Website Review and Suggestions

**edgray** · 10-16-2010, 04:32 PM

I've been building a new theme for my blog:

http://sugarcane.es/

I wanted a simple design, with strong typography. I'd love to hear any feedback on it, it's still a work in progress.

I'm planning on releasing it as a free theme, minus my header of course.

**DoomPirate** · 10-16-2010, 04:36 PM

Needs some more colors other than black and gray. Side menu bar and its positioning is a little annoying. I'd rather have seen it not float.

**edgray** · 10-16-2010, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoomPirate

Needs some more colors other than black and gray. Side menu bar and its positioning is a little annoying. I'd rather have seen it not float.

the dark look is what I'm going for

so why more colours?

That's interesting about the navigation. I kind of find it annoying reading lengthy blogs and having to scroll back up to the top to change page, hence why I decided to make it fix. What exactly about it annoyed you?

**DoomPirate** · 10-16-2010, 04:47 PM

Its not common, its hard to describe, but i prefer non-floating. It almost reminds me of ads that popup while surfing sites. Studies should be done to see what people prefer.

I would suggest having the title stand out a little more.

**edgray** · 10-16-2010, 04:50 PM

there's a chance the navigation might change - in the template I'm working on I'm putting in a widgetised sidebar.

**edgray** · 10-17-2010, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennys09

for me its too dark. try to use some colors to make the words more bright.

It's really supposed to be dark. I'll be publishing some of my design and photography on there, which will be plenty colourful.

**bryan88** · 10-17-2010, 10:58 PM

To me, the background is ok. but, i dont like your floating idea.

**edgray** · 10-18-2010, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryan88

To me, the background is ok. but, i dont like your floating idea.

ok so that's two not liking the floating nav. Any specific usability problems with it?

**VirtuosiMedia** · 10-18-2010, 12:08 PM

The floating menu is fine, I think, unless you add more to the sidebar. Bigger sidebars should remain static, but smaller ones like this are fine if they float. I like the grunge background, but I'd like to see more grunge elements throughout the site. It doesn't have to be a lot, but enough to tie it together.

**Whathadiv** · 10-18-2010, 12:22 PM

Ok, I'm just not a fan of scrolling at all. If I have to scroll my wheel more than 3 times I'm done, unless the content is just super interesting.

The black doesn't bother me at all, I like black actually and think your header is neat.

Also, I'm with ya on the floating menu but I'm also a developer, most regular users won't want that.

**seo.vijay** · 10-18-2010, 12:27 PM

i quite like ur work.

**edgray** · 10-18-2010, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whathadiv

Ok, I'm just not a fan of scrolling at all. If I have to scroll my wheel more than 3 times I'm done, unless the content is just super interesting.

The black doesn't bother me at all, I like black actually and think your header is neat.

Also, I'm with ya on the floating menu but I'm also a developer, most regular users won't want that.

Fair enough. I figure it's pretty tough to make a decent blog without any scrolling, so I decided to keep the navigation static so that you're not lost if you're half way down a page - you don't have to scroll right back to the top to navigate to another page.

Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with how the header turned out.

Out of interest, have you seen any blogs that you like, in terms of not having to scroll much? I've been looking around for some different methods of presenting a blog and came up short

Quote:

Originally Posted by seo.vijay

i quite like ur work.

thanks!

**edgray** · 10-19-2010, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

The floating menu is fine, I think, unless you add more to the sidebar. Bigger sidebars should remain static, but smaller ones like this are fine if they float. I like the grunge background, but I'd like to see more grunge elements throughout the site. It doesn't have to be a lot, but enough to tie it together.

Thanks. I shalln't be adding a side bar to this site, but the template will have one when finished.

I thought about more grunge elements throughout the design, but didn't want to ruin the prominence of the typography. What kind of thing did you have in mind?

**rhugh** · 10-19-2010, 06:23 AM

There is another recommendation or tip for your blog that try also the youtube.com embedded link options for this purpose. You can easily manage the color schemes at there and put the code in your blog.

**edgray** · 10-19-2010, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhugh

There is another recommendation or tip for your blog that try also the youtube.com embedded link options for this purpose. You can easily manage the color schemes at there and put the code in your blog.

thanks, I'll look into that. I do think YouTube's video player is really ugly, it would be nice to make it a bit better.

**craig.johnson** · 10-19-2010, 08:45 AM

I like the background at it's top but when you go down it's just black. Why don't you try adding different shades. In my opinion when posting comments it will be better to brighter colour for the letters... or make them with some shade if possible.

**edgray** · 10-19-2010, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by craig.johnson

I like the background at it's top but when you go down it's just black. Why don't you try adding different shades. In my opinion when posting comments it will be better to brighter colour for the letters... or make them with some shade if possible.

I want to keep the background plain to not distract from reading. I worked pretty hard getting the typography right so I don't want to interfere with that at all by adding anything behind it.

I'll have a look at the comment text situation, thanks.