Yet Another New Design

Flanders · 5 Dec 2006 at 17:46

Having only recently re-designed my web site, I have never been totally satisfied. I knocked this one up last night, and had planned to convert the current design to this, but looking at it the day after, as always, has brought doubts. Looking at it today, I cant help but think its a tad on the "bland" side.

There is absolutely no content in the below link, its purely the template. Comments and criticisms are welcomed, and I'd also like to hear your opinions on whether or not you think changing over is worth the hassle

http://www.simplestuff.co.uk/new/

As always, if you find any glitches, please let me know.

EDIT:

Transfered to http://www.simplestuff.co.uk

Mp4 · 5 Dec 2006 at 17:52

Seems nice and clean

what programs did you use?

RandomTom · 5 Dec 2006 at 17:54

Very nice, everything seems to be in place and it all fits very well, makes mine look inadequate. If I was you I might increase the amount of pattern you see in the background though.

Definitely an improvement.

Mp4 said:
Seems nice and clean what programs did you use?

I hope he just used text-based notepad-esque software, no need for wysiwyg dreamweaver in the web design world. notepad ++ for the win.

Flanders · 5 Dec 2006 at 17:55

Mp4 said:
Seems nice and clean what programs did you use?

Thanks. I used The GIMP and Photoshop for the graphics and NotePad++ for the code.

EDIT:

Cheers RandomTom

I'll give the pattern a whirl.

Sic · 5 Dec 2006 at 17:59

seeing as it's a design, i didn't even look at the source. that's a gorgeous design mate. i love the pattern down the right hand side. it's very alistapart

nice one

ooh, just a couple of things:

try running your headers 100% of the div width...they seem to be floating in nowhere.

also, your border on the right looks wrong with the part right at the top of the page. don't really know what you could do about it, but that 1px light line looks wrong to me. maybe it's just me though

Mp4 · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:03

Ah cool

. i'm trying to get into Php been reading sites which peeps have reccomended all quite going over my head atm :/ i'm quite naff at graphics too ..lol

suarve · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:21

Very nice and clean, like it a lot. On a personal note, i'd center the main site. I'm looking at it on a 19" widescreen and the red to the left stands out too much for my liking.

It seems, like myself aswell, that your sufferring from the following silly CSS error from the validator, as you've used a background image:

Code:

Line : 27 (Level : 1) You have no color with your background-color : #top

Really would like to know how people get around that.

suarve · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:22

Mp4 said:
Ah cool . i'm trying to get into Php been reading sites which peeps have reccomended all quite going over my head atm :/ i'm quite naff at graphics too ..lol

still think the best way is to just build up a site and read tutorials as you go along - that way you can see what you've just learned being put into practice straight away.

lozza · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:41

suarve said:
Very nice and clean, like it a lot. On a personal note, i'd center the main site. I'm looking at it on a 19" widescreen and the red to the left stands out too much for my liking.

I'd have to agree with this, centre the site and put the nice right hand edge on the left as well, and all is well as far as i can see - thumbs up

joeyjojo · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:42

Very nice design. Good job

Normally I have comments, but it's fine. The brown's a bit mank perhaps, and the red perhaps a little overpowering.

suarve said:
Really would like to know how people get around that.

It's a warning, not an error. If it's possible, just add a background-color:#xxxxxx; property. This ensures browsers in accessibility mode can read text, in case the background isn't rendered for example. If it's impossible, maybe because there is no uniform color to choose, don't worry about it.

Sic · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:48

Code:

background: none;

would that work?

suarve · 5 Dec 2006 at 18:58

Sic said:
Code:

background: none;

would that work?

nope tried that and background "transparent". Its all to do with accessibility, i mean there's nothing wrong with what has been put, but if you're going down the road of making everything valid a background color is needed. meh.

Wimnat · 5 Dec 2006 at 19:28

I would definitely prefer it centered and a lighter shade of brown would be nice too.

Perhaps also center the top title and menu too.

Also, maybe one size larger on the font.

D4VE · 5 Dec 2006 at 19:43

Not bad, but could do with more imagery.

Flanders · 5 Dec 2006 at 20:11

I go away for some food and come back to an influx of replies

I'll try and answer all the points brought up above.

With regards to centering the site, it was initially centered, but I wanted to try and stray away from the norm a bit, I view everything on 1280x1024, and its about half an half, but I can imagine the red takes over a tad on larger screens. I was also trying to make it viewable on 800x600, but I'm considering throwing this old habit out of the window. I'll see what I can do with regards to this.

The headers - <h1></h1> is made to be inline with the content itself, if this was 100%, it might look a little odd. <h2></h2> I had some problems with getting to look any good, the one on the page is about the 5th revision! I will have another go though, as I do agree, it does look slightly out of place.

The choice of brown was an odd one, but I thought the red took some of the harshness away, I've also tried to using it sparingly as not to over power everything else.

D4VE - You're probably right, this might come into play when I re-jig the headers.

Thanks for all the comments thus far

Augmented · 5 Dec 2006 at 20:12

suarve said:
nope tried that and background "transparent". Its all to do with accessibility, i mean there's nothing wrong with what has been put, but if you're going down the road of making everything valid a background color is needed. meh.

As has been said above, it's a warning, not an error. CSS with warnings and no errors is valid CSS. If a background colour is necessary in the design, then add it, if not then there's little point adding bloat to your stylesheet.

Flanders · 5 Dec 2006 at 23:13

OK, made some slight changes, most notably the <h2></h2> styling, and also I'm testing the portfolio layout before the transition.

joeyjojo · 5 Dec 2006 at 23:55

How about a nice shade of #87694f for the brown? Something like that?

Looking good with the h2.

Wimnat · 6 Dec 2006 at 00:07

Using a colour chart, not my screen, I like... #A06800 or #B57600 (but both might look complete jank on the screen!).

Also, it feels slightly like you can't decide on alignment...

Title is left, menu is right, second headers are centered, footnotes back on the left.

It's certainly a case of preference but it bugs me it a bit!

Mr_L · 6 Dec 2006 at 10:21

Now you've moved it over to the main site and added in your content I think it looks a lot better.

Though, I do agree with Wimnat. The different aligning of the headings and navigation does feel a bit strange. That's really just nitpicking at a good piece of work, though.