A question, if you'd be so kind, as I'm still not happy with the layout and looks of dukestreet.org, and woodworkireland.com seems to me to be cleaner and nicer.
I didn't answer the poll as I didn't prefer one site over the other. I like duke street in terms of colour, but it feels very cluttered. It's the type of site that looks like it would stress me out trying to find stuff on it. The woodworking site however, goes to far in the other direction, and while clean and simple, looks too sterile; it's harder to see the personality attached.
Ditto. I also don't like that the wordwork page isn't centred - I have a big white space down the right when my browser's maximized. I think it makes it look even more sterile.
However, they're completely different topics and should have different styles. I think if the styles were switched and I came across them by chance (eg didn't know you), I wouldn't read either of them.
Ditto, more or less. The woodworking one - I'm sure you can find stuff on it easily, which is probably the point - but it's boring. Duke Street, possibly a little bit harder to find what you're after, but I much prefer the colour scheme, it's easier on the eyes. I find a lot of white tends to get very glaring, especially if you have to look at the screen for long periods. But then I have an automatic bias towards darker colours.
Stress is exactly the word I was looking for. The woodwork site has text anchored to one side of the page. It has its back to something.. you know? You know where to find it, because it's always at the side of the page.
Dukestreet's text is in the middle, unconnected to anything. You have to keep mentally re-finding your place.
That's a really interesting way of looking at it. The three-column, content in the middle approach is so standard in web design that I never considered it before, but you have a very definite point.
How do you feel about the layout of, say, Airbag Industries, where the content column is on one side, and there are two other columns?
Also, d'you think Woodwork Ireland would be weakened by centering up what content is there, while leaving the layout the same otherwise?
I use the wonderful Adblock (with Filterset), which strips out almost all ads. This leaves the Woodwork site with big gaps in it whereas the Wizard site fares much better.
Open question: should we be testing sites with ads disabled to see how neatly they degrade? Should we be caring about the ad-free leecher's user experience?
Generally speaking, for professional work, I'd definitely test without ads. For these sites of my own, whose only method of trying to pay the hosting bills is the ads, I'm inclined to say that when you block the ads, you'll just have to suffer the effects. :)
Personally, while I'd happily block some of the banner ads, I find the google ones to be useful on most sites. Often, they lead me to the stuff I want sooner than the pages they're on do.
To go against the tide (and be very blunt), Woodwork Ireland made me make a face, but I'm not sure why. Something about the combination of green and peach, I think, and maybe the density of the text. Also, the Google ads are far too prominent in the design.
I hear you on the google ads, and yet, bizarrely, I've had two emails and one bit of verbal feedback saying that they were excellent ads. Which is more unsolicited feedback than I've got in over a year of having dukestreet running.
I think the thing may be that Woodwork Ireland is designed for an audience who are definitely not technically sophisticated, so everything needs to be clearly outlined and demarcated, the colours can't be too design-y, and so on. dukestreet presumes a higher level of sophistication - although looking at the spelling and comprehension in some of the comments, I'm not sure that's justified.
Is it possible to put the ads on the side or something? As the second element on the page, they seem too important. I mean, I don't object to their presence. *G* (Do you actually make any money from them? We're exploring various options these days...)
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-My incoherent ramble
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However, they're completely different topics and should have different styles. I think if the styles were switched and I came across them by chance (eg didn't know you), I wouldn't read either of them.
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Dukestreet's text is in the middle, unconnected to anything. You have to keep mentally re-finding your place.
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How do you feel about the layout of, say, Airbag Industries, where the content column is on one side, and there are two other columns?
Also, d'you think Woodwork Ireland would be weakened by centering up what content is there, while leaving the layout the same otherwise?
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Open question: should we be testing sites with ads disabled to see how neatly they degrade? Should we be caring about the ad-free leecher's user experience?
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Personally, while I'd happily block some of the banner ads, I find the google ones to be useful on most sites. Often, they lead me to the stuff I want sooner than the pages they're on do.
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I think the thing may be that Woodwork Ireland is designed for an audience who are definitely not technically sophisticated, so everything needs to be clearly outlined and demarcated, the colours can't be too design-y, and so on. dukestreet presumes a higher level of sophistication - although looking at the spelling and comprehension in some of the comments, I'm not sure that's justified.
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