Back in Black

I’ve accomplished something I’ve always wanted to do with my site – have multiple styles and let the user choose their preference. As promised, I deliver onto you, “Back in Black”, which is essentially my latest revision with the old colours. A bit more bold, as all the links are coloured where as they were only underlined with colour in my previous incarnation. The style switcher stores a cookie on your computer, so every time you come back (granted you haven’t cleared your cookies) you’ll see the style of your choice. Fun!

tMay 8th, 2006

oThis Site

zback-in-black, css, pretty-in-pink

w26 Comments

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26 Comments

Alan Orozco May 8th, 2006 at 1:13pm said:

AC/DC rules!

Lol, just kidding.

Congrats, this one looks even better than the pink one, but "Pretty in Pink" is just a little more peaceful
Nao May 8th, 2006 at 1:28pm said:

Awesome.

With this "Back in Black" one, the "Currently Playing," "Rocking My Socks," and "Portfolio" headers on the home page have text visible behind them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt that's what you intended on doing (You can see it in the screen shots that you posted).
Chris Gwynne May 8th, 2006 at 1:32pm said:

Awesome. Excellent job switching it up!

I wasn't happy with the White. Too bright maybe
xlukex May 8th, 2006 at 1:40pm said:

i did sumit like this on my old site , yours is much more pimp tho
Robert Velasquez May 8th, 2006 at 2:15pm said:

I like the black version much better, did you think about using javascript for an instant style sheet change?
Matt May 8th, 2006 at 2:33pm said:

@Nao: Thanks for pointing that out. Totally missed those. The image replacement technique doesn't work so well when you're using transparent images, so I hide the text by making it the same colour as the background. But I must have missed those ones.

@Robert: Yeah, I was playing with a couple different switchers last night. One JS and one PHP. Problem being, I need to make some template changes as well. I'm going to try and replace things that prevent me from using a simple JS/PHP solution when I get a chance.
Thom Wetzel May 8th, 2006 at 4:39pm said:

Nice job Matt!

I hate to say it, but I'm Back to Black. The pink was well done, but too bright for my taste.
Mudsugar May 8th, 2006 at 6:03pm said:

This version rocks!! Great job. Thanks for giving us a choice.
trovster May 8th, 2006 at 11:18pm said:

I'm with Thom, I'm back in the black (in both senses of the word!). Nicely done
Andy Pearson May 9th, 2006 at 1:27am said:

Don't get me wrong, the white site rocks, but im back in black as well, it feels alot more "comfy"
GuaGua May 9th, 2006 at 4:01am said:

I like the black template better. It's so cool:-)
Jeff Smith May 9th, 2006 at 4:57am said:

Lookin' very slick Matt. I must say that I'm also much more fond of the black layout.
trovster May 9th, 2006 at 5:01am said:

Matt, I hope you're keeping the stats of the people clicking the switcher, to see how many prefer the black one.
Alan May 9th, 2006 at 5:19am said:

No way man… stop messing with your website and making us all look lazy

Cheers for the switcher, I haven't decided which version to use yet, perhaps a lighter font colour on the the elctric pink would soften the comments area and improve the contrast a little? That could be a clincher for me…

Not picking holes, just a suggestion… also laughing my ass off at "None More Black" in your playlists…

Kinda ironic huh?
Jason May 9th, 2006 at 5:49am said:

Matt, so did you write your own solution for the switcher, or did you use another one out there. If so, which one? I have been wanting to do the same thing with wordpress also. Awesome by the way. later.
Deanna May 9th, 2006 at 6:55am said:

I am such a fan of the "pretty in pink" site. I also think it's awesome that you put the "Back in Black" site up for those who fell in love with your darkside. I could walk into the next room and tell you that, but I wanna comment too, I feel left out!
eric May 9th, 2006 at 7:20am said:

the pretty in pink version was a nice scheme but the black version is a little bit easier on my eyes for some reason. but i just prefer the site in black anyway
Mike May 9th, 2006 at 11:01am said:

@Deanna – Is that like IMing when dinner's ready?

I'm a fan of both. I think black at night (since I'm in a fairly dark room) and pink in the day (since I'm in a room with a lot of light).
matches May 9th, 2006 at 12:52pm said:

Awesome. I have an easier time reading this one.
David Babylon May 9th, 2006 at 1:32pm said:

Matt – the site is now perfect.
Josh Illichmann May 9th, 2006 at 2:32pm said:

well matt, i'm sticking to the white/pink one, i still love it
tripeak May 10th, 2006 at 6:45am said:

Yeah I agree with Trovster… would be interresting to see how many users go "back to black"

It's my pref.
Michael Camilleri May 10th, 2006 at 1:25pm said:

That's sweet. One thing you may want to work on is the button used to switch styles. When I first saw it I thought that by clicking one of the colored squares I could change the scheme to that color.
Alex May 11th, 2006 at 2:57am said:

Awesome site.. Like the Change style app )
Design Freak May 11th, 2006 at 6:28am said:

awesome site dude!! am loving the design !! have a question for you !

how on earth did you manage to get that "Previous Entries" to work on the main page … it looks sooo clean and slick..

would love it if you could share some knowledge

thanks a ton,

T.
Sam May 11th, 2006 at 11:07am said:

You should set up a poll or (even cooler) use a lil PHP magic to send data to a database when a user changes the style (and to take it further make a pepper to grab this data) so you can get some stats about who's using which style.