48 thoughts on “Under Construction

  1. 48

    Sleepy,

    I agree, and, regarding “…the gray hue makes me sleepy…” you are lucky – on some of my computer screens the type is too light to be legible!

  2. 47

    The New format suxs. Too little space dedicated to the blog (only 1/2 the web page!), font is too small, the gray hue makes me sleepy (I prefer the white background) and it is very odd having the blog on the left hand side of the web page. I felt at ease reading Alum’s ALL CAPS post, which usually implies shouting but seems normal in such small font.

  3. 46

    THE TYPE IS TOO SMALL. I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPS SO THAT I WILL BE ABLE TO READ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN WITHOUT EXCESSIVE SQUINTING.

  4. 44

    Bill Brasky used to eat namestealers for breakfast. The post directly above is not me.

  5. 41

    Dear patent.drafter,

    You sure know typography—a man after my own heart. Is the phrase “key points” yours? Insofar as I understand it, I never knew how to characterize “key points” so clearly.

    Does your experience go back to phototypography, or maybe metal?

  6. 39

    The left-hand side main column is not so bad now that I expect it … it would be nice if the main column was wider, and the right side was just one column.

    The larger font size is nice even for an under-40 reader. Serif font (Century family) would look very nice, in part because the strokes are not so bold as in the sans serif families. Since the font families are still designed for ink typography, less-bold strokes correlate to actually “larger” looking fonts (more spacing between key points – larger linear distances) for the same claimed point size. More white space within each letter enhances readability since the bolder fonts can tend to blur together for readers with even mild astigmatism.

  7. 38

    The Impax post is much better, font-wise. Actually makes me want to read it. The FedCir post, while a significant improvement over previous ones, is still too small. Ditto with the font on the Impax comments. The font size seems to be trivial, but it really does make a difference.

    BTW, thanks for letting all of us weigh in on the new design.

  8. 37

    Like many others, I find that the main subject column is far too small, especially compared to the two right columns.

    Beyond this, if I may allow myself a comment on the (seemingly) new slogan, I think that PatentlyO is not just the (US) “nation’s leading patent law blog”, it is rather a leading international patent law blog on US patent law. The term “nation” is misleading as it seems to refer to the PatentlyO reading/commenting community rather than on the topic. As a European practitioner, I do read Patently’O posts every day because I find it useful in my practice to keep being up-to-date on US patent law issues, and I think that many others around the world are doing the same. So, one suggestion could be to reflect this in your slogan. What would you think of “The leading internationally-read blog on US patent law” ?

  9. 35

    And Al Gore did not invent the internet any more than Jaoi™ did (õ¿Q). Al Gore did not do anything worthwhile while VP. Indeed, Al Gore stymied much valuable technology from being adopted by our government.
    Oh yes, VeePee Al Gore did raise lots of money for his and other democrats’ political stupidness.

    * * * * *

    Hi Leo,

    Yes, “breeding” is accurate—that’s my job & I’m quite good at it.

  10. 32

    Also, what’s with the large margins on the left and right? Seems to be a lot of dead space there that could be used to widen the (preferably two) columns and increase the font size.

    Re the font size, please keep in mind that many of your readers (e.g., me) are over 40 and have the inevitable reduction in ability to read small type. It will happen to you too, and when it does you will know what I mean.

  11. 30

    Talk about a site under construction, I’ve been watching the construction of a luxury high rise out of my window every day in New York City for over a year. Every week day over that period, and on many weekends, there has been construction activity. Since mid week last week, there has been no activity whatsoever, not even a night watchman or any other security person.

    Could that be due to the financial melt down?

  12. 29

    Even one of Jaoi’s and Dennis’s own comments have been deleted. Why is that?

  13. 28

    I noticed that many comments have been deleted. Perhaps the new format is designed to purge any comments that don’t agree with Malcolm Mooney, PatentlyO’s official poster boy, whose comments, however snarky seem to just keep coming.

  14. 27

    I love the Burgundy, it reminds me of the colors our debate team wore when we lost to the Saratoga Strawmen (right after the star quarterback gave us all atomic wedgies). Burgundy is a great color, because when you spill white wine on it, it doesn’t leave a stain…

  15. 26

    “I’ll bet more Patently-O readers are American born and breed.

    … bred ”

    I think your original statement was probably accurate as well.

  16. 24

    Please go with Times New Roman which is more easily and quickly absorbed because it is the most popular serif type style here and what we were taught to read in most American grade schools.

