[Adam]

Hi guys,

My designer has been hard at work over the past few days, and we're getting close to completing the new look for our homepage.

Before going live, I would like to hear any suggestions you might have about this new layout!


(click to view in a separate window)

Looking forward to making this even better than it already is- thanks for looking!

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



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[KFrog]

Looks pretty good. Nice clean design. clear and appears easy to navigate.

[Corros]

Great design, but the font is not my taste. I think a more modern looking font would do better.

[newarts]

I've heard sans serif is easiest to read. Try 12pt arial HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study

I am having trouble with the current quoted text - it is gray on gray (blue on blue?) and quite hard to read - so much so I avoid it.

[bigted]

It's nice and sharp with lots of white space. My only concern is I find the red on black font hard to see and I would skip over it. Would it be possible to bold the red font on black or would it direct the focus onto something that it wasn't intended to be?

bigted

[bengibollen]

First of all - It looks really nice. But you did ask for suggestions, so here are a couple.

I agree with previous posters about the font, use a font without serifs in body text. It's ok to have serifs in the headers and I think the font currently used there goes well with a sans serif font.

I do not really like the red design on the right column. It looks misaligned or disconnected in a way. I like the darker red better as in the footer than the brighter red behind the search field. If two different shades of red should be used anyway, at least use the same as in the "register" button. (the brighter part of the register button is the same shade as the footer and darker shades in the column)
To analyze this further (I'm brainstorming here, haven't tried the suggestions outside my mind): I think the vertical divider between the columns should be in the same color as the footer and the fields closest to the divider, so it gets connected. Right now only the search field is connected to the divider and it is disconnected from both the footer and the section headers in the right column. If the search field and divider gets the same shade as the footer and the socials field gets the same shade as the lower part in the register button and the brighter field in the section headers gets darker instead to the same shade as the socials field... How does that end up?

[Adam]

Thanks for the input. We're going to move the sidebar back to the right and add some contrast to it.

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



PentaxForums.com server and development costs are user-supported. You can help cover these costs by donating or purchasing one of our Pentax eBooks. Or, buy your photo gear from our affiliates, Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH, or Topaz Labs, and get FREE Marketplace access - click here to see how! Trusted Pentax retailers:

[Nass]

Not sure if it's consistent with the forums - the forums is all about rounded edges but here theyre all square? The mix of fonts and uppercasing is also not consistent design. Other than that page elements basically ok, albeit a little Limited. Ie strange that there's no marketplace element there or some of the other more appealing parts of the whole site. Seems a lot of space for 'chosen' content and little for the natural content.

[Adam]

The following changes have been made since the first post:
-Main body font is now arial (just like on the forum)
-Sidebar moved to the left again, and made narrower
-Added icons to the navbar to make it easily distinguishable from the rest

Will post a screenshot once a few more changes are implemented...thanks for the feedback so far.

[Canada_Rockies]

It looks good Adam.

[Adam]

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the worst, how bad is the usability of the new navbar?
Working Demo

I'm giving it a 3 because I hate it when stuff moves away from under my mouse. Apart from that, I think it looks very pretty and makes things easier to find than currently.

[Nass]

Looks a little off on ipad - camera gfx too large. Usability seems ok?

[newarts]

I like it.

[Designosophy]

The new sidebar is fine for me as far as usability goes. It could be better if there were a defined size for it, however, so items below it (featured article, etc.) don't move when different menus are opened. In the final version, will you be able to drill down hierarchically like you can with the current horizontal navbar? I think that would be an unfortunate loss of functionality, if not.

A few others have mentioned the font. I agree on this. Can you use a font that is consistent with the rest of the fonts on the site instead of the all-caps serif you're currently using? Why not use the font that's being used in the header, above the search area (and, I presume, in the black and white conversation bubbles at the bottom left)?

[Adam]

The best new feature is the breadcrumbs- but yeah, the same navbar layout is preserved (as you can see).