Behold! The New SYEL Design and Why I Changed It
As you can probably see, I made some big changes to the look and feel of the site this weekend.
I didn't hate the old design. In fact, I am still quite proud of it. It was really the first website on which I had ever done all of the design work (CSS “coding” & layout) myself from top to bottom.
It was a labor of love — and one that I spent way too much time tweaking!
I learned a ton in the process. So, even though I probably should have spent more of my time writing posts for the website, I can't say I regret any of it.
But it's been a couple of years now, and we are all accessing the internet in new and different ways. We aren't always surfing on a nice big laptop or desktop screen anymore. Now, it's smartphones and tablets, and my website always needs to grow and adapt to the ways in which you would like to access it.
Revamp Begins
So, at the beginning of this year, I began working on a completely “re-thought-out” design. Which means I went and spent a whole lot more time tweaking again. (sigh)
Here's an example of the mess that was flowing through my head for the past ten months:
Curtis, should this font size for this header text be 23 points or 24 points? I dunno. Hmm. Oh nice. A dropshadow looks really good on this text. I wonder what color gray I should make it? Hex code (color) #ABABAB or #BABABA?
It also took a lot of thinking about how I wanted to present the information on my site. I wanted a completely new layout.
As you can see in my original design, I had high hopes of having my homepage present a lot of information in more of a “magazine” style. Lots of different types of information in columns and boxes.
But, over time, I realized two things:
- Quantity: I spend more of my time producing quality posts than quantity. I just haven't been able to pump out enough quantity to really utilize a magazine-style formatted home page like big news outlet sites can.
- Paralysis: Even if I could produce enough information, it would just be too much for me to expect you to process regularly. It's just too much “noise” to consume.
Less Is the New, More
I just turned the big 40 this month.
Yup, you're thinking what I'm thinking — I am no longer allowed to shop at Abercrombie & Fitch — it's just stretch pants from Banana Republic from here on out!
This new design is sort of a Birthday present to me. It was my goal to have the new design running this month — and check it out…it is!
And you know, as I have gotten older, the more and more I appreciate simplicity.
I like things clean. I like things organized.
I don't want to see the forest through the trees. I just want to see the forest — without any trees.
So, in this new design, I simply got rid of all the trees.
Yeah, I know, I didn't use that expression correctly, did I. Gimme a break — I'm old now.
White space is my new friend.
And I will admit, it took me quite some time to get used to this dramatically different layout. The old one was very personal to me, considering how much time I had put into it.
But this new one has really grown on me. I'm in love with it.
New SYEL Tagline
Next to my logo now sits a new tagline:
Create That Photo Collection You've Always Wanted
Before it was – “Helping Everyday People Scan, Restore, Organize, Preserve and Share Your Photographs.”
I think in the past, I was so worried that you would visit my site and not grasp the big picture of what I was going to show and teach you. So, instead what you got was a tagline that was as wide as a steakhouse salad bar buffet.
With the new 40-year-old me, I've relaxed a little bit. I trust that a tighter, more efficient tagline will speak volumes on its own.
Site Improvements
And with a new design comes additional benefits. There are a lot of improvements that I've already made in the back end or will be making soon.
First off, the site should load a lot faster for you. Not only did I build the new design on the latest and faster-running version of Headway (my WordPress “theme framework”), but my hosting company Zippykid recently made a bunch of hardware and software improvements to the server(s) my site is running from.
Secondly, now that I am upgraded, I can now begin to roll out more features on this site. So, don't be surprised if you see incremental changes and improvements happening on almost a daily basis!
And please let me know what you think.
Err…maybe just positive feedback, though — I've had a tough six weeks recently at my “real job.” I'm not sure I currently would hold up to any intense criticism. 😉
So, how does she look? Can you think of a better tagline for my website?
If you have any thoughts, can you do me a favor and let me know in the comments below or on my contact page? 🙂
Thanks so much for reading this, and please enjoy the new and hopefully improved tree-less Scan Your Entire Life!
Cheers!
Hi Nancy,
I’m interested in your previous experiences in audio visual. Sounds somewhat like mine. Feel free to contact me via Curtis if you’d like to discuss this more privately.
If you still have your registration number for VueScan recorded on paper, you should be able to go to the web site and download the latest version. With it installed, just type in your registration number and you should be able to use it. If you don’t have that number, you could email Ed Hamrick and, with the approximate date of when you purchased your copy initially, he can likely find your number and email it to you. Worth a try, anyway.
