#136034 - tepples - Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:32 pm
I'm moving my web site from the existing layout to a new layout, and I'd like some feedback on the new look and feel before I go live with it.
EDIT: new layout is becoming live
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
Last edited by tepples on Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:48 am; edited 1 time in total
#136041 - phonymike - Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:13 pm
it's a better layout, and more functional, and very simple. I would widen the main body a little more, make the blue bar on the left a little less wide, I'm using 1024x768. maybe put the words "pin eight" next to the logo instead of underneith it, to crunch up the banner at the top, even more room for news! just some suggestions, take them with a grain of drugs, I mean lockjaw, I mean I love TOD.
#136080 - Dood77 - Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:20 pm
(Viewing in Firefox, at 1024x768)
I agree, its more functional but the menu graphics etc. need just a little work, the blue bar seems to just stop at too hard of an edge, and that yellow bar at the top is... what? And I agree with maybe putting the pin eight words larger and next to the logo.
The whole page seems too... eh, pinned down :P or flat. Add some shadows to some of the graphics or better yet, put the whole page in one table cell, with the shadow effect, excluding your copyright statement at the bottom. And maybe you could change the background behind the table slightly, for a little variety.
Another thing, I like the font used for the Pin Eight logo, but the text font doesn't seem to fit along with that too well. Experiment with different font families.
Just my suggestions, I'm really no graphic artist though ;)
_________________
If I use a term wrong or something then feel free to correct, I?m not much of a programmer.
Original DS Phat obtained on day of release + flashme v7
Supercard: miniSD, Kingston 1GB, Kingston 2GB
Ralink chipset PCI NIC
#136085 - tepples - Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:29 pm
| Dood77 wrote: |
| I agree, its more functional but the menu graphics etc. need just a little work, the blue bar seems to just stop at too hard of an edge, and that yellow bar at the top is... what? |
Payin' the bills.
| Quote: |
| And I agree with maybe putting the pin eight words larger and next to the logo. |
You mean like the logo image from last time? Unfortunately, 400px for the logo+text plus 468px for payin' the bills won't fit into an 800-pixel-wide page (e.g. half a 1600x1200 monitor).
| Quote: |
| The whole page seems too... eh, pinned down :P or flat. Add some shadows to some of the graphics or better yet, put the whole page in one table cell, with the shadow effect, excluding your copyright statement at the bottom. And maybe you could change the background behind the table slightly, for a little variety. |
I wish I could picture what you're talking about.
| Quote: |
| Another thing, I like the font used for the Pin Eight logo |
Cooper Black, by the way.
| Quote: |
| but the text font doesn't seem to fit along with that too well. |
Headings (Welcome, New system, Projects, Sections) also use Cooper Black if you have it installed; otherwise, it falls back to any other serif font on your system. Body is generic sans. I can't especially "experiment with different font families" until 1. CSS offers a way to reference a font, and 2. visual user agents implement this.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#136089 - keldon - Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:39 am
1: Logo feels a little misplaced
2: Centre copyright notice
3: Compatible fonts are always recommended as the primary font and unfamiliar fonts should generally be avoided
4: Serif for titles actually works!!!
5: The main text area is fixed width but adjusts its positioning with a larger screen making for weird layouts on higher resolutions. Your layout should either be static or liquid, yours is currently in between
6: The top horizontal bar where "pin eight" appears is fine apart from the bottom border which feels like it's a few pixels too thick, maybe the bar can be a few pixels shorter too
7: Not too keen on the shade of blue used for the left navigation panel, maybe an outline the same colour of the bottom of the bar above
Overall: nice redesign!
#136092 - tepples - Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:11 am
| keldon wrote: |
| 1: Logo feels a little misplaced |
Should it scoot an em to the right to be more centered over the navigation panel?
| Quote: |
| 3: Compatible fonts are always recommended as the primary font and unfamiliar fonts should generally be avoided |
Are there other extra-bold rounded-serif fonts distributed with common operating systems? There is a fallback to the system's basic serif font, as the linked page recommends and as you point out in 4. But I'd take that with a grain of salt, as not only does it recommend a <font> element, but it also recommends an empty <font> element in XHTML.
| Quote: |
| 5: The main text area is fixed width but adjusts its positioning with a larger screen making for weird layouts on higher resolutions. |
Higher resolutions should be fine, as the column width is defined in terms of the user's base font size, and usually a higher-DPI screen will have a bigger base font size. On a 19" or larger monitor, you can usually have two web pages side-by-side anyway.
| Quote: |
| 6: The top horizontal bar where "pin eight" appears is fine apart from the bottom border which feels like it's a few pixels too thick, maybe the bar can be a few pixels shorter too |
I'll try 0.2em instead of 0.3em.
| Quote: |
| 7: Not too keen on the shade of blue used for the left navigation panel, maybe an outline the same colour of the bottom of the bar above |
Good idea for the outline.
| Quote: |
| Overall: nice redesign! |
Thank you.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#136096 - Dwedit - Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:44 am
Remember: Web users have "Right Column Blindness", they have been conditioned to see tower-style ads in the right column, so they never look in that direction.
