Web Design Forums

mattbl34 · 19-05-2008, 15:02

Hey all,

This is my second post, first was a few minutes ago. I have been reading DesignersTalk for months, using little bits of advice and ideas.

I am more of a developer than designer, but more photographer than developer. I have been building a community type magazine site (I am specifically avoiding "blog" here) for documentary photography.

I would appreciate all comments on the design, layout, functionality, color, anything. I want you to rip me up, tell me I am terrible, and I should hire one of you. Seriously.

Not all links work, but the basic navigation does and many other pages, but if a page takes you nowhere, I am still waiting on one section of the site to be finished by a company I hired to do it.

Be brutal!

vewd.org/index.php/photo

And before I get pegged it, Im not looking for traffic or something, ha, I need some sound design advice.

Thank you!

Soup Of The Day · 19-05-2008, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattbl34

Be brutal!

Careful what you wish for around here!

LukeV · 19-05-2008, 17:01

Looks fine to me. Not a very daring design is it?

The middle content needs better separation between the two columns. They just looked crammed together.

mattbl34 · 19-05-2008, 18:11

Its not a daring design. Its for professional documentary photographers and I wanted it to be very simple and pretty clean.... sounds cliche, I am sure. I tend to design quite minimalist, so this site is actually a bit daring for me.

What might need some more attention? I am working on the navigation right now, so it might look a bit strange if your looking now.

mattbl34 · 19-05-2008, 18:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soup Of The Day

Careful what you wish for around here!

haha! Yes, I know... I'm hoping for some brutality.

bazzle · 19-05-2008, 19:44

Time to administer some brutality...

The text in the box on the right doesn't justify very well and looks awkward.
Using a different serifed font for the first two words doesn't make sense and looks ridiculous.
The quality of the main image is poor.
The tabs aren't connected to anything.
The positioning of the logo is weird. Doesn't look right.
The footer looks disjointed from the rest of the site.
On the photo pages, the right column is a mass of white space.

illvibe · 19-05-2008, 19:53

Your type is all over the place. Sort out your leading, kerning and padding!

mattbl34 · 19-05-2008, 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by bazzle

Time to administer some brutality...

The text in the box on the right doesn't justify very well and looks awkward.
Using a different serifed font for the first two words doesn't make sense and looks ridiculous.
The quality of the main image is poor.
The tabs aren't connected to anything.
The positioning of the logo is weird. Doesn't look right.
The footer looks disjointed from the rest of the site.
On the photo pages, the right column is a mass of white space.

I did some adusting to the text box, but I still don't feel it is quite right.
I removed the serif font.
The image is a test image, just to demo. But I changed it as well.
The tabs are now connected, or should be.
The logo.... I have no idea what to do with it, any suggestions?
I am working on the footer now and the white space. Any suggestions on how to correct those last two? Im not sure how to more incorporate the footer, and that white space, I don't know what to do with it.

Thank you for the brutality. I am hoping for more!

John Good · 20-05-2008, 07:33

page lacks padding
text lacks leading
footer lacks everything

bazzle · 20-05-2008, 09:51

You still need to sort out the box on the right. Increase the leading in the first paragraph.

The logo tabs and footer look much improved you've still got the problems with whitespace though.

You should increase the width of your content and budge the sidebar over to fill the whitespace.

mattbl34 · 20-05-2008, 23:49

I have cleaned up the whitespace on the main page. As for the one below the large photo gallery, could anyone offer advice as to what they might do with it? I would like to keep the left content the same width. It seems my options are this:

Center the left content - bringing the right content fully right with 10px padding on each side. Leaves 254px whitespace on the left side of the left content.
Leave left content and somehow spread the right out. The 1st module, the contact list, isn't really any wider in any fashion. The e-mail form could be widened but wouldn't that draw too much attention to it and away from the main content?
Put contact links on left, center the current left content, and put e-mail form on right.
OR give in and widen the main contents to 3/4 of the page, keeping all right content as is.

