What do you think of the new website?
(If you’re reading this post through email, click here to see the new site.)
Going into the process, I knew I wanted something bright and cheery – but also whimsical yet modern, and youthful yet grown-up. (Contradictions galore.) It’s taken many months of hard work to get here, and I am so excited with how the design finally turned out! Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the new design is how organized it is:
For example, the new recipe page is incredible!
A picture of every recipe! Plus there’s a fancy slideshow on the homepage, and the sidebars are much less jumbled now. If you think I managed these feats by myself… you are giving me way too much credit. Allow me to introduce…
Julie Farber from Deluxe Designs.
Julie is amazing; I wish I knew half of what she knows about web design. Julie can design your entire site for you if you don’t want to worry about a thing. In my case, however, I preferred to be very involved, and she was ok with that, too! I drew up elaborate screen shots in Photoshop of exactly what I wanted—right down to the color scheme and layout—and Julie took it all from screen shot to real-time website without crashing anything, which I would certainly have done if I’d attempted it without help. She was patient and non-judgmental, while still offering sage web designer advice. (You can thank her for the fact that there are no giant polka dots on the top of the page: one of my not-so-bright ideas she talked me out of!)
And those beautifully-organized new photo pages I mentioned earlier? All Julie’s work. I can’t tell you how many things I asked for, while being almost positive she’d come back and tell me such things weren’t possible. Yet every time, she instead responded—quite quickly—she’d made the changes. In short, if you need design work for your food blog (or photography blog, company website, etc.), Julie is your girl! EDIT: Julie will give a 15%-off discount to anyone who mentions CCK in his/her inquiry.
Still to come:
1. The heart logo: The header that you see now is an interim thing, so don’t worry if you’re not big on the heart; it’s not staying! I am not big on it either. I’m a perfectionist and haven’t been able to come up with the perfect logo yet, so I quickly designed this shutterstock-esque heart logo to stand in. The rest of the new design was ready, and I just didn’t want to wait any longer!
2. We’ll probably be making more minor adjustments in the next few days, so give the site a little time to adjust. And Julie is working on perfecting the mobile version of the website as well.
I like how everything looks now on the Home page, but I dislike how the Recipe pages are now. While they look nice, it is frustrating to have to sort through 5 pages of candy recipes when I’m not sure what I want to fix. I do frequently use the “Search Box”, so if I’m looking for something specific, I will continue to use that. However, when I’m just poking through the recipe collections, I would prefer to see everything in one category at once (or at least a bunch of stuff at a time.) I really liked how they were right before the big change.
Oh, and one more thing, I’m so happy that you included “Breakfast” as a Recipe category! My companion hates eggs, that’s what got me hooked on this site- eggless breakfast goods!
Keep on keeping on, Katie. I love what you do!
Congratulations on your hard work. And yes it is so much nicer and professional now. Looking forward to what is to come!
will be happy to see printable recipes—I hope there will be a no-photo option (save on that expensive ink). Also, I hope measurements will be given in traditional units—cups, teaspoons, etc. I have no way to measure grams???
love the recipes, healthy deserts—who knew???
I have another suggestion. What about a button to go to the previous and the next blog entry? I’ve seen it on other blogs. It’s not a must, but it would be a nice addition!
Also, for your future recipes, could you start posting more details about how the texture/look of something should be after you’ve mixed it, and what it should look like when it’s cooking/when it’s done? I’ve tried several of your recipes and I am always unsure about whether I’ve mixed the ingredients together correctly (like if I need more liquid/flour/etc) and then I’m never sure when to take things out of the oven (due to oven variation).
Thanks!
can you make a TVP(textured vegetable protein) recipe?! I made a chili using it and it was so delicious! I’m now hooked and curious as to how else I can use it!!
I love your new design ! It’s clear and classy and beautiful ! Congratulations to you and Julie. =)
Thank you so much!
I love the new site design! It’s so clean and clear, and all the pictures are lovely!
I do miss the ability to browse from post to post in order. Right now I’m on this post’s “page” and there is no navigation option to previous or next post. Thanks!
I love the new site! However, for some reason half of your “title” is cut off on my computer. All I can see is the bottom half of “Katie” and the rest of the title below it. Hmmmm….
Is it showing the ads over the header? What browser are you using, and how long has this been going on? If you get a second, can you try clearing your browser cache and letting me know if that worked?
I’m using Google Chrome…this is the first time I’ve been to the site since the change. There aren’t ads covering it, it’s like my browser window cut it off right at the top, like it’s scrolled down a bit but I can’t scroll up to see the rest, if that makes sense. I’m going to try another browser!
UPDATE!! Internet Explorer works fine…guess it just doesn’t like Chrome. Oh well, I’ll just have to deal!
I just wanted to post a comment, my first one incidentaly, to let you know that I swear by your blog. I am always looking for low calorie, inventive, sugarfree desserts and I find your blog easy to use, well laid out, with incredibly tasty recipies!Thank you so much for all your hard work!!
Good Afternoon Katie. I love your recipies and your new website is great. I have one suggestion for you. When you print the recipe maybe add an option to print the nutrition facts along with the recipe so they can be printed at the same time.
Thanks for listening.
Kim