nrg_alpha Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Hi guys.. I have been hammering away at my site for a while now.. I think it is now at a stage where it is presentable. In light of what appears to be an error involving Firefox 3 and the firebug extention installed and enabled, I needed some feedback on another PHP forum (I'll get to that in a bit).. so this is a first for me on this one. Just a few notes beforehand... 1) Yes, the site is rather 'blue' (you'll see what I mean). 2) Yes, it is considered a bit on the dark side (this is on purpose.. it is a graphics portfolio site.. I don't want a brighter theme.. so I opted for a darker one). 3) The content is almost non exsistent (2 artpieces... the focus has been on building the site.. it is getting.. once coding is finished, I can turn my attention to artwork once again...it is a new portfolio from scratch.. so this is another setback...) 4) RSS is not done yet.. I will be focusing on this soon enough. 5) Since IE 7 is the current release (stable build), and since IE 6 is garbage, I have abandoned support for IE 6 (besides, this month, rumor has it that IE 8 Beta 2 will be in our hands.. Beta 1 is availble but not geared towards the public.. more for web designers, so this version doesn't count) By the time my concept site replaces the current one, IE 6 will hopefully be for the most part a bad memory for the public and nothing more... All comments are welcome. I have just finished refining the Contacts page. And this is where some testing from you guys could be good. As for the original problem mentioned above.. when I use Firefox 3 (win) with Firebug 1.2.0b7 (even happened with 1.2.0b4) installed and enabled, the user will not be able to submit an email (as there is a problem with Firebug and how my code handles the verification key)..so if anyone uses Firefox 3 in conjunction with Firebug, this would be greatly appreciated to test out (if you do, please include that you use firebug extension and which version in your message). You can bluff the email.. I'm more interested in seeing if this issue is just on my laptop or if this is indeed mainstream in those conditions.. Ok.. enough talk.. http://www.olsenportfolio.com/v2/index.php So all C&C welcome. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 5) Since IE 7 is the current release (stable build), and since IE 6 is garbage, I have abandoned support for IE 6 (besides, this month, rumor has it that IE 8 Beta 2 will be in our hands.. Beta 1 is availble but not geared towards the public.. more for web designers, so this version doesn't count) By the time my concept site replaces the current one, IE 6 will hopefully be for the most part a bad memory for the public and nothing more... You realize that IE8 is garbage too? Did you try the Beta out? It is worse than IE6. It can't render crap for life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 5) Since IE 7 is the current release (stable build), and since IE 6 is garbage, I have abandoned support for IE 6 (besides, this month, rumor has it that IE 8 Beta 2 will be in our hands.. Beta 1 is availble but not geared towards the public.. more for web designers, so this version doesn't count) By the time my concept site replaces the current one, IE 6 will hopefully be for the most part a bad memory for the public and nothing more... You realize that IE8 is garbage too? Did you try the Beta out? It is worse than IE6. It can't render crap for life. Yep.. that's why I don't count Beta 1.. as I mentioned in my initial post, it is not made for the public.. it is geared towards web developers (for feedback or something).. The next Beta is supposed to be for full blown public to try.. Microsoft appears embarrased for their browser efforts thus far and are now actually going to try to be W3C compliant..(time will tell if this ends up being the case or not)...in either case, IE 8 already renders my site better than 7.. (just not ready for public use yet..kind of broken). Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 i like it. nice, clean, not TOO blue... also, i got a kick out of Ol' Thirsty! thought the 50 gallon drum in the back as a gas tank was funny. (at least, i assume it is the gas tank...now that i think about it, it could be anything...) nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 6, 2008 Author Share Posted August 6, 2008 i like it. nice, clean, not TOO blue... Not sure if I'm reading sarcasm or not I have been working in for a while now.. so I am 'desensitized' to the blueness.. I think sometime next year, I'll start hammering away on version 3 (which will take on a completely different design yet again..I'm thinking beige, silver and a touch of blue.. but this is far on the backburner for now.. also, i got a kick out of Ol' Thirsty! thought the 50 gallon drum in the back as a gas tank was funny. (at least, i assume it is the gas tank...now that i think about it, it could be anything...) nice. It's pretty much an oil drum (but with the prices of gas these days, the owner would be wise to stock up with previously cheaper gas and store it in those drum containers. Glad you like it. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 slight nitpick - the word is résumé - both e's accented. