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Critique time!


Question

http://www.richardmccord.com

So I finally have the code working, just need to work on the asthetics a bit, now.

I'm a wolf fanatic, so I'm seriously in lust with my background. It doesn't seem

to be going over very well with folks that visit the site, however. Arg.

What I'm looking for is some serious critique on how to improve the look of the

site while keeping the same design structure. (If possible) The frame sucks...

this is a fact. I'm having a lot of difficulty finding something that works with my

(awesome!) wolf background, though.

The purpose of the site is, in the end, personal use to post my writing. So I need

to be able to display my stories legibly. Maybe just use a white background with

black lettering? Anyhow, ignore the My Game section... it hasn't been converted yet.

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If you're going to use this site for writing it shouldn't have so much graphic elements since they present distraction to a reader.

Anyway, background picture is not visible on smaller resolutions and even at common 1280 x 1024. Even though I wouldn't use it as a background for a reason mentioned above.

And to be honest, currently used borders aren't really working out - site looks like something from 90s.

So, I'd rather use a simple design with as little as possible graphics.

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People keep saying that... it's from the 90's, etc.

I'm not trying to break ground with new and hip, I'm

just looking for functional and legible. Thus far, I have

the functional down- it works, it's easy to maintain

and presents what I want it to present.

The problem is legibility. I understand the background

could be distraction- point taken. And I KNOW the frame

is the suck. But what do you mean by "currently used border"?

Are you talking about the frame? If so... yea, I'm trying to find

something to replace that. If I get rid of using some type of

framing all-together... it just looks "empty". Is that what you're

saying I should be shooting for?

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Yes, by border I meant type of framing - the site would sure look empty. Maybe do it thinner.

Don't really know. I can hardy give you more explicit advices since this isn't really my type of site.

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To be honest, it's awful. People are not going to stay on the site long enough to read the things that you have written, no matter how great they are.

The worst thing you can do to yourself is the injustice of not attracting people to what you want them to see, be it hidden away via many clicks or in a site that confuses your eyes.

For a site that will mostly contain stories, you want them to be legible and readable for longer periods of time. To give an idea, my suggestion would be to have a white background and the colour of the text not to be black, but a dark grey, it's easier on the eye. I'd go as far as saying you don't really need any graphical elements - Keep it simple and let the content speak for itself :)

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The problem is legibility. I understand the background

could be distraction- point taken. And I KNOW the frame

is the suck. But what do you mean by "currently used border"?

Are you talking about the frame? If so... yea, I'm trying to find

something to replace that. If I get rid of using some type of

framing all-together... it just looks "empty". Is that what you're

saying I should be shooting for?

Address these issues, and you should be fine.

It looks somewhat outdated, but I like the simplistic feel that you are going for.

Also, I was thinking that the site looks too dark.

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I've been playing games, like you, since my childhood. At 39, I'd say I've been playing for quite some time. I've put this site together with the hopes of getting a message out to game designers; specifically, online RPG game designers.

I'm fed up with where we are right now. I'm just not feeling like the hours I spend playing online are worth it.

lol, maybe you have just grown up? :)

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It is absolutely too wide. On a 1024x768 display (the most common), you have to do horizontal scrolling just to read the text. Make it narrower or even fluid width. For good reading though, a fixed narrow width is best. Try to bring it down to 960px - 980px in width.

To give an idea, my suggestion would be to have a white background and the colour of the text not to be black, but a dark grey, it's easier on the eye.

Sometimes too much of a white background can be bad for extended reading as well, as it is very bright. A good example of great reading colours is Neowin. Black text on a blueish background. Stay away from too much white and too much contrast.

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fixed 1280 width, tiled distracting background, and vista+brushed metal aesthetics. pretty much a recipe for disaster.

as something used to display written works, you should focus on the content. start by getting rid of the background and the border around the text. use a fluid-width layout and leave some margins on both sides. text size is wayy too small, leave it at 100% (which would be 16px on a normal screen), and at least 1.5x line spacing. it looks huge at first but you'll get used to it and it's much easier on the eye. Like mentioned above, use a dark grey for the colour. keep it simple and channel your visitor's attention toward the content.

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lol, maybe you have just grown up? :)

Me? Grown up? Not on your life. lol

Ok, enough with the text! I haven't started working on the text/paragraph formatting yet (obviously).

Right now, I'm just getting the overall design where it needs to be. (Don't get me wrong, I'm loving

the feedback... but right now it's all about the overall design.)

I'll remove the frame before I head to work so you guys can see it that way.

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Change the font and its size in the content area. I would go for 12 or 13, Arial perhaps?

Not a fan of the navigation. Try doing something original. Anyway good luck.

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Change the font and its size in the content area. I would go for 12 or 13, Arial perhaps?

Not a fan of the navigation. Try doing something original. Anyway good luck.

12-13 is a bit small for long reading. 16 is admittedly a bit more difficult to make look nice, but once you've done it, it's much better on the eye.

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Change the font and its size in the content area. I would go for 12 or 13, Arial perhaps?

Not a fan of the navigation. Try doing something original. Anyway good luck.

hehe... again, I'm not going for original. Besides, I like the navigation. :)

It serves it's purpose, and being across the top keeps it out of the way.

The font is intentionally big right now. I was going to play with my line

spacing before coming to work and just didn't get a chance. Right now,

I'm trying to figure out what color scheme to go with for the main background and

Content area background. Also, the font is Sans-Serif because I've heard from

multiple sources that it's one of the easiest to read on webpages. If anyone has

a different opinion, I'll play with it.

P.S.

