The thing I really loved in the Kottke redesign was his photo navigation.

Standard photo album, sure. Except the navigation is fantastic: to go to the next image, you click anywhere in the right half of the photo. To go to the previous image, if there is one, you click on the left half.

It’s brilliant because it’s a simple, pure HTML based interface trick, and yet it neatly mimics the real-world action of turning over a page, flicking through photos. Neat-o.

(That’ll probably not be featuring on Photovore, then).

The oldest news on the net: Kottke redesigns. But still, it’s very nice; focus on content, very clear layout, and I’m warming to the idea of a seperate archives page. In fact, I’m warming to the idea of seperate pages. About the only thing I’m not keen on is lower-case Interstate, but that’s because I see a lot of Interstate every day.

And suddenly, it clicks into place. Take one or two things from the new design (which, though full of tidy code, works like a bit of a bodge) and incorporate into old. Rinse, lather, repeat, and what do you get? A very fresh looking infovore.

Redesign is not on indefinite hold, then; it’s just been rebranded. It’s now a spring-clean.

So much for redesigning. I’ve sat down, hammered out css and markup, getting my divs to float, getting my fonts to look good, and my lists to spread horizontally.

And it’s shit.

Well, it’s not shit, but I look at the new ‘improved’ version, and I look at what you see in front of you now, and I can’t help but think I prefer this. There are a few things that need fixing around here: broken graphics links on archive pages, for a start. I’d also really like to tidy up the sidebar – less grey, I feel, and less text in the brief links – and am really going to alter the structure of the external links.

I might also return to titling posts. Not sure yet. Anyhow: no great shakes coming about for a while. I spoke too soon. I’ve learned a few nifty CSS tricks, so it’s not wasted, but I’d rather just tweak this – which I do love – than start from scratch again.

The Gill Sans, though, is definitely staying.

I’m redesigning. A bit more radically than the change of typefaces you’ve just seen might suggest. I haven’t redesigned for a year, when I produced the first version of infovore. Well, it’s time for a change; there’s lots I want to do, lots I’ve seen I can do, so let’s go.

Words are all we have. I’ve been falling in love with type again recently, and want my site to reflect that. Also, there is some bodged CSS that needs to go. I’m going to have a good long think and a very careful clean-out. For now, I’ve redone the gifs. The layout, code, template, and MT tags will slowly come later. But this is the way I’m going.

Clean. Clear. Still monochrome. I may be some time.

My inbox now has 83 items in it. These are 83 messages that I haven’t given my full attention, perhaps even read at all; some of them have been demanding replies for about a week now. It’s been hectic and whilst I’ve had energy enough to process some information, I just haven’t got around to replying. So: it’s a Saturday afternoon, and getting a bit grey. Perfect time to catch up.

Until more arrive, of course.