5 Reviews7 Votes1 Favorite445 Views
Concept Reviews
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Hi Serina, this is a really nice looking site. You have made strong improvements from your previous versions of this design. The only things I would suggest is using icons instead of text for your connect section in the footer and bringing the content in the right colum of your third content area under your header away from the edge of the page.
On the connect section, it seems more practical and would allow your visitors to take a quick glance at that area and get the gist of it.
On the content in the right colum of your third content area under your header, it just seems to close to me.
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Serina Patterson commented:Thanks for your suggestions, Jamal. I was debating on whether or not to add icons in the footer, but thought text would be okay since I have rss / twitter info above the page fold. I'll see if adding in icons works at the bottom as well. Also, you have good point about the right column.
Cheers, Serina
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Great job with this design, Serina.
I definitely like the concept with the image contained with the rest of the site, but I think the content tags, slideshow controls, and read more is a little much. Is the image caption necessary? Perhaps you could just combine it in the yellow title block and hang it over the page like you do in the most read and categories titles down the page.
I think the continue reading links and the more links conflict a little. I think it would look better if you just hyperlinked the entire block of text, gave it an underline style and on hover made the underline go away. Then, the more articles, tutorials, etc... would look fine if they were left aligned.
Lastly, there are a few elements that don't fit well in your 4 column grid.
- The top story of the month picture should extend to the right a little more. I don't think its necessary to make it the 1/4 width to fit perfectly in that 3rd column if you extend it. In this case, the text and the image would account for 3/4 of the width.
- The recent screencast images should be widened slightly and aligned properly in their grid columns.
- The footer sections should make better use of the 4 column grid as well.
Other than those minor tweaks, you are in great shape!
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Serina Patterson commented:
Thanks for the helpful feedback, Andy! I see what you mean about the conflicting links - I'm going to take your advice and simplify the blocks (will make for less elements on the page as well :))
I added the slideshow controls, blurb, and content tags for usability reasons - originally I was going to just have a linking title and a "read more," but folks suggested a bit of content would make more sense. Changing the yellow title background to overhang and wrap instead of the beige might look better, so I'm going to give that a try :)
Thanks for catching the grid issues too. This is my first time working with a grid and I must say it really makes you think about where content can be organized. In the end, though, I think the effort will pay off.
Cheers, Serina
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Hello Serina,
Nice work that you've don their! About design I've nothing to say, but only on the spacings between different sections.
I had a long day at work so it could be that I'm writing bad English ;), so I'll try to be as clear as possible :)
The space on the left side of the content is bigger then the space between content and sidebar, I recommend to keep it the same distance. Same thing for the sidebar, your text is almost on the border.
To keep it simple and short, try to keep the spaces between sections and text coherent, this way it won't be a bit "weird" when your reading.
I can give some more examples but I will do this later on if you want ;)
All the best ;)
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Very Good
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I honestly dont know what happened here. Personally, I liked v3 better.
Here is what I dont think works:
ORANGE NAV: The orange looks really ugly to me.. Thats all i have to say...
BACKGROUND: The thing i like din v3 WAS the background, how the "slider" was incorperated into the background. besides being a boring background, its a boring color...
COLORS: I can see you were trying to go with a more down to earth color scheme, But I dont think it was executed well, I see brown, Orange, grey, Blue, green, and then more orange.
FONTS: I actually like the fonts you chose :) I think if you put them together with an earthy design it will look really nice. (5AM Gender?)
Anyway, I wish i had more too say. Overall its a solid layout, but I'm not liking the navigation, header, or color scheme.
Hopefully I'm not just tired or something.
NOTE I would add some padding to the "Most read" and "catagories" tabs, I mean vertical padding. THAT, or you could have no vertical padding so the words kind of blend into the background! :)
Good luck, Sorry for the low stars. :|
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Serina Patterson commented:
I guess this just isn't your cup-of-tea ;)
The font is actually called "Bebas" - http://www.dafont.com/bebas.font
I changed the colour scheme to reflect a more traditional palette (brown, orange, green) that would go well with a variety of images for the slideshow. The body links are blue as per convention. I also changed the slideshow to reflect a professional feel, which makes it look more like a magazine. I liked the slideshow as background idea too, but I think that this direction is better suited to the target audience.
Nevertheless, I added in a third image here with a modified version of the original idea for comparison. If folks prefer that version, then I might revert back to that one.
Thanks for the suggestion about the vertical padding.
Cheers, Serina
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HA! I have one more point than you!