Comments on: Design 1

By: Design 2 - Project Trackr Development Log

Design 2 - Project Trackr Development Log — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:26:43 +0000

[...] So here’s the next potential design for the application. This one is intentionally completely different from first one and has a much more contrasting colour scheme. It is also built using the 960 grid system CSS framework, so can easily be adopted to have the same structure as the variations shown in design 1. [...]

By: Damian

Damian — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:53:32 +0000

Thanks for the feedback so far guys
It is almost certain that several designs will be used throughout the application based on the content. Although the layout may change, it would be inconsistent to go between designs such as the first and second, as it is just a UI change instead of a structural one. On the other hand, designs such as 2, 3 and 5 would work well together.
I’ll create some mocks of “real content” so you can get an idea of what the pages would really look like.
Also, now that it’s been mentioned and I’ve been looking at the design for a while, it does seem a bit ‘flat’, so I’ve added some colour to it. The original can be found here and the colour version is here.

By: David Ferguson

David Ferguson — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:25:57 +0000

I agree with Dan, the design definatly feels ‘flat’ and needs some colour to add some depth to it.
That being said, I would lean more toward 2,3, or 5, but thats just because of personal preference on the layout not for a specific reason. It would be much easier to pick the appropriate layout if there were some sort of idea of what would be in the individual containers. Depending on what is being displayed, it may not be feasible to have a third column.

Just my opinion..

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:59:34 +0000

The actual design at the moment I feel is a bit ‘flat’ although effectively clean and simplistic. Some Improvements I think might help;
larger fonts – make things clearly simple, easy to read & navigate, the number of main nav elements scared me a little but I need to remember this is a tool
more header space – at the moment it feels very “toolish” and unfriendly, some nice graphics or prehaps Icons / more graphic content & symbolism will help of course not to overdue n kill the page.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:45:39 +0000

Personal choice would be to go for:
2 – I prefer the simplistic minimal content layout of this design, no clutter but still space for additional content
1 – I like this for use in context with the app as the site content focus i assume is the project managements service your promoting, BUT the left sub nav type bar is dead so this prehaps is a bad idea.
4 – As robert says this is the cleanest feeling structure, central focus as good space be a safe bet imo.

Overall i think a variant design wouldbe better, I always think its a bit tough to decide the structure of each page til you know what content needs to sit on it and what focus you intend to give it. Prehaps the last, not too common.

All look good though and look forward to the variant designs.

By: Robert Stein

Robert Stein — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:15:07 +0000

The 4th one down (with 2 sidebars either side) I believe looks the neatest. These sidebars create a sort of “frame” around the main content focusing attention upon it. Rather than having a fuller field of text, the main content is kept with the confines of the centre, hence making it more asthetically pleasing to the reader.

Also, the 2 side bars can have multiple uses, thus increasing the potential uses for them.