<img src="http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/Blog/2006-09/Printout-template-3-cols-b.gif" border=1>

How do you like this new, proposed look of the home page?

For the 2nd anniversary of the Lamma-zine Blog I've been playing around with some new designs. See above (click to enlarge) for the best I've come up with so far, w/o any radical changes to the familiar look:

3rd column: Adding a 3rd column on the right would balance the layout and accommodate today's higher-resolution, wider screens.

Artwork of the Day: A new daily feature, highlighting and promoting the artworks of Lamma-based artists or artists with a strong Lamma connection.

Search function: All areas of Lamma.com.hk could now be searched easily with the full power of Google's search engine and all its features.

Sub Websites: In the lower left column, there'll be links to all the websites that are part of Lamma.com.hk, like the websites of the Bookworm Cafe, Deli Lamma, Island Bar, Nick the Bookman, Deirdre the artist, etc.

Paid Ads: In the lower left column, the ads will move much closer to the top, right after the Sub Websites links, giving even better value and visibility to the advertisers who keep this site alive. This is possible because the PHOTO OF THE DAY and the ANIMAL OF THE DAY sections will move to the new right column.

Free Ads: The Lamma-zine has, since the very beginning, always offered free ads for charities and good causes. They'll move from the bottom of the left column (after all the paid ads) to the right column, right after the ARTWORK OF THE DAY. There'll be more space and better visibility for these free ads, as they'll move up so much higher on the page, closer to the top.

But most of these points are just ideas for now and I haven't programmed all these time-consuming changes yet. They'll apply to all top and 2nd-level pages (Events, Galleries, Links, blog pages of the last two years). There'll also be some more design improvements to the top bar (real panoramic photos), colour scheme and formatting fine-tuning (not done yet).

I'm proposing these layout changes now to get some feedback from YOU!
Do you like these changes, or not? Be specific and constructive! Better ideas? What's still missing and what features should be added (or removed)? This is a community site and everybody's ideas will be warmly welcomed. Email info@Lamma.com.hk

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Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

It's not a radical change, but the new suggested layout is actually a significant improvement. To this untrained eye, things seem easier to find, and the third column does reduce scrolling and neaten the page a bit. The search feature is a very useful addition. Nice job L-G.

One thought ... I seem to remember you were considering the idea of using one of the panorama photos for the page header. Is that still on the back burner?

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Lead me not into temptation;
I can find it myself, thank you.

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Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

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Age. Fac ut gaudeam

_________________
Lead me not into temptation;
I can find it myself, thank you.

Further to my above, notice that the sample image is taller than wide. With a normal screen ratio and all the menus and crap you can actually see only half that.
You can see a quarter of the first image, and none of the story, few of the links in the left column.

<img src="http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8352/clipqt4.gif" width=512 height=384 border=2 vspace=5>

Well, I hear ye, Alan, I hear ye.

The stuff at the top has to be there, mostly ads and navigation, there's nothing that can be removed or moved down on the page, in my humble opinion. But it can be squeezed and rearranged.

Because of the modular design of the pages, I can't move stuff from the middle to the left or right column, not without a major re-programming effort in JavaScript.

I could easily move stuff between the left and the right columns, for example the weather. You're right, the left-side navigation should obviously be as close as possible to the top of the page.

The middle column header needs to be squeezed more vertically. But another drop-down menu wouldn't work as people rarely seem to use the existing ones.

Consistency with the 1st-level pages is also impoortant as they look the same and have exactky the same left and right columns, just the middle column is different.

The frame at the top is an inheritance from home page redesign that k@ did on instructions from webdog more than 2 years ago. Very difficult to get rid of, as the absolute and relative links are all over the site now. I hate frames and have almost always avoided using them in my websites.

The frame is also major trouble with the search engines. Google didn't even find most of my old Lamma-zine Blog pages at all till recently. That's why I couldn't open up the Goole site search feature till now.

Any other improvement ideas for the home page redesign?

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Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Put the paying ads above the photos, artwork, links, sections and subwebsites in the left column.

The 'main sections' section, in particular, isn't very important there since it's already at the top.

The ads make the whole thing happen, so give them priority. Put them beside the new news, not two-day-old news.