Hey Keith, I really like the redesign so far. I'm viewing it on a mobile, and it looks great. The typefaces were a good choice too, but don't get too inspired by css-tricks.
Pablo Picasso said: "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" - I'm not a big fan of this metaphor.
You should really change the apperance of the boxes.
It give you too much that feeling of css-tricks, I think.
But good work with the "portfolio post" I like that tiny hover effekt.
Honestly, the design and presentation it's not clear and intuitive at all. Just randomly scattered 5 boxes side by side of the same width and different heights which creates chaos. No sense of any kind of proportional balance, order or harmony either, due to lack of emphasis on, what is suppose to be active (primary) and or passive (complementary) content. Feels like looking at the add section of a local paper.
I have to agree partially with @jurotek . It's not that big chaos as he says, but could be better. Make some gradation of content. Something like five rows each with a different size so most important or newest content should be bigger and less important or older should be smaller. But don't do linear gradation! Do some mixing to kill monotony. Remove background on footer, hate chromes! :) Let it be free. :) If you do so, lower size of copyright, improve size of Back to top and give it some arrow.
This sayings about stealing is absurd, there is some similarities but there is no word of plagiarism. We can find 10000000 sites that are similar.
I really like the design. While it does mirror closely the CSS-Tricks design, it does have its own, unique flavor. I also very much like the responsive design-y things, too.
The one suggestion I have is to maybe float the search bar to the right of your site's main heading (i.e., next to KeithPickering).
I'd say if I had to rate this site out of 10, it'd be a very solid 7 or 8.
I really like where your design is going (and I like your drawings too!), yesterday there were 5 columns and it was a little bit overwhelming but now I see 3 content columns and a supplementary column which is much better.
I don't care much for a 'back to top' button, got Home for that :P
'Contact' and 'Find me elsewhere' might be hard to reach on mobile when there is lots of content (lots of scrolling to get there)
Honestly..my opinion.. the old design showed more personality.
I would like to see a "conglom" of the old with the new.
The old site seems to say "I am Keith and I'm an the artist that designed and built this site."
The new site (I think) says "I am Keith and I copied this design from CSS Tricks".
Go with your strengths
There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the use of masonry (I'm actually using isotope, but whatever). I think that since my site is primarily image-based, it's a good design choice.
@KeithPickering It is just a terrible way to scan content, as your eyes have no natural path to follow. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it might look 'pretty', it is terrible UX, and therefore, not a good design choice.
Also, why doesn't the navigation line up with the columns clearly defined in the content?
There are a few fairly basic design principals that you seem to be ignoring. I don't say that to insult you, but perhaps a bit more research/education wouldn't go astray?
The whole concept is that the precise order of the posts is irrelevant. It's just intended to give you a starting point, so you can click on anything that catches your interest.
The blog page, archives page, etc. will all have more standard layouts.
And the navigation doesn't line up because there isn't really a way to make it line up easily. I mean, I could do it, but then if I want to add another navigation link sometime in the future, it'll no longer line up.
I'm curious - what's the purpose of the homepage versus the blog page? I feel like out of the entire site, which feels nice and trendy btw, is the most disjointed. The blog page I feel is very easy to read and navigate, but the homepage is trying to be a more creative version of the blog page. I would probably personally recommend making a large portion of the homepage (if not the whole thing) a more static page dedicated to telling people what it is that you do as a designer. I'm not really getting that any where else on the site that I can immediately see.
The homepage is more of a hub for all the site's content, while the Blog and Portfolio pages allow you to get more specific.
My old design had a more static front page, and all I heard were complaints that it didn't allow users to get right at the content. I feel like this new design sort of inspires exploration by providing a taste of the content right away.
I also used to have a "Work" page instead of an "About" page, and I had an "About" sidebar on every page. Some people told me that it was distracting for anyone who already knows who I am. And while the "Work" page was dedicated to what I offer professionally, it never really accomplished its goal. I'll probably update the "About" page soon with more info on what I do.
I like the new design. Who cares that it shares some similarities from CSS-Tricks. They are small to say the least. If we didn't hang out here, we would have never know it. All design is borrowing little bits from other places that have inspired us. Even the most creative stuff in the world has been inspired from something someone saw some place.
EDIT: The redesign is complete, or at least complete enough to use outside of development. Let me know what you think!
Hey Keith, I really like the redesign so far. I'm viewing it on a mobile, and it looks great. The typefaces were a good choice too, but don't get too inspired by css-tricks.
I don't really care for the way your portfolio blocks are broken up and the really long body copy in one of the other blocks.