What do you think? Any other places that need some attention?

sukino · 21-05-2008, 01:45

I have noticed in the about page, the right Headers font color is too light. You might want to consider a slightly darker grey.

So, in the submit page, you might want to consider a link to return to the home page or something.

ak-47 · 21-05-2008, 10:29

Quote:

I am more of a developer than designer, but more photographer than developer.

Yikes! You can say that again dude!

mattbl34 · 21-05-2008, 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by ak-47

Yikes! You can say that again dude!

What is that supposed to mean!?

ak-47 · 21-05-2008, 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattbl34

What is that supposed to mean!?

Don't like it @ all + everything is massive

bjzaba · 25-05-2008, 04:09

The black lines around the tabs, buttons and images are distracting. Plus the hierachy with the line weights is wierd. Ie. the lines in the header are thin, where as the lines around the the images are heavy. It should be the other way around. Or you could get rid of them altogether (giving the header/footer darker backgrounds of course). And there isnt enough contrast on the "go to essay" buttons.

Good luck!

bazzle · 25-05-2008, 12:20

I see you've widened the main copy, definately the right choice.

You could tighten it up more by decreasing the width of your site. It's currently well over 1000px. It's recommended you go no higher than 960 width to accomodate people who use a smaller res.

You might have to rejig your layout a bit or resize some of the images on the homepage, but it's worth it making the site more usable for a lot of people that still use 1024 x 768.

seen.to · 25-05-2008, 12:51

Lose the letter-spacing: .05em from the body - fucks the kerning up real bad. Stick with the default for this. Everything will look that little bit better if you do that.

Do what bazzle said about resizing.

There's a feeling of disconnection between the pages, they don't follow the same feel at all.

On the browse page, once you have resized to fit within 1024, choose a more even thumbnail size, maybe fit 3 to the width rather than the 2 you have where the extra space looks somewhat awkward.

Everything all over the place which is particularly apparent on the browse page. Look down the left of your page, nothing is lining up. Look at the gap between the thumbs, different in every direction.

What's with the random box on the about page?

mattbl34 · 27-05-2008, 23:27

I will take all this into consideration! I agree about the disassociation between pages, I am going to clean them all up tomorrow morning. I have been working for literally 24 hours now on a sticker design that I intended to take a few hours at most. So much for that....

Thanks again everyone! If you have any other ideas I am def. open.

mx · 28-05-2008, 05:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by seen.to

Lose the letter-spacing: .05em from the body

plus remove the font-variant declaration from the titles. Instantly looks 10x times better.

The logo could easily go way smaller too.

19-05-2008, 15:02	#1 (permalink)
mattbl34 Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 34	New design, would appreciate any comments Hey all, This is my second post, first was a few minutes ago. I have been reading DesignersTalk for months, using little bits of advice and ideas. I am more of a developer than designer, but more photographer than developer. I have been building a community type magazine site (I am specifically avoiding "blog" here) for documentary photography. I would appreciate all comments on the design, layout, functionality, color, anything. I want you to rip me up, tell me I am terrible, and I should hire one of you. Seriously. Not all links work, but the basic navigation does and many other pages, but if a page takes you nowhere, I am still waiting on one section of the site to be finished by a company I hired to do it. Be brutal! vewd.org/index.php/photo And before I get pegged it, Im not looking for traffic or something, ha, I need some sound design advice. Thank you!

19-05-2008, 19:44	#6 (permalink)
bazzle Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Derby uk Posts: 455	Time to administer some brutality... The text in the box on the right doesn't justify very well and looks awkward. Using a different serifed font for the first two words doesn't make sense and looks ridiculous. The quality of the main image is poor. The tabs aren't connected to anything. The positioning of the logo is weird. Doesn't look right. The footer looks disjointed from the rest of the site. On the photo pages, the right column is a mass of white space.

