Critique please .. my new blog design.

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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xpgeek
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Post by xpgeek »

For me you need to change color scheme - too contrasts.
Also font is ugly.
I think design is not very good, feeling of 90-x age.
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

I like the main layout (3 cols etc). If I'd change one thing it would be the (purple)contrast, it is a bit too much for me. The purple itself is not bad (each his own preference), but I might use it more sparingly, for smaller elements. Or you could try a less saturated purple.
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onion2k
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Post by onion2k »

xpgeek wrote:I think design is not very good, feeling of 90-x age.
This comment is baffling. I've been a web developer professionally for 10 years and I never saw this sort of layout around until the last 18 months or so. What makes you think is feels '1990s' (assuming that's what you meant)?
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xpgeek
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Post by xpgeek »

Yes you right, it is not 90-x ages.

But design is ugly, sorry IMHO.

Authors of design have to work much more.
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The Phoenix
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Post by The Phoenix »

xpgeek wrote:But design is ugly, sorry IMHO.

Authors of design have to work much more.
I disagree in general, but there are some areas you could tweak to get a better look, while keeping the feel.

First, the header is enourmous, and its not text. I can see the desire for the reflected text over the background, but then just make the text into the image, and use the rest as a background graphic. But shrink it considerably. Its 1024x156, and it could easily be more like 400x80. That would give far more real-estate to the content - always a good thing.

I actually like the darker purple below the logo for the strong contrast, and I suspect if the logo was shrunk down to a height of 80 or so, it wouldn't be so overwhelming to others.

Personally, I like the color scheme, the style, and the layout. I might change the size of the columns a bit, but it depends on the size of the monitor. I suspect its a good mix for most sizes as is.

I think its a solid design, just needs some tweaks. Far from "much work to do".
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califdon
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Post by califdon »

That's about where I place it, too. Some quite good features, a few I don't particularly like. No problem with the purple, but I agree that the header could be considerably shallower, unless you're planning to add more up there. The striped lower background is good. I have the feeling that the font size is too large, generally. I think I read that you want the font-size to be user adjustable for accessibility; that's good, but I would suggest the initial default should be a smaller font. I'm guessing that your left hand column will be populated dynamically. Maybe I'm the last one to know this, but the colored arrows next to each item in the right hand column convey nothing whatsoever to me. Will they be expanding sub-menus?
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onion2k
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Post by onion2k »

califdon wrote:Maybe I'm the last one to know this, but the colored arrows next to each item in the right hand column convey nothing whatsoever to me. Will they be expanding sub-menus?
This isn't particularly obvious, that's true. The arrows represent the movement of a score value. The idea of the site is to quantify the effectiveness of elected members of government. They're rated based on a large number of things, and all those scores are aggregated into a single score value. The arrow indicates whether the MP (Member of Parliament) is doing a better or worse job than the previous week. On the version I'm working on here they have a tooltip saying something like "Score fell 5 points to 10,605". The closest analogy I can think of is a sports league table.
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

Any chance of including a legend for those of us that cannot seem to figure that stuff out? :oops:
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onion2k
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Post by onion2k »

It'll be picked up on during the usability testing I imagine. I'm only bothered about the 'big picture' design stuff at the moment.
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

Still purply, but cool, in my opinion.
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califdon
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Post by califdon »

Everah wrote:Still purply, but cool, in my opinion.
Purple is the "royal" color, Everah! It adds dignity! :D

Wow! I would never have guessed what those arrows mean, although I can see it now. Yeah, I think you really need to have a small legend that explains that. I understand that you're trying to settle the larger items first, just don't forget to provide space for it.
Miss_Alison
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Post by Miss_Alison »

Why purple?
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gregwhitworth
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What I think....

Post by gregwhitworth »

Overall - it is a well accomplished CSS site, but I do feel there are some things that could make the design more user friendly. What I mean by that is, you could throw the nav underneath the logo filling in that space (fixing that problem) and making it more obvious where the nav is. Next, I would add about a 15px margin to the top and bottom of the html tag:

Code: Select all

html {
    margin: 15px 0;}
This would give some space, but overall I like the concept - and in the end you will never appease everyone - but keep up the good work.

--
Greg
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