Today I was checking out some themes on the Wordpress theme viewer, and I kept noticing some interesting design elements on different pages: super headers and fat footers.

Both can be viable tools to enhance your user interface, but both have pitfalls to consider. I started to think about the possible applications of these elements from a design and marketing standpoint, and I came up with a few pros and cons for each.

Super Headers

Traditional page layouts include a header, a main body, one or two sub columns, and a footer. A super header is an extra strip of information, advertisements, or navigation above the header. Examples include FeedBurner, Technorati, and Daily Kos.

Pros:
1. Prime Real Estate. This is the very top of your page. The first place a lot of people look when they’re discovering your site and trying to figure out what it’s all about. As such, it can be a great place to put ads, like Daily Kos has done. There’s a wide banner ad above the header on their front page. It’s also a good place to put your “About” and “Contact” links.

2. Super headers are unobtrusive. If you’ve got some links that you need to publish like terms of service or affiliate information, you’ll want them to be out of the way yet accessible. A super header is a great tool for accomplishing this. Mashable uses their super header for this purpose.

3. Meta navigation. A super header is a great place to put links for logging in to a service or managing user accounts. Google has been using their super header in this way for quite a while. Between the super header on all Blogspot blogs and their placement of their login links, I actually think Google is responsible for the growing use of this design element.

Cons:
1. Easy to ignore. The only real problem I have with super headers is that they have a tendency to blend in with my browser’s toolbars. For example, when I signed up to use Feedburner to publish my RSS feed, I had very little trouble navigating their site. But when I returned to check my stats a few days later, it took me a good minute or two to find the very tiny, very gray super header with the login link. I passed right over it because it blended in with my browser. A good rule of thumb for super header backgrounds is to go bright or go white. Avoid patterns and muted colors.

Fat Footers

While I don’t have any plans to add a super header to One Thing New any time soon, I am strongly considering developing a fat footer. I’ve seen these used on sites like lifehack.org, Bokardo, digg and others to add lists of links, tag clouds, and other data to the bottom of their pages.

Pros:
1. Where am I, again? If your blog front page is super long, having a fat footer with your logo repeated and some basic navigational links makes sense. By the time someone gets to the end of your 10th post, it’s nice to remind them where they are and reinforce your brand.

2. Come back again. Your fat footer is an excellent place to put subscription options for your readers. Besides having a big RSS link at the top of your sidebar or somewhere equally prominent, you can add a ton of subscription chicklets to other services in your footer. That way, your sidebar stays uncluttered, but you’re still offering the option to your readers.

3. Recommended surfing. Let’s say your blog isn’t the only Web site you are affiliated with. Your fat footer is the perfect place to promote your other ventures. If someone has read your blog to the end, they’ll see your links to other offerings and might continue their infatuation with your content.

Cons:
1. No really, where am I? If you don’t reiterate your brand in your footer, your readers won’t know or care what they’re looking at, and they’ll gloss right over it. Also, using your footer to display ads is a bad idea. That’s not the last image you want your readers to take away from your site.

2. Location, location, location. In case you’ve forgotten, the footer is at the dead bottom of your page. Eight times in 10 your readers won’t scroll that far down — especially if you have your blog set up to post multiple stories on the front page. So, make sure you don’t put any vital information in your fat footer. Things you put down there should be semi-redundant, meaning the things you link to in your footer can be found in more prominent places on your page. Or as I mentioned with the subscription links, offer one option up top and put add ons in the footer.

Again, both super headers and fat footers can be beneficial if used properly. Keep your eyes peeled for a fatter footer on this site in the next couple of weeks.

Today, I started working on integrating an installation of Gallery2 into an existing template. My client wants to add a photography portfolio to her freelance site, and she wants to be able to update and maintain it herself once I’m done. So after doing some research, I decided to go with Gallery2 (with Coppermine a close second) because of its great user interface. Turns out having an easy to use program doesn’t always mean it’s easy to install.

Gallery2 is an image gallery platform that uses PHP, Smarty Tags, and a database backend to let you organize and manipulate your images on your hosting server. Gallery2 is crammed full of features, which actually becomes its main weakness: it has feature-itis. While modifying one of the prepackaged themes, I keep finding myself cutting away whole chunks of extraneous code.

