That sounds a bit lazy, doesn’t it? Scrolling isn’t that energy-consuming. But still…

The cartoon RSS icon. I totally agree, he’s on my delete list.

Strip transparency. I’ve changed the image levels to make to give the strip more contrast. It’s still at 70% opacity but I think it works a little better this time around. Also, the strip is now one third the size of the full image. Before it seemed slightly too big and overpowered the photograph.

Highlighter marker. Great! That’s the feeling I was trying to retain.

Design and topic. Thanks. I know exactly what you mean and I’m glad that I wasn’t alone in feeling that way.

Contextual navigation. I’ve already asked a handful of family and friends to take a look. It seems to work. With the old design the menu was being overlooked. Hopefully this way it will be easier to give people access to the things they want to find.

Hosting ad. Sorry if it comes across as intrusive. I’ll take this on board. I can’t promise any changes since it currently works very well!

Graphic header and typeface. Again, I take it on board, but I’m currently such a big fan of Archer that I’m pretty sure it will stay.

Comment moderation. Agreed.

Digg and Stumbleupon buttons. Agreed. They’ll almost certainly be replaced with text versions. The whole comment section needs some work as well.

Photo. It’s a stock image. I’ve recently taken a lot of photos myself for use in headers across the other sites I have planned but this one worked a little better than the keyboard shot I tried. When I have the time I’ll take some more shots and replace the current image if I’m lucky enough to capture something better. I’m going to feature my own shots, the more successful ones, in a forthcoming post about creating header images.

Your first redesign had that same problem, though removing the underscores was an improvement to that end. With this redesign (of a redesign), the design better serves the topic. That said, I’d like to offer some constructive criticism:

- The contextual navigation is a clever idea. Though I’d try some makeshift usability testing. Just ask family, colleagues, ect to check the site out and see if they have trouble finding and using the navigation.

- The hosting advertisement in the header should go. Or if not removed from the header, then everywhere else. I understand you want to get it to as many people as possible, but I think having it in the header, sidebar, under the comment form, in the footer, and constantly mentioned in any relevant post is a little overkill.

- I actually like the graphic header (I wouldn’t have expected to). Though I’d try to keep the typeface consistent between headings and the text in the header (which could be considered a pseudo-h1 heading).

- I know this has nothing to do with the layout, but I’d recommend tweaking the comment moderating settings. After someone has had a comment approved, I’d allow them to bypass the moderation queue. You still avoid all the automated spam, but it’s more convenient (and less confusing) for legitimate commentary.

- This isn’t a pressing issue, but you might want to work on better incorporating the “Digg” and “StumbleUpon” buttons under posts. As they are, they seem entirely out of place.

Oh, and just out of curiosity; did you take the photo in the header or is that a stock image? It fits quite nicely with the topic.

It looks really smart. The use of the gradient is a nice touch giving the page some depth.

I agree with Allan about the ‘Feed Me’ illustration. It doesn’t quite fit the overall feel with the new header.

Archer is a wonderful typeface and I’m wondering if the transparency of the black strip could be a bit darker? The keyboard symbols behind the shapes of the characters are a bit distracting.

Nice work!

Looking good

The blue is lovely. I didn’t even notice the faded white but it’s nice. Great work.