[Mrs Harris]

Just putting together a design for a new site (Chaffr - a soon to be released super duper 2.0 webapp) and would like some feedback please.

This is the first time I've really put the design together in a graphics package first (used Inkscape if you're interested).

The content is all pretty much dummy (as you can see) and there shall be some more some graphics when it's live but I'd still like opinions on the overall design... logo, layout, colours etc.

I'm not overly sure about the red background to the content on the right but I was looking to emphasise it somehow.

Anyhoo... see datamad.co.uk/chaffr/layout_01.png and thanks in advance.

[brooks]

I dislike pretty much all of it, if I'm being brutally honest.

For starters, I think the content is all too constrained within those big thick black borders, and with each new bit of news being separated within its own bubble it seems too disjointed to me.

Type wise, I'd emphasise the logo in a completely different way in the top bar, infact I'd want you to reorganise the content so as not into bubbles but flowing sections. My eyes aren't drawn to anything, especially not the red navigation on the right, bad choice of red tbh.

The menu nav and the footer are pretty bad, there's no sense of grid throughout but it's made worse with this. I hope this'll give you some ideas where to move on in the future, mainly:

• Colour choice
• Logo, and typography
• Layout in grid form
• Lose the bubbles and black
• Organisation and flow.

Good luck having a rework, my recommendations go out towards reading all the CSS Galleries you can find for an up to date style e.g: CSS Remix | A Fresh Blend of the Best-Designed Web 2.0 Sites

[Mrs Harris]

Thanks for the honesty, that's what I'm after.

The red on the right was a concern from the start so I've given it a gradient on the header item... it's not for navigation though so think it should stay there.

I've reduced the borders to each section and the rounded corners from the core content... I'm of the opinion that this is an improvement (I hope you lot are too).

I've also re-jigged the menu nav working on the alignment... thanks for the pointer as I think this works better now too.

Update can be see here datamad.co.uk/chaffr/layout_02.png

Further opinions are of course more than welcome.

[f-thom]

Yeh... the second one is much better. I think that the background should be lightened a bit and perhaps the login part at the side should be reconsidered to look a bit less like just text - have a look at some other websites with login features... most have kind of pannels at the top rather than just writing! I also think the search bar should be a bit smaller.

[f-thom]

Here's another one!! (i've just had another look and thought of this!) the rounded corners look a bit, well, rubbish (to put it bluntly) I think that they should only be rounded at the very edges of the page and not at every corner and that applies to the footer aswell... hope that makes sense!!!

[2Dfruit]

scrap it. I don't like it at all. There's no professionalism at all in it. Do as Brooks said and have a look at the caliber of your competition. Then compare them.

[Mrs Harris]

Right, made some more changes (I hear you folks saying it's all poor but I'm gonna persevere for the time being)... only subtle ones but the look has greatly changed I think.
Version 3 is at datamad.co.uk/chaffr/layout_03.png

I've added some more gradients to add some more repitition and also removed some curved borders (as per feedback... I think). The borders around the main content areas have been reduced again.

Please let me know what you think now and also if it's going in the right direction.

Ta again.

[foolfodder]

Please make / get a better logo. Then go from there.



___________________________
I'm not a professional designer. My opinion is just an opinion.