this just doesnt feel right

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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maliskoleather
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this just doesnt feel right

Post by maliskoleather »

I've been working on this website for one of my clients, and something just doesnt feel right about the way it looks. I think it may be the orange backgrounds for the content boxes.. im not too sure.

any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated :D

http://www.digitalcoastmedia.com/mgarden/
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superdezign
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Post by superdezign »

.... Please don't be offended, but eww.

Orange and green? That's not a good color scheme at all. When coming up with color schemes, you must use colors that complement one another or completely oppose one another, which is something you'd discover by the color wheel.

Orange doesn't work with green. Orange works with yellow. Orange works with red. Orange works with blue. Colors that are very close on the color wheel, or colors that are as far as possible on the color wheel work with each other. Anything in between is risky, and usually doesn't work. This is one of those times.

Beyond the color scheme, the gradients seem like they're used just for the hell of having gradients. The light gradients on the large boxes look nice, as is apparent on the "EzineArticles" box that doesn't have a header, and the login bar at the top. However, every gradient that you have in that darker orange color looks... Bad.

On a lighter note, the little flash thing at the top is cool. :D

But yeah, I feel a redesign is in order.
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

I agree with superdezign: start by changing the color scheme.

Although I would like to add to superdezign that orange and green can go together, but not that orange and green. In fact, for my current redesign I'm using orange and green too. But those are a lot less saturated and used for headers and some details. Not for big boxes.

There are a lot of color schemer tools available, free and paid, which help you put together color schemes. I use color schemer studio. Even though I don't usually follow the color harmonies suggested by the tools, they allow you to work with colors in a very easy way. You can pick colors of a photo for example.

A second suggestion is to align everything a bit better. And use a bit more whitespace around the text.
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maliskoleather
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Post by maliskoleather »

in my defense, the green-brown-orange combo was the clients idea, not mine :roll:

i agree that it looks pretty bad... im just not too sure what to replace it with. prettymuch all the other colors i can think of look out of place.

heh, this is why i generally stick to the code side...
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superdezign
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Post by superdezign »

Add a lot of white to the green and see what you end up with. You have a very light orange and a very dark green.
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

And desaturate the colors. especially the green.
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JayBird
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Post by JayBird »

try this to get colours that complement each other http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Color choices aside, I would consider softening some of the edges. The flower motif clashes with the abrupt edges and extreme contrast of panels.
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