A Redesign for 2013

It’s only been a year since I last redesigned Binary Moon – I’m generally content to redesign, and then sit on things for a while, let it stew and evolve. However a lot has changed in the last year. Design styles have evolved massively, my WordPress skills have developed, and the blogging landscape has evolved.

Web Design in 2013

The biggest trend in design this year is in ‘Flat’ Design. This is a movement away from the realistic into the simple. And it’s something I welcome.

Flat design is all about simple shapes, bold colour, ample white space, and polished typography. Now I’m not claiming to be an expert in all of these (or any of them really), but they are all things have gelled well with my personal style so I’m really pleased to see that they are how the web is developing.

For me this is a maturing of the medium. The focus is now less on flashiness and showing off – and more on creating a simple to use experience for our users. I feel the simplifying of the web shows a growing acceptance and usage of the web – it’s a coming of age – and I welcome it.

WordPress Knowledge

Since seeing some of my themes released on WordPress.com I have continued to learn more and more about the best way to develop for WordPress. I spoke about how my WordPress development philosophy has changed last year – and it’s continued to evolve this year. I started writing a post on the subject – so I’ll save the meat of it for then, but the tl;dr version is this. WordPress Theme Frameworks are dead. I’ll explain what I mean in a week or two.

Blogging?

Blogging is something else that is moving full circle. In the early days blogs were used by early adopters, the people leading the way on the web. They were used to share their knowledge and help others develop themselves. They slowly grew in popularity and more and more people took notice. They started being more sensationalist. Less about intelligent discourse – and more about getting large quantities of readers (and so higher ad revenues).

Now we have new blogging services like Medium and Svbtle (stupid name there) appearing. They are moving back to a focus on content and discussion. Removing the technical concerns, and even the design concerns and instead allowing anybody (who can get an invite) to share their knowledge in a public space.

So anyway…

Binary Moon has changed… a bit.

Normally I promise to write about the process – and then forget or don’t have time. So I won’t do that this time. If there’s anything you want to know about it I’d be happy to answer! 🙂