The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Latest Comments in Redesign Launching

Re: Redesign Launching

Carole Jackson — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:05:17 -0000

I love your book! I am 52 years old and restructuring the two businesses that I run in your model. Question - my problem is not e-mail overload, but cell phone and telephone calls overload. When I answer the calls real time I get distracted from bigger projects and end up dealing with problem solutions and quick fixes all day. When I do not answer the phone I get complaints or emergencies that I should have taken care of. What can you suggest? I love the automatic notice re:email that one is checking only twice a day, but how can this be applied to telephone calls?

Thank you in advance,

Carole Jackson
Building Solutions, Inc.

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Hi Carole,

I suggest you give www.simulscribe.com a shot. Check it out :)

Tim

Re: Redesign Launching

Karthick — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:50:57 -0000

Tim, if you read this. I would really like you to add a "print this" option for a printer friendly output. Many of these articles are a take home one or a recommend to others when they spend sometime at home (without the internet, yes that's common here in India).

It would be really really helpful !

Re: Redesign Launching

Ray — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:22:45 -0000

Hey Tim,

Just started reading your blog....infact, I do not even remember how I ended up here! I've been looking a some blogs about financial stuff, fitness and success.....you discuss all 3! Keep up the good work!

Ray

Re: Redesign Launching

timferriss — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:38:03 -0000

Thanks, Pete! I'll talk with my designer and check out what you suggested :)

Tim

Re: Redesign Launching

Pete W — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:32:07 -0000

If you want the drop down menu bits to look better, change the top value in the css file to 361px (style.css, line 136).

I'd also personally change the nav (style.css, line 29) to have the following css properties:
border: 1px solid #999999;
padding-right: 10px;
width: 888px;

This would however mean you'd need to use a new image for nav_hover_bg2.png. Fortunately, I've mocked up the one you'd need to preserve the look and feel of the current one at www.crossdrivenlife.com/nav...

Hope you like the end result. It's just a little neater and tidier.

Re: Redesign Launching

Gareth — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:54:32 -0000

Wish there was an easy way to print comments -- just your post prints out at the moment, the comments disappear.

LOVE the book and blog ;-)

Re: Redesign Launching

Adam K — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:38:16 -0000

New design looks great. Is it a new template or is it new blogging software in general ? If so what template or software is it ?

Also I saw a creepy header photo where it looked like you were taking a crap in the woods. LOL

Re: Redesign Launching

robbie — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:00:41 -0000

Well...your pictures look very poorly photoshopped.
I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Re: Redesign Launching

João Almeida — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:15:07 -0000

The design is very clean and simple and, like someone already mentioned, the RSS logo in the middle rocks! The design has lots of information available without being too cluttered, although I would prefer something like a tag cloud where the topic list is.

Having the rotating photos on the header is a neat idea, but it seems some of them have a lower quality than others (the one you you dancing has some noise)

Like the a lot the Twitter badge! Is it the official HTML twitter badge with a custom CSS or a custom badge using twitter's API?

Overall I would say it's definitely a change for the better!

Re: Redesign Launching

Nitin Julka — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:39:15 -0000

Outsource motherhood - http://www.nytimes.com/2008...

Re: Redesign Launching

Dave — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:58:29 -0000

Yup

Re: Redesign Launching

Dave — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:57:54 -0000

Tim,

Just want to let you know I posted a comment regarding links opening up in a different tab on your previous post "24 hours with Tim Ferriss..."

Also, i noticed that the time stamp was 4:51am but it was actually 2:51am when I submitted the comment. Is it 2 hrs. off for a reason? Let me see if it does it again after I submit this one...

Re: Redesign Launching

Raina Gustafson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:19:58 -0000

Hi Tim,

I really like the new features - the favorites panel is a pleasant surprise, and the new Twitter integration is great.

Here are three thoughts for additional consideration:

1. While the feed icon is exquisitely placed, it is technically in violation of the Mozilla foundation's visual guidelines. Here's the excerpt: "In particular, the icon should not be displayed in a different orientation (i.e., rotated or flipped relative to the standard orientation)." Read the whole set of standards here: http://www.feedicons.com/gu...

2. I find the topics list difficult to read now. Perhaps using fewer main topics with subtopics would assist viewers in finding content relevant to them. Or, displaying the topics as block level elements again - which would provide a cleaner view. Particularly because each topic is a different length, my eyes don't track well from one line to the next now.

3. The only photo I have any issue with is the dance one - simply because the pixel density of the photo is low. I realize you can't go back in time and have another photo taken, but sharpening the image up, brightening it a bit and increasing the contrast can all easily be done by non-designers in picnik.com - which conveniently integrates with flickr and other services. I played with it a bit today - I'll email the altered photo and you can decide if you think it's more visually pleasing.

