CriterionCast

On Our New Layout

When I learned that I was going to have to switch audio hosts for the podcast, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to change things up on the site. We’ve used the same WordPress theme and layout for the past two and half years, and while it has served us well, it felt pretty stale.

Over the past couple of months I’ve scoured the internet, checking out websites and weblogs that I found to be really well designed, and those that I felt were too   messy or hard to read. I’ve always wanted this site to be a fun place for Criterion Collection fans to go to, and feel at home.

Recently, sites like indieWIRE and Badass Digest have updated their overall look and feel, and I love what they’ve done.

While I am 95% finished with all of the changes that I wanted to make, there are a few things that you’ll notice don’t work quite right with this new layout. There will be missing images here and there. Since the site is a responsive, fluid width, things will look differently depending on your browser’s size. I’ve tried to design this to look as nice as possible on my own set-up (an iMac, running Lion, in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari). I’ve tested it out on Windows, in Firefox and IE, and I find it acceptable. I’m not a designer, and so my CSS / HTML skills are very limited. I’ve found sites like CSS Tricks to be invaluable, as I’ve tweaked the WordPress theme that we’re using (currently Pagelines 2.0).

One change that you’ll notice is the lack of ads / affiliate links in the sidebar. I’ll be adding some back in over the next few days, but I don’t intend for there to be as many as before. Since I’m taking down those adsense ads, it’s crucial that if you want to support the site and the podcast, please click on our donate button (once I put it back up), or just click on the Amazon / Barnes & Noble links that we use, if you plan on buying some DVDs or Blu-rays.

Over the next few days I’ll be continuing to fiddle with the knobs and levers in the background, so the design might change slightly. I’m also planning on getting all of the various podcast episodes that haven’t been posted to the site, but are in our iTunes feed, onto this site, where you can download the MP3s, should you desire. I’m also going to play around with a new layout for our shownotes.

I’d love to know what you think of this new layout, so please leave comments below.

Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].

2 comments

  • I think the new layout looks good. I think my only criticism would be to have “Dedicated to Important Classic & Contemporary Films” all as one line under CriterionCast. It’s current state looks a little busy. Also possibly lose the shadow effect. But I like the direction you’re going and always look forward to what you guys do!