Progress Report

2008 Nov 13
Comments 41
Published In Design, Site
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I’ve been experimenting with this new site of mine for about five months and I’m really happy with how things are progressing.

The story so far

I’m posting about as often as I ever have here, mostly because I’m a fantastically wishy washy and slow writer. Writing takes up the lion’s share of my time on any given post, with design and code amounting to a comfortable reprieve. I’m admittedly being very conscious of how much time I spend on design so that I can see how viable this is for publishing. Consequently, my designs are fairly minimalistic (though I am very pleased with a few entries).

I’ve continued to improve little corners of the site since launching, usually resulting a quiet posting week here and there. I just finished upgrading some of my CSS and sIFR files, which consequently helped me simplify my publishing process.

I haven’t written about the technical side of how I’m creating this site because, not only is it pretty basic, but I’m also hesitant to suggest it as a technique alone. Meaning, it doesn’t matter how this site is made from a technical perspective, I’m much more interested in promoting the idea of considering how design can enhance content.

The story to come

I’ve noticed some of my designs feel limited by my writing. In the same way you typically hear your thoughts in your own voice, I visualize my writing in a particular way. I don’t think the design here is bad, but I have design ideas in mind that don’t really work with my writing. Because of this, I’m interested in getting some content conspirators involved so that I can design around some new voices.

I’m still brainstorming where to go with this idea—getting others to write content is difficult at best, and interviews can be a bit bland—but one approach I’m thinking of is somewhere between an article and an interview. For instance: asking guest authors to answer a single common question, something sorta wide open, that way it’s just a response on one topic rather than a typical interview setup. This will hopefully put low strain on contributors and still allow me to play with some new content. This is the natural end result of the real point, editorial design for context. Not just mine, but from contributors too.

I believe I can somewhat confidently say that what I’m experimenting with here could work for an industrious magazine or newspaper website. Obviously, this design is very much tied to me and what I’m using it for, but the theories and methods are extensible and feel sound. In the end, it isn’t supposed to be a design trick, or worse, a hindrance to publishing. It’s about finding the meaning of a story through design. This doesn’t always equate to anything more than competent design, but it should equate to visual languages that help make content more powerful.

41 Comments

Permalink for this comment Ryan Merrill says: November 13, 2008

I’ve always enjoyed each one of your designs and the text that accompanies them. It’s easy to tell when a blogger writes to write and when one actually takes the time to form a decent argument.

I think the guest author/single-question interview is a good idea, that way it might possible to design around their ideas and content rather than creating everything yourself.

This is sort of on topic, but I was wondering if you’ve paid much attention to ESPN’s e-ticket articles? Found here: http://search.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=eticket

Each story has a unique header and is overall well designed. It’s something I like to see in a magazine for the Web. I think it’s very well done.

Keep up the good work. I’m excited to see what’s to come.
Permalink for this comment Shane says: November 13, 2008

I must say that your efforts are really terrific. I’m somebody who feels like I can vomit content, but my design is always something that falls by the wayside. I’ve really enjoyed the new site.
Permalink for this comment Lorenz Paulus says: November 13, 2008

i like the idea of enhancing the (visual) storytelling that goes along with the writing itself on such places like blogs or other periodic media.
it’s really an appeal to visit your site and read the article at it instead of reading it in my newsreeder, which certainly abstracts the meaning of the text and can place it in an other context.

i think you do a really good job, the (extra designed) articles look pretty good, but not to overwhelming and distracting. it’s just the right balance, i guess.

keep up the good work, and by then,
lorenz
Permalink for this comment Steve Killen says: November 13, 2008

Personally my favourites have been this one and this one

I do like this blog being the personal voice of one person at the moment, but as you’ve said, it is your place for experimentation so it’s worth trying at least once.
Permalink for this comment Tony says: November 13, 2008

When you started this version of your site (and when A Brief Message was launched), it was a revelation to me. Taking the framework of a database-driven site and applying individualized designs seemed to obviously be the future of web publishing. I think the only reason more people haven’t done it is lack of imagination. Even without sharing your underlying technique, I hope that, by continuing to publish these wonderfully art-directed articles, you are giving designers and developers everywhere ammunition to use on their bosses. I look forward to seeing what you do with contributions from other writers.
Permalink for this comment Jordan Ogren says: November 13, 2008

In my opinion, your site is one of the best designed blogs I have found on the web.

The uniqueness of the way your site design changes to fit the content, is something that is rarely executed on blogs.

It’s refreshing and inspiring.
Permalink for this comment Tory Hobson says: November 13, 2008

Your blog is an inspiration to a lot of designers, me included. I feel that having a unique design for some of the posts works extremely well, and have also tried to incorporate this process into my own blog.