I see your old site has content in the right column, but the new site does not.
_________________
"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."
#136114 - keldon - Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:14 am
| tepples wrote: |
| Should it scoot an em to the right to be more centered over the navigation panel? |
Possibly, I mean what I think is actually happening is that the "pin eight" text connects the logo to the navigation (because of the text) so it makes it appear to be structurally connected with it. Having said that it's not really anything to worry about too much, just a small thing I noticed.
Those google ads look really neat on your page!!!
| tepples wrote: |
| Are there other extra-bold rounded-serif fonts distributed with common operating systems? There is a fallback to the system's basic serif font, as the linked page recommends and as you point out in 4. But I'd take that with a grain of salt, as not only does it recommend a <font> element, but it also recommends an empty <font> element in XHTML. |
Ah yes, I never noticed that. There is another browser font compatibility site, 'Georgia' is a serif font designed for the web, although I think there are any serif fonts as thick as Cooper Black installed on most computers. With it being a trademark choice to coincide with the logo maybe an image wouldn't be too wrong to use!
| tepples wrote: |
| Higher resolutions should be fine, as the column width is defined in terms of the user's base font size, and usually a higher-DPI screen will have a bigger base font size. On a 19" or larger monitor, you can usually have two web pages side-by-side anyway. |
Ah right, good call.
#136115 - Kyoufu Kawa - Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:24 am
I like it. I like it a lot.
#136199 - Dood77 - Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:07 am
| tepples wrote: |
| Dood77 wrote: | | I agree, its more functional but the menu graphics etc. need just a little work, the blue bar seems to just stop at too hard of an edge, and that yellow bar at the top is... what? |
Payin' the bills. |
Ah, I should have guessed that.
| tepples wrote: |
| Quote: | | And I agree with maybe putting the pin eight words larger and next to the logo. |
You mean like the logo image from last time? Unfortunately, 400px for the logo+text plus 468px for payin' the bills won't fit into an 800-pixel-wide page (e.g. half a 1600x1200 monitor). |
Well, you don't have to use the same banner, make a new one!
| tepples wrote: |
| Quote: | | The whole page seems too... eh, pinned down :P or flat. Add some shadows to some of the graphics or better yet, put the whole page in one table cell, with the shadow effect, excluding your copyright statement at the bottom. And maybe you could change the background behind the table slightly, for a little variety. |
I wish I could picture what you're talking about. |
What I'm picturing is something like this: http://dood77.googlepages.com/table.htm
Unfortunately, the 100% width for the table excludes the 15px margins, so its just a little too wide. Also, the border I was envisioning was more like the drop shadow one here, and using this one would solve the margin issue, as it wouldn't need a margin. Oh, and obviously the menu graphics edges would have to be changed slightly, since they aren't the very edge of the page anymore. IE6 has a drop shadow filter, but I'm 99% sure you don't want Microsoft proprietary features on your site. Why does MS make all these crazy changes to their DOM thinking every one will start using IE or the new feature will become mainstream!?
| tepples wrote: |
| Quote: | | but the text font doesn't seem to fit along with that too well. |
Headings (Welcome, New system, Projects, Sections) also use Cooper Black if you have it installed; otherwise, it falls back to any other serif font on your system. Body is generic sans. I can't especially "experiment with different font families" until 1. CSS offers a way to reference a font, and 2. visual user agents implement this. |
Not that I disagree with things needing to be changed about, well, a lot of things in CSS/HTML, but I'm not sure how much of a choice you have. I would leave the font, but change the next available font to something more common that fits better with Cooper Black. You could also add a small link somewhere to a page suggesting the best viewing specifications, and provide a link to the font on that page. (Or write some nifty server-side script that would parse your heading text into images? I guess that makes it too hard to deal with, making it non-highlight able)
_________________
If I use a term wrong or something then feel free to correct, I?m not much of a programmer.
Original DS Phat obtained on day of release + flashme v7
Supercard: miniSD, Kingston 1GB, Kingston 2GB
Ralink chipset PCI NIC
#136924 - keldon - Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:54 pm
One question, did your server come with content negotiation built in or was it requested or something?
#136930 - tepples - Mon Aug 06, 2007 4:53 pm
My server came with Options MultiViews built in, but I haven't tried path info or type-mapping (.var files) negotiation yet.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.