Site Update: Responsive Blog and Search

By scot in Site Updates on Saturday, October 17th, 2020

Over the years I have had intermittent updates to the website and, to a lesser extent, the blog. It is safe to say that I am not a WordPress developer and updating the theme to be responsive was daunting to me; I always seemed to have something else I would rather do to the main site.

The blog was on the original site design which was not responsive, making it very difficult to view on smaller devices. Because I never updated the blog after an update to the main site, the design was different, which made the blog look like it was actually a separate site.

The new blog design will now use the featured image ability of WordPress to display the title and link to the blog entry, bringing the design forward 10 years. Tested on desktop Chrome and iPhone Safari the design works well across the board.

With the update of the blog, I changed the default search functionality of the blog, which, in essence, made it similar to the main site but behave differently. Usability and viewability made an update to the main site search a must.

The current functionality in which typing words brings suggestions is still important to the usability but the layout needed to be more functional. The introduction of search button that overlays the navigation, giving more real estate seemed to be the optimal way to go. Instituting a close button (the red “x” below) allows for a user to close the search bar without completing or search (changed their mind, accidentally clicked it, etc).

The updates also brought on changes to the login, create account, and admin buttons that are near the search. More work to do on the responsiveness of those buttons it coming.

Hopefully the new format will be useful and help users navigate the site more seamlessly. Next up will be the aforementioned adjustments to navigation buttons as well as a change to the “hamburger” layout for the navigation on smaller devices. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: It is impossible to lick your elbow.