when people put some effort into designing their journals - I always make a point of checking out the personal journal when I meet someone new, and not so much for the contents as for the journal style. Since web-design is almost as much of a hobby of mine as fanfic writing is, I don't really want to dismiss one completely in order to promote the other.

However, I know what you mean about really completely unreadable styles. There are a few journals out there that make it very hard to enjoy reading in them - I don't count mine among them, but then, other than a mild case of near-sightedness, my eyes are fine and I don't mind small font or stark contrasts, so I know I can't take my preferences as the general consent.

Hm. I don't know what I'll do. I know that the posts that I really want people to read - my fics - are in a readable format, and most of the posts here in my journal are rather spammy, anyway (I know they are, and I know I shouldn't spam so much, but I can't help it). So I'm not sure if I want to give up my design preferences. Maybe I'll turn the default comment page option on for this journal.