Every now and then winds of change come to Devils Workshop and presently we are in one such situation. After getting some random suggestions and feedback from our readers we have decided to make changes to Devils Workshop’s design.
So now the Devils (rtCamp Developers and Web Designers) are all in the workshop implementing ideas and testing them.
Your opinions matter…
We are fiercely proud of our readers and contributors as they constantly keep suggesting changes through email or random comments. We have kept some suggestions in mind before taking this road to redesign, but we want more opinions and ideas from you. Best way to do this is to comment to this post. Rest assured we will be monitoring the comments very closely for ideas.
If you have an idea, as suggestion do write in a comment to let us know and we will try to work with those ideas. If you do not have any ideas then the best way to help us would be to write in what you like in the present design through your comments. 🙂
29 Comments
1. Redesign the blog.
2. Opt for Quality over Quantity.
3. Make it look less as a news portal.
4. Offer giveaways more frequently.
That’s my opinion.
Get a Magazine style layout for homepage
Try to make header bigger and with 2 navbar
You can utilize the whole space on the sidebar, Implement Google friend connect and facebook fan page
Though if you are paranoid about speed avoid Google friend connect
On the sidebar show
1. Random posts
2. Popular Posts
On the home (Magazine style layout)
Show 3-4 new posts and after that pull up 4-5 posts from popular categories. This will have benefit on SEO and also decrease the bounce rate…
On single post Give some social touch like
add social media sharing icon
Add facebook share icon beside tweetmeme icon
Add About the author bia….
Ehh.. I guess The guy with best suggestion is getting 100$ ?? :0 😉
I feel this time you should have some really good graphics on your website, not a simple look, also add some little big social media/share icons to increase your reach.
+ As you are using WordPress, you can implement the new comments feature (which allows comment threading)
Change “Devils Workshop” to “Devils’ Workshop”. I had commented this earlier, but was never posted…
I think devils workshop’s color combination is nice one..
i personally liked it very much. 🙂
Instead of Redesign entire wordpress theme…just change some part like ..
>>header section to accomodate more content.
>>sidebars : may you can come up with JQuary for ajax type navigation
>> make sidebar longer to fit more content .
also you can redesign index.php page –like news portal and leave archive page as it is.
You can twist theme like http://knowbest.info which shows two
navigation at the top
Regards 🙂
@Dnyanesh Mankar,
Quality is one thing that we have always stressed upon and we know there is always room for improvement.
And we will try to bring in more giveaways. 🙂
Awaiting more suggestions on design from you as we are planning a complete makeover.
@Themepremium
Definitely a $100 worth suggestions. 😀
@Gautam
Adding social media/share icons and comment threading would definitely give a new feel to the blog too.
Points logged. Thanks.
@saeed
I apologize for the past experience.
I am unclear about the apostrophe(‘) 🙁
@Mohsin
Glad you liked our current theme. We will try to redesign new theme on the lines of the current theme.
Just noticed a typo in the footer of your theme. I guess it should be “Browse Tags” instead of “Brouse tags” 🙁
@All
Any ideas for the footer??
Also should we include Tag cloud??
Hi Vivek,
Greak work dude..I very much like the current theme but as they say change is the need of the hour, I hope you come up with something better then the present but for now I need small advice from you..Could you just mail me your email address or provide me your contact No
@Adithya I am glad you like the current theme, we are looking to build on the current one so as the new theme is not completely different.
Yes it needs a redesign, It looks very dull now.
Fuel some ajax and jquery to make it alive.
And I posted some times earlier don’t leave in past, as your copyright is still at 2008 [;)]
Yes, The re-design is required. No doubt. I mean, the content is so unique and interesting, that needs to be conveyed with a good communication & UI.
Will try and send across a UI if i can manage.
Rest, you guys knows the best i am sure.
All the very best
Thanks.
@Tushar: Thanks that will be a great help, I agree we need to redesign but we dont want to make too much haste and hope to get it absolutely right.
1. As a multi author blog this will be helpful for users
http://web-kreation.com/index.php/wordpress/implement-a-nice-clean-jquery-sliding-panel-in-wordpress-27/
2.Go for some graphics rather than using colors to fill entire theme.
3. Add a JQuery slider for featured area.
4. Change homepage layout with magazine style
5.Threaded comments
Thatz it..
Hello sir,
Glad to hear this news.. 😉 i want to participate in this
More over i already designed one Good looking Professional, Highly optimized Theme strPro v2.0
Check the Demo: str-Graphics.com
If fact i done 18+ sales on that.
i personally felt the same long back and for the very same reason mailed couple of logos designed to Rahul Bansal, he did like them… i do love to see something close the logos or either of them on the site if its worth it 😉
please check the same here http://invinciblebrain.com/ib-world/token-of-friendshipcreated-logos-for-dw-blog.php which i did for dw… as friendship token 😉
I think the Logo and Post Footer can be changed to make blog looking attractive.
