1  Dan Rubin  19 July 2004 20:01

Congratulations Didier! I’ve been telling you to get your own blog for quite some time now, and I’m glad the time has finally come :)

I love the design, especially the tiny details (it’s a personal blog, don’t worry about making every little item accessible and perfectly readable — use the opportunity to do things that make you happy with it). Blogocarta™ is now my favorite new web app, and I can’t wait for you to release it to the public.

Just remember to send some traffic over to SuperfluousBanter every once in a while, OK? ;)

2  Justin Goodlett  19 July 2004 20:13

Finally a space to call your own! I really enjoyed all the articles and tutorials that were located at SB, and I’m excited to see what you have to say here. As usual, the site is freakin’ tight and the attention to detail is outstanding - but I think the community knows not to expect anything less from ya’! Congrats again Didier and keep up the awesome work.

3  Greg Storey  19 July 2004 21:47

Looks like all those all-nighters really paid off. Watch out Italy!

4  Ryan Sims  19 July 2004 21:51

Wow, stellar. You have an amazing knack for content layout. Everything just rolls off the page so smooth. Can’t wait to make nundroo a part of my daily surfing. Kudos!

5  Jason Santa Maria  19 July 2004 22:10

mmm… subtle and coooooool. I feel like a am standing outside smoking a cigarette on a chilly winter morning. Very nice. I really like the blogocarta map. Luscious. I am traveling to Italy at the end of December. Maybe we can high-five.

6  Tomas Jogin  19 July 2004 22:13

Looks great Didier, especially using anti-aliased type. Welcome to the blogosphere.

7  Andrew Dunning  19 July 2004 22:13

Nicely done! I particularly like the concept of Blogocarta, even though it puts my location in northern Quebec. I like your muted colour scheme.

8  Michael Heilemann  19 July 2004 22:14

Man, how cool is this design?! Congratulations on the blog. (RSS’d).

PS: I am honored that you have my name on the map! I saw the dot on Denmark and thought: “Cool, someone Danish… Holy crap, that’s me!”. Though my name is spelled slightly wrong (no sweat, I’m so used to that by now ;)).

9  compuwhiz7  19 July 2004 22:18

Congratulations! Looking forward to reading more.

10  Michael Simmons  19 July 2004 22:22

Congratulations on the launch, Didier. This site is marvelous.

I can’t wait to read more from you.

11  Dave S.  19 July 2004 22:26

Nicely done. Only thing it needs now is a pronunciation guide for ‘Didier’ on the about page.

12  Didier Hilhorst  19 July 2004 22:38

Michael — Your name should now be fixed, refresh the cache. Sorry about that, I hate it when that happens. Not always easy with all those diffrent names from different countries.

Jason — I will send you an email some time soon, let us indeed high five if that is possible. That would be awesome, especially if you are so close.

Dave — How about an audio file, eh? You can always ask someone who speaks french. I will try to dig up something usefull. My friends simply call me DJ, which is pretty close (and no, I do not spin records.)

In general please note that the geogrpahic locations in Blogocarta are a bit weird at times. I tried to get everthing lined up and used an offical map to get some of the locations correct. But it is rather small to get everything exactly as it is in the real world. Just think of it as a simplification that only tries to exemplify locations.

13  James Willock  19 July 2004 22:47

This design is so impossibly cool it hurts.

The excellent implementation of the dark tones is very refreshing - all too often we see such things over-used and completely suffocating - it’s lovely to see it used well.

The blog map is also very, very cool - shame there’s only space for our Jon and Andy. Excellent use of typography and icons all-round.

If this was a beautiful woman, I may try to buy it a drink. Good work.

14  Arikawa  19 July 2004 22:47

I’ve always been told that the French ‘Didier’ is pronounced like D-D-A, or something similar. (Unless everyone already really knows that, and I’m missing an inside joke).

My one small piece of construction criticism, which may be on your to-do list, or may simply not be able to-do:

Each time I revisit the home page, after having read an article, searched the archives, etc., Blogocarta reloads. While this doesn’t cause a noticable slowdown, it’s a tad annoying. (See, I told you it was a small complaint).

