By micmll on

For years I've been fighting with CMSes and blogging platforms of all kind. Some of them made me smile and sooner or later turned out to be either too limited or far too bloated to really rock my world - but most of them instantly just drove me to tears. I won't be dropping names.
About half a year ago I stumbled over Drupal. I must confess: It wasn't love a first sight. But we got to know each other pretty well and married a month ago.
Ahh! It's about showcasing: A sneak preview of my upcoming online magazine is up and running at: http://www.aphoc.org
A rather minimal "Blue Marine" rip-off.
Of course: I'm thankful for every comment and constructive critique.
Cheers
Michael

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

jwilde’s picture

jwilde commented

nice and clean! good job.

Jim

marlowx’s picture

marlowx commented

nice and clean design...

i'll bookmark it!

micmll’s picture

micmll commented

hi gerard.
thanks for the props.

something completely different:
great band, great songs.
I'll keep an ear on you guys.

sazimo’s picture

sazimo commented

Clean & Light.

Chill35’s picture

Chill35 commented

The most beautiful site I have seen "showcased" here so far (I have been here a couple of weeks, or maybe a month already).

Verrry nice, I dig it.

I would only make the short mission statement look a little better (the 1st block with : '"aphoc" is a non-profit online magazine dedicated to the social, political and cultural history of computing'). There's something not right about it. It's not the color, it has to do with typography and alignment and contrast (not enough of...), may only have to do with the alignment of text...

And there's something not right with the styling and alignment of lists in the content column (central column).

I never give criticism when I don't like something, because I would not know where to start and when to stop and that wouldn't be nice ;)

my 2¢ (first impression)

micmll’s picture

micmll commented

Hi Chill35 and everyone else,

I appreciate your feedback - thanks for the props.
Concerning the mission statement: You're absolutely right - I'm also still puzzled about this little 'div'. Probably it is completely redundant anyway. Don't know if I should make it look like a sticky note - but first of all: I should definitely try something new.
I'm terribly busy at the moment. Check back after Xmas. Will have it fixed up till then.
Cheers Michael

jlmeredith’s picture

jlmeredith
Location Denver, CO
commented

I like the idea of having a central location to research and find out about the many aspects of computing and its effect on our world. The opensource movement is truly reshaping the web world and how businesses in many sectors operate. Good work.

Here are a few considerations for your design. As a bit of a usability nut, most will be in that vein.

Top 6 Suggestions

  1. You may want to consider using Trebuchet, Verdana, or Arial for your base font. Helvetica is a great font for printed material, but not a top choice for web usage because it does not alias well and has tracking (space between letters) that is more well suited for printed materials.
  2. Currently the font size is a bit too small IMO. Increasing the font to 5-7% across the board should make things more readable.
  3. Once you change the font size you may need to adjust the line height by 5% or so. This will aid tremendously in readability.
  4. Using gray for links is probably not distinctive enough for most readers. The links could easily be lost on a poorly calibrated monitor that has the gamma or color messed up. Some color blind people have difficulty distinguishing black and grays also.
  5. When viewing the site in firefox, list icons look good, but in IE 6 they are all slightly misaligned. Common issue and a bit of investigative work over Here-> http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm could help.
  6. Clear indication of visited links is a must. Maybe use a colored font with a background change for the visited links and colored font with a clear back for the unvisited.

I hope this helps. I will be following up by placing your site on my netvibes homepage. Look forward to seeing your progress.

themacgeek
Finding Balance In A World Covered with Marbles
http://www.themacgeek.com

--
Jamie Meredith

micmll’s picture

micmll commented

macgeek,

I hereby appoint you to be my own personal and more likeable "Jakob Nielsen" - or better: "Steve Krug". Good analytical view. And: Damn! You're absolutely right.
Like I wrote before: I'm far too busy right now to commit all these small little changes on-the-fly, but I'm definitely going to do it during the next days.
Merely the link colors, not to speak of the visited and hover state, give me headache. This will be the most difficult part of the transformation.
Stay in touch. You're mostly welcome.
Cheers

Michael