PSDlearning v2.0

Written by Ross August 28, 2008

Things have changed around here; mainly the look of the place and the layout. PSDlearning is no longer held together by CSS hacks and pieces of string. I fully redesigned and rebuilt the site from scratch, don’t worry all the tutorials are still here and memberships, just a load of extra stuff that makes PSDlearning better. Now I can focus on writing some more tutorials.

Looks different!

Some of you might have been wondering why there hasn’t been a tutorial for a couple of days, well this is why. I had been wanting to change the look of the site for a while but hadn’t had the the time so yesterday I went at it for a full day then finished today. The original site was based around a free Wordpress theme that I had heavily modified and at some points was held together with some dodgy Wordpress hacks so I felt it was time to change. I built the PSDlearning 2.0 theme totally from scratch; the first time I had done this with a site. This meant I could get it exactly as I wanted it, unfortunately it’s not perfect in IE yet but you’d expect that.

What’s changed?

I tried to keep it similar to the original site; for example all the rounded corners are still here as well as a few more added in, the sidebar is very like the one on the original site and so is the post previews. However there were some things that had to go like the brown background which was way too dark and the green header. Some new additions are the subscription buttons at the top right which allow you to get all my tutorials sent straight to you. The slightly weird search and login forms which really don’t look much like forms but I like them. The header is different, not too sure about it though so it might change; if you have any ideas then tell me. I added a better ‘Save and Share’ box below each post (it’s good to share). I enabled the use of Gravatars in the comments so if you haven’t got a Gravatar then get one here. Last but definitely not least is the featured posts slideshow that appears on the front page; it looks awesome and I’m sure once I find some good uses for it then it will be really helpful as well.

I’m still going to develop the the site further and tweak some bits here and there so if you wan’t to give me your opinion then I’d appreciate that. There’s still lots of unused space on the site which I really need to fill and some members related stuff I need to sort out. Anyway, more time to write tutorials now:)

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5 Responses:

August 29th, 2008

Lori:

It’s a very clean and neat makeover. My only quibble is that the header and branding area look unfinished. The size and color of the subscription buttons pulls away from the brand. You might want to move them down above the “Advertise here” section where they will still be noticed without drawing more attention than your title. If you give your title a different color bg from the neutral grey, it will look better. You need to remind people that you are an artist, and this style looks more like a news blog to me.
Your tutorials are great. Show some art on the main page, please.
August 29th, 2008

Winkler:

I would suggest changing the way the log in and search boxes work.

Right now even as a designer for websites I wondered where the input boxes were at, and currently the input boxes are as dark grey as the backgrounds they sit on. with only two green bars indicating any space there and makes it look kind of awkward.

Just my comment.
August 29th, 2008

NaldzGraphics:

It Looks pretty cool:)i like the new look of your site ross:)

Congrats!!
August 30th, 2008

Ross:

Lori,
thanks for comment, I totally agree with you about the header, I’m planning to change it soon just so it stands out more and gives the site better branding. I’ll probably keep the subscription buttons where they are but I might change the look of them, depends on what the header ends up looking like. Yes and more arty stuff:)

Winkler,
The input boxes were more of an experiment because generally I don’t like the look of input boxes so wanted to go for something different that blended in more. I’m happy with the search box but you might be right about the login form, I’ve probably taken it too far so I might change that. It is meant to look like it does now so it wasn’t a mistake anyway.

Ronald,
Thanks for commenting on this post and almost every post I write:)
September 7th, 2008

Dario:

Hey, nice skin, sorry for my english is very bad, gl, i love that site