Web design advice

[Foo Fighter]

I'm stuck in a quandry. I can't decide whether to stick with the existing style for my web site: http://www.pocketfactory.com/

or.....................

Go with this new design: http://www.pocketfactory.com/blog

What do you guys think? Should I stay with what I have now? Or go with the new look?

[Glohamar]

I like the new one. When I get home I am going to check to see if it fits on my PPC better also. It looks as if it should. :)

Dave

[Pat Logsdon]

I like the new one. Seems like a more efficient use of space, better colors, left navigation, etc. Nice! :way to go:

[Janak Parekh]

Agreed -- the new one is much better. :) I also like its color scheme.

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

Hmmm...

I like the old version better...

Steve

[Dave Beauvais]

Gonna have to vote for the new format. It seems "cleaner" and easier to read. (Said the guy with his own overly cluttered site. ;))

[Foo Fighter]

Thanks for your input. I'll be watching this thread for further comments and poll results. :D

[Video11]

I like the new look. And the new colours help differentiate from all those other blue sites. Seems like almost everyone is going with blue.

[Janak Parekh]

I like the new look. And the new colours help differentiate from all those other blue sites. Seems like almost everyone is going with blue.
Heyyyyyyy! They all copied us. :lol:

--janak

[David Prahl]

I also think that the new version is better. The current site's fonts are "loud" and "sharp", and can be difficult to read. Even though the "new" colors are subdued, they're gentle on the reader's eyes.

Great designs!

[baker]

I'm old. Like the old.

[JustinGTP]

I too prefer the new one :D

[Tom W.M.]

I like both, but the new one is easier to read. You might want to work a bit on the validity of your code—both designs fail horribly. 8O Also, in the new design you need to make the numbers that are links in the calendar on the left stand out more, because right now it's impossible to tell (I'm sure that must violate about twenty accessibility guidelines).

[Foo Fighter]

You might want to work a bit on the validity of your code—both designs fail horribly.

What do you mean "validity"? Both designs are based on simple CSS layouts. I don't see where any errors could be made.

Also, in the new design you need to make the numbers that are links in the calendar on the left stand out more, because right now it's impossible to tell (I'm sure that must violate about twenty accessibility guidelines).

Thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't noticed that. :D

[Foo Fighter]

I'm tinkering around with a gradient background pattern for the category titles. Let me know what you think. I have two different styles in place the Search and Menu titles show no solid background, while the remaining categories do. Give my your impressions. Thanks!

[Janak Parekh]

You might want to work a bit on the validity of your code—both designs fail horribly.
What do you mean "validity"? Both designs are based on simple CSS layouts. I don't see where any errors could be made.
I haven't tried it, but I assume he means via the CSS Validator (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/).

--janak

[Tom W.M.]

I was talking about the MarkUp Validator (http://validator.w3.org/).

Original design (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.pocketfactory.com/), and newer one (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.pocketfactory.com/blog/).

Most of your problems seem to stem from your <img> tags: in XHTML all <img> tags must be closed with trailing slashes, like <img />; and all <img /> tags must have alt="" attributes. Also <center> is not a legal tag in XHTML.

[Foo Fighter]

One last question. Which color scheme do you guys think looks better:

Sample 1:

http://www.pocketfactory.com/images/sample1.gif

or

Sample 2:

http://www.pocketfactory.com/images/sample2.gif

[Glohamar]

Sample 2.

[Kati Compton]

The brown-with-orange looks just a bit TOO 70s. I'd use the grey, but make it darker. Maybe 60%? 75?

[Foo Fighter]

Ok, how is this for a happy medium...

http://www.pocketfactory.com/images/sample3.gif

[David Prahl]

I prefer sample #2 on page 2. Personally, I think gray looks better than the light tan. But then again, this is YOUR website - do what you want! :)

[Glohamar]

I like the happy medium better than the lighter gray version.

Dave

[Tom W.M.]

I like them all. The brownish one is the best, though, because it gives the site a nice warm feel.

[Linux_Zen]

I actually think the old one is better. It is simple and easy to read IMO, so why rock the boat? :lol:

[David Prahl]

:treadmill:

[Dave Beauvais]

I agree you should pick the color scheme you want for your own site, but since you asked, I've gotta go with "happy medium." :)

[Kati Compton]

I like the happy medium best. But if it were me, I'd still make the grey a little darker to get better contrast with the "factory".

But go with the one *you* like! They all look good.

[Foo Fighter]

Here is a slight variation of the color scheme and graphics:

http://www.pocketfactory.com/images/sample4.jpg

[Kati Compton]

I like the color scheme of this latest one best - though I'd make the grey in the gearbox the same dark as the "pocket". I prefer the old font, though.