Otherwise, nice and refined. Decidely European (in a good way).

15  Ryan Brill  19 July 2004 22:56

Very nice. It certainly has a nice, clean feel to it. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one - even added it to my blo.gs list, already.

16  Didier Hilhorst  19 July 2004 23:09

Arikawa — Thanks for noticing that. I changed a few things (actionscript) and now you should only see the introductory animations when it is initially loaded for the first time, once it is cached it will skip that step.

Of course the Flash movie still needs to be loaded, but that will only take a fraction and with fast connections you should not even notice a difference (when cached you are fine.) What bothers me though, is that upon loading I see a weird flickering in Firefox 0.9. I have no idea what is causing that. So if anyone here knows what is going on I would be happy to fix that.

17  Colly  19 July 2004 23:27

Aah, a quiet place. Somewhere to think, and ponder a while. I think that’s the first impression for me, Didier. Good to see some pixelly goodness. I really like it.

That said, it’ll take me a while to get used to the position of the top menu pushing the side column down (I’m obsessed with things lining up), but otherwise my design tastebuds are tingling.

As for less frequent posts but more quality - no worries! Take it easy, man, and hit us when you’re ready. Anyway, congrats on the launch…

18  Cameron Moll  20 July 2004 00:38

Holy…

Holy…

Wow, killer concept, stellar execution, Didier.

19  Biggest Apple  20 July 2004 00:53

Damn. Here I am trying to come up with a new design and you stick this in my head. Now I’m not only going to be trying to come up with a design but I have to stop myself from blatantly ripping you off! ;)

Really smooth work. Nicely done!

20  France  20 July 2004 00:53

That roar is the sound of the entire blogosphere updating their blogrolls. “Holy, holy” about covers it.

21  Andrei Herasimchuk  20 July 2004 01:18

I would bow down and kiss your ass, but there seems to be none of it left given all the positive comments! Seriously though, as always a great design and great aesthetic emerge from your fingertips. Props to you on a bang up job. Love it!

22  ACJ  20 July 2004 01:36

Congratulations on and another great web design, and another place to call home. I’m going to add this to my ‘blogroll if only it was because I enjoy looking at it so much, but I’m sure you’ll keep providing quality content, also.

23  Yannick L.  20 July 2004 02:04

I have to say this site is pretty cool and it looks so simple too. I have read many a post by you over at SB and I have enjoyed each and every post. I look forward to reading them now on your own personal blog. All the best.

24  Todd  20 July 2004 02:55

Very, very nice Didier. It has a very calming feeling for me, soothing perhaps. The header image’s subtlties are particularly nice. Congratulations!

25  thibaut  20 July 2004 06:06

I wish you to do as good with your thesis than with what you’ve done here !!!

26  Kevin N  20 July 2004 07:04

I love the look… hard and soft at the same time! ;)

27  Matthew Pennell  20 July 2004 10:43

Horizontal lines as background - the new drop shadow?

Beautifully realised blog (although it’s making me squint a bit - non-resizable text?) - excellent work.

28  Matthew Pennell  20 July 2004 11:02

“Horizontal”? - that should obviously be “diagonal lines”… :$

29  Faruk Ates  20 July 2004 12:31

Excellent things here, Didier. Very nicely made, looking forward to seeing more content here.

I do have two issues and one question though:

Issue #1: There is no label for the “Save personal data” checkbox. Bad design & usability, shame on you! ;-) Just kidding of course, but you really should add a label there. :)

Issue #2: There is no tabindex on your comment form, which makes for unexpected tab order. I expected to hit tab after filling in my URL and end up in the Comment field, but instead I ended up on the Save personal data checkbox, which is NOT what I expected at all. Could you perhaps add some tabindexes to these fields so that they give a more expected behaviour? I think a most people who use the tab key would appreciate that. :)

Question: In the Blogocarta, how would it work when there are multiple blogs on the same location? With the size of your map, if you were to add me (Leiden/Zoeterwoude, the Netherlands) I would have to be placed on the same dot as you are. How do you plan on dealing with such situations?