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 no sarcasm, just that WOW... ...it is a shock at first, but i like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 6, 2008 Author Share Posted August 6, 2008 slight nitpick - the word is résumé - both e's accented. Hi Andy... From a book I have on writing resumes.. it only puts the accent in the last 'e'.. According to Wikipedia's article, it can be written both ways apparently. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Résumé "...In the business world, the word résumé (also spelled resumé and resume) is used especially in the United States and in English Canada." Given the choice, I would rather stick to just accenting the last 'e' (this is just my preference though) Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 That's horrible - It looks like you made a website, then colorized it, at like 100% saturation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 7, 2008 Author Share Posted August 7, 2008 That's horrible - It looks like you made a website, then colorized it, at like 100% saturation. You're right on one count. I did make a website As for the saturation, while I didn't add 100% sturation, I didn't want to go too dull (if you look at the root of the site, its a 'muddy' depressing version.. so this time, I opted to go more 'vibrant' yet retain the dark feel to it. I have tested it in photoshop while building the mockup.. I felt that because of how dark the theme is, even lowing the saturation by a bit made it feel slightly depressive.. by having dark yet saturated blue (again, not 100% saturation), it made the dark tone of it all feel more 'upbeat' as opposed to a more muddy feel. At least, this is my reasoning.. now the good news is that this could be changed by modifying just one graphic (background graphic and css background colour), I can make fast modifications (as the panels are built uisng .png files so that they are blue yet translucent (which obvisouly explains why you can see the background beneath the main interface paneling). At first, I was admittedly kind of thrown off a little by how blue it is.. but I guess I worked with it so often, I have adjusted..so far, you're the first one to feel it's too much. I would have to further experiment with this if it gets too much simular feedback.. but I just don't want a dark theme that starts to feel too muddy-ish, you know? Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Way too much blue. You must have some whitespace. And bluespace doesn't count. I would just change the background to a slight gray diagonal background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 Way too much blue. You must have some whitespace. And bluespace doesn't count. I would just change the background to a slight gray diagonal background. I'll look into what can be done.. but I am opposed to whitespace (not as a rule mind you, but in this particular theme arrangement) Whitespace would 'pop' too much.. there would be too much contrast.. the whole point of going darker is for easier viewing of images. Whitespace would nullify this entirely. I had a hard time with the very little amount of whitespace in the contact page.. I don't think the amount is too much though... but any large areas of whitespace would conflict with the design. I'm getting a feeling that whitespace is expected.. (and perhaps this is very common indeed). Some designs work well with this... others do not. By example, here is a forum I really like: http://www.cg-cars.com/forum/ You won't find 'whitespace' here.. due to the dark greys and black theme, dark grey space is its equivalent. So in my situation blue is mine.. Perhaps I can work with the grey diagonal background suggestion (but I have to be careful with this.. as I don't like 'muddy' looking sites). This is not to suggest that all grey sites are bad looking.. I just have to be careful with how I change this background if I go this route. I want some saturation / vibrancy to it. The other option is to make the site even darker (mind you, I don't want to go too dark either).. I'll play around with this in Photoshop and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the input. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 personally i would stay with the blue that you have. again...after looking at the page again, it has definitely grown on me. <jim carrey from dumb and dumber>I LIKE IT A LOT!!!</jim> again, my opinion...and, as a married man have learned that it doesnt matter much, but it is still mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 personally i would stay with the blue that you have. again...after looking at the page again, it has definitely grown on me. <jim carrey from dumb and dumber>I LIKE IT A LOT!!!</jim> again, my opinion...and, as a married man have learned that it doesnt matter much, but it is still mine. Yeah, it has certainly grown on me too (after working on it for so long, trust me.. you really get past the blue-ness). One thing that stuck me with the comments from Filmgod and tibberous was that perhaps if I kind of 'gently separated' the interface panel colour from the blue by changing its shade somewhat (so in other words, alter the blueness of the GUI panel to be more separate from the background, thus producing more tonal range). I'm in the midst of testing this in photoshop. I think before I go ahead and start replacing GUI graphics, I'll present a photoshop mockup and see what the feedback from there is. But yeah, I agree.. I like the blue I have too.. Just wondering if in general people adjust fairly quickly or not. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 What do you think this? trenttompkins.com/comp.png No whitespace, less blue. Personally I think that looks pretty sharp, if you don't look too close at the edges. I have a 24 in monitor at max res - that make for a LOT of blue. I think by doing the background in dark gray, the foreground looks a lot more pronounced above it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sliceroony Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Hi - good job overall very nice - I would say a couple of things - try and make the site more accessible (alt tags and title tags to links and images) and I should lose the drop shadow under your home page headers maybe? Very nice otherwise though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 What do you think this? trenttompkins.com/comp.png No whitespace, less blue. Personally I think that looks pretty sharp, if you don't look too close at the edges. I have a 24 in monitor at max res - that make for a LOT of blue. I think by doing the background in dark gray, the foreground looks a lot more pronounced above it. Thanks for the image feedback, Trent! While I'm not admittedly a fan of the bright orange, this offers yet another possibility: altering the OP logo as well as the tabs. I have fussed with this in the initial design phase (not the tabs, but the logo, which was silver / chrome-esque). I'm going to explorer the following: Altering the OP colour, making the GUI glass background panel to a slightly different blue to separate itself a little more from the absolute background.. and (possibly) tab colour manipulation (although I do like the tabs as they are.. heck I like everything as it is). I'll hammer out a photoshop mockup and show you guys.. While I don't mind breaking up the blue a little bit, I don't want to stray too far from it either. Thanks again for the feedback Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 I just picked the orange because you were using it elsewhere - white (silver) would probably look good. Even if you leave everything else blue, I'd at least change the background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 I just picked the orange because you were using it elsewhere - white (silver) would probably look good. Even if you leave everything else blue, I'd at least change the background. Hi Tibb.. I don't mind the orange for links, and smaller graphics like the rss feed and info icons for example.. but I feel that orange for the logo and tabs may be a bit much. But your example revealed other options for me that I completely forgot about. The problem with altering the background is that everything else matches it (as the main panel GUI is a translucent png file). So if I made the background red, the panel will be red with a very slight blue tinge to it. What I'm thinking is altering the paneling colour-tinge itself. This way, it separates (ever so slightly) the tones between the panel and background.. if I can strike a comfortable balance between both the panel and background.. it may not be so saturated. I'll see what I come up with and show you guys. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 11, 2008 Author Share Posted August 11, 2008 ok.. so I did a local version of my site a little differently and took a screenshot. I don't think I want to stray off from the blueness of it all.. but I thought about it, and with the advice of others, gave me some ideas to 'tweak'. I use the term tweak because the difference is not dtrastic, but it IS different. Allow me to explain... I changed the GUI panel to a slightly different blue. I also changed the shade of blue of the OP logo. I desaturated the 'state: off' tabs in the menu, and altered the background a bit. What appears to be bascially the same on the surface really isn't. While I have the benefit of seeing the whole site locally infront of me filling th screen, the differences are immediate when comparing to the current online version. The one thing that I could think of with the current is that the blue is too saturated (as someone already pointed out). While that blue has definately grown on me, as I compare with the newer lighter blue, the difference is less saturation.. so it is a softer blue.. thus perhaps easier on the eyes. That, in conjunction with slightly separated shades of blues in the other elements makes things a little more different (but not by much.. again, I'm looking to keep the basic blueness intact, yet have is easier on the eyes). So here is the screenshot: http://www.olsenportfolio.com/v2/temp/newBlue.jpg Again, don't expect huge differences.. but if you compare side by side, you'll see that this version is a 'softer' less saturated blue (with minor shifts in blue shades of some elements). If you had to choose between this screenshot and the current state, which one would you go with? Cheers, NRG P.S I'm still very attached to the current.. but I think I'm willing to 'lean towards' the less saturated version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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