The Bomb Site

zero · 2005-12-15 23:47:14

The bomb site :-)

The first thing that strikes me is that everything is serif and alignment is mixed. This forces me to read every line slowly because it is hard to scan quickly. Perhaps that is deliberate?

You have centred headings, but you have also centred body text at the top giving equal emphasis to everything. By mixing left and centre align, it looks scruffy to me. Double line spacing makes for easy reading but when you use a large font less space is needed between lines. If you lessened paragraph line-height, the spaces between paragraphs would be more obvious and scanning would be easier.

You have also underlined some headings making them look like links. Perhaps this is also deliberate, causing visitors to interact more with the text?

Some text, like the Home Page heading and the sidebar, is too close to the margin lines imho. In general, I think the overall spacing could be altered significantly to make it easy for the eye to find important parts of the page. But perhaps it is all meant to be equally important?

I’ve only looked at the home page but I think that’s enough criticism for now. I hope it is constructive enough.

alexandra · 2005-12-15 23:49:07

> thebombsite wrote:

> I’ll get you back, have no fear. :)

oh no worries here, i am fearless in cologne :)

So how does it look then apart from green and orange?

looks great to me. nothin to complain about, honestly

alexandra · 2005-12-15 23:56:24

> zero wrote:

> Double line spacing makes for easy reading but when you use a large font less space is needed between lines. If you lessened paragraph line-height, the spaces between paragraphs would be more obvious and scanning would be easier.

I do not agree with that, zero – line-height is okay on this site. in generall you are correct though.

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 00:01:15

Thanks for that zero. I shall have a look at line spacing though I could just as easily increase the paragraph spacing. I have to say that the front-page is somewhat different to all the other pages so maybe you ought to migrate a bit. I don’t use those centred titles anywhere else as “non-links” nor are they centred on the page as they usually have “floated” images alongside them so I shall look at using something different for the front-page. They are meant to separate the content though as the front-page is a sort of “what have I got for you” page so they need to stand out.

I centred that quote at the top simply because it’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve heard for quite some time and I just find it hilarious. :)

zero · 2005-12-16 00:54:33

Line spacing looks OK in the blog section, so I’ve changed my mind and think you should leave it alone on the home page. But, because each paragraph in the What’s New part is a separate news item, I would make it look so, rather than it seeming like one continuous thing. With a little re-writing you could put, for example,
<strong>TXP Fresh Bananas</strong> is a new style I’ve added to my Textpattern Layouts section. This makes the first words the heading for the paragraph, so when I go explore and then come back to home page, it is easy to find what I’ve already read.

Re headings, consistency helps. On your blog page you don’t have a heading called ‘Weblog’. The other headings on that page look good so how about putting a sans-serif heading on each page for the title of the page and change the underline headings on the home page to blue box/orange border type? Or whatever you fancy of course, but the consistency make it easier to recognize what is what.

Navigation is also a bit odd. I can click on Wallpapers in the about section and will find myself at Home: Wallpapers. There’s also no link to wallpapers under the Layouts section which is where I would be inclined to look for it. The wallpaper page images also almost break when narrowing the window, but that’s fluid for you. Have you ever considered Mike Purvis’s Jello Mold Piefecta fixed/fluid layout? It can be used with 2 columns and might be just right for you.

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 01:13:44

I catch your drift on the rewrite bit for the individual items. I’ll look at that.

The only problem I foresee with using the blue box/orange border type titles is that very first “Hi and Welcome” being immediately under the “Home Page” title so how about doing the opposite of what you suggest and remove the “Home Page” title. Then none of the pages have a page title except in your browser’s tabs.

The menu is a little difficult having so many different “areas”. I considered in the “about” and “contact” pages simply having the “Home” link. That might be more consistent as strictly speaking those 2 options are “stand-alone”??

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 01:43:09

How’s that then? I’ve kept 3 menu options for the “about” and “contact” pages. I figured they were relevant.

I was debating what to do with the wallpapers. I might just drop down to 3 columns which I think should fit for 800×600. They are a bigger problem than the images I have on some other pages which I can simply resize. I’ll have a look at Jello Mold Piefecta though. I’m not sure they belong in the Layouts section. They are more to do with your PC/Mac than your web site. I’ll think about that one.

Last edited by thebombsite (2005-12-16 01:55:42)

NXArmada · 2005-12-16 01:51:24

Just testing on Linux (Firefox 1.5, Opera, Konquer) All looks good. nice job

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 01:54:52

Thanks Ryan. :) Still some odd things to fix as you can see above.

zero · 2005-12-16 02:49:12

I think that would work OK – dropping the page headings and leaving the menu bar to show where you are.

Re navigation, you have a problem cos there’s a lot to navigate. To me, these areas don’t go together very well:
Security Tips
Approved Software
The New Jersey Devils
The San Diego Gulls
The SETI Clinic
Making Music
Wallpaper Repository
Privacy Policy
Sitemap
Home Page.

I would think about which of your pages you can group together and then show this grouping in your nav. Perhaps by shading, or separating groups, or what I would probably do is have a drop down menu similar to Go.. in TXP, that’s always available.

Wallpapers and layout are both to do with how a site looks, so that’s why think they go together. Your way of looking at them is different and another person’s will be different again. So perhaps think of a good heading that can be applied to the areas that you can group together. I think that’s the hardest part – finding suitable descriptive headings that everyone will understand, so anyone can immediately guess how to find what they want.

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 05:01:43

OK. I’ll have a rethink on the menu headings and grouping. I’m still not sure about the wallpapers though. These are for your desktop, nothing to do with websites. I’m not sure they fit together.

Yes there is a lot isn’t there? All that stuff you mention in the menu above has existed since the site began as a “static” html site. It’s only since I moved to a host with PHP/MySql that all the other stuff came into being. It’s kind of like I have 2 websites joined at the hip. ;)

zero · 2005-12-16 18:20:28

:-)

BTW, please ignore what I wrote about wallpapers. I was talking wallpapers and thinking backgrounds for some strange reason… mmm, wasn’t even drunk…

zero · 2005-12-16 18:57:32

Just checked out all the changes you made, Stuart! I think the home page works better now. There’s one ‘web design’ link that leads to your wonderful 404.

I think you’ve done well with the Navigation, too. It all seems to make sense. Almost anyway… But now I’m not sure where the wallpaper should go ;-)

thebombsite · 2005-12-16 19:39:22

I did wonder what you were thinking with the wallpapers but I’ve ended up putting them in the Layouts menu cuz I didn’t think they fitted anywhere else now with the changes and it’s all decoration isn’t it? ;) It all gets indexed by Google anyway and I haven’t changed any URLs so if people have them bookmarked they will still get there.

I’m not too happy with the “Hobbies” title. I’ll keep thinking on that one. I did think of “Fun and Games” but it’s too long at 800×600. It’s not a problem with FF cuz the date/time just disappears (haven’t figured out where to yet) but guess which browser drops to a double-line. Yep you know the one.

I started reading up on that “negative-margins” method of fixing the minimum width but it was getting a little late even for me so I shall have a good look tonight. I do use negative-margins anyway so it shouldn’t be too difficult methinks. I just hope it doesn’t clash. :)

I’ll go check that link now.

NyteOwl · 2005-12-16 20:34:58

Everything works fire here and is quite legible. I’m just not fond of the overall design but that is entirely a personal preference. If you are looking for an alternate for the word “Hobbies”, maybe “Leisure” ?

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#17 2005-12-15 23:49:07

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