Check out the “VueScan Bible”, listed for sale on the VueScan site. It’s an excellent guide to the program, with lots of illustrations and very clear explanations of all the menus and settings. The Pro version with the DNG capability is worth the extra money, if you’re serious about doing archival scanning as you seem to be. Given a little time and effort, VueScan Pro is not really all that hard to work with.
If VueScan doesn’t work with your new OS, you could try setting up a dual boot configuration and run your old OS for VueScan and any other older programs, along with the new OS and newer programs. I’m not familiar enough with Macs to be able to give specific instructions as to how to set up a dual boot but I suspect Curtis or another Mac user could help with that.
Art
My family calls me the “memory keeper”…I think every family and every generation of the family has one.
It is a calling…an obsession…a privilege…a blessing…a curse…I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
I am so ready to get back into the scanning mode….
but am having difficulties with hardware/software….the constant…either the machine is too old for the software…or the software is too old for the machine.
I got a new mac to replace the crashed mac…and now my top o the line…canon scanner…appears to not be supported by mountain lion. I have way too much invested in this scanner to ditch it…it has the ability to scan 8×10 negatives…and I’ve bought several different film adapters 110, 126, etc. for scanning film…that were almost as expensive as the scanner…
the only software that I’ve read that has a work around is Vuescan…which I’ve used in the past…but found sorta confusing…and went back to the canon software.
And the vuescan software was on the crashed drive.
so now, I’m trying to decide whether to go with vuescan in order to have mountain lion
or downgrade back to Lion to be able to use the canon software…sacrificing the cloud syncing and other mt. lion features.
ugh.
two steps forward…3 steps back!
any thoughts on Vuescan?
have you made the jump to mountain lion?
I was stuck in leopard forever cause I didn’t want to give up imovie HD. : /
excellent! I’ll pick up where I left off.
oooh. I’m excited to read all those “rough” draft posts once they become posts!!
I just got the computer back from a place called “help my mac” which ironically they could not help it.
The computer and the hard drive are both limping…but the HD is not willing to give anything up. The thing that is driving me crazy is not knowing if there is something there…that I really want/need that didn’t make it to the back up. I have to admit…if I don’t know it’s there…do I really need it? But more likely, I won’t know I need it…until I realize it’s not there : /
I have realized after getting the new mac…and finally being able to use my ex. hd that I somehow missed backing up my entire music library : (
oh well…the pictures and video survived and that is what is most important to me.
As for the video editing….
I was a photojournalist for a non-profit organization and also worked in mass media production….read…multi-image slide presentations (12 projectors)…before video blew up…and the digital changed the world.
I left that job right around the time everything was going to digital…
since then I’ve free lanced in photography…and video editing…mostly in the realm of “heritage” videos…memory keeping…weddings…anniversarys…telling people’s stories. My family is huge and they keep me busy with our own projects…most of the time. The video I mentioned was an annual Christmas video I make for them every year. So, it’s very low key…imovie…type stuff. But people love to hear and see their stories…so very rewarding. I read somewhere that you are in the business of movie editing….in the Real World!! I think that would be great…but the PRESSURE!! I can barely survive the deadlines for personal projects…let alone the deadlines for work…all day, everyday : )
Thanks again for the great site! and chat. I appreciate knowing there are others out there on the memory keeping road.
You nailed it. That’s the most frustrating thing when a hard drive goes out — well aside from losing everything if you aren’t backed up! It’s that not knowing what you had on there that’s so terrible.
I feel really bad for you for losing your drive. It’s a terrible feeling. I just lost a drive not too long ago, and like you, thankfully I didn’t lose too much (Time Machine got most of it). But, it’s just a helpless feeling.
Interesting career(s) you’ve had. And you did multi-image presentations. There’s someone I know very well on here that used to do this. Maybe he will come forward and comment. 😉
When I was a teenager, I used to do slide projection shows for my classmates. My Dad had a fairly expensive fade unit that I connected in between his two slide projectors. Then I manually operated it syncing up the dissolves to music. I practiced it endlessly. Crazy. I was into this and computers while other boys were dating and getting into trouble.
That’s so neat that you do videos for your family! I wish more people would do that. Video editing is getting so much easier every day. And it’s such a special gift.
