would appreciate comments on a prototype design

Folks:

 

We're testing out a new design for photo.net. We've redone some of the learning

articles in the new style and would appreciate feedback. Here are some places

to look...

 

http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/ (note that this also contains a new

chapter on digital cameras and the other chapters are revised; would appreciate

comments on the revision)

 

http://www.photo.net/learn/cleaning-cameras (note the use of Amazon shopping

banners with, we hope, relevant products, instead of Google and banner ads)

 

http://www.photo.net/equipment/projectors (same deal)

 

Thanks,

 

Philip

Amazon shopping banners are good. It seems to me that the menus were better in old variant. Did you try to make them transparent and not just gray?

Amazon banner is good and I find the new layout and colour scheme acceptable and not over powering. the learning articles are easy to follow as well as the new chapter on digital. In general I find this an improvement on the old.

 

Artur

I like the current header better, but that may be because I'm just familiar with it. It's what I associate with Photo.net, you know what I mean? Its like the golden arches mean happy meals to children. It has a warm welcoming quality.

The layout is quite readable and attractive. I will impose my particuar preferences for design

except to mention that an ad in the middle of a page rather than in its own space is annoying

because it competes with image content, often clashing horribly.

 

Nonetheless, I would welcome the new look. Thanks for that!

I prefer the current header as it seems cleaner and classier. Also, the Amazon ads imbedded in the middle of the pages, sometimes multiple times, are extremely annoying. Placing them on a left or right side frame is preferable. Animated ads are also very distracting. Thanks for asking for our opinions.

I second Mr. Woodward's statement. The current layout is more readable for me. Perhaps this is because my eyesight is so bad, but the lighter color scheme of the new design makes it harder for me to focus my attention on the text. I also agree that the centered advertisements are a real turn-off; animation would make them positively revolting. Regards.

I find the new layout visually chaotic; the paragraphs are sometimes wrapped around pictures and sometimes not, the interposition of ads in the text is very intrusive (i.e. it interrupts the reader's attention and, in some cases, makes it unclear whether there is more material in the article if you scroll down), the photos are placed seemingly randomly sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right, lanscape format photos and portrait format photos are placed side-by-side without regard to symmetry of organization (sometimes in twos rather than threes so there's no symmetrical layout), paragraphs have different widths throughout the articles, and the print control has been placed in a random location at upper right rather than with other controls in the menu. The footer menu is centered with respect to the comment pane, but the right-hand photos above fall outside this frame on the right hand side giving the page an unbalanced look. The number of blank spaces preceding a section heading varies based on some rule which I cannot discern.

 

These aren't just aesthetic concerns; they make it very difficult to follow the text and draw the reader's attention away from the material.

 

The little gray and white round-cornered rectangles around the Photo.net logo add nothing, really, and are not especially attractive.

 

The comment layout is nice - better than currently both graphically and in terms of economical use of space and good visual separation of comments from one another.

Hi Philip,

<p>

First a technical issue: the header is not rendering quite right in safari. Safari is collapsing

the header's width so it doesn't stretch across the page the way it does in firefox or in i.e.

under windows. The culprit is the float:left in the #header definition (complex.css).

Whether is this is a correct interpretation of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/

visudet.html#q8">css spec</a> is beyond me--if you can parse that paragraph you are a

better man than me. Regardless, there doesn't seem to be any reason to float this div and

deleting the float:left altogether fixes the problem on every browser I have. It also fixes a

problem in firefox that is causing the 'my workspace' link to go missing--I think it's lost

behind the search box.

<p>

Also the links around the search box look messed up. I'm not sure what it is supposed to

look like. From a user-interface perspective, having all these lovely blue links in the page

and then three black underlined links for workspace, logout, and search bunched around

an input box is a somewhat less than attractive solution. It just looks a little lazy.

<p>

The layout in general looks sloppy to me. There seems to be no overall structure to the

design--some things are hanging over on the left others are centered, etc. I think the

designer would do well to go back to basics and make a grid layout that has worked for

centuries. Letting the text stretch into long lines that sort of (but not quite) wrap around

pictures lets some lines stretch way off to the left. This makes reading difficult. I think a

better solution would be to place the images in their own column on the left and keep

them out of the text (and keep them all the same width). This would make the lines of text

shorter, cleaner, and much more legible.

