The design (validating XHTML and all) can be found at http://dev.danwa.net.
It's version 0.3 of the design (and yes, I do give all of my designs version numbers. Technically speaking it's 14.3) and so far I'm fairly content with it. I've tried a lot of different things but I want it to be subtle yet attractive.
Any takers for crits and comments? :)
It's looking good mate.
But does that standard banner have to be there?
I don't like it when adverts are at the top pushing the main webpage down.
If you have to have a banner I think it would look more snug underneath the grey navigation bar... up to you of course but thts my personal preference.
The problem is that I realize I need to have bannerspace, but I don't want it to interfere with the design itself. Pushing it down is better than taking up space INSIDE of the design :)
That's why I did it this way. Though in the end it might end up as a bunch of smaller project wonderful buttons, so it'll be pushed down less.
I really like the design! My only complaint is that the blurry dithering in the red area (especially around the dot and n) tends to hold my eye.
The banner isn't that bad. It's far enough away that it doesn't take away from the layout.
I'm not a huge fan of the red, it's too blood looking. Like Candall said, it's blurry, but I think a less bold color will make it less of a problem.
The sidebar could be more to the right. It sits pretty far away from the border. Even if the text gets moved, I think it'll look better.
The login box is confusing. The layout is ok, but labeling name and password and changing forever to "keep me logged in" or something would help make it look less unfinished.
I like it! Functional, simple, nice.
What I'd change is colors of main menu: It's dark grey, very boring and tiresome color. Make it more reddish, so it would match logo part better or find another way to match logo and menu colors. I don't have much to say about design, it's good. But I'd make some rollover effect to main menu buttons, it's always nice to look at.
And prefer low-saturation colors. You started off with strong contrast, which is always something to handle with extreme care.
Are "news" and "home" different things? If not, combine them into one. The less options, the user-friendlier.
What about putting the banner at the bottom of the page?
Then your users would see your page first and then the advert.
Quote from: InCreator on Sat 08/09/2007 20:18:25
Are "news" and "home" different things? If not, combine them into one. The less options, the user-friendlier.
They are, home is a sort of homescreen with all kinds of useful info about your own account (new comments on your stories, deadline coming up of a contest you entered into, new messages, etc.) while news is site-specific news, which will be linked from the homescreen as well. Don't want to dedicate a lot of space of the homescreen to site news.
And concerning the banner, placing the banner on the bottom would mean I wouldn't be able to charge the same as a banner at the top. It's such a big difference that I'd rather have no banner than one at the bottom.
The login box thing is a good suggestion. I'll label the fields and change forever to remember me.
Thanks so far :)
Yeah, I think the banner up there is fine.
EDIT: Try making the "forever" text and its corresponding checkbox centered in their cells. Just curious if that'd look better.