I totally agree with Samashingeeks , i guess some round cornered header ,footer and a new logo is only requirement for the time… the blog in magazine look can be other choice but personally not suggested…
Like many said, I too love the color combination of DW ! 🙂
And it would be nice if you can change DW into something more simple (current one is simple too).. like Daily Blog Tips.. I love the look of it.. 🙂
@Arjun S Kumar
Thanks for the suggestions. Points logged.:D
@Sridhar Iyer
Thanks for the logos. I hope we get the theme close enough to the logos you have sent.
@SmashinGeeks @Sridhar Iyer
Logo and footer are the things which we also are looking forward to.
Any suggestions for the footer?
@S.Pradeep Kumar
I agree,the whole idea is to keep theme simplicity intact yet providing alot of information to the readers.
@Vivek Jain
The pleasure’s always mine Vivek 🙂 thanks for seeking suggestions, i could only suggest some gradient blue-white (web2.0 style) footer would look awesome to blend with site colors, the current blue is a bit darker shade.
♥ There is nothing like a Header on DW , we need a better and striking header on a first glance !
♥ Stay Connected / Social Media Box : You guys need a lot of efforts here ! See you have emphasized on JUST Email Newsletter subscription ! “Your social media box cares least” about Twitter and Facebook community building — it’s not me but your own account statistics says it all!
♥ Let me talk about main content column, It takes major screen space and delivers text on majority of the time and hence one can shrink the main content column to apporx 560px !
♥ Comments Section : Gravtars are in place what I would like to see is LARGE text for the commentator’s Name. rest is OK here.
♥ Comment input box : Name , Email and Website box could be fit into a single row which would save vertical screen space ( example look at @labnol’s comment box ! )
♥ Footer : is OK but you can have better content over there ( like recent posts from your sister sites ! )
♥ Sidebars : I PREFER 3 Column layout but since DW is not open to change the overall theme one can have adequate sidebar width so as to increase the content on the upper sections. ( lo0k at your sidebar you are wasting space on RHS for last two sections viz. archives and recent comments.
♥ Content Categories : No Content categories are in place at DW header, this is bad – really very bad as a blog having 7K+ readership and huge number of posts you could have some general categories to browse through !
♥ Bread Crumb Menu : This is an essential tool to increase user engagement on a site having lot of content ! If you are un aware of Bread Crumb Menu just Google it , you would get lot of example.
♥ You ppl have completely neglected community building on Google Friend Connect , I see it no where on DW. Have a note of this !
♥ Above all have a look at my Blogger Blog http://www.Webiyo.com or another blogger blog by one of the great designer Antonio Luppeti here at http://woork.blogspot.com to get the feel of what im looking for at Dw !
♥ I am not an avid DW reader , i just pass by here once in a while so excuse me for the naked viewpoint !
Hope it helps you make better DW Blog !
@Rakesh waghela @Webiyo.com
Thanks for your time to write such detailed feedback’s and suggestions for DW. Your really explained the need of the hour.
Community building, header and content categories are the major issues which pushed us to redesign DW. Comments and sidebar are the areas that also will be worked upon. Hope the new design meets yours and readers expectations and makes you a regular reader of our blog. 🙂
@Sridhar Iyer
Yep..I agree. Gradient blue white may do the trick for us. Suggestion sent to the designers. Thanks.
btw I liked the way you have presented ample number of categories and content on your home page.
Having accounts should be more meaningful.. I don’t feel like adding another password to remember to my lists. :!
Tag clouds would be okay if there were loads of topics on subjects[tags]
DW should look for a broader range of readers.
I’d like you to take a look at : http://www.techradar.com
Look at the design.. DW needs a similar design..
Personally, I feel Dw has SOMETHING missing.. something it badly needs.. maybe a
More gadgets, for StumbleUpon.. AJAX is a good idea, but it won’t really have use on a blog..
Devils Workshop has a real good bunch of bloggers.. and there are no fights 😛 🙂
I agree, the name should be Devils’ Workshop..
Devil’s –> 1 devil’s workshop
Devils’ –> many devils’ workshop.. like.. “Charles’ place”
I’d like forum features.. HTML comments.. and less of the blog look.. and themes.. like festival based themes! Like.. It should have been a red and yellow glittering home page for this New Year! 🙂
@ Varun Agarwal
I was missing the [‘] part. Thanks for explaining. Now I understood the point that Saeed made in the comments above. 🙂
We are looking forward to include tag cloud and more sharing gadgets. HTML comments and forum would also be worked upon.
A new theme for the new year won’t be possible, but we would definitely try to come up with some exciting themes for upcoming festivals and events. 😀
Also categorical display of content is what we are stressing upon. Probably techradar may provide some good tips.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Hope Dw gets the theme that meets your expectations.
An ability to edit comments would be appreciated too!!! 😛
Keep rocking..!
Happy New Year ppl…