My Blog's Redesign Critique

It's a bit too basic for my taste, put in some extra gradients and see if you can do something with your background. Definitely better than the blue one though.
 
Hi Sneakyheathen,

I think another background color could do wonders for that design. Something a bit more muted. Perhaps a brownish hue in the same palette as the monkey and the sidebar. And carry that on to the "menubar" aswell. I'd also align the titles and blog entries to the dates and move it all slightly to the right.

The illustration of the monkey is quite nice, but I'm not sure about the font used for 'Diligent Design' and maybe it would look better if you used different fonts for the logo and the tagline?

Hope that helps.
 
I like the main idea of it... but there's a few things I don't like.

Jazajay once told me never to make a page for than three screenshots long. Now I see why. I get less interested as I scroll down further, and info kinda seems to fly past me.

I also think the blue calms everything else down instead of making it noticeable, doesn't make me particularly see everything on first glance.


Am I right or wrong?
 
Aarlev said:
Hi Sneakyheathen,

I think another background color could do wonders for that design. Something a bit more muted. Perhaps a brownish hue in the same palette as the monkey and the sidebar. And carry that on to the "menubar" aswell. I'd also align the titles and blog entries to the dates and move it all slightly to the right.

The illustration of the monkey is quite nice, but I'm not sure about the font used for 'Diligent Design' and maybe it would look better if you used different fonts for the logo and the tagline?

Hope that helps.

I fixed the dates and shifted the title data. The brown of the monkey doesn't technically match the color scheme, and I really like the design with more emphasis on blue, personally.

Is there something in particular you don't like about the font itself?
 
tim-ater said:
I like the main idea of it... but there's a few things I don't like.

Jazajay once told me never to make a page for than three screenshots long. Now I see why. I get less interested as I scroll down further, and info kinda seems to fly past me.

I also think the blue calms everything else down instead of making it noticeable, doesn't make me particularly see everything on first glance.


Am I right or wrong?

It's a design for a blog, so people are (hopefully) actually going to be reading the content. The emphasis is supposed to be on the content. It's all filler content, at any rate.
 
okay, fair enough. But even if I was interested in what it was saying on it, it's important stuff catches your eyes, instead of having to sift through every h2.

i thought your site was up for critique...?

and what was wrong with onartis' view about 'more gradients'?
 
tim-ater said:
okay, fair enough. But even if I was interested in what it was saying on it, it's important stuff catches your eyes, instead of having to sift through every h2.

i thought your site was up for critique...?

and what was wrong with onartis' view about 'more gradients'?

Well the posts themselves on the site are formatted. And it's not like I don't consider the suggestions, I do. I just have counter-opinions that I like to explain. I'm picky, haha.

"more gradients" is a really broad statement. Does he mean enhance the background or the posts or the footer or what?
 
This is embarrassing, had to find out through twitter... *cough*
I was talking about the sidebar in particular and perhaps the main content. I'll be more specific next time :)
 
Onartis said:
This is embarrassing, had to find out through twitter... *cough*
I was talking about the sidebar in particular and perhaps the main content. I'll be more specific next time :)

I like to twitter stuff, haha. Sorry if you're embarrassed, but this one designer who I like, battle with tells me "more gradients!!!" all the time. It gets irritating. At any rate, I'm trying to add more gradients and make the content a little less overwhelming.

Sorry if I irritated you guys, haha. :angel:
 
Sneakyheathen said:
I fixed the dates and shifted the title data. The brown of the monkey doesn't technically match the color scheme, and I really like the design with more emphasis on blue, personally.

Is there something in particular you don't like about the font itself?

No I think it's just the tagline being the same font. I think if you changed that it would look better (but I could be wrong :)).

Maybe try a different shade of blue then or a gradient like Onartis also mentions? It's just very bold and I think a more muted blue would make the site itself stand out more and compliment the brown color in the sidebar better.

Just did a quick example with a more muted blue.

deadly.jpg
 
i like the look of that Soren. Sorry if you disagree Sneakyheathen. Although I do now see why you got a bit annoyed.
 
Well I'm on my psp now so typing already takes a little longer. But it's fine I'll just keep the complex comments for when I have a decent keyboard.
 
Aarlev said:
No I think it's just the tagline being the same font. I think if you changed that it would look better (but I could be wrong :)).

Maybe try a different shade of blue then or a gradient like Onartis also mentions? It's just very bold and I think a more muted blue would make the site itself stand out more and compliment the brown color in the sidebar better.

Just did a quick example with a more muted blue.

deadly.jpg

Okay I see, I'll try it with a lighter shade of blue then. :up:

Edit: So i've tried adding more apparent gradients and modifying the text. Also, I put it over the actual blog so the content and stuff works as it will live.

http://www.diligentdesign.net/
 
I think that looks a lot better Sneakyheathen. And I think the new black background in the menu works a lot better with the design as well. The gradient doesn't fade properly though. Maybe you can't see it on your monitor?

fade.gif
 
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