David Behan's Web Design Ireland Blog

Notice: 09/09/09

This blog is no longer updated with new content but has been left live as there's some relevant content that still attracts a lot of traffic. You can still post comments and I will reply when I can.

If you want to visit my new site and blog, you can do so at www.webtogether.ie and you can still contact me by email hi@davidbehan.com. I'm also on twitter: @davidbehan. Thanks for visiting!

Rgds, Dave

Time for a new look

May 24, 2007 @ 7:40 am · Filed under News

Well, it was last November that my site was launched and I felt it was time for a new look to be designed and implemented. The new look site has just been launched and if you are reading this here (as opposed to an RSS reader), you obviously see it. I’ve still a bit to do to finish it off. I want to do up the blog layout a bit nicer and in more of the style from the rest of the site. Also, I have to tidy up some SEO bits and test for WAI but other than that, it’s road worthy.

I hope to get my teeth into the blog a bit more as well. I’ve been only slowly adding to it so over the coming months I hope to fill it with relevant posts and articles on a regular basis. Fingers crossed!

For now, what do you think of the new look? If you are reading the text on the different pages, what do you think of the language used (away from the whole corporate approach), etc. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to hearing from you. If you spot anything that my tired eyes have missed, then please do let me know. Thanks in advance! :D

  • Created May 24, 2007 @ 7:40 am
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17 Comments (post a comment)

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Niall  spacer

David,

Like the new look alot, well done! Much more mod with the whole “web 2.0″ theme running through it nicely.

Out of interest, is this a wordpress blog, wondering how easy it is to integrate with ASP? thinking about doing similar with .NET.

Cheers,
Niall

May 24, 2007 @ 8:37 am
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David  spacer

Hi Niall,
Thanks. A lot of work went into it. This is a wordpress blog but I’ve got php as well as asp on the windows server that I host on. I’m running asp files along side php files. The wordpress blog is run purely in php and I’ve just modified the templates to fit in to the overall site design. I suppose it would be easy enough to use wordpress at the backend application and build a custom frontend blog to interact with the wordpress database. I’ve done that on my home page and that’s an asp page. I’m just running queries into the mysql database. Nothing too difficult.
Rgds, Dave

May 24, 2007 @ 8:44 am
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Graham  spacer

David,

It’s a really slick site with a fresh and modern look.

I found it was very slow to load.

Did someone not recommend to you before to remove the picture of yourself so you wont be portrayed as a one man band !!

Keep up the good work.

May 24, 2007 @ 9:42 am
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Peter Knight  spacer

Looks very nice. The logo looks familiar. Have I seen it before?

May 24, 2007 @ 10:00 am
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Cormac Moylan  spacer

Graham, it would be fairly hand not to be remembered as a one man band since his name is his domain.

David, very nice design. I would put the same gradient which features in the header into the background of the div located at “howaya-text” and in the recent blog post area.

May 24, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
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David  spacer

Hey all,

@Graham: Tackling the issue of speed at the moment. Got some great feedback over on Creative Ireland and implementing those changes this evening. The picture is going actually and it was suggested before to leave it out but I thought I might sneak it back in. I just like seeing myself online! :D

@Peter: Thanks Peter. The “tree” theme is being dropped from the site. Revision 2 will be released tomorrow. It’s a never ending process. You have seen it before I’d say (damn stock illustrations). Another reason it is going. Pity, cause I like it.

@Cormac: Thanks Cormac – That change is already on my list. Revision 2 will be much better… I hope!

May 24, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
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Lucas  spacer

Great site. So fresh so clean ;) . The most beautiful from today’s at CSS Mania.

May 24, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
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David  spacer

Thanks Lucas. Appreciate that. It is great to be featured on http://www.cssmania.com as well :D

May 24, 2007 @ 8:24 pm
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Jamie  spacer

Very nice site, simple but effective, and nice use of colour.

May 25, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
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Aaron Weiche | Prime Blog  spacer

Well done David, found you through CSS Mania today. Give yourself a big RSS icon … I had to think on grabbing your feed to slap into my Netvibes. Looking forward to reading more.

May 25, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
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Respiro, the logo design guy  spacer

David, nice to know about your business! I just visited http://www.w3csites.com and I found your site’s link there. The oldest site layout is available somewhere, in order to compare it with this one?…

May 25, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
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Alan O'Rourke  spacer

Looking good. Small tweaks i would suggest is to make it a little less text heavy (good for google, bad for reader)and choose a slightly different shade of green. Green is notoriously difficult to get just right. At the moment it looks ever so slightly cold and flat. However as i say these are small and the new site looks great regardless.

May 25, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
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David  spacer

@Jamie: thank you, much appreciated.

@Aaron: Will be adding a nice RSS icon shortly and a few other bits as well.

@Respiro: All the old files have 301 redirects on them to the new pages so I can’t show you them. I’ll try and get a screenshot and post it up! :D

@Alan: You’re right about text heavy. I’m looking into some nice images to use on the site. The green has gone through a couple of changes and I thought I’d gotten it right.I’ll take another look though. Where abouts are you talking? Headers, links, backgrounds, etc? Really value your feedback… thanks! :D

May 28, 2007 @ 6:17 am
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David  spacer

Ok, I’ve set up a page that allows you to view the old site using a cookie. It’s just the old home page but you’ll get the idea… http://www.davidbehan.com/v1/_showoldsite.asp
Plz don’t laugh :D

May 28, 2007 @ 6:24 am
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Respiro, the logo design guy  spacer

David, what I noticed: both layouts are simple. Definitely, the new one is modern, actual and appealing. :)

May 28, 2007 @ 8:28 am
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David  spacer

Thanks Respiro! :D

May 29, 2007 @ 9:22 am
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Eoghan McCabe  spacer

“remove the picture of yourself so you wont be portrayed as a one man band”

What’s wrong with looking like a one man band? Seriously? Better than looking like the opposite but still being one guy! :-)

May 29, 2007 @ 5:04 pm

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