opinion on simple design

[Wahmaster]

Greetings,
I am looking for feedback on a very simple design that I put together for my personal blog.

Constructive criticism is needed to take my design skills to the next level!

The site is here http://soule.me

[davidlab.be]

If you want simple then drop the 90’s looking gradients and the textured background. Sidebar needs padding work.

[Paulie_D]

Well he may have used a somewhat harsh tone but yes, I would tone down the gradients.

I don’t have a problem with the bg.

[Blackhawkso]

Agree that the sidebar needs a little bit of padding at the bottom. As for the background i believe a dark pattern might look a little better with the gradient and logo that you have put on the site.

[Wahmaster]

Bummer, I guess I am stuck in the 90s in some ways.

I will see what I can do about the gradients. So the headers plain white with a divider of some sort or a solid color?

I already added some padding to the bottom of the sidebar widgets.

Thanks!

[Wahmaster]

Oh and it is also a “responsive” design.

[Paulie_D]

I would change the color of the links to something more in keeping with you color palette…perhaps a darker blue and make them bold to make them stand out

I’d also restrict the underline to the hover state only.

[Wahmaster]

OK, I am starting to see the thinking here.

I really need to make a better logo. In my defense I was starting to learn Gimp when I made that.

I cleaned and tightened up the articles. Still need to decide on an article header/footer background color if any.

I removed the background, border, and radius for the top nav. Cleaned up the links by removing the text-decoration except when hover, bolded the links and changed the color.

I will kill off a lot of the white space in the pages header when I redo the logo…

Still happy to get more feedback!

Thanks!

[davidlab.be]

Looking better. When you redo the logo keep in mind “simple”. I would also redesign the nav buttons and make them a one solid color.
Also, the drop shadow on the search box does not match the rest of the site.
Keep working at it, you will get there.

[snillor]

I didn’t see the site with the gradients everyone mentioned. What I see now I really like. Very nice background texture, and the soft blue color scheme is relaxing and professional looking.

I agree with springlab, that when you redo the logo, keep it clean and simple. Ditto to his suggestion about the nav buttons. I find that the site looks soothing and very attractive, but the logo looks out of place, breaking the overall harmonious mood. As do the nav buttons, but to a lesser extent.

[Wahmaster]

Thanks!
I fixed up the search box. My thinking was to make it stand out just a bit with the original shading and corner radius.

As far as the nav buttons. I wanted to do something a bit different, but it is obvious that they don’t really fit now with the changes. Which leaves the question of what to do? I could do a nav bar with sprites next to the button text with a very subtle gradient or no gradient. It seems that I went way overboard, or gradients are out of style for most anything but buttons.

Logo definitely needs work. While I love the shiny plastic blue look, it does not fit anymore.

[Wahmaster]

Thanks!

I created a mixin with your shadow as a default but able to over-ride it.

.inner-box-shadow(@shadow1:inset 0 -4px 0 0 #fff, @shadow2:inset 0 0 6px #333) {
-webkit-box-shadow: @shadow1, @shadow2;
-moz-box-shadow: @shadow1, @shadow2;
box-shadow: @shadow1, @shadow2;
}

Like this:

.inner-box-shadow(inset 0 -4px 0 0 #7192A8, inset 0 0 6px #333);

This is looking a lot better!

[Wahmaster]

At this point I am wondering if I should move the search box up with the nav buttons. It could be part of the drop-down on smaller screens.

It would also make search easier to find on small screens instead of all the way at the bottom like it ends up now.

[Paulie_D]

The text shadow on some of the Tag links is very dark and makes the text look fuzzy and hard to read.

Also, now that you have coloured the headers you might want to lighten up the blue.

[Wahmaster]

Thanks!

I think this is much better. Now my brain is going a bunch of different directions thinking about whole new designs.

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