This site got a new look and a whole lot more functionality as of Friday afternoon. (Mobile users, rejoice! I think you’ll appreciate the updates the most.)
As promised, here’s your tour:
On the home page:
• Freshened-up navigation: more on that in a minute.
• Tidied-up categories:hover over each one to view subcategories.
• The latest post is front and center.
• Recent posts appear backwards chronologically. Less scrolling for you!
Individual blog posts:
• Categories and comment count appear right under the post title; both are clickable.
• The comments section got a fresh new look. (Head here to read more about comments on MMD, including how to get your own little picture to show up next to your comments.)
The library:
• The card catalog: I’m very excited about this. Just like the library, this is where you’ll be able to browse all the books that have ever been mentioned on Modern Mrs Darcy and easily find relevant posts. Find what you’re looking for by searching by title, author, or genre, or just browse through the visual gallery of book covers. This section is incomplete: we couldn’t populate the books before we published the redesign, but we’re adding new books every day. Full tour coming when the archives are moved over.
• The circulation desk is a fun and easy way to view seasonal content and browse archives by category, real and invented. Examples from the page right now: Let’s Get Dressed, Reading by Numbers, Making Life Work, and Life Lessons from Green Gables. I’ll be updating this page regularly.
Book posts:
There’s a lot more functionality within bookish posts now. (View an example here.) When you click on an individual book title, you’ll be taken to a page that includes detailed information about the book, such as my description, the publisher’s description, and where the book has appeared on MMD. You can also easily view other related titles that have been mentioned on the blog, or click over to purchase the book. Just like for the card catalog, we are actively adding books to the back end of the site.
Kindle deals:
I’m thrilled with how beautiful and user-friendly the new Kindle deals page is! View the deals here. Click on a book title for more info about that particular book; click the Amazon button to visit Amazon. (Have no fear: it does not initiate the purchase.)
That’s it for now. If you have any questions or find anything that needs tweaking, please let me know!
40 comments
I love the new site! I have only had time to explore a few parts so far, but it’s wonderful! I especially love the circulation desk and card catalog.
Love your new site!! Especially love the card catalog (eek!!) where I can easily search your takes on recommended books!! Love the graphics and the design layout as well!! Congrats to you!! Can’t wait to explore it more!!
LOVE the updates!!
The site looks great!
Brittany
The Lady Lawyer
I haven’t poked around as much as I’d like yet, but reading your blog on my phone (the way I read it most) just got a LOT easier! Three cheers for that 🙂
Woohoo!
so fabulous! I love your site, thanks so much for all that you put into it!
Just lovely!! The card catalog idea is brilliant; I know I will use it. And I use the Kindle deals a lot as well. Excellence and beauty all around.
Love it so much! Especially the card catalog! Just last night I finished the Nightingale and was thinking you had done a short review on it and wanted to see what you had to say about it, the feature was easy to use and found it!
That is music to my ears! (Although I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about The Nightingale. If you read it, I’d love to hear what you think.)
Honestly, I wasn’t either. The past 3 books I have read have been set in that era of time. That was unintentional, but made me think of a post you did not too long about that. For me, it could have been because I had just read the beautifully written All the Light We Cannot See, and well, need I say more? I think it had the potential to be greater than what it was. Some parts felt too rushed, some parts just felt repetitive and I think it would have benefited from better editing. Not that the writing was bad, it wasn’t and there were parts that did make me cry. But that was towards the end of the book. When reading the first half, I struggled at times to want to pick it back up. Overall, it was worth reading but I’ve scratched my head at all the 5-star reviews.
That’s a good assessment, I think. It wasn’t bad, by any means, but I felt like it had so much more potential.
Thanks for the tour. 🙂 I’m going to go look at the comment picture instructions right now. I’ve been unsuccessful at this in the past!
Your new site looks fabulous!
This is beautiful!
Congrats! The new design is gorgeous.
Oh congrats, Anne! The new site looks so fabulous. And the card catalog!? Get out of town!!!!!!! What a great function. So happy for you! What was your favorite part of the redesign process? (I’m about to redesign my site!)
Um, when it was finished? Seriously, the whole thing felt like it was NEVER going to come together, until very suddenly it did.
Wow! This looks beautiful, Anne! I’m totally digging it. 🙂 I am amazed at all the new features. Question: it seems like there will be a lot of back end maintenance with some of the new features (such as the detailed book info for each book mentioned and the card catalog). How are you going to keep up? Do you have a routine to add each book or do you have any help from an assistant? I always love hearing how you and others manage their time while running a blog and home. You are a superwoman! Thank you for all you put into this blog. It’s a little spot of sunshine and I look forward to it each day. 🙂
Going forward it won’t be a big deal: this is the new normal. But as for the old posts, my husband is working overtime loading in those old book posts, and I have a talented friend helping as well.
Thank you for the kind words!
It looks great! I love the circulation desk and card catalog ideas!
Love the new look!
Intuitive and gorgeous! You’ve set a new standard for blogs with archived material. Thanks for disabling pop-ups, too.
I thought of YOU when I made absolutely sure those pop-ups wouldn’t be an issue! (If you ever get one, let me know—they are NOT supposed to be there!)
Cool!!!
I love the new look! It’s very fresh. I’m especially impressed with the addition of the Card Catalogue and Circulation Desk – what a great way to organize! Very excited to explore. 🙂
I’m just starting the process to redesign my site, so I’m drooling over your final product here! I L*O*V*E it. 🙂
The new design is fresh and lovely. Great job! It makes me want to redesign my own blog…
The site does look great! Will be checking out your book recommendations (card catalogue and circulation desk) the next time I want to decide on something new to read.
After a few days playing around on here, I love every single feature, as well as how you’ve organized everything.
But there is one thing that I just don’t like: the background jumps around as you scroll up and down the page. I don’t know if it’s a fixable thing, but it is uncomfortable to my eyes.
Everything else is WONDERFUL!!
yes! It is very distracting!
Your new site is gorgeous. I love the colors, the circulation desk, the card catalogue, the new kindle page with pictures, but I find the moving background very distracting, too. It has a chaotic feel to it. I’ve always loved the calm simplicity of your site. If there’s a way to adjust all of that unintentional movement, I’d say the new site is pretty perfect, Congratulations and thank you!
I also love the creative new categories like the Card Catalogue & Circulation Desk, but as with the last two comments, don’t like the way the MMD banner jumps up at me and partly conceals the part I was just reading. Makes me feel a bit frazzled.
Thanks for letting me know! I’ll see what I can do.
Your site makeover is simply gorgeous! I LOVE the background picture. It makes me want to take a book outside to read right now. 🙂
LOVE the new site, so fresh, well organized and clean! I have a question, is there a way of subscribing to the Kindle deals page in a blog reader? I subscribe to your blog in feedly but can’t seem to be able to subscribe to the kindle deal posts in my feedly, I have to click over to the website and then go the kindle deal page.
Such a great job on the redesign, and I can only begin to imagine all the hard work that goes into something like that! Congratulations.
Jane, right now the Kindle deals page is just that: a page, and there’s no feed for a page. I’m thinking through options (feed, email, etc) that would make the page useful and also not totally overwhelm me with daily tasks! If you have ideas I’m all ears. 🙂
I can’t seem to get in your blog. I keep getting a blue screen listing items when I click on it the blue screen is there, scroll down and can’t open anything. Keeps going back to blue screen. HELP, PLEASE.
That’s not good. What kind of device are you on? Also is you have any way of taking screenshots that would be most helpful.
How do I subscribe