So, just as a simple test, I have made a HTML5 version of http://munimkazia.com(xhtml strict) at http://munimkazia.com/index5.php. There is a nice piece of javascript code called html5shiv which fixes a few DOM issues of using semantic markup tags like <header>, <footer>, <article>, etc in internet explorer. Visit the website for more details: http://remysharp.com/2009/01/07/html5-enabling-script/. But I feel the most exciting things about HTML5 are the canvas element, the new input tags and  microdata.Audio and Video elements is also something to look forward to. If only those guys would stop arguing about what formats to support as standard.

If you are as excited as me about HTML5 and want to learn more about it, there is a nice online book you can refer: Dive Into HTML5.

Next step: Finish off this wordpress theme in html5! Sadly, I don’t have much time to fix even the smallest of issues with this wordpress theme, like the paddings and margins everywhere.

And I am most proud of the fact that my HTML code is extremely “clean”. I have not used tables or even divs. There are no “ids” or “classes” anywhere! Infact, if you remove the stylesheet, the page is still very readable and exactly how I would want it to look without styling. Some design philosophies I learned on various blogs

I was reading some blogs on typography and I got inspired to change the design of my site munimkazia.com.

I replaced the image banner with text and applied some nice css text-shadow effects. For those of you poor souls who are still using Internet Explorer, you won’t be able to experience this beauty.

Similarly, I have changed the mouse over look of all the links from underlines to shadow.

I changed the font of the entire text. I think this looks better than the old font.

And I am most proud of the fact that my HTML code is extremely “clean”. I have not used tables or even divs. There are no “ids” or “classes” anywhere! Infact, if you remove the stylesheet, the page is still very readable and exactly how I would want it to look without styling. Some design philosophies I learned on various blogs

Another minor change: I have changed the Google Analytics tracking code. I am now using the asynchronous code and move the javascript inside the header to conform to xhtml 1.1 transitional standards.

Here is another interesting thing: I done the entire design and testing process on Ubuntu. That means I have chosen font families which are completely safe and renderable on common linux distributions. Only after I had completed and uploaded the new design, I booted Windows 7 to see how things look in IE. My only concern was the lack of css text shadows in IE.

Another thing I am not very sure about is the footer links. I couldn’t think of anything better for now, but somehow I am not completely satisfied with the look.

The main task remaining now is to redesign my custom wordpress theme used here for uniformity, not to mention a lot of other fixes like the unneccesary padding on the post links on the right. Like I said earlier, when I feel the blog theme is complete and usable for other sites, I will package it and make it available for download.

Anyway, tell me what you think. For reference, I still have the old design at http://www.munimkazia.com/index_old.php, and the new design is at http://www.munimkazia.com/index.php.