I gave my blog a facelift

It doesn't matter if you do all the error checking in the world, or if you have the most beautiful graphics, if your site or application design isn't usable, it's not going to do well. Get input and advice on usability and user interface issues here.

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Luke
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I gave my blog a facelift

Post by Luke »

I finally got around to fixing up my company blog over the weekend. I just basically made it match our main website. The old one was really starting to irritate me because for some reason it had this issue where if you tried to display links, it would make the entire page explode. This one is fully functional and that makes me happy. :)

Let me know if you guys find anything wrong with it (other than the lame reflection on the home page :P ). One issue I am already aware of is that the widget plugin is using "links" as an ID twice. I'm not really sure what to do about that. I guess I'll have to poke around in the code tomorrow.

http://www.mc2design.com/blog/

Here's what it used to look like:

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:ZTa ... =firefox-a
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

Nice... I love how clean it looks. I have to say that I'm always really impressed with your work... you're worth a lot ;)

Now for something for you to fix :P Your sidebar is bollzed-up in Safari...

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matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

Looks nice. Very clean.

I would increase the text size and contrast a bit (or a lot). I know the light grey, small text looks nice combined with the bright green headers, but it's very hard to read.

A second thing you could try is "group" the blog items some more. So give them a bit more margin between posts while at the same time decreasing the "internal" margins. As it is now, it all flows a bit into each other.

Last, I wouldn't make the metadata (date below headers) smaller then the other text. Maybe only give it a lighter color (while darkening the main text, see point one).
thiscatis
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Post by thiscatis »

Nice! I like the colours,
Only thing, the gradient quality (bg) looks very poor here, I'm on a 1920 * 1080 resolution, 32bit.
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Ollie Saunders
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

Nice job NSG.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

d11wtq wrote:Nice... I love how clean it looks. I have to say that I'm always really impressed with your work... you're worth a lot
Thanks! I have to give my boss some credit. He designed the original site (although I layed that one out too)... I just turned it into a wordpress blog :)
d11wtq wrote:Now for something for you to fix Your sidebar is bollzed-up in Safari...
Holy crap... I wonder what is causing that??
matthijs wrote:I would increase the text size and contrast a bit (or a lot). I know the light grey, small text looks nice combined with the bright green headers, but it's very hard to read.
I totally agree. I'm waiting to do all the typography type stuff until I get to work. The blog is borrowing the css file from the site (as well as using its own) and I do not like how I set up the typography on the original site.
matthijs wrote:A second thing you could try is "group" the blog items some more. So give them a bit more margin between posts while at the same time decreasing the "internal" margins. As it is now, it all flows a bit into each other.
Nice catch, take a look now. I like it better.
matthijs wrote:Last, I wouldn't make the metadata (date below headers) smaller then the other text. Maybe only give it a lighter color (while darkening the main text, see point one).
Another good call :)
thiscatis wrote:Nice! I like the colours,
Only thing, the gradient quality (bg) looks very poor here, I'm on a 1920 * 1080 resolution, 32bit.
That, like the typography, is inherited from the original site. That should be fixed on both the orig site as well as the blog tomorrow. :)
ole wrote:Nice job NSG.
Well thankie.
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pickle
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Post by pickle »

I still don't like the navigation, but the site does look sharp. The background gradient is especially nice.

I noticed about 600px down, the drop shadow stops.

Looking good.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

I still don't like the navigation
eh, I'm not a huge fan either, but designers won't let you mess with their "creative vision". this is why I get so frustrated with them sometimes.
I noticed about 600px down, the drop shadow stops.
Nice catch!
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superdezign
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Post by superdezign »

The Ninja Space Goat wrote:eh, I'm not a huge fan either, but designers won't let you mess with their "creative vision". this is why I get so frustrated with them sometimes.
:lol: So true. At least programmers are willing to take advice and make changes. Designers always seem to make something, ask everyone for criticism, and then just try to defend why they did it rather than change it.
If it doesn't look good, no one cares why it should look good... It just doesn't. :-p

Guess it's a mentality difference. We learn from other programmers... They typically feel like they're self-taught.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

Designers have this terrible habit of designing for themselves rather than for the intended audience (at lease the designers I know). Well, that is not entirely true. Some design for the audience, but generally they will insist on certain design aspects that just don't mesh with the web (especially designers who are used to print media). They don't realize that THEY are the only ones who care AT ALL about that specific design aspect. They are very self-indulgent.

EDIT: I smell a blog post... :twisted:
Last edited by Luke on Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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pickle
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Post by pickle »

superdezign wrote:At least programmers are willing to take advice and make changes.
I'm gonna ammend that to say:
Experience wrote:Bosses tell programmers to change code depending on un-informed user opinions because they figure users know what they're talking about when it comes to cryptic code. When it comes to looking good, the only people that could possibly have a clue are the designers, so they are treated as the final authority
sore point what?
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
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superdezign
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Post by superdezign »

True, I did ignore those guys that sign the paychecks that think programming is easier than it really is.

And, really, we all know what looks good. The designers are supposed to be able to see something that looks good before it's even been created, but after they've made it, we can all tell if it looks good or not.

Naturally, when we create something, we feel that it is better than it really is, simply because we made it. We give reason to our choices, and give praise to the more difficult processes, but regardless of how much work was put into something doesn't mean that it'll result in something good. And sometimes, it could be the best that we've done... But it doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement. It's hard to see our best as "not good enough."


Every designer I know will defend a bad design until they're no longer working on it. Then, after they've brought themselves out of their "zone" for a while, when they go back, that's when they can see their faults (sometimes).
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

alright, sorry to go back on topic, but d11wtq - I can't reproduce that issue in safari. Can you give me more details about your system?
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

The Ninja Space Goat wrote:alright, sorry to go back on topic, but d11wtq - I can't reproduce that issue in safari. Can you give me more details about your system?
Image Image

1280x1024 resolution.

:)

(Ignore the weirdo safari Icon, I changed the Icon)
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

Ermm... actually, just looked again and whatever you changed has fixed this problem :? :)
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