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Home Forums Design Want a minimal design look, am I on the right path?

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  • #187132
    iizag
    Participant

    Hi, I want to make this website I am creating — http://bitfiu.com/ — , Have a minimal design look. I want this to be used in a school so you have an idea in terms of design.

    So far I have only done the home page, so just judge on that one page. And ignore the slider , I have to change the colors.

    –> So from below the slider to the footer. Does my background and color of tabs, and headings look okay ? What would you change ? Tips ?

    —> I know nothing about proper design, I am learning though so bear with me if its bad lol

    #187278
    RioBrewster
    Participant

    If you want a “minimalist” design, that means you keep it simple. No clip art. No animations. Consistent font sizes. No text-shadows. Limited color palette. You have way too much going on here.

    Put the login/register link at the top. No one will find it in the footer.

    Does the slider have to be so humungous? Having it so huge and that bright orange/red is too much. Since the site is responsive, I would make it much smaller for desktop. One half or one third the size.

    You can get away with the bright orange/red only if you use it sparingly and are 100% consistent with your fonts and backgrounds. You don’t need two-color dots under the slider. Make them solid gray and solid white for active.

    Skip the animations in the scroller.

    Your icons and “logo” should be one color, or at least one color family. Right now the colors clash. You could use the orange/red for all the icons because they are small, and that would tie things together.

    The clip art Microscope is very 1998 – do a flat icon for “lab” and tie it to the lecture by using the same color. Google “color palettes” to find colors that won’t clash.

    Do you really need an avatar next to “Our Members”? If you do, then skip the drop-shadow. And why is the font size different than “Our Groups” and “On the Forums”?

    Bottom line, for good design – and especially minimalist design – you won’t go wrong by keeping it simple.

    #187304
    __
    Participant

    Ok I made them all one color. But as for the logo? If I make it red it will look like a devil lol. Is it possible to keep it that color and some how make it fit?

    You might keep the gold-ish logo and make the orange a little darker/less saturated to compliment it. I’d get rid of the red completely, it’s jarring.

    But, to my eye, the biggest thing is how you have the three bottom sections (members, groups, forums) separated. It seems like an odd layout (very 1990s/<frameset> -looking) and the thick dividers don’t help. I know you don’t have a lot of content right now, but even so, there is too much negative space in/around/between.

    Suggestion: get rid of the divider lines. To separate it from the slideshow, use a different background (or, better, just darken the background).

    The “members” section doesn’t need such large margins, especially at the top.

    I think the other two sections would do better if they weren’t side-by-side. Once you get below the slideshow (and possibly the members section), it really feels like you should have a single, mid-sized column.

    Do you want to really promote the Groups? i.e., are these what you want activity to revolve around? If so, I’d suggest making them more square and putting them on a grid.

    Is the forums section there more-or-less just to show recent activity? I would try harder to make them more like a list of single-line items (with a smaller avatar, or even without). If the section is meant as anything more than that, I say it should be on its own page, and leave it off of the home page entirely.

    #187334
    RioBrewster
    Participant

    Looking better already.

    I agree with _. (sudo sandwich – love it)

    Or you can just use good ol’ <hr /> as a seperator.

    For help with colors, try this:

    http://paletton.com/#uid=50X0u0kBTq6reAe-VwxFylCKMgM

    I’m not the biggest fan of the bright red/orange. Pick whatever color you want to start with. If it’s a school, I’d start with the school colors. Or your logo color.

    I like Tetrad color schemes if your colors are muted like your logo and the icons. (That’s roughly the bottom half of the center wheel) If your colors are bright, stick with mono or adjacent schemes.

    Once you find a palette you like – stick with those colors religiously in everything you can control.

    Good luck.

    #187784
    __
    Participant

    Well, you didn’t take any of my suggestions. : ) But that’s okay; I’m not “asking” you to do anything. Just my perspective on things. You should be doing what you want. Is there something in particular you are dissatisfied with? or are you happy with the design?

    #187816
    Jimmy
    Participant

    I get the feeling that your font-sizes are all over the place. Maybe the top-nav is too small? Just a thought.

    #188349
    DV1
    Participant

    On first impression, thick dividing lines. On PS they scan at 6px. Maybe 1 or 2px would suffice?

    The serif fonts kind of stick out if we’re talking ‘minimalist’, but then someone could make the case that they are minor flourishes to ease the rectilinearity. If so, then get a different, thinner serif, the one on there now looks like too many calories. :-D

    #189814
    iizag
    Participant

    @chrisburton, Iv changed the design since I last posted , what do you think now ?

    #189888
    iizag
    Participant

    @chrisburton,

    it seems many of the problems you face are actually coming from the themes you are choosing to customize. You were probably better off just creating your own custom theme.

    Yes your a right, I just bought a book on php, and java script that I am going to start reading in my break from school, in around 2 weeks. I am excited about that. Hopefully I can practice by doing different things like making my own theme.

    random bold characters you’ve incorporated into the intro text (‘B’ and ‘U’ in the last module box).

    I agree with the U, but the B character is bold because I thought it could act like the bold first letter in a first sentence for emphasis like desgin? I guess its not looking good lol ?

    padding and margins throughout the site

    Where specifically do you see a need for improvement in margins and padding ?

    borders, icons, links,

    -I removed border where does this apply , are you speaking of the side grey border in my side-bar?

    -Icons, whats wrong with them?

    -links, whats wrong with them ?

    The search should not be in the footer

    I am going to find a way to make it appear on the same page with javascript rather then send you to a new page just for search.

    the black/white photo on the homepage seems as if it doesn’t belong.

    I will think more about this to see what alternatives I can come up with

    • Thank you for your response I really appreciate your continuous help !
    #189957
    iizag
    Participant

    @chrisburton,

    Emphasis like design? What? I’ve never seen that before. Are you trying to implement a drop cap?

    Yea that is what I meant to say, Drop cap in design.

    You’ll notice that the padding of the logo and the padding in the footer are not equal on the left side. You’ll also notice the padding in the footer on the left side is different that the right side.

    Maybe I am not understanding, I drew orange lines and to show on my browser they match perfectly ( the footer and header)
    http://bitfiu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Padding-picture.png

    This is what I mean when I mention inconsistency. You see something you like on another site and incorporate it into yours. That just won’t work unless there’s consistency.

    You are right I do that lol , I will stop and try more consistency within a design

    • and I removed human icon and border your right it was just not fitting
    #190050
    iizag
    Participant

    It seems to be a media query issue because when your resize the browser, some of it is fixed. Even with your orange lines you can see inconsistency with the margins/padding. For example, that last icon in the main navigation shouldn’t have padding or a border on the right side.

    Ok I removed the menu icons and borders to make it more “minimal” . You said media query issue? I am not familiar with that, is that something I need to fix?

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