The articles themselves are all very well written. I like how most of them are short and sweet, especially since my attention span isn’t that great. Keep up the great work!
Permalink for this comment Jeff Croft says: November 13, 2008

Hey Jason…for the record, I think you’ve been doing an amazing job, and I love the idea of you designing around some other voices.

This is a little bit off topic, but, my biggest question/concern with your art-directed blog posts is this: how do these beauties get preserved? What happens when you redesign (I know you don’t redesign your personal site often, but…)? When you decided to go another direction with your site, will you have to re-work all the entry-specific stylesheets to fit the new direction?

Just something to maybe be thinking about, if you’re not already. I love what you’re doing, and I think it really underscores the need for better preservation of web design work.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 13, 2008

@ Jeff Croft :

This is a little bit off topic, but, my biggest question/concern with your art-directed blog posts is this: how do these beauties get preserved? What happens when you redesign (I know you don’t redesign your personal site often, but…)? When you decided to go another direction with your site, will you have to re-work all the entry-specific stylesheets to fit the new direction?

I am a huge proponent of preservation on the web. If and when I redesign, I will archive this version like I did with my last . I think it’s important to keep content and design paired together when possible. That’s where the context and meaning live. :)
Permalink for this comment kyle steed says: November 13, 2008

“For instance: asking guest authors to answer a single common question, something sorta wide open, that way it’s just a response on one topic rather than a typical interview setup.”

Jason –

This is a wonderful idea. I’m in the final stages of a new post similar to this idea where I set out to find other designers who had tattoos and have them write up a short summary on why and how they got their tattoos. Then I put together a picture of each designer along with their tattoo, I’m really excited about it. It should be up by the end of the week.

But, back on topic, I think this custom design concept with each post is just the beginning of a better way for blog design. I could see these posts being put together in a book form. Keep up the amazing work and I look forward to your next post.
Permalink for this comment Aaron says: November 13, 2008

I think multiple authors answering the same question is a pretty interesting idea.
Permalink for this comment Ryan Keairns says: November 13, 2008

So I follow a lot of designers and sometimes I wonder if foraging through all the feeds is time well spent…

Then a concept like this comes along (design for content instead of one design for all content) and just totally shifts your perspective. Its kind of like “Of course – that makes WAY too much sense, its brilliant”.

Well for what it’s worth watching your site develop gives me that feeling and breaks me out the bubble I have been working within (without even realizing it). Now I peruse sites with a different eye and feel like the boundaries have been pushed – the room for advancement has just expanded.

That is what keeps me motivated.
Permalink for this comment Chris Johnson says: November 13, 2008

I’d like to chime in and agree with the other posters here. Your experiment in per-post designs has been a tremendous success from a reader’s perspective.

The only bad part is that you won’t give us any details on how you accomplish it from a technical standpoint. :-)

As for a developer’s standpoint, without knowing the specifics, I’d venture a guess that designing each post would probably be beyond the capability of most websites that publish multiple articles daily. It seems like there would be too much time spent on coming up with a concept and testing it to make it worthwhile. All this is just guessing though.

Do you know about how long you spend designing each article?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 13, 2008

@ Chris Johnson :

The only bad part is that you won’t give us any details on how you accomplish it from a technical standpoint. :-)

Every time I try to write about it I realize there’s little technically crazy with what I’m doing. It really comes down to planning and thinking through how things get published. I have a default CSS file, and a stripped down version of that same file that only contains values related to color, type, etc. I customize the latter as needed (by hand), and have a field in EE where I can include the path to that file. If that field in EE has a value, the page calls that customized CSS file in for that entry. It’s so simple someone even made a WordPress plugin called Designate to do the same thing.

As for a developer’s standpoint, without knowing the specifics, I’d venture a guess that designing each post would probably be beyond the capability of most websites that publish multiple articles daily.

But that’s just it, what I’m discovering is it’s all about planning for this kind of publishing when an article warrants more than the default design. I’m just one guy doing this in my spare time, but I could see a team of a writer, art director, and a designer/coder being able to blaze through stuff like this in a newsroom. It doesn’t fit perfectly into the way many websites are run now, it would take some rethinking of production and roles, but then, so did transitioning from tables to CSS for layout.

Do you know about how long you spend designing each article?

As little time as possible. I usually shoot for about 1 hour or less, but it’s getting faster.
Permalink for this comment Kelsey says: November 13, 2008

…getting others to write content is difficult at best…

There are countless authors out there with content that would be improved with design. Why not ask permission to repost their articles? Or you could ask great authors if their next article could be posted on your site rather than theirs. Anyone with some sort of design sense would consider getting a treatment to be a privilege. Off the top of my head, I think it’d be awesome to see you treat an article by John Gruber, Seth Godin, Steve Yegge, or Danc.

(your site is an inspiration, I wish I were as cool as you, etc.)
Permalink for this comment Chris Johnson says: November 13, 2008

Jason,
Thanks for the response!

