“Things change”, as the saying goes, and this site is no different. It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally updated the site design to make things a little easier to read.
I’ve been doing some videos lately on YouTube which have been popular, so the site now displays video better too. I hope you like it.
What’s Changed?
First, I went from a two-column design down to a one-column layout.
I’ll see how this goes and whether people like it, but I wanted to test if it’s easier to read in this format. The navigation still exists in the header at the top, and in the footer at the bottom, so there’s no loss of functionality, just less distraction. Will it work? I don’t know, but I’ll post some results when I have them.
Next up, nice big legible type. Georgia is the typeface. The proportions, the line-heights, the paragraph breaks all conform to the phi-ratio, the Golden section, for ultimate aesthetic functionality.
Big video. I love featuring nice big video content on the site, and it now takes pride of place at the top of each article.
And lastly, AccelerateMe is now fully responsive. That means it delivers an appropriate experience on whatever device you are using from a huge 27-inch Apple Display, right down to an iPhone. The layout moves around as the screen resizes.
Please let me know what you think of the new site! Oh, and if you find something that doesn’t work, drop me a line and let me know and I’ll get it fixed up.
Thanks for reading!
Jim
P.S. There are a few things I haven’t turned on yet, but they’ll be coming over the next little while 🙂
So more change is happening around here. I’m keeping all the features that do work (big video, better readability) and restoring the sidebar with easy navigation.
Rejoice!
Thanks to everyone who let me know what they thought of the design. And oh yeah, green is making a comeback!
Update #1, 20th May: A grand failure
But a great learning opportunity! Turns out most people like the sidebar and use it to navigate around the site when they are done with an article.
See that sudden rise in the graph above? That’s the day I switched from the two-column layout (with handy sidebar) to a single column design.
It goes from averaging 30% (which is really pretty good) all the way up to 78%. That means that 78% of people arrive at the site and turn around and back right out again. Something ain’t right!
Update #2: Interpretation is Everything
Not so fast!
Turns out I interpreted the analytics data wrong! The bounce rate did go up – but not because people were bouncing more.
A year before I had installed a piece of code in the theme that told Google Analytics to interpret a ‘bounce’ slightly differently. When I updated my theme to the new one, that code was gone, and so GA went back to the original way of interpreting bounces. 🤦🏻♂️
Without a way to compare apples with apples, I’ll never know the impact the theme redesign had on actual bounce rate. And looking back on it now, the theme I created was actually pretty good!
So, when making decisions, be sure to have clean data to work from. Or, like in this case, you might read something as a failure when in fact, it was anything but.
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I’ve been wanting to learn how to meditate and looked at any number of guidance sites, and found this one. I really like it — and since i’ve just begun and have only gone thru lesson one a handful of times, a phrase that really resonates with me is when you discuss having thoughts swirling ‘relentlessly’ as you try to clear your head. You acknowledges it could be ‘impossible’ to stop them — saying ‘as it was for me’.
I really appreciate that mention .. makes me feel like i’m in the same space you were when beginning, and gives me hope i’ll progress toward where you are now. Thanks Jim!
Hi Trace,
Thanks for the lovely comment. I remember when I first started with meditation I was in a really bad place with everything in my life. I only stuck with it because I had tried everything else and nothing worked. So it motivated me to persist—it was my last hope!
So, I like to remember that time when I’m teaching and doing a guided meditation for beginners. Most teachers tell you to quiet the mind, and if you can’t then it’s your problem, you’re just doing it wrong. I don’t believe that. Because I’d been there, I knew that no matter what you do, you are going to have these compulsive thoughts. You have no control when you are depressed. That’s what it is like.
You have to persist and actually change your brain first. That is a monumental task and I salute anyone who has been able to do it. Just getting to a place of ‘normalcy’ is an achievement. That’s why I’ve focused on making that easier for people to do. That’s why the Accelerated Meditation works. It takes the requirement of a still mind away. It works on the brain directly. I’m really proud of it actually.
With enough practice, the “impossible” becomes not only possible, but also fun 🙂