Content Layout Advice...

arungopalan

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the site looks fine except for the fact that there are two many things on the top... the search button, the rss feed, login, etc. Other than that the paper feel... it looks fine.. :)
 

wisedogg

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I attended graphic design in college. I can tell you the first things the teachers would tell us are basically Keep It Simple Stupid. More importantly, the content is the important part, so keep it practical while maintaining a good aesthetic. Too often people get caught in all the bells, whistles, and flashy stuff that technology allows. Try to keep to a minimum of two font choices, and they should complement each other. I am personally a fan of Optima and Tahoma. Seriff fonts are more easily read on paper, whereas san-seriff fonts are sometimes easier to read on a monitor. Follow a color scheme, possibly a traditional art one like complimentary, tertiary, etc. A great place to discover schemes that work together is Adobe's Kuler site, where you can set it to find different color schemes from one color you choose, and you can browse schemes other users have put together. One of the most important steps is to work "on the grid"; most any professional design is done on some sort of grid system. This helps you achieve repetition where need, but makes it all the more contrasting when you "break" the grid. A perfect example, which you have probably seen, is where most buttons and columns are laid out in a very rhythmic and "gridded" pattern, but there will e a jpeg resembling a polaroid near the top that is askew, or at an angle. This can draw attention. An example would be the items you have at the top of your page, like the D.L. and MP3 player. Keep in mind traditional art and design principles, such as repetition, symmetry, rhythm, contrast, white space (often underrated and underused!!), and size relationships of elements. Fonts should have a shape that complements the shapes around it; you may notice Times New Roman has very rounded ascenders and seriffs. Arial is very stick-like and straight, with little variation in the thickness in the "limbs" of the letters. Also, TRY TO AVOID FADDISH AND FLASHY FONTS!! They are far overused. Papyrus and brush scripts are an example. If you want to see some very classical design, check out Milton Glaser or Pentagram design. Try to make your columns of text have very smooth "edges", as in no words are sticking out far more or less than the preceding or next line. This can be achieved through CSS with font sizes, weights, and especially Kerning and Leading (respectively, the spaces between individual letters and words). And after you know the design rules, as they say, is when you can break them! ;)
 

sourfacedcyclop

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I can agree with those points and I know them, but the things is, this is just a personal site. Its not for a business or even a portfillio so I wanted to incorperate personalized things and I sort of like the unconventional look. As for "smoothing" out the lines in the content, thats kinda hard... A new line starts when the word won't fit in the width given, not much I can do about that. I really just wanted some advice on how I should present my content ;) because I don't really like the way it is now. Thanks,
 

Hue Kares

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I liked your site layout; it seems very appropriate. My initial thoughts were that the site belongs to a young student, and that's what you seem to be. If that was your intention; job done.

Personally, I take issue with sites that, when displayed at 100%, do not fit into a maximised window. Your layout is just a bit too big for the standard page (by 1% or so!) and as a result displays the right-left scroll-bar.

I would remove the very thin black border around the main content; I don't believe it adds anything to your layout.

If the user shrinks your page, all is well; but if it's grown to over 100%, your layout gets really messed up, as the main content expands more than the header/footer content. This is the only thing I can see that is broken.

I like many things about your site, for example the horizontal menu's; the way the background slides to highlight an item; very nice indeed. I think I'll be back sometime to learn just how you did that... ;)


Some really good advice for the rest of us from Wisedog; nice one. If only he'd used paragraphs (perhaps following his own advice?), I'd have added to his reputation! :naughty:
 

merrillmck

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Pretty cool original (to my eyes at least) layout. When I tried to figure out the theme, my first guess was a bunch of papers and post-it notes taped to a faux-wood wall. But looking further, it seems this stuff is lying on a desk. Anyway ...

It was a little slow to load the first time on my computer. While I don't have dial-up, I have the Cable-Lite cable service. I think if you could ensure the top stuff is loaded and visible to keep my eyes busy while the lower pictures are loaded underneath ... I think that would be enough to fix the problem. I initially see a white screen with your first blurb of words ... pause ... pause ... then the wood backdrop ... pause ... pause ... then the rest.

The mouseover event at the top didn't seem to work normally ... maybe it is under construction. Anyway, good job ... keep it up ...
 

sourfacedcyclop

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I would remove the very thin black border around the main content; I don't believe it adds anything to your layout.
That border is only there because I needed to know the boundary of my container div.

While I really appreciate the good things you are saying, the thing I wanted was some advice on how to arange my content. Would it look beter if I got rid of the sidebar and just centered it, don't go with the blocks of paper for displaying the content on... stuff like that.
 

asoit

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Everything looks great to me except if I were you I would've used image links on the tags instead of text
 
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