December 09, 2003 | View Comments (34) | Category: Whitespace
Summary: 2.5 out the same day as 2.0. Wish Micrsoft updated this quickly...
I had to do this 2.5 design on the frontpage because I knew that some visual distinction should greatly help people. I only made changes again to the homepage so therefore this is 2.5 and not 3. Does this improve things any? Or did I just really make things worse? Thanks again for all the help and sorry if I am not giving anyone enough time to adjust to the new looks.
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I like the new background color a whole lot better than just having it all white. And I really like the new grey menu along the top. The line width seems really long... Kinda hard to read in my opinion. Maybe add some more White Space??? ahahaha, pun intended.
I don't like the dark right column on the front page so much though. Seems too dark.
Derek (http://www.twotallsocks.com/)
I really like the tiered front page. That's cool. If I hadn't expected something along these lines based on your previous activity, I'd be confused by tiers 2 and 3, though (albeit momentarily).
You might find space to put an attractive header in each tier: 'Newest,' 'Recently,' 'Archived' -- that kind of thing.
The 'Newest' entry excerpt or lead-in or whatever the hell you call it in your blogging tool is way too wide. It looks great, but it's hard to read. Keep the general shape of the page, but find some way to decrease the line length of the 'Newest' entry. (Maybe take your blessed metadata, stack it vertically, and float it one way or the other? combined with larger font size? I dunno. You're the designer!)
Overall, I think it's a very effective entry page. Wow.
Brian (http://joechip.net/brian/)
Man, I need to start elaborating on my thoughts more in my entries. I knew the issue of line-length would come up and for now that is the way it will be ("for now" meaning 2 minutes probably :)).
Headers are an issue that I have considered and are implemented in phase 4 if I can get them the way I want them. Back to the grind.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I like it. A lot.
If this is a 2.5, I can't wait to see a 3.0--or a 4.0--heck, what about a 9.0?
Or, even an XP/CS/MX letter combo.
Keep up the good work.
ashley
This is starting to look very interesting. I like the multi level design, it is getting less and less minimalistic but I do like it. I've never been a fan of Trebuchet and it does clash a bit with the Arial Headers. The contrast between the two typefaces isn't very large which can make a page look a bit muddled. See if you could create more of typographical distinction between the text groupings, see if that can improve things a bit. If you already have looked at this well don't mind me because it all seems to be coming along quite well.
Egor Kloos (http://www.dutchcelt.nl/weblog/)
Egor: Well I guess it depends on the definition of minimalism. Considering how much info I am putting on the homepage, I think the only thing that might prevent people from seeing it as minimal is that there are border and colors. Also you don't think the size difference between the headers and content fonts provides enough clarity?
IE 6 places a gap between the most recent entry and the next recent entries because I had to place a that clears the floats. Anyone know a way to fix this?
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
And no I do not like the "about" section being white, but until I get the above problem fixed it isn't changing.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I actually like the third, darker column, I think it draws the eyes in a logical set of steps; white for the most current content, light grey for the older, although still active content and then darker grey for the archived stuff. I see the method to your madness Scrivs :)
I also like the letter versioning for future updates to the site. May I recommend a linux type naming system, like "WINE" (I'll e-mail you the hidden meaning ;))
jarrod (http://textbased.com/)
Oh, the columns are vertical in Opera 7.2. That's why I thought it was too dark. It looks awesome in Firebird though.
But just so you know, it looks totally different in Opera.
Derek (http://www.twotallsocks.com/)
Give your clearing div the following style and IE will stop insisting on giving it height...
clear:both;
height:1px;
font-size:1px;
border:none;
margin:0; padding:0;
background:transparent;
Adam Kalsey (http://kalsey.com)
Definately the best layout so far - looks excellent. In Safari however, the text in the dark grey box on the front page (I can't make out any of the text to be more descriptive) is all overlapped.
Lee
Scrivs,
I love the stepped columns! However, I feel its all losing too much white space with the new background (although this does highlight the centre column nicely). Maybe a bit more spacing around elements would give it all a bit more breathing space again?
BTW: I know exactly what you're going through (gives scrivs a manly 'I've been there' type pat on the shoulder..)
Jon Hicks (http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/)
i like this layout a lot more.. although some of the text is over lapping in safari as described earlier.
colin
Scrivs... it's gorgeous.
Don't worry about not giving time for us to see the changes, as the way the design is going I think you'll probably make everyone happy in the end. :)
Good work!
