Thoughts on design and copy

[Anonymous]

It looks allot different now. Personally i like the other look better, with the grey header and devices images. It’s hard to explain but the new look makes the site look loose. Like it has no grounds,not sure if that makes sense. You should bring back the old design.

[Alen]

@CrocoDillon, I agree with @chrisburton. He raises some great points. You need to communicate with your potential client by staying in the correct context. Client is visiting your site to solve a problem, answer a question, get a sense of who you are and how can you help them. So you need to answer those concerns. And I’m not saying “don’t show your personality”… please do. But make sure you are also communicating what can you do for them as well.

[croydon86]

@CrocoDillon I would definitely lose the dashed border now that you have gone with a lighter background in the footer for 3 reasons…

1) As @chrisburton previously mentioned, this is not needed for separation, the shaded background already does that.

2) It attracts too much attention. Visual design elements should be ‘invisible’ (not obvious, communicating only to the subconscious!)

3) It looks like you tried to do a stitched effect…. with flat design, which of course is contradictory. This stitching effect has no place anywhere other than a skeuomorphic style of design. Of course this may not have been your intention to create this stitched effect, but that is how I feel when I see it.

Here is a quick edit I did in the browser of how I feel the footer can be improved. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94593656/Screen%20Shot%202013-04-21%20at%2014.13.23.png

The header is lost currently. While the footer has emphasis, the header does not, which is not good as this element is crucial. I previously mentioned what I feel can improve it.

I’ve never been a fan of ubuntu as a body font although I feel it works quite well here as a display font, although @chrisburton seems better suited to advise on this, and also depends on what you are trying to convey.

Lastly, not a fan of the desktop icon, personally prefered the previous but this is just my opinion.

Above all, for a non-designer, you are doing a good job ;).

@chrisburton You give sound advice but one thing I disagree with you on is making the text black as opposed to #333. I feel the current shade works fine whereas absolute black is too strong for a site that does not mirror the same amount of contrast elsewhere, not to mention more painful on the eye, again ubuntu as body text doesn’t help either!

[croydon86]

Sorry correct link https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94593656/Screen%20Shot%202013-04-21%20at%2014.29.44.png

[chrisburton]

one thing I disagree with you on is making the text black as opposed to #333. I feel the current shade works fine whereas absolute black is too strong for a site that does not mirror the same amount of contrast elsewhere, not to mention more painful on the eye, again ubuntu as body text doesn’t help either! – @croydon86

I was in a private conversation with another member from Typophile recently and he had mentioned this to me, and I quote

“I can show you scientific studies with empirical data that demonstrate that reducing contrast reduces human performance.”

Now, I haven’t had the time to research this data so I cannot say whether `#333` has a significant margin in human performance compared to black. But, on a personal level, I prefer black. I even switched my own site to this (although I was using #181818 so there was no significant change).

[croydon86]

Totally agree with that, but would be good to see what kind of range he was referring to. For example, reading that without knowing the context, I would imagine he would be talking about making text #aaa on white or something.

I personally never use #000 text on white backgrounds, darkest I normally go is #222, mainly for headings. I feel this enhances the reading experience, not reduces it.

[chrisburton]

We were talking about gray text on the web and reasons why text is black in books. I’m taking a nap now and I’ve emailed him asking for the study. I’ll follow up on this a bit later.

[CrocoDillon]

> In fact, I’d even suggest that you create an about page that lists those passions and side projects. Or possibly just rename the contact page to “about” and list those things along with the contact form.

Sounds good, I’ll go with one of those. Will be an about page probably and then I’ll think about whether or not keeping the link to contact in the main nav, or as big button on the front page (and link to from footer for every other page), as ‘call-to-action’ button.

I didn’t quite follow you about the typography, except the last phrase. I like thin types, tried Open Sans 300 too but went with Ubuntu. I’ll do some tests with other types for headings and maybe the main nav.

I’d like to learn the basics of designing, already reading a lot of blogs (some you posted in another topic). It’s interesting and I’ll keep reading and learning. But I can be quite stubborn. For example you say you design for the users and I agree, but some things seem more a matter of preference to me, and then I’ll go with what I like most. I really appreciate the feedback I’m getting here and I feel bad if I don’t go with well justified suggestions, but sometimes it just feels like it’s getting too minimalistic, maybe that’s what @Jarolin means.

> Wait, you need someone to work alongside you to change the name of the site?

