4 color rebellion » New Site Layout

New Site Layout

by Nick - 02.27.05

[Now Showing| The New Yoshi Layout]

Well, here is the new site layout Ive been working on for awhile. I wanted to clean it up a bit and have posts take up a bit more room on the page.

Please let me know what you think. Too much white space? Like the drop down menus? Speak up sonny!

And the all important question: Serif or Sans-Serif?

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I like the new layout. Much cleaner but I HATE the serif font. I like the sans font you were using before. Also in the comments section, URL is mispelled as URI.

Long Tran - 02.27.05 1:00 am

Hmm, actually I always had Georgia as my default font. I just didnt put the Sans-Serif fonts back on the list. They are on there now. Does that help? Let me know. Ill test it will all types.

Nick Luckett - 02.27.05 1:08 am

AWSOME !!!!!!!!!!!

silversurfer - 02.27.05 1:15 am

luv it! its killer. no one would ever think of that.

timmyboy - 02.27.05 2:10 am

I think its too much white space on the frontpage but overall i like it.

Seb - 02.27.05 6:59 am

I think it looks too common now. The original layout was totally cool and unique, now it somehow looks a bit cluttered. Still cool, though.

namor7 - 02.27.05 8:13 am

veddy nice. someday i’ll graduate from the oh-so-hip kubrick as well.

John - 02.27.05 8:22 am

I think it looks cool, there are a few changes I would make though. The font is a little ‘off’ in my opinion, the coloring of the comments makes it hard to read the “By On ” line…and the whitespace between comments doesnt look good (try no whitespace and maybe putting the By line on the top with the name in bold). also there seems to be too much space between the center frame and the right menu. The Name and text entry up there ^^ seems too short horizontally.

Cool that your button says play it loud =]

Other than these subjective things, I like it. The yellow “now” line looks great, the top menu looks cool (ill have to try to use it). Actually could you imprint the top menu in the image? There is a nice blackspot right there you could put white text on…Meh just got a white line at the top is funny. Nice top logo btw.

I just woke up.

matt - 02.27.05 10:21 am

I think the problem people are having with the font is the leading is too tight so it makes the paragraphs harder to read. Line spacing! Also padding the comment blocks so the text isn’t jammed agaist the side of the colored field would help readability. I know this is crazy talk, but making it liquid HTML might help too. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about all the “it doesn’t use all the available space” issues.

Anyhow, here are some suggestions at the url below, which are very minor improvements since what you have is great.
- Giving more whitespace around the text to improve readability
- making the comment box backgrounds more subtle so the text stands out
- reducing some of the color variations around objects to reduce visual noise both in the comments and in the masthead
- creating a stronger dileneation in the masthead to separate it from the content (the graphic would be the same width as the content) by removing all the different color separations around the menu and graphic
- created a more subtle break between the background color and the white content areas on the left and right (to help reduce noise).

Good stuff powderpuff!

Ideas on practice:
Some small design suggestions

polish broadcast - 02.27.05 11:51 am

Oh yeah:
- increasing the leading in the text

polish broadcast - 02.27.05 11:52 am

oh yeah…your site only needs one more thing. an 88×31 image button for mine.

John - 02.27.05 2:39 pm

Awesome suggestions everyone. Thanks! You would think that someone going to grad school for advertising, with classes devoted solely to Typeography would be a little more careful with the leading and spacing. Ha.

Polish, that is above and beyond helpful! I really appreciate it. Ill get to work. :-)

Nick Luckett - 02.27.05 6:39 pm

My initial reaction was pretty negative, but now that I’ve had a nice long look at it, I like it. When I first happenned upon the site about a month ago, what I really liked about it was the off-beat yet simplistic style. It was nice to see some more traditional fonts imposed upon an almost minimalistic design scheme. The new layout is great, but my initial impression upon seeing it was confusion. Somehow, it just isn’t as easy to see what’s going on as it was before. However, it’s still a lot easier than MOST gaming websites, which is one of the coolest things about this site. Oh yeah, and it used to be easier to see who wrote the comments. The picture of Link & Yoshi is awesome. Great site, Nick. I can honestly say this is the coolest gaming-related site around. It blows everything else out of the water, as far as I’m concerned. It’s actually fun to come here. Thanks”

namor7 - 02.27.05 11:44 pm

Namor, I agree with some of the things you said. I cant put my finger on it, but it does seem a little harder to access the information as quickly as with the old site. Im not sure while, but Ill keep tweaking. Dont get too set on one look though…Im pretty ADD about everything and love change.

Ill fix the commentor problem right now…And thanks for the constructive comments. I love people who voice their opinion. I may not always listen, but I appreciate it.

Nick Luckett - 02.27.05 11:53 pm

The new design looks great!

Joseph Valencia - 02.28.05 8:31 am

Humm, Nick, I still so sans. Something about this serif. I feel like I’m reading a newsletter. GIMME SANS MAN!

Long Tran - 02.28.05 11:29 am

Actually Nick, I figured out whats bothering me. Its that there’s only one font for everything. I say leave the navigation up top and side bar serif. But the main content area should be in sans. What you think? Oh and thanks for the comment on my site. Maybe I’ll be nice and send you one of the Lacoste polos

Long Tran - 02.28.05 11:32 am

Yeah, actually thats a good call. On the other site I had it like that, but I totally forgot about that. I think that would be a major help. Ill see what I can do tonight after work.

Haha. Dont spend any dough on me. Those Polos are awesome though!

Nick Luckett - 02.28.05 11:53 am

What do we think now? Main content is Sans, but the headings and stuff are Serif. I dig it.

Nick Luckett - 02.28.05 10:19 pm

I LOVE IT. PERFECTO!

Long Tran - 03.01.05 4:06 am

Dave…