After a lot of coding, deliberation and testing, I'm happy to reveal the "new and improved" (of course it's improved, else it wouldn't be a very good "new" product would it? ;-) ) lildude.co.uk. For those who only read my site via the feed, you'll have to pop by and have a look around.

So what's changed? Well, first and foremost, I've migrated from Wordpress to Habari following pretty much the same procedure I used previously and documented: Migrating from Wordpress to Habari.

At the same time I create a completely new speedy theme which I've entitled "BlackForest". I wrote this theme from the ground up with the following intentions and requirements:

  1. It has to be fast
  2. It has to be aesthetically appealing
  3. It has to be relatively simple to maintain
  4. It has to use HTML5 and CSS3 where ever possible
  5. It must use as few images, background or otherwise, as possible
  6. Images should only be used for compatibility reasons (for IE, who else?) or if rendering a desired effect is not possible using HTML or CSS
  7. If the browser's styling and functionality is good enough, don't over-ride it in the theme
  8. Only load Javascript when and where it's needed
  9. It has to be fluid, right down to 480px so it's appealing on mobile devices like iPhones
  10. Too much time must not be spent on IE compatibility - it's not my fault IE doesn't follow all the standards I plan on using

All in all, I think I've managed to meet most of my goals. The only thing not quite met yet is the Javascript requirement - some of the plugins I use need a bit of tinkering. For those running standards compliant browsers (ie anything other than IE) you'll find that only a single image is used: the feed icon in the sidebar and that's only because Safari doesn't seem to cope with large rounded corners.

I've got a bit more tinkering to do and once I'm done, I may release the theme to the world. Until then, if you spot any problems, let me know.