Sunday, July 19, 2009

Thoughts on the latest template change

Well, as you may have noticed, I changed the Theme of my Blog. Of course this is not the first time I change a theme. I have been blogging on blogger for four years now. I started off with the good old fashion simple black minima template, almost a year later I started planning for the first major template change.


This image was created via wordle.net

I didn't have any experience whatsoever in programming (I was a Biology student for god's sake!), so I did the only thing I was good at, run after my adorable brother for help, and he did everything humanly possible to help me. But it's not easy to work with the fake ADD, autist wannabe, that I am. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, but I couldn't communicate it.

Another problem was that I got infested with the Meem virus.

But then somehow in my personal history I became this blogging expert in my own community. And I was setting up blogs and giving trainings on the subject. Kind of ironic, isn't it? I started off by managing the old Meem blog which was on wordpress. Then this year I moved it to Blogger (MeemBlog) then I started the Feminist Colective Blog. And shortly after I started working at the Social Media Exchange. Wow how did the biologist turn into a Blogist?

I don't know, I don't care. I love it. I love working at SMEX and I loved the blogs I managed. One the most challenging tasks when it comes to webdesign for dummies that I excel in was to the MeemBlog. I used a ready made theme and adapted it. The challenge is to get a neat, nice template that would remain very customizable. It was more challenging that I thought it would be (eh, I know, that's what all unprofessionals say).

On the other hand, changing the template for this blog was ultra-easy, thanks to the previous ordeal. One thing you should always remember, if you want to design websites then you should get into the designers' skin. If you didn't study wedesign at university, that is not an excuse to wait until you need a theme to look for one. Get a social bookmarking account (be it Delicious, Diigo or whatever other tool you prefer) and stay tuned to the latest resources. Yes you will spend hours looking for details that you are not going to use very often. But then when you do need that dream theme, you will just have to look through your bookmarked links.

Now that this step is over (I've been fantisizing about changing the theme for months now) I have so many other things I need to cater for.

Yalla, wish me luck

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