Don’t call it a redesign, I kept on telling myself. Well, whether to call it a redesign or not is up to you, but a redesign was not exactly what I had in mind. I mean, I liked the old design, despite all its flaws, I really did. I’ve been thinking about a new design, but that was supposed to happen at the end of this year. The thing is, like many people I know, during final exams I get this endless flow of new creative ideas to distract me from studying, and I can’t ignore them because most of them sounded good (at least then). So, I decided that it won’t hurt to write down some of these ideas, or maybe draw a little sketch or something. But after I got my hands dirty with the code, I could not stop, and here is the result: a (kind of) brand new design.

The blog now looks cleaner, and the sidebar is less cluttered, but the design overall still has the soul of the old one. I have added some little Web 2.0-ish touches, such as the shades on top, and the use of the footer for more than the fine print crap that no one cares about. There, you can find the archives and a little search box. Also, there is an option for those who want to receive blog updates in their inbox. I don’t know how many people would find this useful, as I only had one reader in the past who asked if she could subscribe to the blog this way, and I had to set up an account with FeedBlitz to do this, but like Mike Arrington, I find it too orange, so I’m trying another service this time. RSS readers are still new and hopefully this would make it easier to many of you to stay updated. One more new thing is the contact page, where you can send me what you have to say without going through the process of composing an email.

Because I’m not a professional designer, the code is not as elegant as I wanted, but you don’t have to bother with that (I’m complaining, but this is ok: it’s my blog, you know). I may add a little box on the sidebar to show the latest picks from my Google Reader so you can always find something new even when I’m not updating the blog. Tell me what do you think of the new design. Everything should work fine, but if you found anything weird please let me know in the comments, in the contact page, or on my email: saudijeans at gmail dot com.