Have you ever worked your tail off on something for weeks, really pouring your heart, soul and creative juices into a project just to come back to it a few weeks later and say:
What the hell was I thinking?
Yeah. That’s me right now.
When I decided to update the look and feel of Cooking, by the seat of my Pants! last month, I was awestruck by the theme I built for my wife and determined that it would be a perfect for this site. I wanted to simplify things, to make a cleaner presentation for my readers and to take the blog back to it’s roots as a linear experience.
One month in, I’m wondering exactly what I was thinking. Sure, I love the sliding menu, but aside from that the new look is anything but elegant when compared to other food blogs that I admire. The new look not only falls short, but feels nearly amateurish.
Worse, it doesn’t really capture what cbsop is about. The design of any online publication should serve several purposes. The design has to consider ad placements, content, layout ease of use and accessibility, but at the same time the design as a whole should say something about what the blog or website is all about and help to share that concept with its readers. In this I have failed with the current design.
Consider such notables as Simply Recipes, Steamy Kitchen, Chez Pim and Meathenge. Each of these sites is elegant and simple to navigate of course, but the key to each is that they define the feel of the blog. They are an extension of their writers’ personalities. They just fit in the context they are supposed to.
My current design doesn’t do that at all. It has no identity. It’s just… There.
In fact, the more I look at it, the more I hate it.
So I’m asking you guys. Where do you think I went wrong? What could be done differently? What could be done better? I really need to know what you would like to see, not just what I’m thinking of changing.
This has to be a pretty quick process though. The Holidays are upon us and it’s about to get seriously busy here in the CbsoP kitchens. If I don’t act now, I’m not going to have time until mid December and to be honest I can’t stare at this thing for that long.
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We're sharing hundreds of our favorite recipes, kitchen tips and favorite tools, all tested by me, Jerry Russell, and my family and friends 
My name is Jerry Russell, and I'm a blogger. Since 2007 I've been writing about food and recipes at 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you are being way too hard on yourself. I took a look at the blogs you admire and I don’t see anything that you’re missing.
Your sidebar works well and is neat looking. I like that you have a large post area and that when you do a food post the picture fleshes fully and is large. And your page navigation is interesting and work well.
You might consider updating the text on your logo…getting away from the italics and shadowed font. I think it would bring it more in line with the clean, contemporary look of the rest of the blog content. Also, go larger and straight across the page with the blog title because now it sort of gets lost and my eye goes more to the pages.
I don’t think the new layout is awful, but it doesn’t strike me as particularly food bloggy.
I would definitely kill the black background. Maybe just keep it white and update your header–maybe with one simple image. The sliding menu is cool but you should consider replacing your graphical menu items with simple text links–this is very clean and consistent with the blogs you referenced.
My first gut reaction was OH YEAH BABY!!! So much clearer, concise and without all those columns to keep track of. I wasn’t able to keep track of all the different updates and headings all over the place. I got lost quickly, too much going on.
That being said, I can see your point about the basic design. I vote for keeping it simple, but dolling it up however you choose.
Biggles