Topic: redesign - opinions?

http://in-dented.com

I've redesigned, almost totally by making a new style sheet - had to make some minor mark-up changes to make it more flexible.

I don't plan on changing things (unless there's a really compelling reason) but would love to hear your thoughts on the new look.

Bug reprots are always good too.

For the Record - I haven't used any box model hacks, and there are bound to be a few spots that probably need one. Will get to that at some point...

I can only call them as I see them, and I loved revisiting your site to see the redesign. The colour balance is excellent with a clean stylish feel.
I can but wish (and work hard) that one day I will be able to make my site to the standards you have set here.
Great work DL-44

Great work DL

Not really much to say about the design and layout. Lovely colors, simple and easy to use. Only thing I can think of is the date. Do you really need it? I allready know what day it is today. It doesn't break the design in any way, but the page might look better without it...

Code wise there is a minor detail that might be improved. You've got a couple of style attributes around the page. Might want to replace them with classes instead.

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"
- the Golden Ratio -

Thanks. =)

The date - I like having it, mainly because I always forget what the date is, and the primary use of this site is to act is my personal start page really. Everything else is 'incidental'

The inline styles are primarily used in a few spots where there is dynamically generated content that was simpler to address in that way. It's still in one centralized location in the included PHP file, and for some of the minor tweaks I didn't want to clutter up the Style Sheet further.

I don't do this too often because I'm not very secure with my abilities. I definitely don't want to sound precocious.

This is what I see when I visit your site. This may sound silly, but it makes me feel. . . lonely. It is this nice little island in a sea of grey. I would personally like to see it expand and contract vertically to fit different sized windows. Or at least have some element that spans the entire height of the page. Don't know how possible this as I only know enough about CSS to do what I've done in the past.

The other small issue i have is with the header. It is a lot of space that is being under utilized by the one small title.

Otherwise my sentiments are along the lines of everyone else.


It's pronounced "Spikes!"

No worries Spyx - opinions are what I'm after, and you don't have to be Mr. Web Design to have a thoroughly valid opinion.

I did actually have it extend 100% vertical to begin with, but ran into some problems that were more trouble than they were worth at the moment.

I may attempt to go back to that though. I personally never have a maximized browser unless the content is large enough to demand it, so I don't ever see a web page in that way.

I actually reduced the size of the header a significant amount from my previous design, though the logo was much bigger on that, and may have in some sense justified the extra space...

I played around a bit with various ways of going about the ehader, and found this the most pleasing. I enjoy the graphic enough that I don't mind the space it takes up...and any less would eliminate parts of the image that (imo) are necessary to keep the look and feel that is there. The 'one small title' is only a part of the whole...the background is there to set the stage more than to hold the title (at least that was the intention ).

Thanks

- DL

I did much the same with mine recently, made my own "home page" that grouped as many things as I liked to see daily in one spot. It was like a revelation... "Aaaaah! home page!" Anyway...

I do like that man, the colors are nice and indian blankety or something. It's almost too busy on the color mix though. Depends on the page and the mix I think. Maybe if you desaturated the highly saturated elements in the content areas, like HR and input buttons for instance. One page's function and layout is never exactly like the next though, makes it hard to think of something that would gel for me in all the different views. I think in a lot of views the fact that every element is underlined or HR'd can get a bit cluttered looking as well.

I do agree that it's a real floater on big resolutions, even smaller resolutions on some sub pages, but don't think you have enough content per page for a liquid layout. This is one of the visual problems with XHTML strict, you can't do much to fill the rest of the void unless you align left or right and use a background image. I hate that.

The "view all" view on your links is still escaping characters "Toys \'R\' Us"

Nice site, nice organization, care to come clean up my mess? =D

Congrats, may you never have to markup again, you will anyway though I'm sure. If not from necessity, boredom

Jason

quote:

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care to come clean up my mess? =D

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Certainly. My standard rate for such work is $50.00/hour. For you, I'll make a special deal - $49.99/ hour =)

The red HR's and buttons were actually added after the fact to draw more color down into the page, where it was sorely needed in some places. Without the red in the page, it doesn't work.

There are still a few spots that I need to tweak, or that haven't been changed to match. Will be eliminating those bit by bit.

And yeah, the escaping quotes thing - I've been too lazy to go in and change that part of the PHP. Eventually I will...

"indian blankety" - I like that. =)

I DO LIKE..especially the centering. I was looking at various sites considering the way that content is set on the page as I don't care for the 3 column verticle. It isn't the way the eye is trained but the positioning on your page is just right..there before your eyes..very nicely centered. I think the art rule of having the focal point slightly off center to the left is just a shade better than dead center focus as your page..but very very..just what I Like.. good layout, readibility, excellent art and color, easy on the eye text and graphics..Nice Job!

ohhhhh... DL, you sly thing, you.

