Topic: what else, a site review of course.

Here's my site: http://www.kewlster.com/ tear it apart.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

So, what version is this, maninacan? Somewhere around 5 or 6, maybe?

I have to say I like this color scheme the best (compared with the color schemes in your earlier attempts). It's also pretty interesting how the windows cascade like that. At first I thought it was just a really complicated drop shadow-type effect. I think it works, though.

Two things, basically, that kind of bug me. First off, your logo. For some reason, the pulsing really gets on my nerves. Maybe it's just me, but it really stresses me out, not to mention the fact that it draws attention away from your content. Imagine that you're on the subway, and you're trying to read your newspaper, but this little man standing in front of you keeps jumping up and down, saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" That's kind of how I feel about this logo. To be honest with you, I don't say why it has to do anything in the first place.

Secondly, the menu is a little odd. Personally, I would make it respond to clicks, rather than mouseovers. As it is, once you have the proper page selected you have to be very careful with the mouse to make sure you don't accidentally select another page. And besides, that's what people expect--menu items are clickable. Unless you have a very good reason, I wouldn't go against convention.

That's it for now, I guess.




Cell 270

well it's about version three million and two. I don't stay content very long with my designs because as I learn more, I learn how much my previous designs suck, and try to make them better.

The pulsing, I agree, I only added that today to see how it would look, and because I wanted to try adding some stuff so it wasn't as plain. Also your example of the subway was very convincing.

The buttons, somebody else mentioned this to me earlier today so since there's two of you, you must be right.

Also I spaced the buttons a tiny bit, and added a button press thing effect.

Anything else? Especially an idea of how to spice it up some, with still keeping a relatively simple look.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

[This message has been edited by maninacan (edited 07-02-2002).]

I put the nav in a box here: http://www.kewlster.com/index2.html the original is still here: http://www.kewlster.com/index.html tell me which one you like better. As well as more suggestions on how to improve the original.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

OK, that was quick. Yes, it's definitely better now. As for the nav, I think I like the original better--it seems to fit the design better. The menu and the content boxes go well together.

As for spicing it up, well, that's a tough one, I guess. First of all, there's not a whole lot of content there right now, so any other changes would be cosmetic. I would suggest, first of all, a little more content. Also, it does tend to look a little empty at higher resolutions. Maybe you could center the content boxes? Or maybe even scale the boxes according to the available browsing area (that would obviously require a bit more work). Those are the two things that occur to me right off the bat. As it is, the color scheme and design have a very "cool" (as in temperature) feel to them, which goes nicely with your site name. Personally, I like that, and I would be wary of too much spice.

I think if you add content, the design will flow naturally to adapt to it. Don't force the design too much.

OK, just added some support for netscape. I've only tried it in Netscape 6 though, so tell me how it looks in the other versions of netscape.

Also I messed around with fading and made this: http://www.kewlster.com/index3.html
So tell me if you like it better than the original.

Any more advice from anyone?

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

[This message has been edited by maninacan (edited 07-04-2002).]

Actually, I think the fading is kind of cool. As it is, though, it's a bit slow. If you sped it up to twice that speed it would be nice.

*wonders where everyone else went*

OK, what do you think now? http://www.kewlster.com/index3.html
yes, were did everybody go?
helloooo.... anybody out there...?

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

Hmm... it still seems a bit slow. The original version (without the fade) was fine, too, so you could always fall back on that. Utlimately, the fade is just cosmetic, right? I would be interested in hearing what the others have to say about it, though.

Unless, of course... we are the only ones left...

not much to say on this one except the fade is painfully slow try doubling it in speed agian or even trippling
it's like wating for a massive site to load up on a 56k

I think I'll just forget about the fade, it does take too long and it's only supported by IE anyways.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

I might be nitpicking but, all else aside, I don't really like the looks of the layered boxes after choosing successive lower links. The result is a cascade of boxes whose headers overlap, and that in itself is fine. It's the text that bothers me. The borders of the lower boxes "line through" the text and make it look messy. Is there some reason you can't remove the text on the inactive boxes when they're cascaded?

Allewyn

As you may have noticed I did do that with the content of the boxes, but not with the headers, but if you think it looks bad I'll do the same thing that I did to the content.

hmmm... It looks a little weird now because the boxes that don't have content are just lines.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

[This message has been edited by maninacan (edited 07-06-2002).]