Other than that, nothing but praise, like so many others have already given you.

30  Andy Budd  20 July 2004 12:49

Nice

31  Ethan  20 July 2004 14:01

Dear god, this is damned gorgeous — congratulations!

32  Malarkey  20 July 2004 14:50

Love the map device (and lots of other things too). Looking forward to some inspired content to go with the inspired setting!

33  Egor Kloos  20 July 2004 15:06

About bloody time, but it’s worth the wait. Very nice work. And good to see another blog from Rotterdam :)

34  Neko  20 July 2004 15:07

Superb!

Side note: I’m glad to hear you decided to join the Ivrea Institute. Hope you’ll enjoy spending time in Italy (I just noticed the “foglio_di_stile.css”, already mastering the language? ^_^ ).

35  Reinier  20 July 2004 15:42

Wow, looks extremely cool! So you are moving to Italy? Too bad Rotterdam is going to lose a great desginer…

36  Garrett  20 July 2004 15:48

I’m far too late to give any unique compliments, so I’ll just agree with everyone else—looks great.

37  Dan  20 July 2004 16:09

Very nice design Didier. All the small touches make it so complete and attractive. How does everyone feel about the general layout though? Anyone think the centered, drop-shadowed column is overused now? Or is it just the very best design for a weblog?

38  Josh S  20 July 2004 16:09

I’m looking forward to reading your posts. I’ve already added your RSS to my newsreader!

39  Mike Steinbaugh  20 July 2004 17:20

The site looks great, Didier! I especially like the blogger map on the top right of the page. That’s a cool idea I never thought of. The default font is a little small for me though (easy to fix in Firefox, thankfully).

40  Didier Hilhorst  20 July 2004 18:03

I fixed a few small glitches here and there. The tabindex should now follow a more logical pattern for humans. I have also added a label tag to the checkbox, sorry about that, must have slipped when coding.

As for same locations in Blogocarta, that still is a problem. To solve the issue I will probably indicate the city with the number of bloggers, and a click will list the different bloggers. We will see how that will work out. For other details and future plans please read Blogocarta Explained. Suggestions are of course always welcome.

The centered, drop-shadowed column is definitvely overused, but that does not make it wrong per se. I felt it suited the style of this blog nicely. It is tough to change the blog format, and at times I wonder if it makes sense. But it might be time to innovate.

41  Joe Clark  20 July 2004 18:18

I think it’s extra-nifty that you claim to use XHTML Strict and then imply that validation means nothing. You’re not using XHTML Strict unless you can prove it. On that score, your attitude may match Mike Davidson’s, but all that tells us is that two clever designers can be utterly wrong.

42  David Bisset  20 July 2004 19:28

Awesome! From the folks at flex-mx.com to you, welcome to blog world!

43  Dan Rubin  20 July 2004 20:06

A quick note regarding the “centered-with-drop-shadow” comment: I don’t see “overused” as a problem (I’m not necessarily agreeing with the statement either), as long as it isn’t an issue of functionality. If designers can express themselves using one format again and again, does that make the format bad? I think not.

Compare a basic issue of layout positioning with something a little more functional like the “fluid vs. static layout” discussion, or moreso the “left navigation vs. top navigation” discussion. Does having a centered layout with a drop shadow make this site less useable? Not in the least. Personally, as someone who prefers a little symmetry, I think it’s quite alright.

Quick Note: I’m just finishing up version 3 of SuperfluousBanter.org, and it just happens to also be a centered layout with drop shadows (something I’ve been working on slowly since the end of 2003 along with my company’s site design, and they share that particular element). I wanted to wait until after Didier had nundroo online before I started tinkering with the underpinnings of SB, but it’s interesting (I think) to note that SB v.1 was a fluid layout, SB v.2 was/is a static layout but aligned left, and SB v.3 will be a fixed-width centered layout.

Things progress and change naturally over time, including personal styles and preferences, as well as design trends. That’s a Good Thing (tm).

44  Didier Hilhorst  20 July 2004 20:50

Amen to that brother Dan. I could not have said it better myself. Design trends come and go and they are not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone is influenced by them and tries to give ithem a personal twist.

