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#11
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
ray wrote:
Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. I can tell you that I am constantly considering changes to the site, and will take the preceding comments on board, as I always do. However, if you have actually designed a site with as much content as my one has, you'll know that there are a lot of issues in the design of the site, many of which pull you in opposite directions. Moving away from the 'traditional' blue underlined links is not something you do lightly. Many sites have moved away from this, to a greater or lesser extent, such as: http://www.theage.com.au/ and http://www.nytimes.com/ Others have not. It is, in fact, all a juggling act, usually informed by assessments of the types of users visiting a site and their level of proficiency. There is the rollover change of color when you hover the cursor, but I will change that to include an underline so it is even clearer. The specifics of Mark's page are flexible. I put the cruise ad in to support Mark. Without it the links to the individual columns comes up much higher. I think I'll move it below the column links. Cheers, Wayne -- Wayne J. Cosshall Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/ Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/ |
#12
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
On 12/16/06 1:36 AM, "Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote:
Many sites have moved away from this, to a greater or lesser extent, such as: http://www.theage.com.au/ and http://www.nytimes.com/ They put underlines when you mouse over, which lets browsers know it is a link. Your site changes the color to indicate a link. That is fine with me, I just think that you can't please everyone all the time. -- Rick http://fixupix.tripod.com/ http://www.backprint.com/cnypix |
#13
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
ray wrote:
Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. 3) Get rid of all the crap! James McNangle |
#14
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
James McNangle wrote:
ray wrote: Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. 3) Get rid of all the crap! James McNangle Define crap? -- Wayne J. Cosshall Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/ Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/ |
#15
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
James McNangle wrote: ray wrote: Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. 3) Get rid of all the crap! James McNangle Define crap? your website layout for starters |
#16
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:43:52 +1100
James McNangle wrote: ray wrote: Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. 3) Get rid of all the crap! James McNangle Chrikey !!! I'm back to a blank screen. -- Neil Reverse 'ra' and delete 'l'. |
#17
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
ray wrote:
Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. Ok, Ray, I am trying all links with underlines. Personally I find it makes things more cluttered but I am willing to give it a try. I am happy for meaningful feedback, such as yours was. I've also changed the main page for Mark's column. Cheers, Wayne -- Wayne J. Cosshall Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/ Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/ |
#18
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
Links only have to reveal themselves when a cursor is moved over it and so
the decoration need not be visual until required. Thus maintaining a neat and visually appealing design. Duncan "Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote in message ... ray wrote: Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. Ok, Ray, I am trying all links with underlines. Personally I find it makes things more cluttered but I am willing to give it a try. I am happy for meaningful feedback, such as yours was. I've also changed the main page for Mark's column. Cheers, Wayne -- Wayne J. Cosshall Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/ Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/ |
#19
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
"Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote in message ... ray wrote: Two prime tenets of web site design: 1) make the links look like links 2) put the material of primary interest 'above the fold'. Ok, Ray, I am trying all links with underlines. Personally I find it makes things more cluttered but I am willing to give it a try. I am happy for meaningful feedback, such as yours was. I've also changed the main page for Mark's column. I'm gonna weigh in here - I had a brief look at Wayne's site, and I can appreciate why people might perceive it as "cluttered", but it has nothing to do with whether links are underlined or not, rather it's to do with the basics of page layout and typography. What is clear is that while Wayne might be a good photographer, he's not a graphic/web designer. Fundamentally, what the site layout lacks is the correct amount "air" around text, and poor site layout that lacks the structural signals that users expect to see. That said, while I use the term "poor" in referring to some aspects, it's not to say his isn't a good site - it has a great deal of valuable content. A full analysis would take up way too much space, but broadly, the left and right columns are an un-structured parade of links - there's just too much to take in. The left is the worst - it needs to be broken down into a couple of easily understandable sub-groups. Good hierarchical structure draws people in deeper, whereas the "flat" structure presented is overwhelming. Also, it strikes me that the site needs more of a real magazine structure as opposed to a literal collection of articles sorted by category - ie. you can have that, but presenting the content with the headline "Articles in the category Audio" makes it seem like you're doing a series of database searches, which you are, but it can be presented in a less literal manner. Just changing the headline to "Audio Articles" and losing the "Articles reco rds 1-20 of 28" from the top (it could go at the bottom next to the result navigation) would be a good start. The centre column is also a bit of a mess. Any photographic site, which is fundamentally all about *pictures*, that starts with a paragraph crushed up the top that delves immediately into how to make the site more "usable" is an immediate admission that the site might be a bit tough to use. It should start with a killer pic sitting clear and clean - the IR one at the moment is fine, but surrounded by a mix of text sizes and weights detracts from its impact. My suggestion would be to sit down with a good web designer with a proven track record in this kind of site and CMS software, and re-work the templates to reflect solid page layout principles, and let them take a fresh look at the structure and see if it can't be re-organised in a simpler, more accessible style. As I said, lots of great content, but the manner in which it's presented makes the sheer mass of information seem overwhelming. |
#20
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New Foto Tip column by Mark Alberhasky
"Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote:
James McNangle wrote: ....... 3) Get rid of all the crap! Define crap? Perhaps the clue to the problem with your web site is contained in the line "The online magazine and reference site for photography, graphic design, digital art, Web design, video, illustration and image creation." Any one of these subjects would be quite sufficient for a single web site, but you have them all together, all mixed up in a horrendous jumble. And, even worse, this horrendous jumble is reproduced on every page. About the only thing I can say in favour of the site is that it doesn't sing or dance. Consider the page http://www.dimagemaker.com/article.php?articleID=799. This is titled "A day of shooting with my Infrared converted Canon 350D". By the time someone gets to this page all they want to see is what results you have managed to get. But what do they get? On the left, a column 160 pixels wide, containing a plague of totally irrelevant links. On the right, another column 160 pixels wide, containing another plague of equally irrelevant links. In the middle a couple of ads, then an introduction, and yet another column 160 pixels wide, containing yet another plague of irrelevant links. Below this we finally get to the demonstration photos, all 450 pixels wide. If you threw out all this rubbish, or sorted it into categories, with the material relevant to each category on a separate page, so that this page only displayed the actual test photos and your comments on them, you could make the pictures much bigger, so that the viewer could really see what you are on about, without being distracted by a whole heap of totally irrelevant crap. James McNangle |
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