Still refining an updated site design

This summer, I started working on some new projects and as part of those projects, Sketchbook B needed some updates. My site is hosted on Squarespace — and has been since 2008. I planned to simply restructure some pages and customize some CSS… but as I started to work on that, I realized that the template that my site was based on — Five — was limited in what I could do. So Friday evening, I decided to switch my site to a new template. I found a site that had a comparison chart of the various templates, and a different site with details on custom CSS for specific adjustments.

I spent the last couple of days working on the switch and the new Sketchbook B is now based on the Skye template. I’m pleased with the new design.

Swapping a template is a complicated process, especially when you’ve used the same basic template for 7+ years. One of the challenges of changing templates in Squarespace is that only some of the redesign work can be done in a Live Preview. Sort of a basic staging area. I could make changes to the overall site design — fonts, colors and features — but adjustments to individual pages are live immediately. I’ve made the template live and handled all of the essential changes, but I’m still updating the site. If you see something that looks broken, it’s probably on my punch list.

The one major change is that this template doesn’t work with the way I was implementing my microblogging set up. This template can’t handle blog posts with no title or excerpt. I’ve started the process of switching the way Micro.Blog is configured — and honestly — I think the new implementation will be better, anyway.

* Remember the early days of the web when “Under Construction” GIFs were all over the place. I should have drawn an animated fish with a hard hat.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, researcher, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. And he wears a mask to protect his community.