What the heck :p

[weirdbeardmt]

I have been writing this site for a while, kind of a work in progress thing, it's been a lot of fun, and I'd love to know what you guys think.

It is CSS only so I am sure it will look rough in anything 6- but what the heck, let me know.

Well whatever you think, let me know

http://www.matt-thornton.net

[sbdi]

IE 5.5
56K
1024 X 768

Nice layout, take about 10 seconds to load.

The layout is clean which looks good

[M. Johansson]

GOD DAMN that thing loads fast. Nice work.

I think the colour scheme is a bit bland, though, and the contrast in the boxes is really bad.

While a picture would slow down the loading of the site, it would also make it less dead. I suggest a right-aligned picture of yourself or something in the main area.

[weirdbeardmt]

Originally posted by M. Johansson
I think the colour scheme is a bit bland, though, and the contrast in the boxes is really bad.

Yeh, I know that. Did you click any of the links in the "The Sites" area?

[Travis]

The bottom is messed up in Moz1.2b and the right menu goes right off the page. Here is a screenshot: http://outburstonline.com/moz1.2b.png

[keithd]

IE 6.0
1024x768
High Speed Cable Internet

Site looks good, very clean. It could probably use a cool graphic/header. It's ok to have some graphics

It could also use something in the upper right corner. Maybe you could move all of the boxes in the right column up to the top of the page?

Overall it looks very good though. Best of luck with it.

[Lister14]

looks really tidy and fast loading, however, as mentioned above, i don't really like not being able to see the headers of the boxes on the right no more when hovering above... you should maybe just get a darker kakis colour for the headers so they are still readable (sp?) when pointing the mouse on the boxes...


redeyes: where does your name come from?? ...smoking too many of Travs flowers??

[Bill Posters]

What I see on Mac OSX w/ IE5.2.2, 1152 x 870 res

As you'll see there are at least three issues that could/should addressing.
Hope this helps.

[weirdbeardmt]

Originally posted by Bill Posters
Hope this helps.

Not really... sorry Thanks for the screenie, but I am only seeing one possible issue (the lack of border round boxes bottom left) and possibly that you had no footer?

Thanks for the other thoughts, I will try and lighten the mouseovers on the right hand boxes, might just have to keep them all one colour.

[M. Johansson]

Originally posted by weirdbeardmt


Yeh, I know that. Did you click any of the links in the "The Sites" area?

ooh - nice. They are still all pretty bland, though.

[Bill Posters]

1) The vertical positioning of the side columns.
2) Colouring of the hover on the right column.
3) Abscence of border on areas of left column.
+
4) The vertical postioning of the footer ( or bottom edge of right column)
5) (ish) The extra spacing at the bottom of the footer.


Are you saying that the two side boxes are meant to be positioned like that? (crossing over into the header area)

Btw, I've swapped the image I posted for one showing the full length of the page on my machine.
Here it is again.

The footer is present, but again there is an issue with the side column encroaching on it.
I'm only assuming that is not intended as it feels untidy while it does (imho).

[weirdbeardmt]

Thanks Bill. The only "problem" i.e. effect that is happening that I didn't want is the lack of border on the left menus. The other items you mention are intended. In a weird kind of way I'm amazed it looks that "good" given I have never seen anything I have done on a Mac.

[Bill Posters]

Fair enough.

Can I just ask why you chose to have the side columns extending into the header and footer areas?

If I were to review it as a layout idea, I would probably say that it doesn't 'work' and looks more like a positioning error.

But anyway, each to their own, I guess

[weirdbeardmt]

Originally posted by Bill Posters
But anyway, each to their own, I guess

Yeh, pretty much. I tried it with the boxes not overlapping, but then it looked really dull and I sorta prefer it this way. The only thing I don't like is when there is an entire box in the footer, but I can't figure out the CSS to do the footer properly, it's a complete botch job at the moment.

Anyway I changed the mouseovers on the right hand side and tried to make the main page a little more "interesting".

Whaddya think ?

[Gryff]

if only seanf would put up his work in progress site.......

[Pedro Monteiro]

Great job!

I'm trying to find something to poiny out, but can't seem to find anything except maybe that the left table first letters should be in caps!

[gladding]

I like the fact that it is very simple and very well-put together. Clean, and not an eyesore.

I do think you could use a little more color on all the pages. Having only 2 colors is kinda like rice cakes - sure, it's good for you, but it doesn't really taste good.

I also think it looks a little *too* simple... it looks a lot like the cookie cutter blogs that are popping up everywhere. I'm certainly not accusing you of not designing it yourself (I'm sure you did), but it looks eerily similar to a lot of blogs out there, that's all.

It's nice. I just think it could be "kicked up a notch"!

[weirdbeardmt]

Originally posted by gladding
I also think it looks a little *too* simple... it looks a lot like the cookie cutter blogs that are popping up everywhere. I'm certainly not accusing you of not designing it yourself (I'm sure you did), but it looks eerily similar to a lot of blogs out there, that's all.

I don't follow. I did design the site, I didn't design the blog, Cafelog did...

[daamsie]

I like the simple design.. draws the attention to the text..

Problem though for me was that the text was covered by your right navigation boxes!

I'm on IE 5.1 for MAC (very recent for mac) and my screen size is 1024x768..

might want to look into that.

[weirdbeardmt]

Originally posted by daamsie
Problem though for me was that the text was covered by your right navigation boxes!

Thanks, any chance of a screenie so I can see the problem? It appeared to work fine on Bill's Mac...