I’m glad to see that I guessed right about what you were doing. I kept thinking it had to be a little more complex than just a stylesheet link. But I couldn’t imagine what else you would be able to do inside of EE that wouldn’t put some strict limitations on your designs.

I’m trying to develop my new portfolio site with an eye towards changing the color scheme with a few lines of code (If RGBa worked in all browsers it would have been a lot easier). I suppose even just changing the colors on a per article basis could really change the mood of your site and enhance the impact of the story.

Take a typical blog post with a dominant image stretching across the entire story column width. Then take some colors from that photo and use it throughout a color stylesheet. With just that little bit of work you’d have a pretty dramatic effect.
Permalink for this comment Naz says: November 13, 2008

Jason: I think another way of getting contributions is getting contributors to design a piece within your guidelines here. Instead of just getting text from them, have them design within the framework you have. It’d be interesting to see a collaboration between your groundwork and another contributor’s ideas around it and how to fit it in.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 13, 2008

@ Kelsey :

There are countless authors out there with content that would be improved with design. Why not ask permission to repost their articles?

I had considered this too, and still may do it, I just want to be cautious to keep with the tone of my site if I can. For instance, Gruber is a great writer, but his articles probably wouldn’t fit in as well here.

@ Naz :

I think another way of getting contributions is getting contributors to design a piece within your guidelines here.

Great idea, Naz! Although, then I’ll have to write up some sort of style guide for others rather than just keeping it in my head :)

I do already have a test post setup on my staging server that breaks out all of the different ways images can be used in posts and a pretty slick PSD template to get started. Hmmm. You can also add “?grid” to the end of any article URL here for some fun. Shhh!

I’m going to ease into inviting contributors and see what I can do. I’d love to try some designers and some authors though. I’ll add it to my list.
Permalink for this comment Christoph says: November 13, 2008

I really like this concept!
I always get excited when it comes to a new blog post about how you arranged the elements on your site and what colors you used.
And, foremost, how flexible and versatile this concept is!

It would enhance the web, if there were more concepts like this, especially for magazines.
Printed relatives are totaly different to newspapers: better paper quality, more colors, more images, more whitespace. On the web this distinction is missing. This is were your concept comes into play.
But there is little concern: Is this concept for everyone or rather for design-related audience?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 13, 2008

@ Christoph :

But there is little concern: Is this concept for everyone or rather for design-related audience?

Are magazines and newspapers just for design-related audiences?
Permalink for this comment Christoph says: November 13, 2008

@ Jason:

Are magazines and newspapers just for design-related audiences?

You’re right. I had those people in mind who always read their stuff in the feed reader and who don’t care a fig for good design or a special mood that can be achieved with design.

My question is, is it worth to invest in well designed articles when there are so many readers out there just reading within there feed reader?
Permalink for this comment Chris Johnson says: November 13, 2008

Jason + Christoph,
I’m subscribed to Jason’s feed, but since I know that his articles have a special design, I always click through to the actual site.

Maybe I’m an odd case, but for me Jason’s designs add enough value that I’d rather read on his site than in the feed reader.

With that in mind, perhaps this concept could be marketed to clients as a way to preserve ad revenue on a website and not worry about losing it with feeds…
Permalink for this comment Rian Orie says: November 13, 2008

I actually started experimenting with a setup to make this work in a wordpress blog, I’d really only be prototyping it for myself as my writing skills are about as good as my design skills, neither of which I’d want to wish upon anyone.

The only limitation I can think off with a “per post” design is that the person posting can royally mess up a good post with a poor design. In short, this system would be usable only for the (at least semi) design savy among us. The really skilled designers might easily get away with poor post though ;)

On the topic of feed readers: Only feed them excerpts of the content. Invite them back to the website to read the full stories.
Permalink for this comment Shane says: November 13, 2008

I LOVE what you are doing with your site, and your new idea of potentially having guest writers is really interesting as well.

Keep up the inspiring work.
Permalink for this comment Lieven says: November 14, 2008

Chris Johnson : I’m subscribed to Jason’s feed, but since I know that his articles have a special design, I always click through to the actual site.

Same here, I would be like to have a RSS-reader that places whole sites under eachother ( so the design survives). As a designer it’s a shame to use RSS since it’s only content-oriented, but hey, … that’s just the way cookie crumbles.

Jason Santa Maria : I customize the latter as needed (by hand), and have a field in EE where I can include the path to that file. If that field in EE has a value, the page calls that customized CSS file in for that entry.

EE’s a bitch to do such things, I’m currently doing a content-related design thing for my own site. ( Came across your site while doing research ). And I find it rather tough to implement it in EE. ( The Engine is quiet messy in my oppionion ).

