I am wondering if I could get a review of the look and feel.
One thing that I think might be the biggest detractor from the site is the lack of color.
It is black, dark gray, and red. Some additional color peaking in there might do it some good. It almost has that conspiracy theory motif (although that tends to have more white). It might find some benefit from an introduced blue or gold color, but I can not seem to figure out a good place to inject color as to not detract from the text area.
I quite like it myself. Just one thing that slightly bugs me: I know that a short line width is easier to read, but I feel the text area might be slightly too narrow... i would add 50px to it (especially that some text doesn't fit in it).
Also, I like the graphic (the zombie head), but I sort of feel like seeing some graphics going a bit further down ,and to the right, in the background.
The use of colours doesn't bother me; however, you might want to use a different colour in the right hand side, if you're going to stick something there...
I quite like it's style, but I'm really not a fan of the thin width. As Kimson already said, there is an ideal word per line limit (I think it's around 10), so perhaps you could consider making the column wider and increase the font-size.
It's really that the font is too small, it just seems too difficult to read, and you've got plenty to read in there. The serif text is especially hard to read.
I would consider...
1: Increasing column width, and font size.
2: Introducing more accents/graphics to help break up the text and give the reader some motivation to keep reading.
I second Blaise in addition to what I suggested before - although I cannot find the serif text. I do need glasses, but the font size does put me off reading - although the content seems very interesting - and the line-height does my eyes in a little bit too.
I'd think about having a "fixed"-position background instead of letting that wallpaper pattern scroll with the text. Irritates me very much as it is.
Having that zombie head in fixed position could work well too, IMO.
The font size is okay with me, although I'd also prefer *somewhat* larger text... adding 1px of font size would make it around Asylum size.
The logo could also use some more padding all around. Perhaps generally some more white space between text lines and to the left & right of paragraphs to reduce that somewhat "jolted" look of the white content strip?
Try adding a touch of color..by changing the color of the date...that date line is now pale grey
The text is technical and well written so any real Color color or graphic not related to the material may be distracting to the reader but a touch of color..such as an ice blue or mint green for the date line in the headings might give it a subtle set off.
I don't really have a problem with the line length here (which appears to be about eight to ten words), but I wonder about the decision to fully justify the text. When you have lines this short, word spacing is going to be quite erratic with fully justified text. Line length is not the only thing you need to consider--you also need to think about consistency in word spacing.
I wonder what the text would like left justified (ragged right). Let me do a quick experiment.
quote:
In the example above you have a good deal of
verbosity, but at the same time if you end up
wanting to make a change to the display of your
bakegoods template you will most likely have to
open 3 different files to figure out where to make
the change. The template names are really long
but they are not actually very descriptive as to
their functionality. A better option would be
something along the lines of.
That's a sample paragraph from the website (I hope you don't mind) done ragged right. I don't think it looks that bad. You might want to try out ragged right and see what you think. Just an idea.
All that being said, I don't find the text too difficult to read. I've just never been a fan of fully justified text, that's all.
From: Rochester, New York, USA Insane since: May 2000
posted 02-13-2007 19:05
The content is licensed under the creative commons attribution share alike non-commercial license.
What that means is that you can take all of the content put it on your own site and modify it at will. The only stipulations are that it is for non-commercial use and you attribute the original content to me, and you license any changes you make under the same rules.
So taking the paragraph of text and reworking it is exactly would I would like to see happen.
I am going over the content of the links you provided.
@all: I will definitely put some work into the column of text. A lot of ideas here. I should most likely also add a button that would allow the user to change the font size, giving the user more control often doesn't hurt.
@skyetyger: I will look into coloring the dates, that is a good idea.
@kuckus: I will play with the fixed background idea, I am not sure how that might look. It could be weird having only the text move when scrolling.
It could be weird having only the text move when scrolling.
fairly normal behavior at this point - the type of layout you've chosen is exactly the kind where a fixed background works.
I would suggest playing around with the placement of the image - it is rather detached at the moment.
I will also chime in on the 'make a wider column' side - statistically ideal sizes aside, this just looks and reads a little funny - maybe it's not even the length of the text lines, but rather the narrow visual encapsulation of the white column - it could use either more space between the text and the gradient, or simply less gradient.
As for the rest of the site -
The logo/header seems a bit sloppy, with little regard given for proper spacing. The type face itself is part of the problem, though I have no particular suggestions in that regard.
The 'zombie head' itself is a little confusing to me in regard to intent. I think I'm gathering from the content that zombie is referring to a negative side effect of society...but the head seems to be presented in a positive light. It feels less zombie and more alien to me, and seems particularly emotive for a zombie - I think something portraying the blankness/emptiness of a zombie would be more fitting for the message.
@all: I will definitely put some work into the column of text. A lot of ideas here. I should most likely also add a button that would allow the user to change the font size, giving the user more control often doesn't hurt.
I'm not so sure that using buttons to change font size is so necessary, all browsers have the functionailty to change font-size (only relative font-sizes in the case of IE6 and below), and people that would rely on such things will know about it, if you're worried that some people can't read it then maybe it is a little too small.
Regardless. When a user does change the font-size there may be reading difficulty as fewer words per line will be displayed, this can be overcome by setting your column width relatively (perhaps with em's) take a look at the following example I threw together for you...
Thanks Blaise
For the Reminder that even with 'relative" the page can disintegrate when a person clicks on the easily accessible.."text-largest" button in IE..
Opera and Mozilla have zoom features that don't tear the page so badly but
I checked my page..Oh My ..and I am relative and em styled
Have to change some margin..padding specs..
Thanks again for the heads up
War Mage...I had a thought that the Red Eye in the Demon could be outlined in a rust yellowish/gold/autumn leaf type color and the Date line could be set to the same color..
Noting garish or bold..just a touch of color ..an accent..
@DL : Your comments on my sites are bittersweet to me. You are provide me with great feedback, that I can take an use to improve my design, but at the same time I question my ability to reach those goals.
My skills with composition still need improvement. You are correct on the head image, it does not fit well. As my artistic skills are not at the same level as others here, I will most likely have to suffer with it for a time. I am not sure I have anything in my head that could improve upon it.
As for the title image, are you talking about the difference in the spacing between the Z-o and o-m. Now that I take a more critical look at it, I do see a variation in spacing of a couple of pixels. Could you elaborate on the problems you see, maybe using that I can come up with some way of fixing it.
posted 02-12-2007 15:26
