by As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, there have been a few changes around here lately. Since a few of you have asked what’s going on, I figured I should probably give everyone the low down. Last week WordPress, the tool I use to power Bricks of the Dead, released a major update. I tested it and everything seemed fine, so I installed it. Shortly after that, several people pointed out that the comic navigation no longer worked.
Since that was a problem, I set about finding a solution right away. As it turned out, the fix for this was updating my theme (ComicPress), which I had been putting off doing because there had been major changes and I really didn’t want to deal with it. Suffice it to say, I bit the bullet and updated it anyway.
It completely broke the look and feel of the site, so I spent about four hours last weekend cleaning things up and making everything look close to the way it’s supposed to. That said, there are still a number of minor differences here and there. Some I like, some I don’t. Odds are, I’ll probably continue tweaking things in the coming weeks.
A lot of people assumed that this was a site redesign. It’s not, it’s just some updated core functionality, which changed a few visual elements on the site.
I point out this difference because I am, in fact, working on a proper redesign of the site right now. This redesign is going to be fairly comprehensive. I’ve set the following goals for myself for the updated Bricks of the Dead:
- Improve the speed and stability of the site
- Allow room for wider comics
- Make the site responsive, which means that it will work much, much better on mobile devices
- Improve the overall design
- Change the blog structure to be much more visual (pretty pictures, ya’ll)
Fun stuff, right? I know that all sounds pretty boring, but this is what I do for a living, so it has a tendency to bleed into my hobbies as well. Here’s a very, very rough draft of the mock-up I’m working on:
As you can see, I’ve still got a heck of a lot of work today, so don’t expect this anytime soon. I’m planning to work on this between other projects. I work full time, freelance part time, and – of course – maintain this site. That’s going to give me precious little time to knock this out.
So that’s what’s going on. I appreciate everyone’s patience while I fixed the broken stuff. If you have any suggestions or feedback on the eventual redesign of the site, don’t hesitate to let me know.
I did notice the broken navigation last week I think and Brickvoid mentioned it the very same day so i thought i’d just wait patiently for you to fix it.
Hah, I know what you’re going through. Some updates I keep putting of because off all kinds of (small) changes that I am afraid of and the amount of work it takes me to get everything as it use to be again.
That said I really like your preview! The comic-section of my site needs an urgent update before the end of the year too. I would really like a sidebar in there but I don’t know exactly how to do it (my dayjob has absolutely nothing to do with computertechnics) and being a hobbiest it takes me a relative long time to figure things out. I use comic-easel btw, and I really like the support of that plugin and the way it is adjustable. I think I’ll just wait to see how your site looks after the redesign and steal some ideas ;).
Good luck!
Thanks for your kind words, FL!
I’m going to transitioning to Comic-Easel as well. That actually power ComicPress now, so I’m halfway there.
If you’re using Comic-Easel, I assume you’re on WordPress? Adding a sidebar should be pretty simple, depending on your theme setup. Feel free to pick my brain and I’ll do my best to help.