Check out the Candorville.com redesign

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I’m old. I realized this about seven or eight months ago when I attempted to update Candorville.com’s design on my own. I’d been designing my own sites since 1995, back when 99% of America would’ve thought “HTML” was a typo. Back when the Media still called the Internet “the information superhighway.” Back when you didn’t have to add numbers after your name to get an email address. First I hand coded the HTML, then I used WYSIWYG editors, then Tyler Martin’s brilliant Comicpress plugin for WordPress. All the while, despite each iteration of the site being less and less dependent on my coding skills (if you could call them that), the design was all mine. But seven or eight months ago I decided to further automate the site and to make it look a certain way, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do what I wanted it to do, or how to make it look how I wanted it to look; even after studying dozens of forum threads where people spelled it out. I realized this must be how my mom felt back in 1982 when I programmed the VCR to record her soaps.

So I enlisted Tyler Martin, the designer of Comicpress, to completely overhaul the look and feel of the site, and to add a subtle bit of automation that’ll make it much easier for you to buy frame-ready prints of your favorite Candorville strips. All you have to do now is click on the yellow “buy a print” button directly below whichever strip you want to buy, and that’ll take you straight to a Paypal checkout page where that strip’s date will be automatically filled in (before, you had to remember the date of the strip, navigate to the store page, type the date into the field and hit the Paypal checkout button).

Tyler and I are still working on the rest of the pages (I have to reformat a lot of info to fit the new page dimensions) and tweaking colors & fonts. I hope you like the new site as much as I do. Tyler did an incredible job.


Discussion (28)¬

  1. Peacezgood says:

    Hi, Ken. You're right. Darrin is right. I'm updating the version of Firefox. I'll see what happens. In the meantime, I also looked for the store link. didn't find it.

  2. Ken says:

    I like the new look. I'm with Rick, change can be good.

    Will the store and sponsorship stuff be reappearing? I gather you're still scheming new options on that front.

    • Darrin Bell says:

      Thanks, Ken. I'm glad you like the new look. I needed a change.

      I'm building two more pages: a new store and a new sponsorship page with a few different levels of sponsorship: $2.99, $5.99 and $9.99 per month, with different benefits for each.

      • Ken says:

        I should have known those revenue-related items were coming and waited patiently. However, you have to take the blame for my fears since Rudy Park went dark at the end of last week. Without Candorville to read in the morning I'd have to read the news.

        I'll anxiously await the chance to buy a C-Dog plush.

  3. Peacezgood says:

    Thanks, Ken. Now I know that it's not the browser. It's my OLD Mac computer. I got it used (refurbished), and I guess it's time to get it fixed. Thanks for the heads up!

    • Ken says:

      It could just be the version of the browser you're using. Every version has it's own quirks. I have a pretty new computer (about a year old) but I have to use both Safari and Firefox to get everything I need to work.

  4. Peacezgood says:

    GREAT idea, Rick. When Darrin comes back, I hope he reads your post. I, also, couldn't and still can't see the button. I'm old, too.

  5. Rick S. says:

    Hi Darrin.

    I like the new look — always nice to change. 🙂

    On thing though — the buttons for "Buy a Print", etc. blend in with the rest of the theme so that, if you're not looking for them, you may not realize they're there. It's sort of like some mid-90s computer games that involved just hunting for hotspots on a graphic with your mouse. the title "Mist" comes to mind …

    The buttons look good — I'd leave them there. But if I were designing this, I would also add a text link for "Buy A Print" right before the "Buy Reprint Rights" text link in the bottom left corner of the comic. That way you don't miss any sales from people like me who completely miss the graphic.

    Hope everything works out ok during your vacation.

    • Darrin Bell says:

      Thanks, that's worth thinking about. I may try that in the future, but my concern is that when there are too many text links, people tend not to click on any of them. And when there's a text link that duplicates the function of a button, same thing: too many people get confused and don't click either one.

      Print sales have been good since the redesign (more people have snapped up prints in the past two days than they did all of last month), so I think the button's doing it's job for now.

      • Chayafradle says:

        Now that I can actually SEE the buttons, I agree with you, Darrin. The "Buy A Print" is right up there, easy for people to click on, and is actually ATTRACTIVE to readers' focus of attention. Great business idea.

  6. Darrin Bell says:

    I think what I'm failing to realize is your point, actually. Care to elaborate?

  7. @Lyarrah says:

    I think what you're failing to realize is that the comic is the primary point of the site. That simple.

    • Darrin Bell says:

      I think what I'm failing to realize is your point, unfortunately.

      Everything about this site, from the color scheme to the placement of the strip, was created to focus attention on the strip. The large navigation buttons are there to make it easier for people to see more strips. The "Buy a Print" button is there to make it easier for people to buy their favorite strip.

      But I want to know what you're talking about. Maybe it's something I could fix.

      • Peacezgood says:

        I don't see the "Buy a Print" button, and don't see a color scheme. Only a white background and a strip, and comments section.

      • Peacezgood says:

        Darrin, try Googling Candorville.com and you may see what I see. Just an empty page with one comic strip and a calendar, and a place to put comments. I don't see what you're saying this guy did to improve your site. It was fine the way it was, by the way.

        • Darrin Bell says:

          I seem to recall your posting before that you couldn't see the text on the old site, which told me your browser wasn't loading the background image. I think that's the case here too. Something's wrong with your browser or your computer.

          I posted a tweet asking whether others had the same problem you had, and everyone who wrote back to me said no, they can see the site as I see it, complete with brick background, 3 columns and navigation buttons.

          If you're on a PC I don't know what the problem may be. But if you're on a Mac, go to the little apple icon in the upper left, choose "software update," see if there's an update for your Safari web browser. If there is, install it. Then try looking at the site from your new Safari.

          If that doesn't solve the problem, you might want to try using a different browser because if your browser won't load background images that means you're probably missing a lot on MANY of the websites you visit. Other browsers you might want to try are Firefox and Opera. Both are good.

          One more thing: you don't have to go to Google to search for candorville.com, you could simply type candorville.com into the address bar of your browser and it'll take you straight here.

          • Chayafradle says:

            YEP, it works now! Thanks, Darrin. VERY COOL site! And I can even see the Buy A Print button. BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for helping me fix things on my end with the computer. You must be so computer savvy!

  8. Darrin Bell says:

    If your comment posts on a website and there's no website around for it to post on, does it post your post?

  9. Peacezgood says:

    I checked on "Candorville.com" with Google and when I hit on the site, there was no site. Only this cartoon. How do we get back to the actual site?

    • Darrin Bell says:

      Um… How did you post a comment if there's no site?

      • Ken says:

        Is this some kind of a "I post therefore I am?" kind of revelation?

      • Peacezgood says:

        There used to be a header, and various columns, as well as the strip. First thing to go was the town hall section. Now the header is gone. The background colors are gone. Only the cartoon with a place to post a message, and some of the twitter comments. The background is white and plain.

    • Peacezgood says:

      WOW. Thanks, Darrin. It was FIREFOX that was the problem. Your site is showing up BEAUTIFULLY with Safari! OMG. How beautiful!!!! Thanks for filling me in on checking my computer browser. Who'd-a-thought?