Welcome to Sharpened.net 6.0!

November 13, 2010 — by Per Christensson

Today marks a new milestone in the history of Sharpened.net. After over five years without a major redesign, Sharpened.net version 6.0 is finally here.

If you've visited Sharpened.net before, you may notice several design features reminiscent of the previous website layout. However, you'll also notice a lot has changed. Some of the most notable changes include the simplified navigation bar, a search box at the top of each page, and larger text. As you browse through the website, I'm sure you'll notice many other small changes and new features as well.

When I used to design websites for clients, my motto was "clean and simple design." That is the philosophy I used when building the new version of Sharpened.net. The goal of the new design is to be easy to navigate and easy to read. I hope you'll find the navigation more intuitive than the previous design and also have an easier time reading the content on each page.

Now for the technical details. The new Sharpened.net was built using HTML5 and CSS3. These are the latest Web standards, which have not even been officially standardized yet. Therefore, not all browsers support the features offered by these new technologies. However, I felt it was worth the risk since using HTML5 and CSS3 offered such great benefits. For example, with HTML5, I was able to design each page using roughly one fourth of the code I used in my previous design. CSS3 allowed me to implement cutting edge Web design features, such as CSS-based rounded corners and drop shadows.

Since not all browsers support these new standards, you may not see certain features if you are using an older browser. The best current option is a Webkit-based browser, such as a Apple Safari or Google Chrome. These browsers will display all the latest HTML5 and CSS3 features. The next best option is Mozilla Firefox, which supports most features, but not the cool transitions when you roll over links. Unfortunately, even the latest version of Internet Explorer does not support HTML5 or CSS3. In fact, I had to implement a JavaScript library in order for the new layout to appear correctly in Internet Explorer 8 (thanks Modernizr). Microsoft has said Internet Explorer 9 will support both HTML5 and CSS3, so hopefully they will release the new version soon.

I hope you enjoy the new website. I'll provide more information about the new design in the coming week, so stay tuned. For now, you can check out the new Tip of the Month, which is a monthly advice feature I've introduced with the new design. Of course, if you have any feedback regarding the new website (including any bugs you come across), I hope you'll let me know!