Well, the changes I made in the last few days aren’t nearly as dramatic as what happened with the massive redesign in December 2008, but there some changes nonetheless.
Beyond the Rhetoric is constantly evolving and shifting with the times, hopefully for the better. I’m always open to constructive criticism and positive feedback from the BTR community, so feel free to share your thoughts with me here, on Facebook, or even via Twitter if you’d like.
So, what’s been changed? The subscription “widget” in the sidebar has undergone a minor redesign. It used to have a larger RSS icon to the left and the reader count to the right, but the email subscription option was plain text. I changed it so that these are all smaller (but easily visible) icons, adding Twitter to the mix as well.
The changes aren’t as recent, but you might also notice the Facebook widget in the bottom of the sidebar as well as eBay ads below each post. I’m always experimenting to see what works best.
The other new addition is the creation of the mobile site. More and more people are accessing the Internet from their iPhones, BlackBerry devices, and other smartphones, so it’s about time that I made my site a little more mobile-friendly. If you access btr.michaelkwan.com from a mobile browser, you will automatically be directed to the mobile version of Beyond the Rhetoric. Go ahead and try it out.
Once again, I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support. With the published book available for pre-order, there should be bright skies ahead. 🙂
Three thoughts:
1. The email icon is very similar to an “email this page” type of feature. I realize that the alt-text adds context, but it might be confusing overall. Maybe spread the icons about a bit and add some very small text: “Feed” about the RSS icon, “Subscribe” above the email icon and “Follow” above the twitter icon?
2. What solution are you using for the mobile site? I do read your site from my BlackBerry bold and appreciate the change.
3. The Twitter widget feels clunky. I think the word “Follow” should be bold just like your twitter name, or they should both be regular weight? Have you tried TweetBlender as a twitter plugin?
Otherwise, good incremental improvements 🙂
Thanks for the feedback.
For the mobile site, I’m using a plug-in called WordPress Mobile Edition by Crowd Favorite.