You’re right. I believe I mentioned somewhere in one of my posts, or maybe my about page — I forget now — that I am a video editor. I don’t edit feature films, but I do edit documentaries about feature films that go on DVD’s and Blurays. These are the “bonus features” — the “making-of” features etc.
And yes, there is a LOT of pressure. My hair is grayer than it should be for a man my age! Ha! But, I think editing was my calling. Though, now this website keeps me up at night, and controls my thoughts on long walks. So, I hope I can really take this site far for the second half of my life.
“Memory keeping road.” I like that. Did you coin that term? 🙂
Hi Curtis…
I’m back for a visit after a long Christmas video edit…and shortly after Christmas…gulp…Computer Crash in which my aging, workhorse macbook pro…became a beautiful 17 inch paperweight : (
I breathed a sigh of relief that all my so far…scans were on the external…only lost a few weeks of digital pics. READ BACK it UP, people!!
so…finally got a new computer and am getting ready to fire up the scanner again. (although I’ve heard that Mountain Lion may not support my high end canon scanner : /
anyway, the site looks very nice, clean and organized…and I enjoy seeing your and everyone else’s input.
I was a little lost tho…when I went to “pick up where I left off…”
when I first found your site…I started in the archives at the very beginning and was reading them in the order that you posted…kind of going along with you on the journey as you had posted them. I kinda miss that…found the archives…but can’t seem to get them in order…and at the very bottom of the page are links that send me to a “whoops…can’t find it page.”
I’m with Art…I’d like to see chronological…but I understand about not wanting to post the dates…for new users.
I will keep coming back…and catch up with the old posts either way!
thanks for all the hard work…
and hey, Happy Belated Birthday!!!
Welcome back Nancy!
Oh NO! I am so sorry to hear about your laptop! I know it’s easy for me to just say, “Thank God you had a backup,” but STILL, losing your computer is a huge deal — even with a backup.
I assume you’ve gone through all of the options, but after reading this, my first thought was did you salvage the hard drive inside? If your old laptop had to be replaced, does this mean the hard drive inside was still working? If so, you can remove that, and put it in a hard drive dock (About $30 off Amazon) and then you could read the contents of that drive and restore anything that didn’t make your last backup. Let me know if you want to know more about this.
I’m curious now, what kind of “video editing” do you do? (You can write me through my contact page if you want to be more private).
Thank you for the the compliments of my redesign! I appreciate that! 🙂
I’m still looking forward to a few more updates with my Theme framework software that will allow for fluid widths. This will give users like Art (who commented above) the ability to view the site without horizontally scrolling. I hope this happens soon.
And thank you for pointing out the issue with the Archives. I’ve been sort of “beta testing” this page — that’s why I had it listed as a link down at the bottom in the footer. I was sort of hiding it there until I was sure it was working fine for people.
You pointed out a “bug” in the software that produces this “Pinterest” looking thumbnail view of all the posts. For some reason, it was listing all of my old published articles, AS WELL AS unpublished drafts that I am still working on in the writing phase. So when you clicked on these post titles (with really bad temporary names I might add), you were getting that “Whoops I can’t find that” error. That’s because my website wouldn’t let you access the rough draft.
So, until this “bug” is fixed, I had to remove the archives from my site. I promise I will put it back up as soon as it’s fixed. The developers are working on it right now I read I hope it TOO isn’t much longer.
That list did show all of my articles in order, it was just newest first and went in a descending order. So if you scrolled all the way to the bottom, and kept letting the page refresh with more post thumbnails, you should have eventually reached the first post I put up there at the very bottom.
I will get something up and working soon.
Thanks for being an avid reader Nancy! And of course the Birthday wishes!!
Nancy, additionally, you also brought to my attention that I accidentally turned off the “older posts” link at the bottom of the homepage with the latest 10 posts. So someone like yourself couldn’t click there to get to the older posts!
What was I thinking!?
So now you can scroll to the bottom and access older pages. If you go to this link, you should start at the beginning:
https://www.scanyourentirelife.com/page/4/
There are about 4 pages worth of posts as of now.
Sorry everyone!
Looks good on my IPad……….
Look forward to reading a lot more of your site, just starting to scan my photo collection and struggling with what resolution to scan negatives at. At least I’ve learned to stay away from interpolation…..
Great to hear David! The top of the website appears to be cut off on my iPad — the background texture that is. I don’t know if that’s just mine or if it’s messed up on all iOS devices running Safari. Still trying to figure that one out.
