This is a test of the new template for Mobile Opportunity. I hope you like it -- and I hope you find it easy to read. I'm trying to hit a balance between easy readability and having a template that doesn't look like it came from 1992.
Here are some questions for you:
Do you like this font? I'm using a different text font than in the old template, and it's slightly smaller. Can you read it OK?
What about the sidebar? I generally dislike text written on a colored background, because it reduces contrast (and contrast=readability). But people don't spend much time reading the sidebar, so I'm hoping this will be good enough.
Are there any formatting problems when this is viewed on your computer? Here's a picture of how the page should look (click on it to see a larger version):
If the page you're seeing doesn't look like this, I'd love to hear about it.
I am also open to any other suggestions or feedback you have. Just post a comment.
Thanks.
Credits: Mike Rohde created this fantastic design. I endorse his work enthusiastically. The template was implemented by making heavy modifications to a template supplied by Blogger, called TicTac.
This is a test
Posted by Michael Mace at 9:31 PM Permalink.
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ReplyDeleteFont size is fine here. It makes the live site look incredibly big in comparison.
The sidebar's OK. It looks better in a form distinct from the main text (so I prefer this to the form on the 'live' site). I do find the 'link' colour slightly harder on the eyes on the grey background but in the real world I'm unlikely to concentrate on the sidebar long enough for it to become a problem.
Format is fine so no surprises there.
If I have any other ideas, I'll get back to you...
The font and sidebar appear fine to me. Everything seems to scale well and the page breaks down nicely when CSS is turned off.
ReplyDeleteTwo small things I noticed. In Opera 9.02 the image of your self does not show. Secondly, in IE7, the orange bar over top of the page link you mouseover does not match up exactly with the orange bar over top of the page you are currently on.
I like the new look. It is clean, easy to read, and does not distract from the primary purpose of me being on the page, to read the content of the posts.
Thanks!
ReplyDelete>>I do find the 'link' colour slightly harder on the eyes on the grey background
You're right, that color is pretty faint on the background. I'll see if I can tweak it a little.
>>In Opera 9.02 the image of your self does not show. Secondly, in IE7, the orange bar over top of the page link you mouseover does not match up exactly with the orange bar over top of the page you are currently on.
Hmmm, the Opera thing is distressing. I tested the template over the weekend with a service that runs your page through a bunch of different browsers. It claimed that Opera worked OK.
I will check out the IE thing. I have IE 6, so I guess it's time to upgrade.
Working on this template has given me great respect for the compatibility problems that web designers struggle with every day.
Bu the way, I just noticed that I had accidentally disabled anonymous comments here. I'll go fix that.
I like it. The only thing I'd have to say is slightly annoying would be that the header image is pretty big. While that might be good for a corporate website, it just takes up too much space for a blog since it covers almost a third of the screen before you get to the blog text which is what people come to the site for.
ReplyDeleteThanks, anonymous. I'll have to think about this one really hard. I hear you about the size of the header -- it takes up even more space on my laptop.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, that picture captures perfectly the feeling I want for this weblog: slightly mysterious, lots of detail, an intersection, and a tremendous feeling of movement -- much more than you get in a typical time-lapse shot.
I tried cropping the picture more narrowly, but it destroyed the look of it.
Anyway, very good food for thought, I'll think about it a lot more, and please keep it up.
Love the top image but not the right hand titles colour- seems a bit dark to me?
ReplyDeleteShaun McGill
Thanks, Shaun.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you meant the sidebar background color (the light gray) or the background color for the headlines in the sidebar (the color behind text like "About this blog").
Since Mike was worried about the readability of the sidebar, I just lightened the sidebar background a bit. It's not quite as pretty as the previous layout (the page loooks a tiny bit washed out), but I think it makes the sidebar quite a bit more readable.
Do you think the color behind "About this blog" is too dark? I could make that dark gray instead of black.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everybody!
I love the new look. Mike Rhode is an amazing artistic talent. (And have you seen his Moleskine sketches? Wow!)
ReplyDeleteI really like the top header picture, so even if it is big, I'd hate to see it go.
The colors of viewed and unviewed links seem to be very close and a little hard to distinguish (in Firefox), but I see the same thing at other sites, so maybe it's a Firefox thing, not a blog thing.
The About This Blog header is, indeed, a bit imposingly dark and bold, but only slightly. I like the contrast.
What bothered me (despite the great look of things in general) was that the left and right dark borders seems to be almost oppressive. I like the contrast and the color, but it seemed to dominate in my eyesight too much. Don't know if that's maybe just me? I also don't know if you can keep the nice tidy look and the good contrast without it, but an alternative might be nice.
In general, it looks fantastic to me. Great look for a great blog.
Thanks, Bob.
ReplyDeleteWow. This is a very humbling experience. I had to tweak Mike Rohde's design in a couple of places because of my limited HTML skills and some limitations of Blogger, but the one place where I made a change on my own was that I darkened the background on the sides and the background to the sidebar headers. You guys have nailed me on both issues.
This is testament to the visual skills of the folks commenting here, and to Mr. Rohde's design skills.
So, I changed the background color to the mid-gray that Mike originally specified. The sidebar headers then looked too dark, so I changed them to match his design as well.
Sure enough, I think it looks better. What do you think?
Thanks for the feedback, And yes, I love Mike R's moleskine stuff.
This is a test of threaded commenting. Please ignore it.
DeleteI am continually annoyed by web sites that try to enforce a fixed-width layout. A great looking fully-dynamic-width supporting site should be a design goal - but very few web designers seem to have the technical skill to pull this off. As it is, both the blog and this comment page are surrounded by huge bands of dead space on my screen. Ick. And the blog doesn't scale down well to a narrow window either.
ReplyDeleteHow does it look on a Treo?
One other design issue - I would like to see some sort of visual indicator of the dividers in the top grey navigation bar. At first glance, I thought "Michael Mace" and "Homepage" were two separate targets.
I do love to overall look, and that top picture. Kudos to Mike Rhode for a very nice visual design.
I throw the gauntlet down to him though - does he have the skill to make it support dynamic layout?
Cheers!
- chris