Intro
With the new year we thought it would be fun to shake things up a little with the website to give it a new look.
First, what did NOT change?
Site Content
All of the old content is still here and you can find it in the site menu at the top (and a little to the right side). You can still get to our pictures, recipes and videos using the menu.
Okay, so… what did change? A lot really.
Magazine Layout
More and more sites, especially blogging sites (like ours), are moving to a new “magazine layout” format which organizes things while at the same time making it much easier on the eyes. We think the new look is really nice.
Site Menu
The site menu is located at the top of the page and a little off to the right. It is docked now which means that as you scroll down the page the menu will not scroll off the screen and out of view. It is always available. Oh, and to the very far right: a dedicated site search button, again, always available.
Featured Posts
When you visit the home page of the blog you will notice three “feature” blocks at the top of the page. These are blog posts that we want to stick out for a little while and they will only be seen at the very top of the home page (not as you scroll down). If we change them later so they aren’t “featured” items anymore they will appear in their normal date order in the blog. Again, these features are only visible on the home page of jjwinter.com and only at the very top of that page.
Primary Sidebar (Left Side)
The left side is similar to what we had previously, links to the different site categories and other items.
The Blog (Middle)
The center of the page is still our blog area. Every time we post something new (by date) it will bump the previous article down the page. Previously the blog mostly consisted of recipes… videos and other things were only on the site menu on dedicated pages. This will be changing and over time we will be putting more things up here in the main blog section. You can see some videos right now in the blog area.
Content Sidebar (Right Side)
This area is brand new. We are adding to it, little by little, but it will take time. This area will allow us to highlight newly added videos and picture galleries… and the newest ones will always be on the right side of the site. This will be helpful later on because the first page of the blog might only show one video, one image gallery and the rest of it might be filled with recipes, jokes, comments or other information… but the right side will still show more videos and pictures.
Mobile Website
Our website also received a major face-lift when it is viewed from mobile devices. The image at the left (below) shows how the site will be displayed initially for mobile devices. Optionally, if you scroll down to the bottom you can tap a button to switch to “desktop” view which will try to render all of the feature boxes, blog posts, highlighted videos and galleries, and attempt to stick to the normal theme we are using (this can be seen in the second image on the right). You can scroll down to the bottom of the site again on your mobile device to switch back to mobile viewing. You can click these images to see larger versions:
Outro
We hope this information helps you figure out the new site and makes it easier to navigate. Once you are more familiar with the layout we think you will like it.
Feedback
Do you like the new look or do you hate it? Please leave your comments and we will get back to you!