[thelist] design critique (or whatever you wanna do, really)

[A. Erickson]

> > Actually, on first glance, I really dig that opening 
> screen. The color 
> > here and there is really nice since you have set up this 
> sort of stark 
> > landscape of blacks and whites. I almost want to put that 
> screenshot 
> > on the right to help with balance (not bopping back and forth from 
> > each bit of color -- moving=good, bopping=bad) but I think it could 
> > stay there okay.
> 
> i actually kept it on the left because of the balance... the keyboard 
> key seemed to be too heavy, and the rest of the page too light... 

I didn't even see the keyboard key at all. I couldn't figure out what
the heck everyone was talking about. It even took me a few seconds of
looking to see it just now. Dunno what that says if anything at all.

> *if* i did change it, though, i think i'd have to face the screen cap 
> back the other way so it still looks into the page...

Fer shure.

> good -- i want the screen caps to suck you in...

*thlurp*

Going back to look at that cap, I want to make another suggestion. Your
text on that front page needs a little polishing. I don't know what my
problem is with the right-aligned text but it is bugging me on
readability. That aside, however, and I notice that you have some odd
breaks which hurt the readability further. Something about that first
sentence with the semi colon is just hard to grok for me. The followup
sentence starting with a numeral? Bugs. Bugs. Bugs me. I think you all
should just polish it a tad more. Maybe make it even punchier and look
at how its being presented. Or, you know, just shoot me.
 
> ok, i see that... oddly, i wasn't trying to anchor the nav onto 
> anything... but i guess that doesn't feel that way....

Yeah. It feels like it's in the middle either something that has come
untethered or something which is trying to hang on.
 
> i'd be down with that... unfortunately, one of the technical 
> requirements i had was to have *completely* text-based nav... now, 
> a little image wouldn't hurt too much, but i'd have to see it...

I think that's a great idea to keep it text based. Maybe you can work
within the charset even though I know that can sometimes look goofy.

> > You could also ditch the delineation of that sidebar color and just 
> > use space and type to separate the main content from the left side 
> > content. Shimmy that screenshot up near the page headline 
> and you'll 
> > have a pretty swank layout, I think.
> 
> hmmm... interesting... that's worth trying... i'll have to 
> not cut off 
> the one logo bg, though...

Yeah. Let it float. Might even look nice straddling the side and content
areas. 

--snip--

> the perspective felt too overused there... i wanted it to be more 
> matter-of-fact... i think a headline might be good, but i 
> fear that will 
> remove the exploration/discovery effect i wanted...

Well, to take this a little further. You are treating the left side area
in clients much differently then you are treating it in other areas. In
clients, it illustrates what is on the right, in other areas it is not
associated with right-side content but with content elsewhere. Depending
on where they first go in the site, your audience will learn one way or
the other but may have trouble switching back and forth with you. I'm
not sure what I would advise here other than you may want to brainstorm
that a little bit.

If you do make changes, I'd love to see it again. It's a really nice
site and you did a good job.

- amanda