Obviously don't copy but one site that might give you a little inspiration is Naomi's.
http://naomiatkinson.com
What do you guys think of the new light color scheme? I really liked it at first and now I'm not so sure.
http://keithpickering.net/redesign
It just seems a little bland. Maybe I could find a subtle texture or something. I just want to know how you guys feel about the lighter version.
Thanks for the comments so far!
Pablo Picasso said: "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" - I'm not a big fan of this metaphor. You should really change the apperance of the boxes. It give you too much that feeling of css-tricks, I think.
But good work with the "portfolio post" I like that tiny hover effekt.
Well I definitely haven't stolen anything :P
It's all my code; it just has some unintentional similarities to this site because I've been spending a lot of time here.
Honestly, the design and presentation it's not clear and intuitive at all. Just randomly scattered 5 boxes side by side of the same width and different heights which creates chaos. No sense of any kind of proportional balance, order or harmony either, due to lack of emphasis on, what is suppose to be active (primary) and or passive (complementary) content. Feels like looking at the add section of a local paper.
I have to agree partially with @jurotek . It's not that big chaos as he says, but could be better. Make some gradation of content. Something like five rows each with a different size so most important or newest content should be bigger and less important or older should be smaller. But don't do linear gradation! Do some mixing to kill monotony. Remove background on footer, hate chromes! :) Let it be free. :) If you do so, lower size of copyright, improve size of Back to top and give it some arrow.
This sayings about stealing is absurd, there is some similarities but there is no word of plagiarism. We can find 10000000 sites that are similar.
All in all good work, i like it.
I really like the design. While it does mirror closely the CSS-Tricks design, it does have its own, unique flavor. I also very much like the responsive design-y things, too.
The one suggestion I have is to maybe float the search bar to the right of your site's main heading (i.e., next to KeithPickering).
I'd say if I had to rate this site out of 10, it'd be a very solid 7 or 8.
I really like where your design is going (and I like your drawings too!), yesterday there were 5 columns and it was a little bit overwhelming but now I see 3 content columns and a supplementary column which is much better.
I don't care much for a 'back to top' button, got Home for that :P
'Contact' and 'Find me elsewhere' might be hard to reach on mobile when there is lots of content (lots of scrolling to get there)
Honestly..my opinion.. the old design showed more personality. I would like to see a "conglom" of the old with the new. The old site seems to say "I am Keith and I'm an the artist that designed and built this site." The new site (I think) says "I am Keith and I copied this design from CSS Tricks". Go with your strengths
Lose the Masonry.js layout, it's not doing you any favours.
There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the use of masonry (I'm actually using isotope, but whatever). I think that since my site is primarily image-based, it's a good design choice.
@KeithPickering It is just a terrible way to scan content, as your eyes have no natural path to follow. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it might look 'pretty', it is terrible UX, and therefore, not a good design choice.
Also, why doesn't the navigation line up with the columns clearly defined in the content?
There are a few fairly basic design principals that you seem to be ignoring. I don't say that to insult you, but perhaps a bit more research/education wouldn't go astray?
The whole concept is that the precise order of the posts is irrelevant. It's just intended to give you a starting point, so you can click on anything that catches your interest.
The blog page, archives page, etc. will all have more standard layouts.
And the navigation doesn't line up because there isn't really a way to make it line up easily. I mean, I could do it, but then if I want to add another navigation link sometime in the future, it'll no longer line up.
The redesign is complete, or at least complete enough to use outside of development. Let me know what you think!
I'm curious - what's the purpose of the homepage versus the blog page? I feel like out of the entire site, which feels nice and trendy btw, is the most disjointed. The blog page I feel is very easy to read and navigate, but the homepage is trying to be a more creative version of the blog page. I would probably personally recommend making a large portion of the homepage (if not the whole thing) a more static page dedicated to telling people what it is that you do as a designer. I'm not really getting that any where else on the site that I can immediately see.
The homepage is more of a hub for all the site's content, while the Blog and Portfolio pages allow you to get more specific.
My old design had a more static front page, and all I heard were complaints that it didn't allow users to get right at the content. I feel like this new design sort of inspires exploration by providing a taste of the content right away.
I also used to have a "Work" page instead of an "About" page, and I had an "About" sidebar on every page. Some people told me that it was distracting for anyone who already knows who I am. And while the "Work" page was dedicated to what I offer professionally, it never really accomplished its goal. I'll probably update the "About" page soon with more info on what I do.
You forgot to update the image links from localhost on your blog. Here's one example: http://keithpickering.net/why-keeping-your-browser-up-to-date-is-important/
Keith,
I like the new design. Who cares that it shares some similarities from CSS-Tricks. They are small to say the least. If we didn't hang out here, we would have never know it. All design is borrowing little bits from other places that have inspired us. Even the most creative stuff in the world has been inspired from something someone saw some place.
I am going to check out isotope myself.