Reader Appreciation Project – New Features
04. Apr, 2008 
4 Comments
After the launch of the new design a few weeks ago, several approached me and asked, “When are you going to write a post about all the new stuff?”
I scratched my head and thought, “Well, I suppose people can look for themselves.”
During WordCamp, however, Jeffro again insisted I should do a write up. So here goes 
New Logo
A few people mentioned that the past logo wasn’t very clear. With the new logo, it is my hope that there is a little more meaning.
The logo is symbolic in that it is the very beginning of a person saying “Thank you” in sign language. In other words, the logo symbolizes only the beginning of our thanks to the readers.
I also allowed a lot more room for our site title and slogan.
Updated Subscribe and Search Box
Subscribe and Search Area
I wanted to allow prominence to the subscribe area, but also attempt not to confuse the users looking to search.
However, with the strawberry-red subscribe button and the very readable text of “Search our site”, I figured the placement was good enough.
The placement of the subscribe area is also important since I’m trying to increase e-mail subscribers to this site. For those who want the regular subscription, the RSS icon links to the full feed.
Homepage Featured Posts and Carousel
One of the big changes was a featured post on the homepage as well as an article carousel to quickly browse some of our recent entries.
Featured Post and Carousel
Improved Comment Section
The emphasis in our comment section should be the reader. I kept the comment section more-or-less the same, but added in the reader’s URL and increased the size of the Gravatar.
There are also options for some quick tags in the comment section. I did leave out the smilies since they added a 150k overhead on each page load.
Comment Quick Tags
Delicious New Footer
Delicious Chocolate Strawberry
Thanks to a suggestion from Vivien, I added in a delicious-looking strawberry in the footer. The design decision there was to make our footer absolutely irresistible. Based on the feedback I have gotten so far, it seems everyone loves the strawberry.
Downloads and Readers
Another few features I added in the footer is a place to quickly access our various downloads and also to see who else is visiting via MyBlogLog. I usually check out this section once a day to see who’s visiting.
Link Blog and Latest Posts
You’ll also find a new link blog and our latest posts in the footer.
Readers First
Readers First Award
One thing I am trying to bring over is a new format for the Readers First Award. It is my hope that this becomes a reader-nominated effort. People awarded the Readers First award are featured on our home page in the footer.
There is a new nomination form if you are interested in nominating a blogger.
New Author Section on Single Posts
To try to promote our authors better, a dedicated author section is shown at the top of each post. In this section is a link to the author’s profile and website.
Dedicated Author Section
Breadcrumbs Instead of Categories
One of the cool features of Mimbo Pro is the use of breadcrumbs. I decided to keep this in and use the feature instead of showing post categories (even though they are sort of the same).
Breadcrumbs
And A Lot More!
This post could probably go on for a lot longer, as I didn’t even get into the archive pages and such. I just wanted to bring your attention to more of the visible features that will hopefully make RA Project much more usable and friendly.
So What Are Your Thoughts?
I’ve already received some feedback that the Logo should be vertically centered, as well as the Author section on the Single posts.
I’ve also received some feedback that the author section could stand out even more.
So now that you’ve had some time to play around with the design, what are your thoughts on it? What would you change? What do you like? What do you not like?