Joe — This begs for a new post. It is impossible to argue the topic in these comments. My viewpoint may not be as extreme as Mike’s thought on the matter, but I sure do get the gist of his point. Bottomline is that I care about standards and semantic code — validation on the other hand is another story. Expect my thoughts in a few days.

45  Alexis Bellido  21 July 2004 04:05

Congratulations on the new blog Didier, you are RSSed :)

Regards!

46  Dan Saffer  21 July 2004 04:17

Wow, honored to be part of Blogocarta! Good luck with blogging!

47  Daniel Wilhelm II Murdoch  21 July 2004 08:47

Very subtle on the eyes! I’m loving every bit of this design, I only wish I had a fraction of this talent.

Great job!

48  Phil Baines  21 July 2004 13:48

“DJ”, looking good. I really like your badge/buttons at the bottom of the side navigation. Infact, all your smaller graphical touches are what impress me the most.

Some of your type is a bit small, but then I am running at 1600x1200 so that is partly my fault. And the navigation at the top right seems to be missing something, but I can’t think of anything better for it either.

49  Rob Mientjes  21 July 2004 19:07

Great design! The Blogcarta is certainly refreshing, and it’s great to see another Dutch designer that designs very, very well. I can;t wait for some quality content.

50  Janne Kalliola  22 July 2004 07:55

The absence of us Europeans (and Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, etc. etc.) may be due to the plethora of languages that we speak. For example, most of the Finnish blogs are written in Finnish. Some of them are witty, well designed and fun to watch — but alas they are incomprehensible outside the five million plus people understanding Finnish.

Even if English is currently understood as lingua franca for the Internet, the situation may change, and once again we need to master more than one foreign language to be able to get most of the world. It’ll be a fantastic opportunity to get deeper understanding of the cultural background of other people in the Net.

51  Marcel  22 July 2004 09:32

Background pattern. Centered page with shadowed borders. Pixelart images on top. It sure looks nice but it also looks like 90% of all Blogs out there. Reminds me of these PHP nuke websites, all have the same base structure (3 columns, yaddayadda), I’m very disappointed in the lack of fantasy and imagination in Blog designers.

But, yes, it does look nice ;-)

52  James  24 July 2004 02:56

Is that what you call ‘irony’? ;)

53  Veerle Pieters  24 July 2004 15:45

Waow! Congratz Didier! You out done yourself, I really like it, especially blogroll idea is pretty cool. And thanks for including me. Colors are subtle soft, really your style. … greetings from your Belgian neighbor, posting this from a WiFi coffee shop in Ibiza btw ;-)

54  David House  24 July 2004 15:45

I’m loving this design, but I’m wondering how extensible that blogroll is. It’s inspirational, very new and a great idea, but how easy is it to add new entries to it? As simple as creating a new entry in an array, perhaps? Just a thought.

55  Mike D.  25 July 2004 07:19

Fabulous work Didier. I like the new look a lot, even though D. Keith Robinson occupies the Seattle spot on Blogcarta instead of me. :)

For the record, regarding Joe’s comments and your subsequent response: My real-life attitude about validation is more pragmatic than extreme. I work to achieve the highest level of validation which is possible/profitable/practical and then I don’t lose sleep about the rest. March to Your Own Standard may have been written in an extreme tone but it was only done so to illustrate the lunacy of this imagined “battle”. The great majority of people, including you, understood the gist of the article just fine. Other people picked out only the hyperbole and argued against it as if it were real. Such is the human brain I guess…

56  Mark Wubben  25 July 2004 15:52

Man, what’s up with these impossible-to-read pixel text buttons?

(You asked for it)

57  Keith  26 July 2004 06:48

Sorry I’m late to the party! Too busy beating Mike down for the Seattle spot! ;)

I absolutely love it. Not that expected not to — you do amazing work man. Now…bring on the content!

58  Fernando Dunn II  02 August 2004 07:35

Now THAT is a pretty background. You should make it a fabric and sell it to an Italian designer.

59  Genie  17 December 2005 08:24

Thank you for the useful info and links.