I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom in San Francisco, & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
Site look & feel
As you can see if you’re reading this on the site itself, I’m changing the site look and feel. There’s still work to be done (use a different graphic across the top, etc), but do you think it’s a general improvement? Also, if you’re experiencing any difficulties with the new layout, please let me know (either in a comment here or in e-mail to lunchinabox (AT) gmail (DOT) com and I’ll see if it’s something that can be fixed. Threaded comments are now fixed, BTW — you can now click “Respond to this comment” on an individual comment to have yours displayed as a response just below.
(EDIT: The expanding archives are back up.)
June 10th, 2007 | Categories: admin | 
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June 10th, 2007 at 9:19 am
ooh I love it! It took me a min, and I was like something is different. Although this comment page it a bit wonky, and has some loose code floating around in it, but I still like. Off To H mart!
June 10th, 2007 at 9:23 am
I like it, though think that the site title should be easier to read in the header image. Also, the main navigation links should be higher up on the left-hand nav bar. ^_^
June 10th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Heya Biggie! Beautiful weather this weekend huh? I love this new look you have going on right now. The look you had for the last few weeks (gray and red) just really didn’t look right, but this is definitely a good look you have now! I think what makes this layout a good choice is because the entries are once again the main focus of the page (as in the red/gray layout the entries sort of took second place to the navigation and text elements of the page). The green theme also matches your photos, green is such a nice refreshing, appetizing color for the food. I also happen to like this commenting section better now too, it spreads out over more of the page and that is a good thing for readability and functionality. Awesome work! Can’t wait to see the final results! Have a nice Sunday!
June 10th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Good feedback, Lauri. Can you tell me any more about the loose code? It’s not showing up for me.
June 10th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Agreed on the site title (and I want “Building a Better Bento” up there too). Fixed the main navigation links (hooray, finally something that’s easy to fix!!!).
June 10th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Thanks for the feedback, Summers Love. It feels better to me, but I’m no expert. I’m having a great weekend because we got two kittens just yesterday! Our 14-year-old cat that we brought back from Japan died last November, so it’s been too long without a cat in the house. We’re all basking in the kittens right now!
June 10th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
This format is easier for me since it’s narrow enough not to require a sideways scroll.
June 10th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Ohhhhh KITTIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want a kitty so bad, but the place we live doesn’t allow cats/dogs so we just have a dwarf hamster and we had a beta fish for 2 years but he died last week
What did you name your kitties??????
June 10th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Moose and Squirrel.
(For non-Americans, this is a reference to the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, where spies Boris and Natasha were always chasing after the title characters (a moose and squirrel).) My husband used to have a pair of cats named Boris and Natasha, so this was a fun naming.
June 10th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Much nicer! It’s got a more organic feel.
My only complaint is that I wish the text were a hair darker. I prefer a firmer contrast in the text and background. If you’re going to have dark text, it’s better.
The sidebars are a little busy (that’s an awful lot of info!) but that’s pretty standard for a blog, and I honestly can’t suggest an alternative.
June 10th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
It’s much cleaner looking; I like it! I agree with the above commenter, though — I’d prefer the text to be a little darker for easier reading.
June 10th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
one of the main reasons i love your blog are the photos of Bug’s bento. perhaps bar of three cute bentos at the top would be better… I also love the orange text. thanks for your work on this it has really helped me feed my little big man.
June 10th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I like the new site layout. I do think it would look better with a different font, this one is a bit of a strain for me to read.
Good luck finding the right fit for your site. I know it took me forever to find what worked for my site.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Is it the font color, size or style that’s difficult for you to read? Thanks for the kind wishes; I think we’re much closer to a final version now.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Yup, the top graphic should be bento-related — this is a place-holder that came bundled with the theme. My pleasure on the blog; I’m glad you’re getting benefit for your little big man!!!
June 10th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Got it — I see your point. I’ll put it on the list of fixes to hand over to a programmer.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Hi, biggie!
Looks great, but, the layout arrangement are sidebars first, then your entries (which is way more important than the sidebars). On dial-up connection, your entries (which is more important) loaded later, which IMO, are not good for your blog reader on dial-up connection (they have to wait until sidebars loaded before they can actually see your entries.)
[Read more over here]
June 10th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Fair points, Heather — I’ll put the text issue on a list for a programmer to fix, and work on drop-down categories to replace the long laundry list of categories. Once I fix the expandable archives I’m thinking I can kill the visual calendar in the sidebar as well, which would further reduce the clutter there. I agree that it’s still too busy. Thank you so much for the frank feedback — it’s really invaluable.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think that this loading order is a problem for visually impaired readers as well — it’d be better for the main body to load first, then the sidebars. This is beyond my skill level to fix, so I’ll put it on the list for a programmer to handle soon. Thank you for bringing it up!
June 10th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Good news, Elsi!
June 11th, 2007 at 2:23 am
These commentary threads bother me. Not the comments themselves of course ;), but how they look. Feels rather messy to me.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:27 am
What did you think of them on the LiveJournal site?
June 11th, 2007 at 8:34 am
I have to scroll a loooong way down before reaching comment no 1 which leaves me feeling like I am missing something.