Do you use EE-variables in the HTML or just a fill-in-field in the post-entry?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 14, 2008

@ Lieven :

Do you use EE-variables in the HTML or just a fill-in-field in the post-entry?

I have a custom text field set up in EE. When I have a custom entry, I paste the relative path of my CSS file in that field. In my template, I have a simple if statement check to see if that field has a value. If it does, it’s inserted into the head of that page (via the variable that’s tied to the field in EE).
Permalink for this comment Chris Johnson says: November 14, 2008

Lieven,
If you use Google Reader you can get an extension by Lifehacker called Better GReader which lets you load the actual blog post within the reader.

Also, calling in a CSS file via a custom field in ExpressionEngine would be exceptionally easy. I would agree that EE is messy, but only in the admin interface, which is getting a facelift for 2.0. Most everything else about it is a joy.
Permalink for this comment Jin says: November 14, 2008

Jason, I have enjoyed your blog design since launch. I too have tried the unique look per post idea on my blog. I only go as far as changing some simple css though due to my post frequency.

I foresee more bloggers will adopt this concept(depends on the nature of their blogs). The graphic and layout used in each of your post become part of content, this is refreshing since most blogs are rather stiff and templated.
Permalink for this comment Tory Hobson says: November 15, 2008

My question is, is it worth to invest in well designed articles when there are so many readers out there just reading within there feed reader?

Another option to make sure the readers view the article as it was intended, would be to not put the full article in the RSS feed. Maybe just put the summary of the article with a “Continue to Article” link that would take the person to the designed layout.
Permalink for this comment Mike D. says: November 15, 2008

Your comment about preserving your old designs struck a chord with me. Not wanting to change the design of older blog entries is one of the reasons I haven’t redesigned in five years.

I like your solution of just archiving the entire site at something like “v3.jasonsantamaria.com” but I’m wondering if there’s a way, possibly in Wordpress, to apply themes based on the date a post was created. So, for instance, you could set a rule saying something like:

if (datepublished < 11/15/2008) {
use old theme
} else {
use new theme
}

Anybody know if there is any way to do this?
Permalink for this comment Rian Orie says: November 16, 2008

Mike D. : I’d take a look at this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/domain-theme/

It’s a plugin that allows a theme to be selected on the domain you access the site from, with a few slight tweaks this could be changed to a by (post) date.
Permalink for this comment Rian Orie says: November 16, 2008

I have to add though, it’s not as waterproof as Jason’s solution.

In the switch theme by date way you’ll be displaying, for example, your archives in your current theme and then switching back and forth between your old and new design as the date of the post your reading changes.. Not sure if that’s a desirable result.
Permalink for this comment Able Parris says: November 16, 2008

I’d like to say that, besides the great design of each post, one of the reasons I enjoy your site is that it is all yours. I think what you are describing would be something closer to “A Brief Message,” which has sadly been silent for some time now.

Maybe your idea would be better served at another location?
Permalink for this comment Billigflüge says: November 17, 2008

Right, your design ideas for each blogpost are just great. There are entire blogs that can’t mess with it. Regarding your idea to involve guest authors, the only thing is to set the proper incentives to get them.
Permalink for this comment Karri says: November 17, 2008

I think your articles have been wonderful to read. They have inspired me, and I’m not a web designer or art director or anything like that. I’m just a musician. But still, I feel like I can be inspired by site to create something my own.

The interview idea is great and probably will still enchance this good site. Maybe guest authors from different areas and professions would increase the diversity of this site and it’s content?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: November 17, 2008

@ Karri :

The interview idea is great and probably will still enchance this good site. Maybe guest authors from different areas and professions would increase the diversity of this site and it’s content?

Exactly! I’m still thinking through how I want to approach it, but I would definitely like to find people from different professions.
Permalink for this comment Alan Houser says: November 17, 2008

Oooh, jinxies! I love the idea of contributors. I would be interested. I could play the role of “Contribuant”, a French speaking contributor with a cape, a hat and of-course, a dope cane.

Of-course, I would need to first learn French.
Permalink for this comment Sara says: November 18, 2008

Jason, I’d be glad to contribute. I know I’m an illustrator, and your blog and site is more centered around design, but if you want, contact me and I’ll help in any way I can.
Permalink for this comment Mike D. says: November 18, 2008

Rian: Yep, that is the desired result. Will look into that plug-in and see if I can mod it. Thanks!
Permalink for this comment John says: November 18, 2008

I think that is a wicked cool idea.

When I first heard about you doing this type of content design it inspired me to create a basic cms to handle it. I am still working on it for my site, basically allows each post its own css. In 10 years, you can look back at the original posts and relive the design of that time.
Permalink for this comment Stu Collett says: November 19, 2008

Mr Santa Maria,

As always I’m loving your work. You’re at the bleeding edge, fine sir.

Many thanks for the inspiration that you give to us all.

Stu Collett.