    An alternative might be the Supreme Court’s choice under Rule 33:

    “(b) The text of every booklet-format document, including
    any appendix thereto, shall be typeset in a Century family
    (e. g., Century Expanded, New Century Schoolbook, or Century
    Schoolbook) 12-point type with 2-point or more leading
    between lines. Quotations in excess of 50 words shall be
    indented. The typeface of footnotes shall be 10-point type
    with 2-point or more leading between lines. The text of the
    document must appear on both sides of the page.”

    Sans serifs such as Helvetica, now called Arial to avoid trademark infringement, and other bland designs, are more popular in Europe – I’ll bet more Patently-O readers are American born and breed.

  17. 23

    Dennis – like the new modern look but it could benefit from a little tweaking.

    First, take out as much of the vertical space (1) between the very top of the page and the three gray tabs; and (2) in the red header (just a few pixels at the top and bottom). I don’t think you need all that space and taking this out will help maximize the content viewers will see without having to scroll down.

    Second, you could take out a little of the horizontal buffer space between the three main columns (again, just a few pixels). By doing this you’ll maximize your main content column width which should be as large as possible and will help your visitors see as much as possible.

    Keep up the good work.

  18. 22

    The new font is really hard to read. Please go back to the prior font, or find something different…..

  19. 21

    Dennis, will you be filing an application to protect the new design and interface?

    I mean, for the public benefit and everything.

  20. 19

    One suggestion: if you are in the archives, please make clicking on the top graphic re-direct to the current main page, not the index for the month of the old article. Thanks.

  21. 18

    Please double (or triple) the number of “Recent Comments” you list. If I don’t check it for a day or sometimes even a few hours I miss some of the comments. Thanks

  22. 17

    Dennis,

    I love the new design and the use of the left hand column for your posts. I think it works well, although I see the argument for one instead of two right hand columns to create more horizontal space for the posts.

    Dave

  23. 15

    Comparing this layout to the Sprint-Nextel, I much prefer the serif typeface used on that post.

    Unsurprised that I agree with e6k regarding the overall layout. There must be a reason why everyone else defaults to small links column on the left, big main column on the right.

  24. 14

    Srsly D, as a man with some exp in webdesign I’ve got to tell you that this site will be 1000x better with everything under the column “search patentlyo” put in with the other column and then moving that whole amalgamated column to the other side. Try it and see if it’s not pure win. Thank me later.

    The background etc is cool.

  25. 13

    The burgundy is sweet. Reminds me of my high school colors, and the jersey I wore when I quarterbacked our team to the state championship.

  26. 12

    personally I would add some more animated GIFs. right now there are none and that is much fewer than optimal

  27. 11

    In your Oct 02 post on Spring Nextel, the type size is fine. But below that and above it, the type is a strain. Looks like about 9.

    In the columns, the type is reduced further, much further. At least for me, those columns are wasted because they’re not worth the headache I get straining to read them.

    I love the colored boxes for direct quotes.

    And I like the way your type-in-the-scrambled-letters gateway gets clearer every time I screw it up. Why, pray tell, can’t the PTO get this right for access to public PAIR?

    You put a lot of time and care into this blog. It shows and it’s appreciated by all of us. We are grateful to you for the blog, and to Al Gore for the Internet.

  28. 10

    agree .. like old better.

    a feature I would like is having the main text column expand to the width of the window. nearly everybody has a wide screen monitor, nowdays.

  29. 9

    Please, add time/date to the “recent comments” and add a “more…” option (i.e., access to many more comments). Without a “more” option, for example, how is one to keep up after a vacation, etc. (õ¿Q)

  30. 8

    I do not like the new format. It uses a fixed width display centered on the page. I do not browse with my browser window maximized, so the right side of the content is cut off. I prefer websites that dynamically resize the content based on the display window size.

    Also, move Categories and Friends to a linked page. It adds too much clutter to the page.

  31. 7

    Agree with all the above remarks. Please try a two-column format with your posts and the comments to the right side of the page, and all the book-marky links and such to the left side – the same intuitive layout used by MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Windows Explorer, IE, Firefox, Mac OS X Finder, etc.

  32. 6

    As a matter of personal taste, I would prefer the daily blogs to be more towards the center or right of the page.

  33. 4

    I agree with Fred and much prefer the old format. This one has too much of the actual content squeezed into too little of the page. Bag the links to the Recent Comments and make it a two-column format.

  34. 3

    I like the new header and background shading. It’s a more professional polish to the site.

    Maybe reduce the two right side columns to one column with large header selections (recent posts, categories, archives, etc) that redirect to other pages with the full listings? Then you could increase the size of the posting area which is the more important area of the website.

  35. 2

    My only criticism is that the content seems to occupy less of the page than previously. My eyesight is reminding me of my age quite enough without any help from smaller type.

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