A Slight Update To The Slight Update

[filkertom]

I've just taken the advice of solarbird, huskiebear, and a couple of others, and buffed the website a little. Not every feature I want yet by a long shot, but I'm actually kinda close. Thoughts on how this looks now? Please remember not everything is in place yet. Thanks.

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

It's simple, easy to navigate, and looks good. I like it!

I don't know a lot about screen-readers, but I'd encourage you to ask a blind fan about how well they navigate your site.

still worth overdoing

[solarbird]

This is much cleaner.

I'd give the background a little colour back - maybe something like #d0d0f0? A bluish grey, or better yet, whatever that colour is you have as your darkest tone in the toolbar buttons.

I'd go back to the old Donate/PayPal button but not take in the whitespace that creates. Whitespace can create emphasis. I'd also narrow the text column; this is better but you've overreacted a bit.

Talking of which, you still have a lot of lines. You've taken most of them out, which is much cleaner! But you still have the whitespace lines. I'd lose them, because they don't serve any purpose - they just make things busier. At the same time, I'd add some whitespace margin area around the actual content, to give it some separation, and make it easier to focus on.

The result of all that looks something like this - note that no content has been removed (except the Project Wonderful bar which is adblocked by firefox) but it's visually much less busy (click through for full size):



Note that I've removed whitespace that just made lines (e.g., around the graphic and the menu tabs) but added it around the contents of both columns on left and right (so it looks less crammed in). Both of these make the result less busy and easier to take in all at once. (Also, this made each line of text shorter without, again, deleting any content: this line length in terms of words per line is easier to visually track, and hence, easier to read, without any loss of actual complexity or content.)

(Note that I'd actually like the right column a smidge further to the left. Make the right whitespace border about twice that of the one on the left side, see what that looks like. Regardless, it needs some. Again, it's about setting things off so that they become units.

Finally, in minutia, I'd try rounding those buttons so they're buttons and not tabheads. Tabheads are great but your site isn't really tab-oriented, so I'd try that. (Save the current graphics tho', I could be wrong! I can't make this change in Firebug and test it myself. ^_^ )

Re: still worth overdoing

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I can work with that. I wasn't sure what tone to use for the b.g., and figured to play it conservatively.

The menus were created with Sothink DHTML Menu 9. I can goof with 'em at will. ;) I just liked the look of the tabs. As I like the look of the right column being more to the right. The balance to my eye wants it there. Honestly, where you have it in that graphic, it looks like a coding error.

Same with the whitespace lines. I want something separating the disparate elements of the page -- it's not like I have very many, but enough that'd I'd like 'em to have their own territories.

I might end up making my own Donate button. The nice thing is, as it is now, that's extremely easy -- just create a new graphic and swap it in.

Re: still worth overdoing

[solarbird]

I like the look of the right column being more to the right. The balance to my eye wants it there.
Well, like I said, so do I... oh wait, I fucked it up typing it. Shit, I said left. No, I meant it should be a smidge further to the right, because it's too far to the left. Sorry! Right now I want the right column further over to the right than I have it in that screenshot (eta: but not crammed up against the blue background field, give it breathing room), but as I was just monkeying with shit in Firebug (which lets you adjust parameters live, it's kinda awesome) I couldn't quite get it there for the screengrab.

I like the look of the tabs too, it was just a thought. You've got me in designer mode now, so I'm trying things. Poke poke poke.

I want something separating the disparate elements of the page -- it's not like I have very many, but enough that'd I'd like 'em to have their own territories.
Well, I'm mostly agreeing with that. I'm adding more separation of the main content blocks rather than taking it away.

But if you keep one thing from today's round of comments from me, I'd most strongly suggest letting the text have a little more breathing space than it has right now. Right now the left text margin is further left than banner graphic and toolbar graphic (at least, on Safari), which looks to me like a coding error. So there you are. ^_^

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Looks good. How is Project wonderful working out for you? It looks useful.

One thing, you may want to take down that picture of you in shades in a jail sneering. I see that and I don't get the impression that your music is more angry than fun. The one in solarbird's screenshot is much better. Just my 2 cents worth.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Heh. My mom asked me to take that down a few months ago. I suppose I should. I'll keep it in the press kit photos, but for a header I'll pick something a little less off-putting.

re: still worth overdoing

[msteries.livejournal.com]

I also think that some colour background is needed. As a battleworn veteran of the Dharma Center's new site, done using WordPress (grrr) I am alert to first impressions, and various screen layouts. The white background seems like something may not be showing, somehow... Especially since newer laptops do format things differently. (just see what hitting the google calendar print tab gets you if you are on a newer laptop...) Leaving space between content blocks is dicey, isn't it?!!! But generally, I like some white space.

[ttamsen.livejournal.com]

Looking good! Only thing I noticed that might be a mistake is the Podcasting page has a different background and right-hand column contents than all the other pages. I didn't see any obvious reason for it to be different, so I'm guessing it got missed in an update?