Maybe I'm just too opinionated...

They all look good!

[Foo Fighter]

Good idea. I made the changes. Thanks. :)

[Kati Compton]

It looks fabulous! I have nothing more to add. :D (for once)

[David Prahl]

Great site!

[Foo Fighter]

Sorry to be a pest, but I have yet another tweak to throw at you all. I've decided to redesign the graphical sidebar category titles. But I can't decide which variation looks better, so I have two different designs for you to view. All the category graphics are the same except for the last one (named "Other Weblogs") which is the second variation. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

[Dave Beauvais]

I like the old style with the diagonal better than the new one. The animated gear is a nice touch, though. :)

[Pat Logsdon]

I like the last one, but I would lose the animated gears. They ARE cool - but as with 99.5% of animated stuff on web pages, it gets old after the first or second time. It's ok on the top, since users immediately scroll past it, but there's no escaping it on the left. I'd just leave a stationary version of the dark grey gear.

One other suggestion - the little icons in the top left of the white area (headphones, etc.) are a little hard to make out. Maybe you could up the contrast by using the same dark grey as in the large area of your logo...? Also, are they meant to link to anything?

It's looking very nice!

[Dave Beauvais]

I see you added the animated gears to the other heading images. Surgical brings up a good point about animated things on Web pages, but when I'm reading the content of your site, I can't even see the gears moving. Unlike big flashy animation, these things are very faint and the animation is subtle enough that it doesn't even register to my eyes as I'm reading. I like it!

As an aside from one who's quite anal-retentive about such things, the hole in the center of most of the gears of off-center just a bit. ;)

[Kati Compton]

I like the last one, but I agree with Surgical Snack about upping the contrast of those icons at the top, and would suggest that same grey for the gear in the subject categories. Perhaps have the center of the gear transparent so you see the gradient through it instead of white?

[Tom W.M.]

I agree with Surgical—the animated gears on the left are distracting, and detract from the otherwise great design.

[Foo Fighter]

Thanks for your input. I'll make the gears stationary.

[Foo Fighter]

Over the next few weeks I hope to launch a totally revamped site with WAYYYYYYYYYY more powerful features. A basic blog system just doesn't cut it for me anymore, so I've decided to move over to a professional content manament system with tons of user features. For example, with the click of a mouse you can export my reviews and news items as Adobe PDF files. Pretty cool, eh? Take a look. http://www.pocketfactory.com/mambotest/

Keep in mind this is just a basic template. I haven't even begun setting everything up yet. Just wanted to get everyone's overall impression of the features first. I've wanted to do something like this since I first launched this site, and I feel it's time to take it to the next level. :wink:

[JustinGTP]

Looks promising, congrats! and I love the green! :D

[Tom W.M.]

Wow, cool. 0X

I'm looking forward to seeing your new design adapted to this CMS. Will you be switching to <div>s or staying with the table layout?

[Jeff Rutledge]

http://www.pocketfactory.com/mambotest/


I really like the look of this. It definitely grabbed my attention immediately.

[Foo Fighter]

Currently I am in the process of selecting one of two possible content management systems to run this site. Unfortunately the choice is not an easy one to make. Each CMS has its own set of benefits and shortcomings. For that reason, I would like to get your input. Please take a look at each site and decide which one offers the best variety of features and content you would like to see...

Site A (http://pocketfactory.com/mambo)

or

Site B (http://www.pocketfactory.com/e107/)

[Pat Logsdon]

If you can make the e107 site look like the mambo site, I'd go with that one. I might go with e107 anyway. Just the fact that you don't have to enter your content in html would be enough to sell me...

Thanks for pointing these cms solutions out, by the way - I'm seriously considering using one of them for my site. 8)

[Kati Compton]

Mambo's much nicer to read.

[David Prahl]

I would say "site A" (mambo). B looks too similar to other sites out there, and mambo in general has a sweet design and is easily readable.

[Foo Fighter]

I prefer Mambo myself. It is an AWESOME CMS solution, very professional. However it does have one major shortcoming (for me)....no reader comment support. I'm desperately trying to find a way to integrate PHPbb with Mambo, but there doesn't seem to be a solution available. That is where e107 has the advantage. It's commenting system is Forum based and very user friendly. Mambo is more content oriented, where e107 is more user oriented. Both are excellent in their own way, and suck in other ways.

[mrkablooey]

echo for site a.

[JustinGTP]

mambo all the way - the way it looks is so unique and very different, e107 is so very similar to a lot, and I mean a lot, of other sites. Go with mambo, and if you can get PHPbb to work with it - wow!

-Justin.