Read through the above comments.... even if something was mentioned, I just might mention it again.... just because.
I'm a king when it comes to being opinionated... so here goes.

I love the orange bit along the top. Quite tasty, indeed. I almost want more orange (height-wise)... but I don't know if the design could handle it.

Overall I really like it. Easy on the eyes... not too much... not too little. However, in some aspects it does sit uneasily with me. The focus being slightly off-set looks more like accident than purpose. It bothers me not because it's off-set... but the fact that links border both sides.... some given a lot of space... some given little.
Just seems *weird*.

I'm very comfortable with your colour choices as I skim the page downwards. But again, I hit a snag. Where the content area meets the footer, things don't jive well for my eyes. I haven't been able to pin down why that area bothers me and the top doesn't. The only thing I can come up with is that you've got that "extra" section of space that sports the same background colour as the content area down there.
I imagine that your intent is to keep things balanced by having that there.... but I think things get a little too "liney" with no *stuff* to fill the spaces. At the minimum, I'd take a look at the page without that block of space there. Not all of your pages have that chunk. Maybe it's something you're already thinking about/toyed with.

Your design, though it doesn't give me the "lonely" feel described above by SPyX, jumped right out at me with the fact that it doesn't cover much of the page. Personal preferences I suppose.......... I happen to browse with a maximized window. Although it doesn't bother me too much on the main page, some of the subpages really get hurt by it. The "Sketches" pages being the most obvious examples.
I'm quite content with the height of the main page... and I would personally rather see heights of the content "window" at least the same as the main page. To see a large chunk of tan space in the middle as opposed to the sight of nearly my entire screen being grey, would be preferable.
****** And I've just noticed that the main page's height is dependent on the length of the "random wisdom".
Regardless... I think I've made my views clear enough through this little section of babble.

One other thing I might consider (or take a look at) is making it so the buttons on the bottom are on top of that green-ish stripe going across the page. Then maybe slipping the copyright to the bottom of the content window. Just a quick thought.

A few random things that kinda scratch at my skin....
The word "navigate".... not capitalized. (and "sections" in the "asylum stuff" section) It looks odd when thrown into the fray. It looks like a mistake, really (until you see the same thing in the "asylum stuff" section). To add to that.... "navigate" and the date don't sit on the same horizontal plane as the actual navigation buttons. Weird.
I love the hover states. Mo' orange!
While I'm still on the capitalization kick: The copyright line.... "Copyright © 2003 Jamie Briggs. in-dented.com"
Then in your banner of sorts..... the D is capitalized. Nit-picky, I know. ~ Just thought that I'd mention it was noticed.
On the main page I noticed "Database" was capitalized. Is there a reason? Am I wrong for thinking that it shouldn't be?

The content on the main page says that "Updates are listed to the right". Where?
On the right, all I see is links to other stuff.

Tried to click "random wisdom" because I thought it was a link at first. No-go. I'd take the underline off.... as well as size it down to the same size as the text underneath.
Might even evenly space the quote between the texts above and below it.
- Looked around a bit more on the main page and for some reason (I really have no idea why) I came to the conclusion that the "more" at the bottom of the center content area was going to tell me more about the site. Kinda threw me off when I got to a whole new page that wasn't linked in the actual navigation. I like the fact that it's not one of the navigation links... but I think you should move the "more" up to the same line as "There are 75 quotes by 47 authors." Make the "more" line up with the right side of the box around the quote as well.

Had some weirdness happen while I was hoppin' through pages. One time on the main page, the vertical lines didn't stretch through the entire content area to the bottom. They stopped about 15px too short. I've tried refreshing numerous times, but it hasn't happened again.

On the "Sketches" page. The "Mid" section thumbnail is a little off. It's a bit high and left.

You've apparently got a thing for random hyphens at the end of phrases or sentences -
"Newest entries on the last gallery -"
"my Comments area (places a publicly viewable comment on the page) -"
Two other places you've used them on the "About" page could be replaced with colons. Personal prefs.

On the "Links" page:
I think it's safe to ditch the "

Very Nice. I like it much better than the last one. =)

Although, I've got a few nit picks. Firstly, the type feels chunky as your links are bolded, which realy breaks things up and makes it look too busy for my liking. Secondly, again with the type, there's just a little too much going on for my tastes; different sizes, different weights, some italic, some not, some blue, some back, some read/brown...

I also think relaxing some of the 1px lines, either a lighter less contrasting shade or removing some all togther might help with the cluttered~ness. More general white space and line spacing might be good too. It looks a little like a classical table bound site -- which is impressive CSS work, but it does look a tad aged due to the clutered and boxed off nature.

Yup, that's about it really. Oh and I love your preference for unique colour combinations.