Chris Owens (http://www.twenty4.org/)
very sharp; I like it.
but as has been noted already, it looks quite different in Opera, in which it's almost there but not quite. something with floats? then again, when *isn't* it something with floats?
Elaine (http://www.epersonae.com)
Excellent! My opinion was you had a little too much "whitespace" in previous versions. It's very easy on the eyes :-) and a breeze to navigate.
Lewis
If anyone on this planet could point me to why Opera hoses the design I would be so ever grateful.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Nevermind, I forgot Opera like widths on everything so I just needed to added width: 100% to those boxes.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Paul,
I like it, I like it. At first it was strange to see the gray boxes but it's a very nice layout and easy to get to the content. Yes, it is getting away from "white space" but the logo is still great.
About Opera...I'm reading Zeldman's book right now and he does have a section on Opera and the problems it poses. I have only skimmed it thus far so I don't know any definitive answers.
Todd (http://www.monkeyhouselounge.com/tcoleman2/)
Hehe, Gray Space.
It looks good, but there is too much grey for me. Hmm, I think it is the background. I suggest #696969, but the topmost border will get lost. >_
We go from 'sailor' to 'concrete'.
Zelnox
dr. u: Unfortunately I have been so furiously redesigning that I made the stupid mistake of not archiving any of the past designs, even though I told myself how useful that would be. sorry. let's just say that this one is better and looking at the previous incarnations will only make you appreciate this one more.
zel: Color scheme is a touchy issue my friend. Playing around with the look and feel with just colors can take days with me.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Well after reading all the comments it's probably good to know that I'm the only one who misses the old design.
Taylor (http://gtmcknight.com)
Like the three-tiered welcome page, though there are somethings niggling at the back of my mind.
The "about" section seems like an after thought, like it was stuffed in there because you had too much space in the main row.
The colour distinction between the three levels is a wonderful idea. However, with the third level being of a close colour to the page background, it seems to be un-important - a background feature, as it were. Maybe boost the colour there?
The background grey, although going in the right direction, is too dark for my taste. Its... dismal. Seems to be invoking a bad emotional response from my subconscious. You might want to lighten it or move it away from grey?
The main thing I liked about the old white-space design was that it was different. It wasn't a centered-box with some text in it, such as most blogs have become. Sure, most (if not all) have that structure, but with the white background you weren't boxing your thoughts in.
Another thing to keep in mind - emotional and psychological responses to designs.
Again, no disrespect intended. My tuppence worth.
dysfunksional.monkey (http://dysfunksion.co.uk)
The thing I really liked about your previous design was the ems width setting which meant the site scaled with the text, but I still like the content-centered design of your site.
Adam
I don't like it.
There's way too much information on the front page. Too many invitations to choose.
Minimal is simple, this is getting too complex.
Throw out the junk. Simplify.
Something with so many choices looks dull with no graphics. But I don't like a site having too many choices on a page anyway.
Too much. Less is more, as you know. You're losing the very simple site you had before, that worked. If anything, you could have made that simpler still.
But of course it's up to you. You may feel you need all these choices on a page.
J
Commenting on a redesign in progress is bit of a bitch. But I like the version without borders. It gives the design a lot more breathing space.
My comments on the typefaces is just a minor niggle and stems from the old typographical rule not to mix similar typefaces with each other. Like Univers and Helvetica, Bembo and Baskerville etc etc.
Egor Kloos (http://www.dutchcelt.nl/weblog/)
Paul, I haven't read the 30 comments above but I must say since I left town and came back things have changed a lot. I like what you've done the homepage. It looks very organized to me and is unique, I've yet to see a blog structured like this design. I'm glad the red is back and I think grey is a great compliment. I'm also glad to see the sidebar on the right but it doesn't seem to be utilized on the "Full Entry" pages. Plus with 30 comments on this entry it makes it a long way to travel down the page just to get to your navigation. But with that said I do appreciate this designs uniqueness.
Keep up the good work.
Joshua
Well Josh and anyone else who doesn't want to read all the comments, phase 3.0 consists of the individual archive pages so you will see some changes going on there shortly.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
This design is excellent. A question: do you have to rebuild every time you publish an entry to keep the navigation block fresh on each individual entry and archive page, or is there some work around for this?
Tom Harpel (http://tandoku.com)
It rebuilds automatically everytime I publish an entry.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
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#1
Also changed a:visited color which should definitely help people know what articles they have read. Don't know why this wasn't in affect already. Please no comments on the color scheme.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)