Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Web Programming and Design => Topic started by: ZippyDee on April 22, 2011, 04:27:08 am
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I'm working on a website, and I'm looking for some comments/criticism/suggestions/etc. on the design and layout. I only have the main page up right now, and I'm still just playing around with the layout, so the content is subject to change. Ignore things like the crappy border on the image. Also, I haven't set any font/link colors yet, so suggestions for those would be useful, too. As of about 30 minutes ago I'm teaching myself php, so the text for the "events" box is parsed using php from an xml file. The info displayed on this page is condensed, and more will be displayed on the calendar page when the links are actually active -.-
Here's a link: http://extendedroots.soupinabox.com/ (http://extendedroots.soupinabox.com/)
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Really nice background and layout :D Lots of graphics but still soft enough that it doesn't annoy visitors.
Some suggestions, if you don't mind:
- Title: Have you tried making it "pop in" instead of out? Just soften up the colors (light brown, like the leaves) and make the shadow inset. IMHO that would make it look more natural and unified.
- Navbar: A bit too faint, in my opinion. Expecially on some computers where the color change becomes too faint to be clear and just obvious enough to be annoying, like matching two colors that are just a tiny bit off from one another.
- Links: Blue's a bit too drastic of a change from the main site theme. Default colors and underlining also make it seem amateur; maybe make them brown, and a lighter brown on hover or something?
- Text: You're probably gonna change the font, so can I suggest font-family: "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif? I think it would look nice with the rest of the page. For colors, I'd suggest a dark brown or dark olive green. Keep headings darker than the rest of the text if you do that.
Just my own suggestions. You don't have to take them if you want, but some ideas if you want :)
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Really nice background and layout :D Lots of graphics but still soft enough that it doesn't annoy visitors.
Some suggestions, if you don't mind:
- Title: Have you tried making it "pop in" instead of out? Just soften up the colors (light brown, like the leaves) and make the shadow inset. IMHO that would make it look more natural and unified.
- Navbar: A bit too faint, in my opinion. Expecially on some computers where the color change becomes too faint to be clear and just obvious enough to be annoying, like matching two colors that are just a tiny bit off from one another.
- Links: Blue's a bit too drastic of a change from the main site theme. Default colors and underlining also make it seem amateur; maybe make them brown, and a lighter brown on hover or something?
- Text: You're probably gonna change the font, so can I suggest font-family: "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif? I think it would look nice with the rest of the page. For colors, I'd suggest a dark brown or dark olive green. Keep headings darker than the rest of the text if you do that.
Just my own suggestions. You don't have to take them if you want, but some ideas if you want :)
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll definitely try making it "pop in" and see how that looks. I'm constantly looking at new design ideas, and that one really interests me. As for the navigation, I've been meaning to lighten that shade for a while now, and I've just been forgetting. And honestly, I haven't touched text or link colors at all yet, mostly because I haven't really known what colors I should use, so thanks a lot for your color suggestions! :)
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And another thing: Stretching the background-image? It's left-loaded on my monitor because the window's too wide for it. And remember that computer screens are only gonna get wider and wider ;D
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I'd highly recommend that the navigation bar doesn't have a background... Other than that, it's pretty nice.
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And another thing: Stretching the background-image? It's left-loaded on my monitor because the window's too wide for it. And remember that computer screens are only gonna get wider and wider ;D
I'm most likely going to make a tiled background to fill the space behind the corner decoration. In order to make that image large enough to not pixelate with scaling, the filesize is going to end up gigantic (as if it isn't already), so I think that will likely stay stationary, at least for now.
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I'd highly recommend that the navigation bar doesn't have a background... Other than that, it's pretty nice.
Or making it more obvious. Anything that's not awkwardly in between :)
And another thing: Stretching the background-image? It's left-loaded on my monitor because the window's too wide for it. And remember that computer screens are only gonna get wider and wider ;D
I'm most likely going to make a tiled background to fill the space behind the corner decoration. In order to make that image large enough to not pixelate with scaling, the filesize is going to end up gigantic (as if it isn't already), so I think that will likely stay stationary, at least for now.
Yeah, filesize is a problem. Another suggestion: How about the way Omnimaga does the banner in theme 4 (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?theme=3)? There's a left-justified stationary graphic that merges into a tiled pattern, so it works for any window size.
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Another suggestion: How about the way Omnimaga does the banner in theme 4 (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?theme=3)? There's a left-justified stationary graphic that merges into a tiled pattern, so it works for any window size.
That's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking. The only hard part now will be making the tiled pattern so it still flows smoothly. But I definitely do agree that it needs SOMETHING in the back besides that solid color.
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Alright, I'm working on a background texture, but I've modified the navigation bar to Scout's tastes (hopefully :P) and I've at least made the nav links functional. I've been working on the layout for the calendar a bit, so I could use some input on that for sure. No other major changes yet, but it's getting somewhere! :D
More input is still greatly appreciated! :)
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It looks great!
One thing that you should do is nudge that nav bar a little to the left. The right edge extends beyond the border of the green rectangle-content-thing, which looks a little weird: try making it line up, or at least not stick out like that.
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Looks great Zippy, much better than their old site that they had. I would move that navbar to the left like Michael said. I like the colors and I think everything fits well together.