Speaking of the Content background... anyone know the RGB code for a sort of

off-white color like Ivory or something. I'm thinking that with black lettering should

be pretty easy on the eyes. And if I go with that, what would be a good color for

the main background?

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Ok, I updated the font and shrunk the size to 1024. I also removed the Wolf background

to play with colors. Any suggestions to make reading easy, while not being distracting?

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im here assuming you aren't an expert at photoshop, and thats ok, because neither am i! but i do have some quick pointers to give before i head out...

a) you need to change that blue border around the page. it looks very out of place and doesnt stick to the dark, grey colors you already have set. adding on to the color scheme, can you change the color of your "welcome to my world!" text? make it a darker, deeper red.

b) your header image, where it says your name. you have an effect on the text. i cant remember what its called, but tone it down a little bit. you have it set very high. you should have it very subtle, make it so that when i load the page it isnt the first thing i notice, but so that the page still looks good with it.

c) while i dont agree with the way you're handling the navigation system, i dont think it looks too terrible that you should scrape the entire thing. what if you change the hover text from yellow to something like a white. you're trying to add too many colors to the color scheme, and some of them aren't fitting.

d) i think you should consider changing the font of the 'welcome to my world' text. make it pop out a little more from the body text you are using. try something like georgia for the title.

just clicked onto some of the other pages. im assuming you aren't finished with the site yet right? otherwise stop changing the layout of the site. you need to keep it looking universal.

i think if you're looking to add a little flair to the site, you could add a background pattern to the page, instead of just using the color black as a background. go online and find a pinstripe pattern generator, theres tons of them and they can really make the site come alive.

edit: just read some of the past posts. i love when repliers educate, not just critique by saying "do this, do this, don't do this", without saying why. you are correct in that sans serif fonts are generally used for areas with a lot of text, as its easier to read sans serif fonts on a monitor than it is to read a serif font. sans serif fonts (arial, verdana, etc) are correct for a "blog post/content portion" of a website. serif fonts, or fonts with an extra "touch" to the end of the letters (e.g. georgia, courier new, garamond, etc) are fonts that are generally suited to grab the attention of a user. so you would use these fonts for something like a page title, or a navigation part of the site.

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Here's my view:

The blue border doesn't fit - I would just remove it altogether.

Also, every page has a design which seems to range from slightly to completely different. I would make everything a bit more concurrent.

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Ok, I found an interesting Pinstripe background. Let me know what you guys think.

As for the border... I need SOMETHING around the content area. Suggestions there?

And lastly, the Fonts (color, style) aren't my main concern right now. I'll worry about

their presentability once I have the site itself looking sharp.

Also, only the main page is being worked on until it's right. The rest will be converted

afterwards.

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Ok, I found an interesting Pinstripe background. Let me know what you guys think.

As for the border... I need SOMETHING around the content area. Suggestions there?

And lastly, the Fonts (color, style) aren't my main concern right now. I'll worry about

their presentability once I have the site itself looking sharp.

Also, only the main page is being worked on until it's right. The rest will be converted

afterwards.

you say that you'll work on typography (fonts, colors, etc) after you get the site looking sharp. THAT is what is going to make the site really look sharp. typography is a big deal, dont take it too lightly. some quick hints this time around:

i'd make the header title you have "welcome to my world" bold and bigger. it really has to stand out amongst that text.

your head image with your name in it is slightly off kilt. it needs to be aligned vertically with the rest of the navigation. it looks slightly lower than it should be. adjust the margin for this and it should correct itself nicely and add to the sharpness you are looking for.

also, your footer is off. idk if its because im using google chrome (which shouldnt be an excuse anyways), but it looks like theres no left margin for it in my browser.

btw you're correct about the grey background on the text. it seems too bland right now but i can't quite think of what to change so ill have to come back to you on that one. curious to see what others say.

edit: something i notice that i noticed on someone else's website here on neowin today. not sure what you're monitor resolution is but on my 1024x768 screen, there is a slight horizontal scrolling that is occuring because you have the layout a few pixels too big horizontally. ive been seeing this a lot lately, is the 1024x768 resolution dead?

edit, edit: alright im goin all out on your website, you're lucky because ive got a lot of work to do :-p i took a look at your code. watch where you are embedding your CSS styles. i think the reason the footer isn't loading right is because you have the style for the footer at the end.. in your <body> tags. thats a no no sir. i would also like to point out that you have an external style sheet, and yet you are still using an embedded style sheet in your <head> tag. whats the point? it will make your pages load a little slower and it looks sloppier. try keeping all your styles in your external style sheet, and keep to just <html> in your .htm files. this includes inline styles as well. thats a no no and makes the code look sloppier and more confusing.

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Wow, a great improvement from the last time I looked at it. Colours are nice and easy on the eyes. The only changes I see now are:

1) You shrunk the width down to 1024, but it should really be more like 1000 max. Reason being that you have to account for the browsers borders and vertical scroll bar. It is still readable as it is now, but a horizontal scroll bar appears which doesn't look good. Not a huge issue, but simple enough to fix that you shouldn't have to put up with it.

2) When you click on "Stories" the navigation changes and you lose the links to the other pages. To go from the Stories page to the Reviews page, you have to go back to Home first. This isn't very good design. You should have some sort of sub menu for the stories links.

3) The blue button hover state on the nav clashes with the rest of the design. Consider changing this to something that matches the browns/greys you have now.

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Make sure that you don't keep your font justified. Justification is best left to print as the reading surface is much different and allows the eyes to follow through. Reading on the computer with justification is not the same and causes more eye strain.

So just leave it default (left aligned.)

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