The Tweaks Monk Would Make To PixoBebo

I’m a big fan of Tony Shaloub on Monk, as Adrian Monk, obsessive compulsive detective. If Monk had designed PixoBebo what would he do? Tweak. Constantly Tweak. Do I exhibit signs of obsessive compulsive disorder? I like to tweak. Look around. Can you spot my tweaks?

Yes, I straighten pictures frames. I don’t let my food touch on the plate. I separate my M & M’s into colors before eating them. One at a time. I wash my hands. Often.

I identify with Monk. So what?

A little obsessive compulsive behavior is good for the soul, I say. Maybe not. This weekend was a time to reflect on PixoBebo. And a time to tweak.

Tweaking for Fun

The first rule of order was to take a long look at what I created so far, and try to figure out where it needs a little polish and shine. So, I fired up Fireworks and CSS Edit and began clicking. And thinking of Monk.

I tried doing that once; make every minute count. It gave me a headache

The first change was the background color. I love lavender. Lavender is my soul. The lavender I chose was a bit too blah, so I changed it.

This lavender is a shade or two or three darker, but, frankly, it’s easier to read. Especially after I changed the font color.

The Logo

I love butterflies. The PixoBebo logo is of a butterfly. But something was wrong with my butterfly; both the color and… something else.

Snakes trump heights. It goes germs, needles, milk, death, snakes, mushrooms, heights, crowds, elevators

Depth. That was it. Depth. So I added a little drop shadow to the logo and it looked so good I added some to the PixoBebo logo text.

Still, it wasn’t quite right. Like a straightened picture frame, the logo looked right. Something else was still wrong.

I haven’t needed a babysitter since I was 19… It was the late 70s. It was a crazy time

Color. Depth. I know… shine!

Shine

That took some work. Fireworks does gradients so I put in a little gradient shine in the header and footer area. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

Almost, but not quite glossy. I don’t like glossy.

One more thing. I had just learned to spell CSS, when I remembered how CSS cascades, so I modified PixoBebo’s ability to change font size (notice the little triple A’s up to the right of the navigation bar?) to exclude everything except the paragraphs in each article.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but subtle changes here and there are like ordering my M & M’s… by color. So, then I changed the background color of the Breadrumbs bar. Then I added another drop shadow to the mini logo at the bottom of the page.

As if spurred on by my new found fetish for shadows, I added a shadow to the whole page frame. Whew! Where is Dr. Kroger when I need him?