SOTT Site - New Layout
- Thread starter Buddy
- Start date
Arne
Jedi
Hello all, and grats with the new sott.net-site. I`ve worked ten years with site-design myself, so I know how much work that went into it.
I`m not a graphic designer and my focus has always been on information-design. So I`m going to offer some friendly advice and point out a few factors that maybe is counter-productive to the aim of the site-information. And how to improve it. I hope you`ll find it useful, and I can do the setup and implementation of the css if you find my points useful and relevant....
1. The header looks unfinished and noisy. The left side of it have to much elements that doesn`t contribute to the information people seek, is noise. The "Welcome to sott.net", "sott.net" and "Signs of the times" elements is IMOO unnecessary since it already says "sott.net" in the url and you got the nice logo. A nice "Signs of the times" and maybe "The world for people who thinks" byline. And freshen up the QFG bookstore-button.
2. The logo looks great, and the alignment in the middle is fresh. But the "Find us on" is clutering the flow. It should be placed elsewhere. Maybe together with the language and support-buttons.
3. The "Thinks" graphics to the right are great, but the placement is disturbing the visual flow. Maybe a placement to the far right?
4. The soldier on the far right don`t fit in to the flow. Noisy? Maybe a more subtle one, or something that changes with the different sections?
5. The main navigation is lost to the eye between the header and the main area. It could belong to the header.
6. Maybe the “search” field should go in the header to? Its an important navigation element for many users and should stand out to the eye.
7. The main graphic elements also clashes with the logo when it’s using colors outside of the site-color chart. There should be no more than four or five main colors. More will only look noisy.
8. The shape of the different headings and menu-headings in the main area also crashes visually. Maybe a little bit rounded elements would flow better with the logo, and clam down the site?
The sott.net site contains some of the most valuable information on the internet, and it contains a lot... So trying to avoid a TMI on the reader should be paramount to the design. Maybe its possible to collapse some of the menus so that only the header is showing until the user clicks on it?
I hope you will find the advices beneficial and see that I`m not trying to ruin the party :)
Loading up a mockup to illustrate ....
With best intentions and all my respect to the designers
Arne
I`m not a graphic designer and my focus has always been on information-design. So I`m going to offer some friendly advice and point out a few factors that maybe is counter-productive to the aim of the site-information. And how to improve it. I hope you`ll find it useful, and I can do the setup and implementation of the css if you find my points useful and relevant....
1. The header looks unfinished and noisy. The left side of it have to much elements that doesn`t contribute to the information people seek, is noise. The "Welcome to sott.net", "sott.net" and "Signs of the times" elements is IMOO unnecessary since it already says "sott.net" in the url and you got the nice logo. A nice "Signs of the times" and maybe "The world for people who thinks" byline. And freshen up the QFG bookstore-button.
2. The logo looks great, and the alignment in the middle is fresh. But the "Find us on" is clutering the flow. It should be placed elsewhere. Maybe together with the language and support-buttons.
3. The "Thinks" graphics to the right are great, but the placement is disturbing the visual flow. Maybe a placement to the far right?
4. The soldier on the far right don`t fit in to the flow. Noisy? Maybe a more subtle one, or something that changes with the different sections?
5. The main navigation is lost to the eye between the header and the main area. It could belong to the header.
6. Maybe the “search” field should go in the header to? Its an important navigation element for many users and should stand out to the eye.
7. The main graphic elements also clashes with the logo when it’s using colors outside of the site-color chart. There should be no more than four or five main colors. More will only look noisy.
8. The shape of the different headings and menu-headings in the main area also crashes visually. Maybe a little bit rounded elements would flow better with the logo, and clam down the site?
The sott.net site contains some of the most valuable information on the internet, and it contains a lot... So trying to avoid a TMI on the reader should be paramount to the design. Maybe its possible to collapse some of the menus so that only the header is showing until the user clicks on it?
I hope you will find the advices beneficial and see that I`m not trying to ruin the party :)
Loading up a mockup to illustrate ....
With best intentions and all my respect to the designers
Arne
Attachments
davey72
The Living Force
looks great, but i can't seem to find anything anymore. RE: the eirius eolis breathing and meditation. I really want to start practicing the whole program,but all i can find is the first part teaching pipe breathing.
can anyone tell me where to find the three part program again?
can anyone tell me where to find the three part program again?
F
forge
Guest
Congratulations for the designers and coders and workers on the new Sott site!! It grew onto my heart, i really would mourn the loss, Sott has become a part of my life. First the font is a big surprise, but as i began to taste it with the eye i found a new flavor that was giving constant shocks to WAKE UP. The new font seems very alert, inspires attention to be paid and there are Vision Training Glasses i used so what.
Let's see the functionality, what options the site offers to the user, how is it organized?
A pleasant surprise! We have an exceptionally well organized site!
And Sott must change with time intervals otherwise people get used to old outlooks and same people will sleep in! All in all a masterful work. I wish i could pay you all who worked there.
Let's see the functionality, what options the site offers to the user, how is it organized?
A pleasant surprise! We have an exceptionally well organized site!
And Sott must change with time intervals otherwise people get used to old outlooks and same people will sleep in! All in all a masterful work. I wish i could pay you all who worked there.
The graphics and layout are excellent but I would agree with GAIA re the contrast in colours, a darker blue and possibly meatier font would stand out better in the "Latest News" section.
it's absolutely lovely.. couple of questions though, was the Play and pause button on the Podcast section on the home page meant to work? they don't for me.. :(
and something else, since it is using a lot more images, it takes a little longer to load, did you guys take that into consideration? just a thought on it, as not everyone has a fast connection, or computer.
my two cents here, as for everything else. im loving the design!!
Congratulations to everyone involved
and something else, since it is using a lot more images, it takes a little longer to load, did you guys take that into consideration? just a thought on it, as not everyone has a fast connection, or computer.
my two cents here, as for everything else. im loving the design!!
Congratulations to everyone involved
Login/out problems are fixed.
Search box should be fixed now.
World News category links are fixed.
E-mail Editions in French and Spanish are now enabled.
Facebook button and sidebar boxes are now customized for each language.
And about 1 billion other things are now fixed. ;)
The deal with the page counters was that they were not only inaccurate, but they were using the DB to store those inaccurate counts when we already have statistics provided by the webserver logs and a stats software package. On the old site, we could have an article with 100 comments, and the visible page counter would show far fewer visits than the server logs indicated.
So, page counters went bye-bye.
I am happy to report that traffic has doubled since the new site went up!!!
Search box should be fixed now.
World News category links are fixed.
E-mail Editions in French and Spanish are now enabled.
Facebook button and sidebar boxes are now customized for each language.
And about 1 billion other things are now fixed. ;)
Heimdallr said:
The deal with the page counters was that they were not only inaccurate, but they were using the DB to store those inaccurate counts when we already have statistics provided by the webserver logs and a stats software package. On the old site, we could have an article with 100 comments, and the visible page counter would show far fewer visits than the server logs indicated.
So, page counters went bye-bye.
I am happy to report that traffic has doubled since the new site went up!!!
