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

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.

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

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.

Flanders · 6 Dec 2006 at 11:59

Mr_L said:
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.

Thanks, it does look more appealing now there is actually something in there.

The only thing I'm not totally happy with now is the portfolio section, I'm not keen on the small previews, they dont seem to fit in any more, so I'm currently trying to re-think these. I'm leaning towards not having previews and just listing the different pieces, with some fancy typography.

With regards to the alignment, I may have been staring at it for too long, but I personally don't see it as a problem, I gave it a quick go with the navigation and main logo centralised and it looked a bit odd.

Flanders · 6 Dec 2006 at 13:47

edwardcasbon1 said:
Using IE6, it has a problem.

Its to do with the latest offerings bit. The description/title of the image has a weird background in it, I presume that shouldnt be there?

Im on Windows, IE6, 1280*1024 (if that helps?)

Could you grab a screenshot please? Only got access to IE7 here at the moment.

Flanders · 6 Dec 2006 at 14:09

Ah ha, thanks. Those are in the process of being changed so not to worry.

Flanders · 8 Dec 2006 at 14:46

Mattus said:
The actual site design is too good for me to criticise But a couple of things: the header image links to a non-existent index.htm and gives a 404, and there are also quite a few typos/spelling mistakes - would present a more professional image if they were squashed, although I know you're focusing on design for now!

Seems I can't spell available

Thanks for heads up on the header, I hadn't spotted that.

I wouldn't mind people's opinions on the lists used to display some of the portfolio pieces, I'm tempted to display all the items like this, and get rid of the small previews, which are causing some bother.