I feel like I'm nitpicking, though - all in all it's excellent.

On another topic, while listening to Heather Armstrong today I realized that as a blog participant I weigh each comment I make and decide ahead of time if I can say what I have to say without being attached to any given outcome - i.e. receiving a personal response, winning a competition, etc. If the answer is no, I don't make the comment. I think that's just good emotional hygiene. While it's in no way shape or form a blogger's responsibility to educate their audience in emotional maturity, I do think they can be pro-active about setting realistic expectations for their community. For instance, rather than being guilted into responding to someone after their 10th email, or having to create a boundary after it's already been breached - why not very clearly state your intentions of how far you want to engage your audience in the first place, as specifically as possible. Idealistic perhaps, but seems like it could save a lot of headaches and misunderstanding for everyone involved.

Hope to see you again before Wednesday.

Re: Redesign Launching

Josh — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:01:06 -0000

I've got an idea... Hire a photographer from India to travel with you and take PR shots for your blog. Make sure you clearly articulate that you want the emphasis on sexy but not too aggressive that you scare away other men.

The photographer should most assuredly be from Goa.

Josh

Re: Redesign Launching

nik — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:51:26 -0000

Hi! i have a request. Can you tell us ur opinion about jealousy and how to deal with it? i'm sure you would help out a lot of people. Thanks

Re: Redesign Launching

Carrie — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:23:06 -0000

Hey Tim,

I like the design, I do feel though that you could put nicer pictures up, really.
I do agree that the one with the side of your face is a bit creepy

I'm sure you've some nicer pictures that would do you more justice and be easier on the eye:)

Note: to the UK person asking re: 4Hww- I got my original copy b4 xmas off amazon.co.uk :)

I can't say I'd choose the colouring, but I can see that it works for you, and it suits you:) - and that's vital to reflect you!!!!

Namaste,

Carriexx

Re: Redesign Launching

andy iinuma — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:46:47 -0000

follow-up to previous email... in my comments i pasted in some "kanji" (japanese text) for karoshi... however I since noticed that you can't paste "kanji" characters into this "submit comment" box... it just comes out as ??? ... Tim, as you know... "moji-bake"... ai

Re: Redesign Launching

andy iinuma — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:28:38 -0000

Tim, just became aware of 4HWW concept last week. checking out ya website now.. yes im a bit slow on the uptake i know... guess i was away on a looooong vacation... ha, not likely! no, actually working hard and thus not much time to myself to think about these things & the short but precious life we have... anyway - to the point... living in Japan a number of years now... great place... i know you spend alot of time here too... I noticed on your site a reference to "death by overwork"... typo... karoosh -> should be ??? KAROSHI...
location: (The Truth-Stats & Research / The USA vs. the World / reference point 23)...

if i can get the 4HWW down pat, then certainly no fear of ???...
cheers,
ai

Re: Redesign Launching

Alex Berger — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:56:58 -0000

I like the design a lot.

Right now the only major issue I see is:
http://www.fourhourworkweek...

It seems to be a dead image which destroys the layout until you refresh the page.

Re: Redesign Launching

Deb — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:31:16 -0000

THAT was the creepy one? I liked it. Stephanie's hypothesis is ringing true. If the girls want it back, do we have a shot?

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Hmmm... you're making me think twice, that's for sure! To be determined...

Tim

Re: Redesign Launching

Karthick — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:44:11 -0000

Excellent design Tim, looking really sharp. Love the changes.

Re: Redesign Launching

Peter Balogh — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:31:37 -0000

Hi Tim,

While the last version was already very good, this one kicks it up another notch! Question. Do you keep your Twitter posts under the rest of the content for UI reasons? Also, will you have any book signings in London? May consider jumping over from "Den Hog" :)

Carpe Diem,

Peter

Re: Redesign Launching

Tiffani — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:03:25 -0000

Loved the old blog. Love the book.

New site features are great, but I am not crazy about the design. It looks like a stock wordpress template, not a custom site. I would update the Ariel font to something more fitting and fix the date/time fields in the comment section. Some of the dates come out on 2 lines and some on 5. As for the pictures, I agree with removing the scary one and possibly updating to higher res photos.

That being said, what keeps me coming back to the site is the content and I must admit that the eye candy isn't bad either.
Cheers,
Tiffani ;)

Re: Redesign Launching

Jesse Thomas — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:51:47 -0000

Tim, great to meet you at SXSW!

Re: Redesign Launching

ShaolinTiger — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:51:55 -0000

Good stuff Tim definitely more towards the current web paradigm, good information and a nice consistent user interface.

The old template was very 'default' looking.

You might want to consider adding nested comments though so you can reply to comments directly and have a 'tree' of conversations.