For some time now, I’ve been frustrated with the layout of Not Exactly Bento. I didn’t feel like I could find the things I wanted to find, much less my visitors. Past posts felt virtually buried, my categories and tags where a virtual messpile of confusion, and older posts had lost images due to a bumble on my part.

I set January 2009 as my goal to have a new layout/redesign of the site. It’s a bit different than the old, but hopefully more functional for both you, the reader, and me, the worrisome poster. This has been an interesting goal to work towards. I’ve looked at many themes, read many blogs and helpful tips, and thought hard about what I liked the best about my site, and what I liked the least about it. My latest bento contest was another way to gather information.

The most difficult part of this process is that I do not have a technical/computer background. The knowledge I possess has been gathered and stored from years of tinkering and experimenting as different aspects of the Internet have caught my interest. While I might know more than the average bear (Hey BooBoo!), I’m a long way from really understanding all the code and whatzits that make this whole thing work. Mainly, I know just enough to get myself into deep doodie.

The most helpful thing I did during the revamp was to sketch out what I wanted to appear on the front page of Not Exactly Bento. It also helped to have a very clear understanding of the type of information I share on this blog. My posts tend to fall into three big categories: bento related information, photography related information, and stories related to my life (read that as pictures of my dogs). Having a sketch of what I wanted helped me to look at blog themes and compare if those themes could really perform the way that I wanted them to perform.

This weekend with a mental push to myself, I finished the first phase of the project, releasing the new look and feel of Not Exactly Bento a little ahead of schedule.  The color scheme hasn’t changed much, neither has the logo.  You’ll find lots of cool (or so I think) stuff here now.

Here’s some of the neat things I like:

The green sub-navigation bar is a listing of all post categories here at Not Exactly Bento. In order to have NEB work the way I would like, I have had to do a serious overhaul of my categories and which categories posts are assigned. I should have paid more attention in cataloging class in library school!

The whole reason I wanted a navigation area like this is for the recipes section.  Look at that!  I can find my recipes now!  WHEEEEE!  I often go back to my posts to see how I did something to help me out in the kitchen when I get confused or unsure of myself.  My next step is to get some of my recipes into a .pdf format I can easily print and store in my handy-dandy recipe binder.  Then, I can share them with you as well. Don’t be surprised if you can’t find pictures on older posts. I have some picture issues to clear up still.

Another thing I’ve wanted to share in a more visually pleasing way are the two social networking sites I participate in: Flickr & Twitter. The great thing about my flickr account is you can find many of the photos I post here at NEB. I also have started gathering a section where I’m placing all the step-by-step recipes I’ve tried. If for any reason you want to see just the photos, they are available for your perusal.

I have a whole list of things to work on still (like missing pictures and a bit more category reorganization), but for the hardest part may just be over. I hope you like it and you can learn something from the process I’m going through. Hopefully, it will help you avoid mistakes I’ve made.

Soon, you’ll hear me talking about categories and tags.  Boy, have those been a mess and a half to clean up!  And I’m still cleaning.