Of course not, I meant while I’m doing this alone I like keeping this name. But the name is too personal to use when I’d work in a team. Hard to explain :P

@AlenAbdula, I’ll think hard and see what I come up with, thanks :)

@croydon86, I’ll fix the footer. For the desktop… it’s probably the high narrow stand, right? I’ll either redraw the stand or find real images to use. For the header, you previously mentioned to make it full width. Are you suggestion to bring the background color back?

@chrisburton, for a thin font like Ubuntu 300 I think black could work, but I have read you should normally avoid pure black on white, for reasons croydon mentioned. So I’m looking forward to that followup.

Any other opinions about the green and the blue? I thought they went really well together.

[croydon86]

> it’s probably the high narrow stand, right?

Yes! There are some good flat icons here to maybe use or inspiration http://iconmonstr.com

> For the header, you previously mentioned to make it full width. Are you suggestion to bring the background color back?

Yes. I would possibly experiment with the original dark shade you had, and get rid of the top blue/grey border, and maybe place this border underneath the header for consistency with the footer. See how that looks.

[CrocoDillon]

The images I’m using now I’ve actually drawn myself, they are not from icons. Took some product photos as base for them, can change them however I like, or use the actual photos instead ;) Thanks for the icon link though, I’ll have a look.

[jurotek]

Remember that the success of your website will be measurable over time with other means and data which will be lot more important than the subjective personal opinions of other designers/developers with their fluffed up feathers.

If you want to remain creatively unique by taking risks where no one gone before and make it your own like no other, don’t ask for opinions or what anybody thinks. Present clearly X and Y and ask for help to decide between those two with objective and constructive criticism and always have your project completely finished before doing so. Otherwise all you will get is bunch of subjective irrelevant opinions like: Try this, You should do this, Change color to this, The logo should be this way, Style this or that this way or that way . . blah, blah, blah.

Your originality and creativity will get lost in the sea of conflicting personal opinions which you don’t really need to validate your own work. The validation will come overtime from your target audience, market, ROI, how many people will buy in to what you have to offer and hard analytics data which will help you to decide what changes to make to improve UX and conversions.

Stay unique and different. That’s what will separate your work from others. Good luck.

[croydon86]

@jurotek

Whilst there is some sense in what you say, I am sure I speak for some others on this thread (not all, but some) that when I offer design advice, it is not based on my opinion, but what I feel is a solution to the design problem the OP is facing, hence why I have justified most of my reasoning. Design is not subjective, opinions are. Trouble is, it’s a fine line.

I do agree though with being careful with advice given, and do not let anyone steer you away from your original goal.

[jurotek]

“Design is not subjective, opinions are.”

Right. But, that applies to critique of design with emphasis on how it conforms to maintainability, portability, extensibility and so on. In another words, is the design good or bad? And that’s not what’s being discussed by all the advice given here tho.

[chrisburton]

I personally never use #000 text on white backgrounds, darkest I normally go is #222, mainly for headings. I feel this enhances the reading experience, not reduces it. – @croydon86

I don’t believe that makes a lot of sense. Reducing contrast weakens the readability of the text. I’d love to read your opinion on why you think it “enhances the reading experience”.

I like thin types, tried Open Sans 300 too but went with Ubuntu. – @crocodillon

Open Sans renders very well at small sizes. Perfect for text type. Either way, thank you for not using Helvetica.

For the header, you previously mentioned to make it full width. Are you suggestion to bring the background color back? – @crocodillon

Yes. I would possibly experiment with the original dark shade you had – @croydon86

I disagree with bringing back the background of the header. At least the color you had before. It conflicts with the blue.

Additionally, when I posted the screenshots of your site without the background header and footer, it seems you took that and just implemented it as a final decision. I was showing you that removing the backgrounds also removes the conflicting colors. And the footer background does not compliment the other colors as it stands nor does @croydon86’s example.

If you remove all the styling, sit back and look at your content, what do you see? Where is the relevant content? That is where the creativity is.

Click to zoom

[CrocoDillon]

> Additionally, when I posted the screenshots of your site without the background header and footer, it seems you took that and just implemented it as a final decision.

I’m so confused right now, I feel like a woman :P

(nothing is ever final though)

@jurotek, Thank for your comment, I especially like what you said “that the success of your website will be measurable over time” :)

@chrisburton

> Where is the relevant content? That is where the creativity is.

The whole ‘Create the best…’ section (and sub sections) I suppose. I’m not sure but I guess you mean that’s the place to be original and creative (instead on side content like header and footer). That makes sense, I’ll work on it :)

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