The blog & portfolio of Matthew J. Rogers

New site design: Chocolate

September 15, 2008

At long last, I have completed major work on my first complete site redesign in almost two years. I’m not exaggerating when I say I went through more than 20 concepts to get here before settling on this, one of the cleanest and simplest. I typically name my design concepts after ancient historical sites or mythical figures (Atlantis, Athens, Diablo, etc), but I couldn’t come up with one I liked that fit this design so I settled on the next best thing: Chocolate. Yeah, I don’t know either.

I haven’t done a redesign of RogersMJ.com since before I finished college (where I earned a decidedly non-design degree of Computer Science). Since then I have started working with real, actual designer-like people. I’ve learned a lot about presentation, and the vast array of designs and content organization methods I’ve run across have influenced my own methods. This design is a personal exercise to see how well I do at keeping the design elements simple and still present the content in an attractive way. Those who have been around these parts before will know that I have, at times, a tendency to get too friendly with gradients, drop shadows, and other visual cues that, while occasionally interesting, can easily overwhelm.

Since my last redesign, traffic has gone from 2,500 page views per month to more than 250,000, and judging by the emails I receive, the comments you’ve posted, and the browser stats you’ve left (most of you prefer something other than IE — you have the infinite, unwavering thanks of a grateful web designer), I’m blessed with a moderately tech- and web-savvy audience. Which brings me to the other, less visual part of this redesign: this blog, this site as a whole, will become more focused on a few core subjects. I haven’t entirely figured out the reorganization yet, but a majority of the content will fall under such categories as web design, emerging technologies and their relevance, internet legal issues and consumers’ digital rights, and probably a smattering of posts about amateur photography.

With a renewed focus on those subjects, I hope I’m able to write more frequently and provide you all with some interesting reading. I also hope I can get some feedback on the new design — good, bad, or otherwise.

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