December 5th, 2009. This was the date I last redesigned Theme Lab, which coincidentally was also done by James McDonald. Here’s a screenshot below for posterity purposes.

Theme Lab First Redesign by James McDonald

The Homepage

Probably the most prominent feature in the new design is the homepage design, which is notably different than the blog-style homepage of the previous design.

At the top are the three latest posts, then below a few featured articles to the left of a subscription area. Below are the latest five themes displayed in an interesting non-slidery way.

The Rest

Most of the rest of the features of the site are more are less the same, including threaded comments, tag pages for different types of themes, etc.

There’s a bit less emphasis on social media stuff, especially on the single post pages where I’d have share icons for MySpace, Technorati, and other sites you probably don’t even use.

There’s still a simple Facebook/Twitter link on the left side of the content area on single posts though. If you really feel the need to share a link on MySpace, however, feel free to do that as you normally would, but without the aid of a social networking icon link here.

Recommended Products

On every non-post page (except the homepage) I have a listing in the sidebar for “Recommended Products,” which are basically just affiliate links to paid WordPress themes and plugins I would recommend to others.

On single posts, this area is replaced with a “Related Posts” section.

Conclusion

So that’s about it. There may be a few kinks here and there, if you notice anything feel free to let me know in the comments (that are still threaded, by the way).

Oh and also, if you’re using IE6, this site probably looks like garbage because I use a lot of transparent PNG images, and I don’t intend on fixing it either. View it in a modern browser.

Let me know what you think in the comments! Oh yeah, and hire James McDonald for all your design needs, and hopefully me to code it.