This might just be a temp glitch or something I’ll get used to, both the scrolling and the expanding function. I liked the live-journal commentary setup better. I don’t miss the missing avatars though. I have some health issues so the avatars, although nice too many, obscure my reading.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
http://www.cuteoverload.com
all the kitties you could ever want!
June 11th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
hmm now i dont see it either. But the comments are pushed down really far on the page. With a big white space. Almost like there is a little army of line breaks hiding in the code.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
lol I love cuteoverload I have it on my RSS reader, I am addicted to that and http://icanhascheezburger.com/ those two sites and biggie’s site are the best ever!!!!
June 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I’m having trouble reading the text, myself. http://nevethangiel.com/stuff/pageview.jpg
that’s what the site looks like to me - hard to read. My resolution is 1024×768
June 11th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Ah, I think I know what that is! There’s a Google ad at the very end of my recent posts, so if you have something like AdBlocker enabled you’ll see blank space instead.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
That cheezburger site cracks us up — we’re examining our kitten photos with similar captions in mind…
June 11th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Great feedback, thanks Neveth! To the programmer it goes…
June 11th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Do you have AdBlocker or something similar turned on? I’ve got a Google ad at the bottom of recent entries, which would turn into blank space with AdBlocker.
Although avatars are fun, I think I’ll leave them off of here — they slow down page loading too.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:01 am
No ad-blocking. I have cookie-blocking on some internet zones but that shouldn’t and usually does not effect google ads.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:05 am
So you can see the Google ad at the bottom of the post, then a bunch of blank space? I’ll let the programmer know.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:05 am
btw, I really appreciate the time you are taking scoping what your readers think and your preparation to make as many of us happy :).
June 12th, 2007 at 12:08 am
And yes on the ads. I see them all. The ads on the sidebar run as normal. When the sidebar texts end, with blank space in between in the middle, that’s when I can see the actual comments.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Loves it! I think the changes you’ve made so far have really made a difference. My only quibble is the font, it’s not really my favourite in terms of aesthetics, though that’s mostly a personal preference methinks.
Thanks for taking the time to be so meticulous and getting feedback from the readers. This is fast becoming one of my favourite food blogs.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Shouldn’t the graphic at the top be bento or at least Japanese themed?
Love the green color, though!
June 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Yes, that’s on the to-do list. Thanks!
June 12th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Thank you, Faliq! I’d like to get the look and feel right, and move on to the food.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I’m reading from work right now, which (as far as I know) has no particular adblocking - just screened content - and I’m also still seeing the Big White Space when I open the comments.
In this thread, for instance, I’m seeing the comment header ‘Comment by Lauri’ and the timestamp, then acres of space before her actual text. I took a look at the code, and just looking at the comment itself, I’m not spotting what’s causing the gap.
*grin* Maybe the Pro from Dover’ll nail it.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I get a long blank section in the middle, too, but good to know that it’s our adblocker.
This new site is great! I can tell that you have been working on so hard, Biggie.
BTW, great that two new little friends joined your family. Love to see them sometime!!
June 19th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Mine looks like this too. It looks like the text is missing pixels. I use Firefox if that helps.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I have been a lurker for awhile, am on the bentolunch LJ community, and then realized your blog was the one I viewed before but had to stop viewing since the layout change. I already wear glasses, and couldn’t really read anything unless I pressed my face against the screen (which is the reason I had to get glasses in the first place!). Ironically enough, its why I started to visited Bento Yum more often than your site because I couldn’t read anything on this site.
Found this thread after seeing what everyone was talking about, and wanted to let you know that the font style is unreadable due to its style not being able to handle small sizes very well. I would suggest trying to either enlarge the font itself or changing the style altogether. I just hope this is actually noticed since I know its been awhile since this entry was made. My bad?
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
No, I see you mreh! The web guy who was going to help fell through, so I’ll try to fix it on my own. Thank you for pointing this out!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:24 pm
@1 from Lauri:
I think I may have fixed the loose code issue on the comments section, could you take a look?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:28 pm
@12 from amanda:
Took your suggestion and put photos of Bug’s lunches in a new banner for the site (thanks to reader sff corgi, who designed it). What do you think?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:30 pm
@13 from Meredith:
I changed the font on the site to make it easier to read; I hope this fixed your issue!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:34 pm
@21 from Jessica:
I’ve unthreaded the comments on the site, which has also had the benefit of solving some formatting problems for some people. Hopefully this is an improvement for you too?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:37 pm
@27 from Neveth:
I changed the font on the site, which I’m hoping solved your issue of being able to read the content. Did it help?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:40 pm
@37 from Michelle:
With your feedback, I just changed the site banner to a food-themed one using some of the bento lunches I made. An improvement?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
@42 from Lisa:
I changed the website font to try to fix this issue (looking like it’s missing pixels) — does that help for you?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
reply to Biggie re. #42.
I like it alot better. The “gap” between post and beginning of comments has disappeared. The email subscription service to comments are also helpful.
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort you put into making this blog even more professional and easily accessible to your readers :).
July 1st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
sorry #21.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:44 am
@51 from Biggie
Yup…it looks great now!
Thanks,
Lisa
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:09 am
@49 from Biggie
Yes! Everything’s nice and clear on the site!
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