Yes! Stay far away from interpolation! Bad. At least with your master image files for photo scans.
And don’t struggle too much with yourself over resolution for negatives. I wrote a little Q&A post about DPI to Scan Negatives if you might want to check out.
Most scanning services you hire will scan slides for example, between 2000 dpi and 3000 dpi depending on what you are willing to spend. I’ve seen 4000 dpi as an option from a few that offer “professional” level services. I scan my slides at 3200 dpi because it was around 3000 but not as high as 4000. It’s also a setting in EPSON scan software that I use in a pulldown list. Which I guess made it easier for me to keep defaulting to that when going back and forth from prints to slides during scanning sessions.
The guy in the article really seemed to want to be pushing for high resolution, so I suggested he go up to as much as 5000 dpi. But, overall, still I think most people will be more content at around 3000 with good quality vs file size. (4000 to 5000 gets really big and fast!) But experiment if you want.
Thanks for reading this site David!
Curtis
Generally I like the new design. One question though: What date did you roll out the new design? There’s no obvious date for any of your posts. Another item that I’d like to see you add is a complete list of all your posts, not just the week’s or month’s most viewed. It could be included in a box called “Archived posts” or something similar, with the list being accessible via a drop-down list to help conserve space. Ideally, posts would be listed chronologically by date (either newest or oldest at the top of the list) AND by post title and topic.
The current design is completely visible at a monitor screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 but requires horizontal scrolling with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, which is likely still a common size for many people, especially we ‘older’ folks whose vision isn’t quite what it used to be. Since I don’t use a PDA or other small screen size appliance to view the web, I can’t comment on how well the current design works there. I’m currently viewing a ViewSonic 19 inch CRT monitor set to 1024 x 768. Any higher resolution makes text and icons too small to be easily readable. Will you please consider re-sizing your column widths for this resolution (1024 x 768)?
Art
Well alright Art! I looked up “generally” and the dictionary says: “In most cases.” I guess I’ll take that! 😉
1) The new design was flipped on 10/26 in the middle of the afternoon PST I believe it was. That was quite exciting for me. I was able to delete all of those old outdated plugins that I had to have installed for my old theme framework.
2) I turned off the metadata for dates awhile back because I didn’t want something so small as a date to possibly turn off new visitors to my site during these “less active” times who might think my site was no longer being cared for and updated any longer.
Under the best of circumstances, I would be able to push out a good quality post at least once a week. Since my work and other reasons have prevented this from happening off and on over the last year or so, I decided to turn them off for at least the time being.
3) Archives has been another sore point for me. Striving for quality posts over quantity, similar to the answer I just gave for post dates, I haven’t been wanting to wave that flag too high and point out my somewhat lackluster amount of monthly posts. But, for those that want an easier view of all of my posts I’ve written, I did create an Archive page in this latest design change.
If you look down at the bottom in the footer of each page, you will see a link for Archives. They aren’t displayed as many websites display them — lumps of posts by month — but instead use a more visual layout made famous by the sharing site “Pinterest.”
I will keep evolving this page and possibly additional Archive type pages that are organized differently over time I am sure. 🙂
4) Thanks for bringing up your personal issue with the new screen resolution. I stressed about this for some time when I started working on the design.
At the time I started working on it, and still to this date 11 months later, my theme framework — which I must say is brilliant in all other cases — still hasn’t implemented any kind of way to make the design fluid. It’s taking a css “hack” just to make the header appear fluid across the entire top. And the footer, I just gave up on. It’s just looking narrow and silly at the bottom right now. But, my goal was to get my design out asap and not dwell on making it perfect just yet.
Headway Themes has made several indications some kind of solution is coming soon, but it’s still not here. So, in the meantime, I tried to find a place in the middle that would be useable on legacy resolutions, but also wouldn’t look ridiculous with just a little narrow sliver of content in the middle on larger 24″, 27″ and even 30″ monitors. So, the width is currently locked in at around 1150 pixels.
But, please don’t think I am blowing your request off. I am a very pleasing kind of guy. So, I certainly hope I can accommodate you and anyone else in the same situation as soon as possible. As soon as this update is released, which could be as soon as this month even, I am going to see if I can make it work out well for everyone.
In the best case, the content column and the sidebar column will be fluid and will each expand and collapse ever so slightly to accommodate whichever size screen you have, or whichever size browser window you open it up as.
Thanks Art!