<p>

The amazon ads are the largest elements on the page (at least on the cleaning page) and

command the most attention. If you feel you need to do this for revenue I can't really

argue, but from a visual perspective you are making a statement about the value of your

content, e.g. this is just filler to support some ads. Also, there must be a better solution

than centering the ads.

<p>

The drop down menus are functional on all my browser/os combos. I have on minor

complaint which is the lack of whitespace on the left; the text is pushed right up against

edge of the box. Also making the drop down a slightly different shade or color might help.

The drop downs on photo.net currently do all this and look better.

<p>

I'm not what sort of resources photo.net has these days, but if you are ever looking for

someone to test stuff on mac browsers who knows some html/css feel free to let me

know. I'd be happy to look at things as time allows.

This is how the page is currently rendering with safari.<div></div>

Looks good - clean... Like the logo - I hate the gray and the text from reader comments in gray... dull.

The colors are easy on the eyes. I think a bit more contrast would be nice, also. Perhaps use the darker navy blue for the writing?

 

I am not crazy about the ads in the middle of the information, even though they are small and not flashing. They are brighter than anything else on the page and so are distracting to me. I see all the space down the right side and wonder what will be going in that space? Maybe the ads could all move to the right side?

 

I like the columns to be just about this wide, its easier to read than ones that go all the way across the page.

I find the design neither offensive nor inspiring. I had hoped (and suggested) that you would invest in graphic design resources that are on the same level artistically that your programming staff is on technically. There hardly seems to be a flicker of imagination in the graphics. I do agree with those who have suggested that the current dark blue header works better than the proposed one. Whatever, I like the site's concept (if not the presentation) better than the others I've tried and will likely be here for the foreseeable future unless I do something that results in my eviction!

The design is poor, amateurish even which i would suggest is not the way to go unless you

are deliberately trying to have a retro look. It is bland and inoffensive and imo a step

backwards.

 

There is no strong visual branding of photonet using either the logo(poor) or the actual

layout. It should be unique but simple.

 

Putting ads in the middle cheapens the site (credibility is lowered) as well as being visually

crude. Ads will be placed if clickthroughs are high that is more a function of the ad design

and 'offer' of the ad than the place on the web page.

 

I think you need help on web design aesthetics.

 

It is disappointing that you are focusing on the web page layout as opposed to the actual

site workings/features.

 

I can only guess that other longer term members might agree with me that the web page

design is at the bottom of our wish list for improvements.

Louis, it might be comforting to know that work is underway to upgrade the software as well. The ACS 3.4 package offers a much better system to develop new features and improve existing ones. New hardware has arrived. We're working on better admin tools as well, helping moderators do their work. These things aren't visible yet, but stick around for a while longer and you should see some improvements soon.

With all the artists on this site I would think a better Logo for photo.net could be obtained. Heck, just create a contest for it and offer up something and I'm sure you would have a couple thousand logo's to go through in a week.

 

Just an idea...

 

Dave

Thanks for the update on software. At one point I understood that the objective was to have ACS 3.4 up and running by November, 2006. Has a revised timeline been issued?

I think the top menu needs more work. You can't tell that the menus are there until you mouse-over. Users need to see the curved tabs--make them darker than the light background.

 

I don't like how small the My Workspace, Logout, and Search links are, or how they surround the search box.

 

I like the links showing Home->Page->Current Page. Make the font larger.

 

I like what you've done with the shading of readers' comments. I'd like that for regular content too--maybe in a different shade because sections seem to run together in places.

GungaJim: Jin and Philip are in charge of the system upgrades and I can't comment on schedules. I try to help by testing stuff, just like everybody in this thread helps by commenting on the new design.

I'm not sure why you would use the "cleaning cameras" page to grandstand your persnal photos...I guess it is your site, but it would seem to me, you would want to post some examples of, say,...cameras being cleaned.

 

The colors are very drab, and as others have said, it's boring. I like the old sites look better.

 

I do love PNet though...it's been a great resource. It just doesn't seem that it will ever push the boundaries of web design.