Wisdump Redesign: Public Beta
So here it is, the redesigned Wisdump in public beta. There are a few small things left, but I figured I’d get it up there to see what you guys think.
Feel free to compare to the mockup designs I’ve posted previously. They are just that: mockups, which means that the design you’re seeing right now isn’t 100% like them. I never intended it to be, so that’s all good.
Jumbled up? Ctrl+F5 on Windows, or Command+R on Mac, or simply just empty your cache and reload to see the new design.
What do you guys think? Speak up in the comments! I’m all ears…
[…] launched the public beta of the new Wisdump design, client work for the great folks over at Splashpress Media. Do pop over and let me know what you […]
By Public Beta Of The New Wisdump Design | tdhedengren.com on March 26, 2008 11:54 am
A lot better, Thord. It has structure now, which the old look really lacked. I don’t really have anything negative to say, so well done.
You’ve a dead link pointing to leave a comment in this post though. I could tell you the problem, but I reckon you’ll figure it out ;)
By Armen on March 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Just one tiny nitpick: it just feels a bit lonely that the only place I see the serif typeface Georgia is in the posts/comments. :) Other than that, it looks great! (Oh, and Armen’s right about the dead link pointing to #respond.)
By Sophia Lucero on March 26, 2008 1:14 pm
Thanks for the comment, Armen. Fixed the link as well, silly mistake. :)
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on March 26, 2008 1:25 pm
[…] can see it in action over at Wisdump (down a bit in the sidebar), which incidentally has got a new design, so check that out […]
By Devlounge | Mashing Up Feeds Using Yahoo Pipes on March 26, 2008 3:06 pm
“5 People Thinks Stuff?”
Is this intentional or just a typo?
By Stephen on March 26, 2008 6:37 pm
I don’t like it.
The font, most notably the heading, it’s just huge. I have to take a step back from my screen before I can actually read the articles. The comments’ font size is much easier to read.
About the headings. This article has a short title—which even fits on a single line—and is in-your-face but perfectly readable. However the title of the next article takes up two lines and can’t be read in once glance just sitting at my desk.
The second thing I noticed was the amazingly cluttered sidebar. The Recent Comments and Linkage are just a pile of letters without any clear structure. I know it’s not the most important part of your website, but your visitors will skip this part without thinking.
Your Resources are fine, but the News From The Network links are wrapped to multiple lines without a clear distinction where the first ends and the next begins. Probably those titles are too long, but since you’re using them you might want to add a clear distinction. (Long live bulleted lists?) Oh, and you’re missing a quick intro text to the weblog, like “Discussing and dissecting business, design and web++”.
…And on to the things I do like!
The search/subscribe and menu “block” works really well in the design. Great use of whitespace, clear text and in exactly the right font size. (Just a thought on the search field; can’t you use the orange hover effect of the subscribe link to emphasize your search field on focus?)
Secondly the comment field I’ve been looking at for the past couple of minutes. Efficient, beautiful and the italics give me the feeling I’m actually writing. Love it.
And last but not least: the footer. A couple of articles have been devoted to it in the last few months, and even though you haven’t got a lot to say, it’s well designed and clearly indicates the bottom of the page due to the good use of whitespace.
P.S.: Thinking about the orange focus color. Your design really lacks color. In fact, the only color in the initial visible part of the website are your adds. I know they’re important, but more important than your articles?
If you would take orange as your visual-support-color, you could perhaps place the title of the latest article in orange, use it for a:hover, …just adding extra focus on those elements.
P.S. 2: Your website seems to contain about 100 HTML errors when quickly validating.
By Niek Kouwenberg on March 27, 2008 6:47 pm
Me again :-) I noticed you haven’t placed the dates of the articles on the homepage. I suggest you do so—can be really small and hardly noticeable—but (subconsious) your visitors want an indication of when something was written to determine it’s relevance.
By Niek Kouwenberg on March 27, 2008 6:54 pm
why doesn’t clicking the logo take me back to the homepage?
By Stephen on March 27, 2008 6:59 pm
it now says, “9 people says things”, which is not actually true since some people said multiple things…still the grammar sucks…
By Stephen on March 27, 2008 7:01 pm
Stephen,
Funny headers not your thing, eh? Clicking the logo does indeed take you to the homepage.
Niek.
Thanks for your comments. I disagree with you regarding the font size, as will a lot of usability people, but since this is about design and that’s a matter of taste we’ll just not care about the gurus. Personally, I like to read big type. My eyes are strained enough as it is from sitting in front of a computer screen all day. I realize not all people do that though. The big headers isn’t a problem to me, either. They stand out, and that’s the purpose.
Post metadata (such as date, tags, author etc.) isn’t listed on the front page since I don’t find that necessary, really. This blog is updated more or less daily during weekdays, and regular readers know that. New readers will end up on single posts since they’ll arrive via Google or a direct link. I don’t think the additional information in post listings are necessary in this case, not since it adds more clutter. You are free to debate that with me, of course - this is a public beta after all!
As for the sidebar, that’s one of the areas whereas I’m not satisfied. Arrows and bullets are on my todo list (see the mockup linked in the post above) to make it a bit more visually appealing, and I’ll also add some more space as it does indeed look a bit cramped if the links are multiple lines, which is unavoidable unless I chop them to pieces, which would make them less usable. I’m on it. It’ll be interesting to see how clean I can make it.
Regarding hover color, I opted out for the time being. One reason is that the standard Wisdump post is supposed to have an image to further attract the eye, and the big headlines do their thing. I thought in the same lines as you do, though, and haven’t made my final decision in the matter.
Again, thanks for your comment, and thanks for all the kind words as well - not just the negative criticism.
Do keep it coming, all! Public beta in this case means that’ll I’ll do some changes before submitting this on to history.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on March 28, 2008 7:56 am
I think it looks amazing! Maybe a color as someone said but that’s it! Love the fonts! Love the story headlines!
Oh and ia, why is it weird that Georgia (?) is only in post/comments and not in sidebar? Looks good to me!
GREAT WORK!
By Fantan on March 28, 2008 8:44 am
Hmm, in Opera the post title is only a few pixels below the ‘W’ logo.
@Fantan: It just feels lonely that it’s the only place that has Georgia. That’s it.
Actually, I do agree that posts should still have dates indicated, no matter how timeless they seem to be, even at least in a minor way. I tend to look for them as part of figuring out whether I should read them or not. Which is why sometimes I wish people would prefer date-based permalinks even though I’ve never liked them that much. Okay the comment has gotten too long; I’m now tempted to write about this in the future. ;)
By Sophia Lucero on March 28, 2008 1:26 pm
Clicking “Wisdump” takes me to the homepage, but the “W” is not clickable…on Firefox on a Mac. I promise.
“Funny” is stretching it…
By Stephen on March 28, 2008 3:47 pm
W is clickable to me in Firefox. Not on a Mac now tho.
By Fantan on March 31, 2008 10:17 am
[…] The Wisdump redesign is my last effort here at Wisdump. Tomorrow, April 1st (which it might already be where you are in the world, perhaps), Ia Lucero will take the helm here at Wisdump. Treat her nicely. […]
By Finishing Touches Across The Board | Wisdump on March 31, 2008 2:33 pm