The Long Road

05/15/2004 Archived Entry: "Web Design"

The thing I value most on a web page is functional simplicity. Sure high-res pictures are nice to look at and add a lot of flair to a page, but they can be very distracting from the content as well as taking forever and a day to load. Flash is the same, the loading times are just not worth dealing. I've had friends visit this site who then asked "why aren't there any pictures", referring to geocity (my favorite web design whipping boy) style obtrusive backgrounds, and animated gifs up the bandwidth.

I'm all about simple, uncluttered elegance (although that sidebar's starting to get too big for its own good). Maybe it's a CS thing? Looking around at other CS'ers pages, it's obvious we all share the same design sensibilities; that or no one's aesthetically inclined (very possible). We've been trained to produce nice, clean, and efficient code and that probably filters to page layout and content as well.

So I've been working on a website for a friend's wedding. I'd like suggestions, criticisms, and praises. Please.

Replies: 5 comments

This entry reminds me of Hamster Dance.... I don't know if I like the borders around the text, for the images it works beautifully, aesthetically I love the images down the right and the size of things, I think the title needs a little more flair, more impact, it should say, “I’M A TITLE LOOK AT ME…ok now frell off I’m not that interesting” The menu and text might benefit from a table with a different tinted red background rather then a border.

Posted by Hyperion @ 05/15/2004 04:43 PM EST

The wedding website...

1) The pictures along the right side of the page add a nice touch to the page.

2) Maybe you should kill the border around the main text.

3) The colours of the website don't give me a "wedding" type of feel. You need happier colours than maroon and grey (some pink? red?). Instead of a simple light brown border, maybe you should have something with images of doves? flowers? etc.

Personally, I'd look at some other wedding sites to get some inpiration.

Posted by dAN @ 05/15/2004 07:51 PM EST

Oh...a tad more...

Why is the main text offset from the top?

I'm not too fond of the link bar on the left.

Posted by dAN @ 05/15/2004 07:55 PM EST

I find Times New Roman to be a rather plain font (if you're not using TNR, I suggest you use a font that comes with Windows, so that most people can view your design as it should be viewed (too lazy to check the css to see what you are using..)). Hyperion's right about the title, make it bigger. I'd suggest a ribonny font like ShelleyVolante (but as an image, not text, as I think most ppl haven't got ShelleyVolante).

The colours seem so blah for a wedding site! If you can (ie, if you're not designing this as a surprise), as about what colour scheme's desired. If you are designing it as a surprise, as dAN said, check out other wedding websites.

Lastly, The picture of the couple seems a little out of place on the pages where photographs are the main attraction; it distracts the movement of the eye down the page. Also, the fact that the pic of the couple is vertically centered in the right-most column of every content page looks a little odd for long pages. The sudden presence of the picture as I scroll down is just weird .. either have a string of small pictures there, or have it at the top, but not in the middle.
In fact, I think it'd work best if you had the content scrollable (use an iframe?, heh, I dunno how to do it myself!) and have the pic of the couple stay put on the right.

Posted by Arsh @ 05/16/2004 04:15 PM EST

i want to see a flowered border around everything. weddings = flowers, and the wedding website needs some! simple white flowers with green leaves, and maybe a few touches of other small flowers is what i'm thinking. make a texture of it, like you have on your stucco layout.

Posted by shawnathan @ 05/17/2004 03:33 AM EST