LiveSide housekeeping: a new, more responsive theme

Aug 11, 2012 12:20 pm by | 21 comments

LiveSideFBWe just flipped the switch on the basics of a new theme we’ve been working on, one that takes advantage of what’s becoming known as “Responsive Web Design”.  Now you should be able to check up on the latest from LiveSide on your phone, on an iPad or soon on your brand new Microsoft Surface tablet, and on your various desktop machines and monitors with styles that “fit” your device’s width.  If you don’t have an HTML5 enabled browser your experience should be much the same as it was before, but on smartphones and tablets and modern browsers, we’re hoping that things just work a little bit better, while at the same time making it much easier to manage.

We also cleaned up a bunch of code, and moved some stuff around to put the content front and center where it should be.  So cleaner code, a bit of a cleaner look, and a simpler way to manage the way we look on multiple devices.  As usual, we’d love to hear your feedback, and especially any issues you might be having with the site.

Thanks for reading LiveSide, we’re looking forward to what promises to be a very interesting time ahead for Microsoft and life in a post Windows Live world Winking smile

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  • FremyCompany

    Responded on Twitter

  • http://www.facebook.com/khris Khristopher Ranger

    Perhaps time for a new URL? Liveside won’t make much sense in a world with no Windows Live.

    • Brian Holmgren

      But everything is still on live.com, that’s a “LiveSide”.

      • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

        We’re sticking with LiveSide, for better or worse ;)

        • Simon Johnny

          But thats not in the spirit of Microsoft, Kip. You should always rebrand give the tiniest chance to do so. By now you should have had at least, bingside, officehotmailside, metroside, windows8styleside and of course just so people don’t get too attached to the side branding, gone with alternatives such as catdogbowbowhotmailstarteditionultimatepro2012extream-n.

  • http://sushovande.6te.net sushovande

    I like it!

  • Mario Albertico

    It does feel lighter, nice work! The search bar spyglass is now facing the non-Microsoft way though…or has it been the case for a while?

    • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

      Some would say that’s appropriate, as we’re often facing the “non-Microsoft way”, too ;).  It’s a new image that came with the base theme I started with (Underscore_S from Automattic)

  • Laodicean36
  • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

    Thanks for the feedback, we did have some issues especially on iPad and smartphone earlier, but I think they’re patched up – please try again if you had problems earlier.

  • CustomComputers

    Great new look Kip! Like the improvements.
    Hoping Windows Live does not go completely dead for you, but it is not looking good. Since my recent retirement…I plan to disconnect from Microsoft. The crap has driven me to Google who does something right in lieu of blabbing about something for months on end..then sending out a do it your self kit to update monthly or discontinue it entirely.

  • Justin Avery

    You’ve got an orientation change issue. Try dropping initial-scale=1.0 from your meta viewport or use some js to override the bug (iOS only)

    • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

      Yeah thanks, looking into it.  This is definitely a bare bones “responsive design” attempt, and we’ll be making improvements as we go.

  • http://sanatgersappa.tumblr.com/ Sanat Gersappa

    Nice work. Looks a lot cleaner.

  • Chaostheory

    The stock widget on the left side makes the look a bit crappy…  Anything else is really cool.

    Also the tweet button is somehow not positioned correctly.

    Using google chrome…

    • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

      Thanks for the feedback.  We’re using the “official” Twitter and FB buttons, and have been dismayed to find how many errors they set off in various browsers.  It’s sad.

      The stock ticker probably there mostly for me ;) – it’s quick, but you’re right, probably too dirty!  We’ll take a look at restyling, it’s on the list.

  • Isuema

    广告忒鸡巴多了

  • James

    The site does not really render nicely on IE9… have you tried it out?  (Being a MS-related site afterall).
    E.g. the left sidebar, and title bars not aligned properly.  Also, The 3 social buttons on the right are very iphone-ish… when really they should be flat and cleaner (“modern” style)… like the official tile icons you can download from Twitter and FB press sites.

  • Gopi

    Thanks. It’s better, and responsible. It could have been better though.

    I really like the body text font, it’s clean, legible and big enough to easily read. However, the homepage layout doesn’t have what it takes to be a home page. For some reason, it doesn’t captivate, and looks cluttered. Perhaps introducing more white space would do? Or may be making the article titles’ black might help? Also, not liking the fact that except for the first article all others are shifted right by the ads. Aligning all the articles to their left would give a better visual appeal, I think.

  • Jagannath Rao

    It’s certainly much responsive than the earlier theme. Thanks for the improvement.

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