Help me out fellas: Give me your opinions

[Frodo Baggins]

I decided to post this in GD. It's been a source of discussion over in the Programming sections, but I don't get as many eyes as I should down there and it's more suited here.

Basically, my weblog has been in limbo ever since I decided to take it down last year due to personal reasons. I promised my friends that it would be back around June with a fantastic new look and a personal web host. The funny thing is that I'm doing such a good job hyping it up (see http://ptrinh.blogspot.com and http://www.philsproof.com for some of the recent adverts I've been using) that I think the expectations of my friends are now blown way out of proportion.

Why am I here? I can't get the look right. There is something I don't really like about the current look. Here it is.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/ptrinh/templatejuly04.jpg


I'd love for you guys to give me your opinions. What is wrong with this? Why doesn't it look right? A couple notes:

1) Please don't complain about the shadows. I'm not going to worry about positioning the light source perfectly.
2) The post area I think I'll keep clean. The post title and dates will go on the little piece of paper.
3) I think the problem is that the header is way too clean. In fact, I think I may change the look of the page and make it much more dirty & nasty. Somewhat of a grunge look. Here is an example of what I'll do to the polaroids:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/ptrinh/polaroid.jpg

[four4875]

maybe instead of photochoppin all the pics, lay everytihn out with real stuff, take a pic, and then cut it into the individual buttons and stuff?

and the coffee ring isnt the same size as your mug... kinda odd... lol. but it stuck out to me, not sure why.

[Frodo Baggins]

maybe instead of photochoppin all the pics, lay everytihn out with real stuff, take a pic, and then cut it into the individual buttons and stuff?


That won't work too well, I don't think so. Besides, I'm not looking for an ultra realistic look. One reason why is that the actual posting with fonts will not match the ultra-realistic look. This here gives my site a slightly unrealistic, cartoonish feel, which I like.


and the coffee ring isnt the same size as your mug... kinda odd... lol. but it stuck out to me, not sure why.


Yeah, another point that was covered in the Programming section. Thanks, I'll have to reduce the size of the coffee ring sometime.

[Celada]

Too much blank space in the bottom left corner.

[UnseenMenace]

its the proportions of everything that grabs my attention you have coins larger than a watch face, yet instant-photos appear smaller than I remember them.. The thickness of the pen looks not to far from the width displayed by the watch strap or the handle of the coffee cup.

the proportions just look a little odd to me

nice work though

[SuperFarStucker]

I would say it is too cluttered and the ripped paper look for the titles is overdone and sure to be distracting. Try using some fill text to see how it will look yourself. I like the visual information but again this is something anyone who regularly reads the weblog will know anyway, correct? Less is more if you ask me. I feel the exact opposite, I like the header but the rest, meh.

[Frodo Baggins]

its the proportions of everything that grabs my attention you have coins larger than a watch face, yet instant-photos appear smaller than I remember them.. The thickness of the pen looks not to far from the width displayed by the watch strap or the handle of the coffee cup.

the proportions just look a little odd to me

nice work though

That's because they're not coins ;)

The 'coins' are actually correct in size. The coins are indeed larger than the watch face. Theuy aren't coins -- they're medals. The pencil seems to be more or less on scale. In fact, I think everything on the bottom is okay in proportion. The polaroids are much bigger than they should, but I can't make them too small. The coffee rings are too big, as was already mentioned.

The only thing that throws off the proprtion is the coffee cup (which I can't make full size because its way too big), and the folder (again, way too big). But people always seem quick to point out problems with proportion...maybe that's why the header feels wrong.

[Richard]

No offense, but it looks messy.

[ticktock123]

I would say that it looks cool. Good job on the GUI. the thing that i see is wrong about the header is the fact that it is too good. I mean the rest of the page looks like really messy and the header is a perfect rectangle and the writing done very neat...i would say to make it a bit messy. Maybe miss spell something and cross it out with one line to make it so people can still read what it HAD said. Other then that looks great

[Frodo Baggins]

No offense, but it looks messy.

It's supposed to ;)

I would say that it looks cool. Good job on the GUI. the thing that i see is wrong about the header is the fact that it is too good. I mean the rest of the page looks like really messy and the header is a perfect rectangle and the writing done very neat...i would say to make it a bit messy. Maybe miss spell something and cross it out with one line to make it so people can still read what it HAD said. Other then that looks great

That's exactly what I thought was wrong with it! Thanks, that helped a lot!

[Max0r]

Maybe some semi-transperant grids here and there? I'm too addicted to that futuristic stuff... >_<

[Illah]

In western cultures peoples' eyes naturally start in the upper left corner of a page and flow right because of how we read. Think about how the design can encourage a user to visually 'walk' around the page with this principle as a rough guide. Web layout is very similar to print in this way as the web is almost like a giant, billion page magazine if you think about it.

With your design the upper left corner is dominated by a somewhat unappealing coffee mug which, for me, immediately halts my eye, and the pen almost points my attention downward, away from much of the design. The torn paper is a bit confusing, but from previous posts I think that will be filled with text and stretch vertically so that might work (if that's the case mock some 'lorem ipsum' text into the torn paper so it's easier to see that element of the design). I too am not a big fan of the opaque brown header - I think the mathematical papers behind the coffee & header are more interesting, yet they're buried. Without the mug & header, those papers are something I would look at, which in turn draws my eye to the nav folder, and then onto the polaroids, then my eye is drawn down the watch, etc.

Maybe try cuting the pen & mug on the left side as well as the opaque brown bar. The stains aren't a bad design element, so maybe float the text under/over the stains on the left. Cutting the mug also automatically resolves the mug ring stain / mug size issue people have pointed out, and the stains still convey your love/need for coffee in a more subtle and interesting way (think "show, don't tell"). Perhaps the stains on the left side could be faded a bit so as not to interfere with the text, or float the torn paper partly over the stains. This frees up a little horozontal space, so you can bump the whole right side to the left a bit so the folder and papers overlap a bit which completes the header, or maybe add a paper with "Phil's Proof" scribbled on it to make up the extra width - this would make sense placed within the mathematical papers as it could suggest those papers are your 'proof'. If I remember right you wanted a horzonally scaling design, but I think the design is wide enough to lock a fixed-width which makes life so much easier :)

--Illah

[FudgeNuggets]

Get rid of the creepy looking kid in the upper right hand corner, he's giving me the willies. LOL!! Just kidding. Nice job. Check this out, this may be similar as to what you're looking for: http://www.himynameismark.com