It’s pretty frustrating because at this point, I know enough PHP to realize that Gallery2 is overqualified for this job. But I don’t know enough to build my own application from scratch. So for now, I’m stuck having to cut back an action-packed application like Gallery2.

Another problem I’m having with the Gallery2 guts is that the album pages are laid out with tables. I’ve been a div man for years now, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve worked with tables as layout elements. I know pages of thumbnails can be considered tabular data and thus would warrant using tables. But I’d designed my template using divs before I chose the gallery platform. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but it’s frustrating nonetheless.

My final gripe with Gallery2 is the same I’ve had with every content management system I’ve worked with — I’m talking to you Wordpress, Joomla, Blogger, phpbb, Coppemine, etc. How about instead of giving me preloaded templates and themes that have tons of features I have to remove, you make the out-of-the-box template as bare bones as possible? Then, instead of ripping a template apart and removing the features I won’t use, which has been faster than building one from scratch in every platform I’ve used except Wordpress, I can add features to a solid foundation.

Now let me add that, as is always the case when I discuss Open Source applications, I am eternally grateful for all the hard work the developers put in so that I can have access to these awesome products. When I have problems with these platforms, I’m typically as frustrated with my own limitations as I am with the applications. So just because I whine a little, don’t think I’m not appreciative. I’ve just had a hard day, and now I feel better. Thanks for listening, Internet!

If you read One Thing New regularly, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been short on the posts this week. Well, the new look of the blog is the reason for that. I liked my old theme a lot, but it was a little raggedy around the edges. And since eventually I want to be able to point to this blog as part of my resume, I decided to spruce things up a bit.

Not only does the site look different, but the content is also going to change a bit. I’m not going to do Top Five Fridays anymore, and you’ll probably see a lot less of the YouTube-centric posts. My efforts will be focused on Web technologies and how they affect, improve, and in some cases, hinder your every day life.

Not to worry, though. I plan to add a supplemental tumblelog where I can post stuff that doesn’t quite fit One Thing New’s tighter focus.

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by in the last three months. I hope you’ll stick around and see where the blog goes from here.

Wednesdays are for two things in my life: Lost and comic books. Tonight I’m going to give the latter some love by reviewing a Web 2.0 comic book site called ComicVine.

At its heart ComicVine is a massive, user-created database of comic book information. They offer sections for members to write bios of their favorite characters, write reviews of current and back issues, participate in forums, and customize their profile page. On your profile page, you can add a photo gallery and a blog (reminded me of Gimme20’s profile features). And as with all social networking sites, you have a friends list to maintain. ComicVine hits all the high points of the Web 2.0 experience, but they have some unique features, too.

Since time began, comics fans have loved debating who would win in a fight between their favorite heroes and villains. Hulk versus Superman, Superman versus Flash, Batman versus Captain America, and on and on. Well, ComicVine has a feature that lets you vote on the outcome of those types of battles, and the winners are ranked on a list of most powerful characters. Right now, Superman is #1 (and Red Sonja is #4… one of the pitfalls of user-generated content, I suppose). If you have trouble deciding if Wonder Woman could beat Martian Manhunter in a fight, you can always pose the question in the forums where you’ll have dozens of folks ready to debate. It’s great fun.

Another unique feature of ComicVine is the ability to track your pull list on your profile page. Just visit the page for an issue of a comic you’d like to add to your list, and click a link to start tracking it.

I’ve been a member of ComicVine for several months (my handle is hooley21 if you want to look me up), but I’m still discovering new features. It is an amazing and essential resource for any comic book fan with an Internet connection.

And now it’s time to go watch Lost.

Today, I mowed my lawn for the first time since we moved into the new house. We’ve been here for almost four months, but our grass is pretty scrubby. It was thick in places, but I felt like I was mostly cutting weeds.

There are two things here that are potentially interesting:

1. I haven’t cut grass since I lived with my parents in high school about 15 years ago. I’ve been an apartment dweller in those years and haven’t had to worry about a lawn.

2. My parents were gracious enough to buy us a lawnmower as a house warming present. Thing is, it’s a corded electric mower. It’s what I wanted, but it takes some getting used to, having to mind the cord. So every time I have cord issues, I think to myself I could be having gas issues or starter issues or destroying the environment issues. And then I’m happy with my cord, even though I got some strange looks from people driving by.

In honor of my triumphant lawn mowing experience, I offer you this awesome mowing-related video for One Thing Tube tonight. Enjoy.