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New site design, need input
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 12:50 pm
by jabbaonthedais
http://www.ratchetmedia.com/new.htm
My friend says it's "too much grey". I think it will look better with some text and links on it. Also, I'm not sure about the red beveled box. I think the color adds to the page, but not sure if it fits the page or what to put in it.
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:13 pm
by Roja
I think the red is a bit strong.. I might go with something more muted like a shade below navy blue, or even a mild orange.It also seems far too large in comparison with the actual content (Its roughly 1/3rd the size of the main body text?).
The white and gray are fine, although I would suggest some form of delineation between the white on the "background" and the white in the "box". Perhaps using a background pinstripe?
That way it clearly denotes what background is, and what foreground is, which gives a cleaner visual model for the user's eyes.
There needs to be a seperation of some kind between services and clients (on the right), even if its just a HR.. just so its clearly seperated.
The slogan/testimonial looks a bit big, compared to the main body text, although with the right font, I think the slogan/testimonial might be the right size - in other words, I'd increase the size of the main body text.

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:20 pm
by feyd
feels kinda odd that the bottom just suddenly stops, no rounded edges that repeat the pattern created in other places on the page.
dunno about the logo, maybe line art version..
colors
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:56 pm
by method_man
you should make it a some shade of blue and a dark shade of grey that would look good
also u should round off the bottom of the grey box like feyd said
matt
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:27 pm
by Ambush Commander
I agree about the abrupt ending. What you could also do is make it endless, that is, have it be truncated by the bottom of the page (a lot of blog designs do this). The lines seem crisp, but the faded logo seems out of place. Not so blurry. The layout also seems unbalanced, to much to the right, try to equalize it. Right menubar is not differentiated enough, I think the color is fine.
Suggestion: try mocking up some text and links for the empty content areas.
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:46 pm
by jabbaonthedais
Thanks for the input guys! I made some quick changes. I had always planned to have it unending like Ambush said, but I wasn't able to do it in the short time I had today. I set the main table with 100% height but needs something else.
http://www.ratchetmedia.com/00
Don't know about the color of the top right box now. But I did make both boxes smaller. Any more suggestions? Thanks again
nothin
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:56 pm
by method_man
ur welcome
matt
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:56 pm
by Roja
Much, MUCH better.
I wouldnt put text in the orange box, at least not text in the same font/style as the rest of the page.. Essentially that area (due to its color and seperation from the rest of the page) is a "highlight". You already have a "highlight" text area: the quote under the logo. Pick one.
I'm tempted to say that the right "bar" should be a different color, but I cant really tell until there is more content on the left side and the right side more filled in.. Just seems like its seperate, but not clearly so.
The "Ratchet media" text seems blurry.. ideally, you'd want that to be *the* most crisp/visible text on the page. If its not blurred, then you might want to make the bar it sits on larger (so that there is more room for color definition differences).
Other than that, it looks really solid.. very visually sharp, nice design.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:25 am
by onion2k
Not a bad looking site.. But you need to learn CSS.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 12:47 pm
by Roja
onion2k wrote:Not a bad looking site.. But you need to learn CSS.
Try viewing source before making comments - its just a single image. There is nothing to USE css for on the page yet.
Its a mockup, done in a graphics program. HTML and css come later.

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:09 pm
by Joe
onion2k wrote:Not a bad looking site.. But you need to learn CSS.
It's an image and by the looks of the image this user had planned to use CSS anyway. You can tell by the borders etc.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:24 pm
by onion2k
Roja wrote:onion2k wrote:Not a bad looking site.. But you need to learn CSS.
Try viewing source before making comments - its just a single image. There is nothing to USE css for on the page yet.
Its a mockup, done in a graphics program. HTML and css come later.

His update:
http://www.ratchetmedia.com/00
Read the whole thread before assuming someone else has got it wrong.

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:33 pm
by Ambush Commander
Another note, you should try to make your page standards compliant: it wouldn't be to difficult:
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1 ... ia.com/00/ returns only 8 errors.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:10 pm
by jabbaonthedais
Wow, awesome tool. Thanks!
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:13 pm
by Roja
Profound embarrasment.
I'll refer to a favorite quote..
"Most people don't admit when they're wrong." NICK
"I'm wrong all the time. That's how I eventually get to right." GRISSOM
Update: Found the original quote.