Remember, you can select any one of the seven different Dynamic Views from the pull-down menu in the top left corner.
Here are some of my initial thoughts:
Pros
- I love how clean and crisp the dynamic views look. They reduce the clutter and place my content at the forefront.
- I'm a big fan of how the reader can personalize their experience by switching between any one of the seven different Dynamic views.
- I like how it shows how many Tweets or Facebook likes each post has received, and that you can click those icons to immediately share a post.
Cons
- The search function seems to only search for words on the posts that are displayed on the page. When I use the search function on a blog, I want it to search through an entire blog's archives.
- I don't see any of the Dynamic Views allowing the reader to easily view and select from the blog's labels/tags.
- I miss some of the widgets like my Revolver Maps Visitor Globe, pageviews per week, labels/tags, but I know that some of this stuff is precisely what clutters up a blog. I think I'd like to be able to place all this stuff in a separate page.
- I tried to place the Revolver Maps Visitor Globe HTML code in a separate page, while this worked with the classic templates, this did not work for Dynamic View.
Overall, I think I am mostly impressed with Blogger's Dynamic Views but there are a couple issues that need to be addressed. The good news is that it looks like Blogger is already addressing some of these issues.
So what do you think? Should I stick with this new look?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI miss all the info around the posts - the categories, home page, archieves etc
I often read your posts on my iPhone so the dynamic view doesn't work anyway. The con you mention with the search function is a serious drawback especially on a blog with so much content.
ReplyDeleteNot sure - like the look but as more and more bloggers adopt it the novelty will probably wear off anyway.
Yesterday must've been blog reno day - I changed my theme/scheme too. But I agree with Allan: I miss all the bonus info along the sides. Otherwise it is very easy to read, clean and crisp.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I'm getting further feedback on Twitter and there are a few more things to add to the cons list:
ReplyDelete-not mobile friendly (iPhone and iPad)
-some of the widgets I provided on my classic template were valuable to some readers.
You nailed it in your Pros and Cons list. Very crisp visually, which is great for blogs that are primarily photo/image based. With text rich blogs that have lots of add-ons (i have several link lists and other types of feeds in my "sidebar space") it doesn't do the info justice. If blogger can somehow incorporate those elements into the clean look, then it will be a winner.
ReplyDeleteIt appealed to me till I read the comment about no mobile view. My netbook died so I am relying on my Blackberry Torch. Suddenly these things matter.
ReplyDeleteMore is not always better for me. From a single user perspective, I personally find multiple redundancies in software as much an impediment as an aid. This leads me to suggest that from my perspective as a reader, the blog author is likely the best to understand what format allows a reader to get the most of the content. Just a note to indicate I am posting my blog at http://www.postdewey.ca (which is published via Wordpress but your site doesn't support commenting through my Wordpress account).
ReplyDeleteI happen to agree with your Pros and Cons list. Crisper, leaner, meaner, but lacking in overall functionality. Bearing in mind that considering the Dynamic Templates are barely out of diapers, so to speak, it's not bad at all and I'm slowly converting. From an editor's/blogger's viewpoint, tweaking and designing is static and actual editing is limited (no actual pre-publish preview at the time of writing this), so I'm sticking with the non-dynamic for now. No doubt, the Blogger team will fix or resolve these over time. ;)
ReplyDeleteSince blogger dynamics should now be OUT of diapers as was said one year ago, it is still incompatible with ipad for viewing Dynamic...why? is it just Google and Apple at it again? I love it but if I dont find a compatibility fix it's gone
ReplyDelete