Is this too plain? (Full Version)

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Nicole -> Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 3:34:50)

Hi everyone,

I'm creating a new tamplate and am wondering whether you folks think it's a bit too plain?

I started with an idea for a background image, so I guess I deserve to be in trouble trying to make it look good with content in. Firstly, I'm experimenting a lot with this template, i've set a fixed pixel height, so i'm wondering whether it looks okay on people's browser windows and/or what problems i may encounter from setting a fixed height.

I'm also wondering whether the opening page looks too plain? I tend to think it does but would value other opinions. Also, do you think it's okay to have the links right/bottom aligned on the opening page and top/left aligned on the other pages?

Page One

Page Two

Nicole



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 3:53:16)

i like it!

not too plain, i think elegant or delicate is a better term ;)

personally i'm ok with the links



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 3:55:13)

Thanks Dave,

Actually something happened here and I couldn't access Outfront for about 20 minutes when I was trying to edit that post with the following:

Edit: The reason I'm asking, is that on the second page, once you add text to the page, the background image is practically unrecognisable. So, I figured that was okay, so long as the background image was totally visible on the opening page? Oh, and I know I forgot the ' in Women's!

Nicole



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 3:57:57)

how does it look on the second page with text?

you can always use this http://www.lipsum.com/ for some dummy copy (there's a dreamweaver extension as well if you use DW)



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 4:01:37)

Okay, there's some text in the second one now, more that would probably be used, but see how you now lose sight of what the background image is supposed to be?

Nicole



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 4:03:35)

that dosn't matter! it's more to add a bit of ambience to the site rather than being able to make out what the image is :)



Tailslide -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 4:15:42)

You don't want the background image any more visible otherwise the text becomes too hard to read.

Only things I'd look at would be to add a focus effect like the hover one so that when you tab through the nav lights up - goes before hover in the CSS link styling - LVFHA (Lord Vader's Former Handle Annakin)

The only other thing that might cause problems for people is that there's no <h1> tag on the page which will help with SEO plus with the unstyled version.




womble -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 5:30:45)

Looks good Nicole! As Dave says, it's elegant, and any more detail in the background image would detract from the text on the content pages. My only slight reservation with having the nav down the right hand side is that not all of it's visible when the page loads, but it looks good, and on balance I'd say that so long as the nav's simple, as you have it on the template, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

(and good link Dave - I was wondering what the 'lorem ipsum' actually meant - now I'm educated! [;)])



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 20:07:59)

Thanks Womble, Tail & Dave,

I've made some changes this morning, just added the focus thing which is pretty neat, though I don't particularly like how it keeps the broken border around the focussed area as it does when there is no border (as is the case with the skip links at the top).

This is only the first template in this style, now I know what I'm doing and that others think it looks okay, I'll make some more but this time I'll start from what I know the page could look like in the end rather than just having an image of the background in my mind to begin with as was the case this time. i.e. I'll position the background so that any parts of it that I want to remain visible, will be visible when content is added.

The thing which really annoys me mostly is that some fonts can look great at certain sizes, or in bold or not in bold, but as soon as they're resized they begin to look amateurish. But if you don't want to use images you have to stick with the most popular fonts or have a font-family longer than most human extended families. Surely it's not that difficult to incorporate thousands of fonts with each OS release, or add them to upgrades?

Nicole

p.s. Womble, I agree with you about the navigation only partly being above the fold at 800x600, this is what I mean by starting with a background image rather than an idea of how it's going to look in a website. Next time i'll fade the image from the top so that the blank space is more at the top, but then it'll be more difficult to control the no-repeat.



caz -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/17/2005 22:55:56)

A useful Fx extension is LoremIpsum Content Generator 0.4.1 which can be set to copy to clipboard too.

Eg.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

Nifty, eh?



womble -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 5:33:34)

[img]http://www.ecanus.net/forumsmiles/2thumbs.gif[/img]
Just downloaded and installed! [;)]



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 5:44:51)

for dw users there's the extension in the exchange part of the mm site or you can download it from here
http://pp.kpnet.fi/prescott/lorem_ipsum.mxp



RickP -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 17:47:14)

Like the background a lot Nicole[;)]



rubyaim -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 18:28:24)

Hi Nicole, it's lovely - really nice work [:)]

Edited to spell Nicole's name properly...



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 21:27:52)

Thanks Sally & Rick,

I've created another very similar template now that I know where I'm trying to go with this, and would appreciate some more feedback regarding the Opening Page and also the colours of the rollover effects on the first few following pages within the site. Which do you prefer, the very subtle white, pink or yellow?

Thanks again....

Nicole



rubyaim -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/18/2005 23:48:32)

Nicole, that is pretty [:)]

I think I like the pink, but maybe in a paler shade? Then again, it's quite nice the way the colours differ from page to page.

Some of the headings seem to be a bit close to the text in the paragraph above... viewing in IE.

Very impressive - you have a great way with colours [:)]






Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 1:13:09)

Thanks for pointing that out about the headings sally. I've corrected it now.



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 9:54:10)

looks really nice! i like the white but it looks a bit strange on the lower links that have a background closer to white, so the pink is good! maybe slightly paler than it is, or more vibrant than it is! 



RickP -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 11:50:17)

Still elegant!

Other observations...

The white rollover effect on the nav is disconcerting - it is obviously visible over the flower image but hardly noticeable further down.

Was it just me or was the first page slow loading given the fact that it only has one image (?)

Going back to your last... Did anyone point out the missing apostrophe?

quote:

WOMEN'S



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 12:07:57)

third post of the thread
"Oh, and I know I forgot the ' in Women's! "

:)



Brandon -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 12:17:31)

I like it... clean and fast...



RickP -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 12:27:05)

quote:

third post of the thread
"Oh, and I know I forgot the ' in Women's! "

:)


Ah, I see - just looking out for the little fella's interests[:D]



d a v e -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 12:28:11)

lol :)



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 19:11:31)

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I too liked the pink, and will experiment with some other shades of pink this morning. I liked the white "because" the page background was also white and therefore the rollover was only visible when it went over the background-image. I guess it could look more like a mistake rather than an "effect", so I won't ggo with that.

Rick, I'm interested in the page loading time though? You're on Broadband aren't you? According to the Web Page Speed Report the image is too large,, but the page still loads in 14 seconds on 56k, so I figured that was okay. As this image is already faded, i'll try reducing it a bit and see if it still looks okay.

Nicole



rubyaim -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 19:25:32)

Nicole, dialup, connected at 42.5, loaded very quickly - don't think you have problems with speed at all..

Is that a Frangipani (well, I'm 99% sure it is)? When we lived in Brisbane we had several - one of my favourites [:)]



Nicole -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 19:37:46)

Frangipanni, yes I think it is, I thought they were less pink than that though, more yellow.



rubyaim -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/19/2005 19:59:17)

We had a few different colours - the wonders of science [:)]



RickP -> RE: Is this too plain? (9/20/2005 9:08:33)

Loaded up fine this time Nicole - have you compressed it a little more?



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