So, What do You Think?
As some of you have already noticed, we’re working on some changes here!
New background, new look, all in the hopes of making the site easier to navigate. The intent was also to blend the original look of the site (which was chocolate brown, in case you don’t recall) with the second template, which was white with those fun blue dots swirling down the side.
I understand not everyone’s going to love this, but change is good! And we’ve been working on this for a while. This was something I’d hope to unveil in 2008, and we have finally been able to make the site look the way I wanted it to. Easy to find tabs at the top of the page. Less clutter. More room for words, photos, and video.
This isn’t yet set in stone, and I’d love to hear your honest and helpful feedback. For example, one reader asked for darker, easier-to-see font, and we’ve already figured out how to fix that. There are some things we CAN fix (like font color) and others we can’t (like where the number of comments appears. It’s going to be at the top, not at the bottom now).
We’d appreciate any constructive criticism or advice you may have. I say “we,” because all I can do is direct, ask questions, and make suggestions. My husband’s figuring out the back end changes as we go along. So if any of you techie bellas have suggestions, please let us know!
What do you think of the new look?
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I’ve followed your blog since ’06 and this is my #1 fav. layout!!! Clean, easier to read (especially with your ads). Everything now has a place. I love this one Bella!!
I really like this. I like the darker background color. You could change the color of the post to match which would balance out the white (just an opinion).
Overall I like it and I find it easier to navigate.
I like it!
Yay!!! Sometimes all we need is a tweak and then Shazam!!!!! Thank you…
Love it! My only suggestion would be to check out the sites you’ve linked to, if you haven’t already. I browsed through some of them recently, and some are either broken or have moved. Perhaps organizing the links by subject–beauty, commentary, fashion, etc) would be very helpful, too.
I think it is a lot cleaner and more organized while still maintaining your sassy Afrobella self!
I’m very excited that it looks less spamalicious.
I like it! Change is fun.
It’s beautiful. Love you and all that you stand for. All the best in Chicago, may you be blessed beyond your dreams!
Hey Sunsail! Good looking out – that’s one of my next projects, to move all my links to their own tab. I’ll have to click through alllll of them to verify they’re still up and running first!
Bellas, as you can tell we took quite a few of your earlier suggestions to heart over the weekend. Bigger logo, header’s been moved, changed the color of the title area, darkened the font and increased the font size. Yay! Now any additional aesthetic changes will take place over the next week or so. So stay tuned!
I like how your comments and blog roll are now more uniform and easy on the eyes.
The dark brown background makes everything looked squished in the middle.
Love the afrobella logo seals on both sides. I also agree that your logo needs to be a bit larger that the ad banner and centered between the logos.
Overall, I like where you are going with this. It does look much better with everything more centered:)
I just had to come back and give you and your hubby a thumbs up for making the logo more prominent (near the header).
Thanks again for welcoming our input!
I am liking the background color and the boldness of the dipslay. I notice one thing and it is that my page fully blown up does not allow me to see the Afrobell Logo without scrolling right. It would be nice to have your entire header display without scrolling towards the right.. Great job!
Leslie,
that’s one of the main difficulties in redesigning a site — everyone uses different web browsers, computer screen sizes etc. So the logo shows up perfect for some, and too big for others. We’re not sure how to fix that just yet. But we’ll get there eventually =)
wooo that’s a lot of thoughts up above!
I love the simplicity and cleanness of the layout. The only thing I wish could change was the banner/header. Have it blend better with the current background color scheme. But knowing you bella, you’re probably working on that
very nice.
and thank u again!
love it!
I love the fresh, crisp, neat look of the layout. I would love to see more of the colors from the Afrobella logo incorporated through the site. I love those earthy, sunset tones and think they would bring vibrancy to match your posts, and you! Very nice.
Hi Bella!
I love the new website too! Just one suggestion – when you create a link for us to click on, is there any way you can have the website create a new window? I just hate having to click on the link and lose your Afrobella page because i’m in another website. This would help quite a bit from us having to use the back button to get back to your site. Thanks and much success with your new job and move!
TOTALLY LOVE!!!! BELLA
Hey Bella, it’s cool. I got no problems with it. Might wanna add more color though, but if not, the earthy thing is good too. As far as set up, I likey. Straight-forward & easy to navigate.
It looks great Bella! A lot easier to nav to. Great work!
Bella:
Love, love, love the numbered comments. Makes it so much easier to check out the discussion throughout the day. However, as I think others have mentioned, that huge ad near your logo is not the best. IMHO, it would be so much nicer if the ads were all on the right side.
i dont like it… for some reason it looks less professional than the last site. i think this has something to do with the font and enlarged size of text on the right. you have to scroll back to the top to see the comments. and for some reason i dont like the tan bars. i think the pink and maybe orange would breed more lightness to the page.
LOVE IT! And , I’m glad the brown is back. It’s a very clean and polished look.
Nice!!Kinda like facebok!! and suer friendly!!
I am crazy late to the redesign party but my one gripe is that there is a horizontal scroll because of the width of the design. Other than that, I think it’s super cute!
The site’s new look is great! The colour scheme is attractive and I think the comments tab makes it easy to navigate. Great new look!