The image design is cleaner than either of the previous versions, and - I think - gives people a better look at the products while still prominently displaying a watermark. I'm liking the new image design more and more! I'm also finding myself with more time to actually write up the reviews of the products. Previously, I had so much work to do on the images themselves that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Now, with the responsive design, I've switched away from using thumbnail images to get cleaner scaling on all resolutions…and that's made things a LOT easier. I also was able to use CSS to not only get the unified styling on the images that I wanted, but to again stick with scalable images that behave cleanly and look good on all devices. Want to see how the site looks in a mobile device without using your phone? Just shrink the browser window and watch things change automatically.

The new design and display method on the images also means that I've visually unified many of the display-elements. With the exception of the site header-logo, all shadowing is now handled by CSS - so it all is in the same style, and the exact same size and bleed, not some CSS and a graphical approximation. I've also been able to ditch the thicker borders on the thumbnail images - which were, honestly, kind of a holdover from the first site design. (Yep, that's right. I've only really had two designs on this site: the no-frills black-and-white-with-teal-and-fuchsia accents that was used when the site launched; and this current version with the page border and framing, with the white-black-fuchsia colorscheme still used inside the content area.) This responsive template is design version 2.1. I wanted to make a few minor adjustments, but didn't want to visually overhaul everything. For one, the visual design works just fine for me. For another…I tend to move slowly when it comes to visual design. I know basic principles, but it can take me a while to get all the fine details nailed down. I'm much better at looking at an existing design and suggesting UX improvements, than I am at coming up with a totally new visual concept.

Other site changes have been focussed on features and interaction. I've opened the ability to rate any product reviewed, to anyone who visits the site; and I've put Disqus comments in place. While I haven't removed the ability to register for the site, I'm thinking about doing that. I don't know what value I want to consistently provide to members, that would make registration worthwhile. I experimented with weekly giveaways, but that's a time- and money-cost (doubly so in terms of the money, because along with actually purchasing any product, there's the postage to take into account.) While I did see an increase in activity when I had members-only giveaways, I don't want to turn into a contest-machine, even if it's just once a quarter rather than once a week, just to get more followers and more activity. I know that others peoples' time is also valued; and if people prefer to participate on other sites rather than on mine, I'm okay with that. (Maybe I'll start randomly selecting people to just give things away to…? I mean, yeah, that would totally get people thinking “Ooooo, she's just giving things away to her friends.” ...yeah, well, why not? If I don't announce what I'm giving away, or when, or to whom, I just contact someone and ask for their address…I can't be accused of running a rigged contest. Because there's no contest. It's just me, giving gifts to people who I enjoy interacting with.) In addition to not having a satisfactory way to balance interactions with giveaways and registrations, the time spent culling all the spam-registrations was…well, it was another timesink. In some ways, I have it slightly easier than people who rely on their sites for part or all of their income: I'm not trying to attract an audience so that I can increase my numbers or bump up ad revenues. Changes made to the site are for my own ideas of what's best-practices, toward goals that I define. I don't need to consider advertisers or commercial partners. This site is 100% my hobby. I am the very definition of “amateur” - someone who does something because they love it, and only because they love it. If I suddenly decide to only send goodies to people who participate regularly, on my own schedule, for my own reasons, I don't have to also keep up a regular schedule of giveaways to keep the audience coming back. People participate because they have something to say, not because they expect a reward.

One thing I like about Disqus is that there is a plug-in for me to import the comment text into my CMS's database. It's not written by the Disqus people, but by another developer who uses the same CMS that I do. Another thing I like about it, is that it threads the discussions. It's got some bitzenpiecen for displaying all activity on one's site, but it's what I consider a crap UI design. You have to click a tab, and you'll see the most active discussions and the top commenters. But in their admin interface, the label for that second tab is controlled by a field that asks for your site name. So if I just put “Sparklecrack Central” in there, you'd see a tab name that just read “Sparklecrack Central” - which is kind of weird, and doesn't indicate a) that it's a separate tab; or b) what you'd find if you did manage to accidentally click on this non-tab-looking-thing. By trial and error I managed to figure out how to change it to “Recent activity on Sparklecrack Central”, which at least lets users know: hey, this thing? It will show you some other stuff. And here's the kind of stuff it will show you. (But really, I wanted to be able to list the most recent comments in the sidebar. And with Disqus, I can't do that…at least, not unless I'm willing to spend days banging away at their UI and see if I can make it give me a new widget. No, I'll let someone else take on that bit of joy, thanks much. Apparently Disqus offered such a widget at one point, but they did away with it.)

Speaking of interaction, I've felt a little odd lately about posting on some folks' sites - but not because of anything that the site owners have done or haven't done. I'm over 40, and so I've had time in my life to develop a personal style and accumulate a wardrobe built around that style. So each season is less about buying the new trend items, as looking in my closet and seeing four- and five-year-old favorite items that are suddenly “fashion forward” again. In much the same way, I've accumulated a huge makeup collection. So when people talk about the latest spring trends available at X store, or the newest color fads available from Y chain, I will as often as not think about items that I already own, that I can put back into heavy rotation. And then…I feel like I shouldn't post my comment. My comments on shopping my closet won't help these people (or their sponsors) sell more clothes…which might kind of be the point. So why comment if I can't add something productive to the conversation? Then again…“adding something to the conversation” is in itself a wibbly-wobbly term. Its definition changes from person to person, and conversation to conversation.  If someone really doesn't want my comments on their site, they'll either delete them, or never ever respond to them, or ban me (which one can do, even when using Disqus. Dig into those admin tools, people!)

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