Please review my newest 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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Eran
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by Eran »

This is a definite improvement. Personally, I would add more padding for the posts from the edges of the view area. At my resolution (900x1440) it's simply huge.
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RobertGonzalez
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by RobertGonzalez »

pickle wrote:I like this better. 3 things though:

- I think the mouseover colour for the navigation bar is too subtle. I'd suggest a brighter, higher contrasting red/magenta/pink/fuscia.
Could you suggest a color? I went through yellow, goldenrod, pink, red, orange, gray, white... I cannot find something that works against that blue of that bar.
pickle wrote:- I think the difference between the background white and the blog entry background blue is too subtle. Totally up to personal taste, but I'd make it a bit more discernible.
I would agree with this if I could actually find a monitor that renders in a way that looks somewhat right. I have developed this theme on four different screens and each one renders the colors differently. On two, the contrasting blue is really rich. On one, it is almost white. On the other, it looks almost gray.
pickle wrote:- It's a bit jarring (usability wise), to click the "Hide Recent Items" link below the recent items, but then have to go up to your menu to show them again. What if you had the "Hide Recent Items" link centred & in a stylized bar. That bar would always appear, and when the Recent items are hidden, it would say "Show recent items". A toggle switch in one place, rather than 2.
Let me look into this. I am a little opposed to this idea since it would add a single, few word phrase just sitting there in a very obvious location but without a whole lot of context. I need to think this little bit through. I agree with you on this though. I just have not figured out how to make it work right.
pickle wrote:Edit: 4th thing
The links in your lightboxes are different sizes than the links in your "Recent..." section. They should at least be the same size as each other, and probably the same size as your "Recent..." sections.
I didn't realize this until you pointed it out. And as I look through it it appears that the archive links are all bolded. I had not noticed that until now. I will look a little deeper into this to make it consistent.
pickle wrote:Edit: 5th thing
It works almost perfectly in IE7. The only thing I noticed was the text for the second "Hide Recent Items" overlaps the image.
I hate internet explorer and everything in the world that has anything to do with it. If it doesn't want to be standard it can die a fiery death. That said, I don't plan on doing anything at all to make the theme "work" for IE. At all. It works as it should in Safari, Opera and Firefox. Yes, all three combined account for about 1 third of the use of IE. But hey, this is my little way of sticking it to the man. :wink:
pytrin wrote:This is a definite improvement. Personally, I would add more padding for the posts from the edges of the view area. At my resolution (900x1440) it's simply huge.
I played with varying margins on the posts, from nothing to 60 pixels. While I may consider going to 30, 15 works for me at the moment.
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RobertGonzalez
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Ok, I added a toggle bar for the recent items and removed the toggler from the navigation bar. I didn't like it centered so I pushed it left. I think it works well. Please tell me what you think.
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Kieran Huggins
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by Kieran Huggins »

Shaping up very nicely!
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JayBird
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by JayBird »

Another point for you to mull over.

You logo seems a bit all over the place. I will show you what i mean

Image

See all the horizontal lines your logo makes. It's kinda distracting.

I came up with a, what I believe, I better solution

Image

I also chose a more rounded font to fit in with your Web 2.0 look.
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RobertGonzalez
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by RobertGonzalez »

What font did you use? I like the softness of it.

I actually had the logo that way at first, and the more I looked at it the more it didn't make visual sense to me. The letters sitting on the dividing line seem, well, just not feasible to me. And the reflection, to me, needs to be removed by a small bit to allow for the perception of a surface that the letters are sitting on.

Believe it or not, with the exception of the bubble, my first rendition of the logo looked almost exactly like yours. I modified it after the first run to make it look a little "deeper".

But I like the rounded font.
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JayBird
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Re: Please review my newest blog design

Post by JayBird »

Everah wrote:What font did you use? I like the softness of it.
Arial Rounded MT Bold. My current favourite font of choice.
Everah wrote:I actually had the logo that way at first, and the more I looked at it the more it didn't make visual sense to me. The letters sitting on the dividing line seem, well, just not feasible to me.
I guess it is personal preference, but to me, it just doesn't sit right with my eyes. I guess it could be that the horizon line is too close to being below the the letters, that it looks more of a mistake than a design feature. Exagerating the horizon line may help.
Everah wrote:And the reflection, to me, needs to be removed by a small bit to allow for the perception of a surface that the letters are sitting on.
Technically, if the letters were sitting on the surface, there would be no gap. If they were floating above it there would.
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