No design is perfect; the current template, “Ocean Mist,” displays links to other posts when readers read a full post, when they link from another site. Consequently, I expected, a few people might click on another post at this blog while they were here. Traffic to other displayed links has picked up by about 50%.
One surprise has been the increased traffic to the “Why Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub” page, which is the “about” post for this blog. Traffic is up by several multiples to that post. There are no particular revelations there. It’s just providing more information.
In those respects, the experiment with a new template is a success. Everything should be so easy.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
It’s so dark! Okay, it’s back, with a spot of toned color.
By the way, that’s his Union Army uniform — or the Union Continentals. The photo was taken in 1862, a year into the Civil War. Fillmore was 62 years old at the time.
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Jeepers, peepers! I like the admiral uniform better, if we’re voting.
if you have money, you can always pay extra for the css version which you can have someone modify to your liking.
The WP.com themes still lack the optimum integration of readability (accessibilty) and editing ease. Getting better, but with so many users needing a leading edge platfrom, maybe should come faster.
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You remember the astronomer in The Little Prince? Ironic, huh, given the recent excitement on WordPress.
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All of which testifies to the importance of presentation and the critical value of good web design over hap-hazard web design.
I’m reminded of when I was in college and my IBM Correcting Selectric was delivered, mid-quarter. I used an “Orator” typeface for radio scripts, and my grades on those scripts rose solidly into the “A” category — even those that had previously been graded lower and were unchanged but resubmitted in a journal.
This template looks cleaner to me, and it appears, to others as well.
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I would attribute anything you are seeing now to the traffic spike from a few days ago rather than the new theme. You’ll need to give the jolt a chance to play out to really see what’s going on.
But, yes, the white on solid rectangle for “Why MF’s b.t.?” stands out. The blue is almost institutional, but the page as a whole is less busy. I think I am seeing more of what is actually here.
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