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clean and simple
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:47 pm
by Charles256
anyone have any major gripes against something that is just plain and simple?talking about good ole fades and that's it with a big good white area for text, any major gripes against that?think i might just chagne my site layout to that.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:34 am
by Ree
I dislike white background for text, especially if there's a lot to read, it's too bright for me. I prefer light grey background instead, or some other light (but not bright) colour (depends on the overall design).
So the default phpbb skin suits me very well.

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:06 am
by foobar
Actually, plain gray backgrounds usually look awful (Especially if it's in the 50%-black range). If you need it to be grayish, make it a tone of R/G/B with low saturation. Try black as a background and a light gray for text.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:52 am
by Ree
foobar wrote:Actually, plain gray backgrounds usually look awful.
Completely disagree. Light grey is a 'neutral' colour, and can be often used very nicely.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:17 am
by feyd
FYI: plain gray is generally in the 35-55% black range.. Light gray is not apart of that range.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:41 pm
by Charles256
here's some screen shots...what ya think? one in I.E. and one in firefox obviously:)
http://www.esitemaintenance.com/layout.JPG
http://www.esitemaintenance.com/layout2.JPG
feyd | made very large images into links 
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:36 pm
by Chris Corbyn
If you really want to go plain that blue is too bright
Try something like #F8F8F8 for the background.... pretty close to white but not bright.
In the panels try a 30-50% darker shade of grey with a gradient tucked into the edge to empahsise the boundary (and/or perhaps some diagonal crosshatched border).
To add a splash of color try places brightly colored bullet markers alongside your hyperlinks in the navigation panel or simply make the links themselves a brighter color.... Should be a toned-down, more attractive (to me at least) layout.
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:27 am
by foobar
Get rid of that horrible gradient. Agh! It hurts mine eyes...
I'll have to refer you to a great website on (un)usability:
Web Pages That Suck. (Yes, that's what it's called)
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:11 pm
by Charles256
erm..the site design is very usable....even if you don't like the color doesn't make it unusable.......
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:56 pm
by Roja
Charles256 wrote:erm..the site design is very usable....even if you don't like the color doesn't make it unusable.......
Usable means it has usability for a large portion of the population.
Black text on deep blue is not usable for a large portion of the population.
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:29 pm
by pickle
I'd suggest making the grey much closer to white. That grey looks like the old Netscape default grey - blech. I don't mind the fact that you've got a gradient too bad - could look good. Make the blue much lighter though. Black on that blue is hard to read.
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:31 pm
by Charles256
i surrender.the blue gets lightenied after i finish my other project.i'll post the updates and maybe avoid my stoning:-D
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:23 pm
by Ambush Commander
A lot of people complain that black on white hurts their eyes, but the truth is, that sort of formate connotes professionality and is what all of the big-name websites out there do. Stick with black on white.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:06 pm
by foobar
Charles256 wrote:erm..the site design is very usable....even if you don't like the color doesn't make it unusable.......
If you want something more polite and less in-your-face, check out
http://www.useit.com . Great resource by the ultimate usability guru Jakob Nielsen.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:18 pm
by Charles256