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New Design

comments and bug reports please

DaveN

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23 Comments | Leave a comment »

  1. 1. Thomas | March 31st 2008 @ 6:00 pm

    Very light and fresh design. I personally don’t like flash, especially not for navigational purposes. (Maybe caused by the bad Flash experience on Linux)
    In addition to that I have trouble getting my eyes to rest on the site - I need more contrast to get an overview/orientation.

    But overall well done :)

  2. 2. MAcsSNAcs | March 31st 2008 @ 6:20 pm

    I like the new look, but I have to agree about the contrast comment. It’s would be nice if the content of your site stood out more than the ads (or at least as much), but not less.

    Still, definitely has a nice inviting look to it. Like the colour choices! :)

  3. 3. VaBeachKevin | March 31st 2008 @ 6:30 pm

    Very nice, a little too clean for me. Font is a little too light imo.

  4. 4. Barry Schwartz | March 31st 2008 @ 6:32 pm

    A bit too light for a man with your color hat. ;-)

  5. 5. Johann | March 31st 2008 @ 7:46 pm

    The header images don’t have any text next to them which I wouldn’t do.

    Other than that, it looks fresh and clean.

  6. 6. Josh Garner | March 31st 2008 @ 8:12 pm

    I don’t know man. I like the other ‘darker’ version. Then again, listening to me might wind you up with a site resembling that of the GeoCities days.

  7. 7. Adam Maywald | March 31st 2008 @ 8:17 pm

    I agree with Barry - where’s the dark shades of gray? ;) Speaking seriously, I honestly liked the last design a bit more. This is uber-clean design layout. But with all design challenges, it depends on what you’re planning on doing with this site. If it’s becoming more of a professional outlet, then a personal one, I understand the cleanliness.

  8. 8. Andy | March 31st 2008 @ 8:28 pm

    /blog/ is broken for me (link from homepage) ;)

  9. 9. g1smd | March 31st 2008 @ 10:51 pm

    You’re linking to /blog/index.html instead of just /blog/

    :-)

  10. 10. Sean Carlos | March 31st 2008 @ 11:40 pm

    Seems rather nondescript, bland, like hotel rooms in the major chains: calculated not to offend, but so easily forgettable. I think the technical term is yuk. Admire the desire to test a new look, but hope it is only a test. Perhaps I just need to clear my cookies?

  11. 11. Matt | April 1st 2008 @ 12:27 am

    I’d like to see some Previous Entires / Next Entries links on the blog page. I don’t read your blog that often so when I visit, I read back further than a few posts.

    You have them on the blog post page itself, but I don’t want to have to go through every post.

  12. 12. Ryan | April 1st 2008 @ 7:20 am

    Some elements are nice, but on the whole I think the old design was much better. The old design was probably one of my favourite blog designs. I miss it :(

  13. 13. stu | April 1st 2008 @ 10:12 am

    Very Corporate! Too much white space to the left of the comments in my opinion. It looks pretty generic and therefore it doesn’t really identify a brand. The prveious version was a lot more unique, i would chose to stick with that one and maybe twek it a little.

  14. 14. Kev | April 1st 2008 @ 11:13 am

    I don’t find it offensive, but its not to my taste.

    One thing though, is if you go to /blog/index.html and get the list of posts - they don’t have titles. So there is no obvious link through to the individual posts where you can read the comments.

  15. 15. Neil Yeomans | April 1st 2008 @ 12:23 pm

    *Quite* a nice design, but I feel the typography is too small & lightweight. This is the only blog/site I’ve ever read where I’ve preferred it with increased font size!

    I can see the shift from blog-centric to business-centric & why this was felt necessary, but feel the cleanliness of the design is especially compromised on the blog’s limited main content width in relation to other page elements, which gives a cluttered feel IMO.

    And Dave, what’s up with the Flash ’roundabout’ on the homepage. I think Flash can be used more effectively (maybe a case study or service-based interactive slideshow) than for pure navigational *bling* purposes.

  16. 16. Stephen | April 1st 2008 @ 1:56 pm

    Look & feel is good, but not sure about the panel promoting the search conference/ppc management/search marketing.

    It pushes the main content too far down, and there’s not enough distinction between the two. Doesn’t guide the eyes easily.

    Also, if you’re promoting a conference with that much real estate, shouldn’t it be at least linked through to the conference site? Don’t see how it serves you at the moment.

  17. 17. Neil Yeomans | April 1st 2008 @ 7:43 pm

    You’re probably aware, but you need to implement a domain-level 301 redirect from davenaylor.co.uk to davidnaylor.co.uk. It’s working on the blog but not from the main site. Not really a “bug” though?

  18. 18. Joshua | April 2nd 2008 @ 6:47 pm

    How come all website templates look like this? :-)

    Seriously, it looks very well done, and I really like the front page. Great selling points, easy to read/find, and very, very corporate, which obviously is your goal for marketing direct SEO/PPC svc.

    I do agree with others about the typography and light color scheme, but this layout is so corporate that potential clients would feel “at home”, so to speak, that it certainly fits your business goals.

    Us SEO folk may not dig it, but we’ll read it either way.

    Good luck and let us know how the new layout converts, esp its usability, whats working for you, whats not (based on GAnal’s hotspot clicked areas), etc. Interesting data.

    Take care,
    Josh

    P.S. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 sucks! The new COD4 maps come out in a couple days (April 3rd, I believe) so hopefully I’ll catch you there (GT: Fat Sniper).

  19. 19. Dave Dugdale | April 3rd 2008 @ 5:33 pm

    The reason I liked your other version was your picture on the sidebar. I think it is important to have that so people can see the voice that is talking on the blog.

  20. 20. Gavin Mitchell | April 4th 2008 @ 9:03 am

    That other stuff is fair enough, but more importantly, what happened to “Can’t beat a good rank”?

  21. 21. Brad | April 4th 2008 @ 9:49 am

    Too much white space, font too small (im on 1024 x 1280) better font contrast (black on white would be easier to read).

    Dunno… this one is kind of light and airy fairy with web 2.0 buttons.. I preferred the solid feel and easy readability of the previous theme.

  22. 22. brewgin | April 7th 2008 @ 5:51 am

    After letting the new design soak in for a while, I realize I still really don’t like it (which doesn’t matter), but:

    having the post titles in Flash on the blog page is a horrible, horrible thing.

    If you’ve missed a couple of posts, you can’t quickly open all of them in tabs anymore. If anything, I hope that gets changed.

    Circulating Flash navigation on the homepage is a pain in the ass as well. Better off having your top-right navigation in that spot instead, in my opinion.

    G’luck!

  23. 23. Ian Turner | April 7th 2008 @ 9:37 pm

    A couple

    Text size too small to be easily readable - could also do with darkening the grey (lack of contrast between text and background is a real killer for readability).

    Also set your background colour - my browsers default to lime green - and yours is about the limiest green I’ve seen, second only to Yahoo on current scoring.

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