Blog Redesign

in propria persona has been on temporary hiatus for a week or two while I finished finals and worked on my law review competition entry (due on Tuesday). Since this involved considerable mental energy, I’ve kept myself amused through a blog redesign. (Notes from Law School will be keeping the old design for the time being.)

Of note in the new design:

• An updated color scheme blended with Blogger’s top bar.
• 3-column layout provided by Yahoo! UI Grids.
• A main column with blog entries that includes useful tools at the bottom of each post to add to various online services (Digg, etc.), plus some FeedBurner FeedFlares (such as Sphere’s related content).
• Small middle column featuring a variety of advertisers (if I am to advise people on the use of these networks, I need to use them myself). This column starts out faded to keep it less obtrusive, then becomes more visible when moused over.
• The far right column has various blog tools, including search (two varieties, one Google based, one Blogger based), entry categories, Technorati links, Google suggestions, and MyBlogLog entries.

I have reduced the Snap previews and eliminated MyWire feeds for the time being, since I felt they were adding distractions without sufficient value. I am still using Snap, but in a less obtrusive way (icons only, and essentially only on posts). In addition, the Yahoo! menu bar I had across the top has been removed, at least temporarily. I may look to integrate a more tab-based menu later.

Of course, I will be tweaking this design going forward, looking for more features to improve connections between my postings and other resources on the Web, improve usability of my blog, and learn (and share) new tools and technologies.