20-05-2008, 07:33	#9 (permalink)
John Good + Join Date: May 2005 Location: Tropical Networks Posts: 1,365	page lacks padding text lacks leading footer lacks everything __________________ Fonts are like cologne: A bad choice speaks louder than a good one. Justin Feinstein

20-05-2008, 23:49	#11 (permalink)
mattbl34 Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 34	I have cleaned up the whitespace on the main page. As for the one below the large photo gallery, could anyone offer advice as to what they might do with it? I would like to keep the left content the same width. It seems my options are this: Center the left content - bringing the right content fully right with 10px padding on each side. Leaves 254px whitespace on the left side of the left content. Leave left content and somehow spread the right out. The 1st module, the contact list, isn't really any wider in any fashion. The e-mail form could be widened but wouldn't that draw too much attention to it and away from the main content? Put contact links on left, center the current left content, and put e-mail form on right. OR give in and widen the main contents to 3/4 of the page, keeping all right content as is. What do you think? Any other places that need some attention?

25-05-2008, 12:51	#18 (permalink)
seen.to unusual suspect ™ Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: DE, USA Posts: 2,763	Lose the letter-spacing: .05em from the body - fucks the kerning up real bad. Stick with the default for this. Everything will look that little bit better if you do that. Do what bazzle said about resizing. There's a feeling of disconnection between the pages, they don't follow the same feel at all. On the browse page, once you have resized to fit within 1024, choose a more even thumbnail size, maybe fit 3 to the width rather than the 2 you have where the extra space looks somewhat awkward. Everything all over the place which is particularly apparent on the browse page. Look down the left of your page, nothing is lining up. Look at the gap between the thumbs, different in every direction. What's with the random box on the about page? __________________ [[proverbs and quotes]] [[blog]] [[work]] [[photowebby - some photo's by me]]

19-05-2008, 17:01	#3 (permalink)
LukeV Best custom title ever. Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 205	Looks fine to me. Not a very daring design is it? The middle content needs better separation between the two columns. They just looked crammed together.

19-05-2008, 18:11	#4 (permalink)
mattbl34 Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 34	Its not a daring design. Its for professional documentary photographers and I wanted it to be very simple and pretty clean.... sounds cliche, I am sure. I tend to design quite minimalist, so this site is actually a bit daring for me. What might need some more attention? I am working on the navigation right now, so it might look a bit strange if your looking now.

19-05-2008, 19:53	#7 (permalink)
illvibe say werd. Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Japan Posts: 1,271	Your type is all over the place. Sort out your leading, kerning and padding!

20-05-2008, 09:51	#10 (permalink)
bazzle Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Derby uk Posts: 455	You still need to sort out the box on the right. Increase the leading in the first paragraph. The logo tabs and footer look much improved you've still got the problems with whitespace though. You should increase the width of your content and budge the sidebar over to fill the whitespace.

21-05-2008, 01:45	#12 (permalink)
sukino Voice in your head Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 58	I have noticed in the about page, the right Headers font color is too light. You might want to consider a slightly darker grey. So, in the submit page, you might want to consider a link to return to the home page or something.

25-05-2008, 04:09	#16 (permalink)
bjzaba Design Student Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 183	The black lines around the tabs, buttons and images are distracting. Plus the hierachy with the line weights is wierd. Ie. the lines in the header are thin, where as the lines around the the images are heavy. It should be the other way around. Or you could get rid of them altogether (giving the header/footer darker backgrounds of course). And there isnt enough contrast on the "go to essay" buttons. Good luck!

25-05-2008, 12:20	#17 (permalink)
bazzle Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Derby uk Posts: 455	I see you've widened the main copy, definately the right choice. You could tighten it up more by decreasing the width of your site. It's currently well over 1000px. It's recommended you go no higher than 960 width to accomodate people who use a smaller res. You might have to rejig your layout a bit or resize some of the images on the homepage, but it's worth it making the site more usable for a lot of people that still use 1024 x 768.

27-05-2008, 23:27	#19 (permalink)
mattbl34 Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 34	I will take all this into consideration! I agree about the disassociation between pages, I am going to clean them all up tomorrow morning. I have been working for literally 24 hours now on a sticker design that I intended to take a few hours at most. So much for that.... Thanks again everyone! If you have any other ideas I am def. open.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search