Bob Dylan said it, and it’s still true.

This isn’t a post about deep changes in the world, but about this blog. If you read this blog occasionally (or more), you’ll have noticed I’m in the middle of making a significant change in the appearance and layout and I’d love to receive some feedback.

Time to change

Being a bit of a nerd, I keep track of visitors to this site and trends in the internet. Here are a few changes that have led to this new look:

1. How people access the internet is changing. It is said that 80% of all internet traffic is now on mobile devices. Certainly on my other blog, Is there a God?, two thirds of visits are now made via mobile devices. This changes how people view websites. I can go to a lot of trouble to have a page that is attractively laid out with extra information and links besides the main text, but two thirds or more of readers won’t see it like that. Mobile users see things stripped back and linearly, one below the other.
2. Perhaps for this reason, perhaps because people are just busier, but visit statistics show that most people only read the page they came for, and very few click on other internal links. So it is largely a waste of time having it all there.
3. The WordPress blogging platform is changing, and I have decided to use the new “Gutenberg” editor. You won’t notice much of a difference because of that, but it makes a difference to me.

Making the change

So I have changed the theme I am using, to one that is more suited to a mobile internet – single column for both computer and mobile visitors, less clutter, and developed to use the new Gutenberg editor and mobile devices.

But the new comes at a cost, especially for someone who has to learn as they go. So for a while there will be glitches, changes, experiments and ugly bits that haven’t transferred across too well.

Let me know (please)

This is where you come in (hopefully not when you exit!). I’d love to know if you find some obvious glitch, so I can fix it. I’d love to know whether the simpler layout works better for you, or worse. And please also tell me whether you visit via a mobile device, or not.

All information will help.

Thanks. Hopefully, it will all be looking and working well soon.

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash