Amateurish design
89
vote
Is the current skin the final one, or are there plans to get a pro designer to whip up something more attractive and usable before launch? I'll be happy to give utterly brutal artistic and usability critique if needed, but I'm only capable of pointing out problems, not solving them 
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By jani on 2006-10-02 05:10
admin
Uh, could you be more specific?
What seems "amateurish" about it? It is an alpha after all, far from 'final' but some specific issues would be helpful... since you are, as you said, so good at pointing things out ;-)
evan
Sparse design
Our intention with the design of Crossroads was to make sure that the interface stayed out of the way of the content. It's intentionally sparse and clear.
We've had a couple of professional designers make passes at the site. There are some screwed-up CSS and HTML issues, but we've put some heavy demands on the skin.
Definitely give harsh critique on particular UI or graphical issues -- that's how it's going to get better.
Mark
Graphic design Forums for critique
There are a number of forums on the web where design students and pros critique one another's work. Probably the gentlest one, and thus a good one to start with is here:
http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=16
The forum is pretty active: I've found that I usually get some responses within a couple of hours of posting something. Still it's been a bit over a year since I've used it...
-mark
jani
Where to start.
Where to start...
Compare to eg. http://www.photo.net/, where the site navigation functionality is packed into a small but highly functional toolbar up top; Wikitravel, where there's a really thin bar up top and a bulkier one on the left; or http://www.linkedin.com/, where the navigation is up top and random blah-blah boxes (with faint pastel outlines, not strong primary colors) are on the right.
Mark
I agree on all points
I think the rounded boxes and the drop shadowed buttons would be the first thing to go though. Oh no, make the the second thing to go. The first thing that should go is the font in the big navigational thing on the main page.
On the whole I thing you guys are doing a great job here, but seriously do have a pro look at the graphic design. I hear Simi is available.
-mark
maj
wow
You just named all my favorite things about the design... ;-)
We're going to start a couple rounds of design fixes this week, maybe that will help move us towards more of a consensus...
[ETA:] Thanks for the encouraging words!
~maj
Mark
sorry they're your favorite things, but...
they do present some pretty serious problems. First off, the font: There's a general rule that if you use a specialised font in your logo that you shouldn't use it *anywhere* else. Otherwise the logo disappears.
Another thing that makes a logo disappear is pushing it into the background, and unfortunately that's exactly what the rounded and bevelled boxes for navigation, etc. do. Seriously take a good long look at the page in three dimensions and see if you see the same thing happening.
If anything the navigation should *recede* slightly as so to push the content up front.
Anyhow, fly this post past your the IB designer and see what s/he thinks.. :)
-mark
admin
check back tomorrow
We're going to rollout a revised design tomorrow that tightens things up.
We're also going to move the postcard image from the frontpage to the splash page since we're not trying to be as low-profile anymore.
You're going to have to fight me for the round corners though ;-)
Mark
I think you can still have round corners, but..
.. they need to be a executed a bit better, which to my eye means that they should be a lot more subtile, and shouldn't leap off the page. Of course this is all my opinion, offered freely. In the end it's your site, and I won't fight at all. In fact I'm just trying to help.
-mark
maj
no fights!?
Dang, I was all set...
Anyway, I appreciate you laying out your opinion, please don't stop, that's what you're here for! Just know that I've got one too ;-).
We're going to play around with making the menu boxes more, well, boxey and we can go from there.
keep the comments coming! maj
JohnMc
"3D" buttons
It might be nice to have some mouse-over effect on those buttons.
giorgio
Geeky design
According to me the overall design works, even though it looks really geeky. I'd go with something more friendly and more in line with a Travel Website.
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