at www.benheck.com/book
There's not much there, but I have the layout/frames pretty much set. Maximize it on large screens to see ALL the details! And scope out my fakey transparent menu bars! (borrowed that trick from old Genesis games)
Preview my page for the book
Moderator: Moderators
-
diggerdanh
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Cincinnati, OH
- Contact:
That's a neat looking site!
A few small User Interface design tips from a pro, if I may:
Use "center" align sparingly. I would change the "Hey I wrote a book..." intro paragraph to be left aligned. I would also make the items under the "Use the notepad links on the left..." section to be left-aligned. They will look a little more organized and be a little bit easier to read - it is kind of difficult to read lines of center aligned text of different lengths.
Also for the items in the list under the "Use the notepad links on the left...": make each one of those items in the list links, too - to point to the same place as its corresponding link in the left nav. If you want to keep that specific design for those items, you can play with the styles to keep them looking the same as they are now (no underlines, etc). However, I would make it so that at the least the links are underlined on mouse-over - this can be done with the stylesheet with the a:hover element.
After that I'd suggest rewording the "Use the notepad links on the left..." to something like "From here you can:". Actually on second thought, that sentence may not be needed at all.
Finally since the page is heavily decorated, it is hard to determine which elements (pictures) on the page are links and which are not. For example - is the exacto knife a link to something? The drop shadows you put in for the left nav items help some by making them look like they are sitting above the rest of the page. I suggest having a mouse-over version of each of the navigation elements (the left nav, the www.benheck.com button in the top right corner, etc) - maybe of a slightly different color (lighter) version or something. Just needs something where you can tell the difference between navigation elements and background art. For the future you can make some fun easter eggs by making some of the background art links to funny (or informative) pages - like the exacto knife, the tweezers, etc.
Please don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to come down on your design - it really is great. Do what you will with my advice - tell me to kiss off if you want, won't hurt my feelings. Other than those few small items that I mentioned - it looks really fun! Great job!
A few small User Interface design tips from a pro, if I may:
Use "center" align sparingly. I would change the "Hey I wrote a book..." intro paragraph to be left aligned. I would also make the items under the "Use the notepad links on the left..." section to be left-aligned. They will look a little more organized and be a little bit easier to read - it is kind of difficult to read lines of center aligned text of different lengths.
Also for the items in the list under the "Use the notepad links on the left...": make each one of those items in the list links, too - to point to the same place as its corresponding link in the left nav. If you want to keep that specific design for those items, you can play with the styles to keep them looking the same as they are now (no underlines, etc). However, I would make it so that at the least the links are underlined on mouse-over - this can be done with the stylesheet with the a:hover element.
After that I'd suggest rewording the "Use the notepad links on the left..." to something like "From here you can:". Actually on second thought, that sentence may not be needed at all.
Finally since the page is heavily decorated, it is hard to determine which elements (pictures) on the page are links and which are not. For example - is the exacto knife a link to something? The drop shadows you put in for the left nav items help some by making them look like they are sitting above the rest of the page. I suggest having a mouse-over version of each of the navigation elements (the left nav, the www.benheck.com button in the top right corner, etc) - maybe of a slightly different color (lighter) version or something. Just needs something where you can tell the difference between navigation elements and background art. For the future you can make some fun easter eggs by making some of the background art links to funny (or informative) pages - like the exacto knife, the tweezers, etc.
Please don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to come down on your design - it really is great. Do what you will with my advice - tell me to kiss off if you want, won't hurt my feelings. Other than those few small items that I mentioned - it looks really fun! Great job!
Re: Preview my page for the book
Sweet! That looks awesome. Also you can add that firefox works to the techno-babble section at the bottom of the main page.benheckc wrote:at www.benheck.com/book
There's not much there, but I have the layout/frames pretty much set. Maximize it on large screens to see ALL the details! And scope out my fakey transparent menu bars! (borrowed that trick from old Genesis games)
Edit: Lol, I just noticed the 6*7=42 thing.
Hey Ben,
Really nice looking site, I love the art. The only thing I noticed was that it was not easy for me to read the white-on-faux-translucent text on http://benheck.com/book/Overview_Menu.htm . It wasn't as easy as I would like to glance over the list and quickly know where to click. I guess this is a side-effect of faux-translucency
I agree the Genesis had that effect quite often, but the Neogeo tops the list, IMO (the SNES actually had true translucency! woohoo)
Really nice looking site, I love the art. The only thing I noticed was that it was not easy for me to read the white-on-faux-translucent text on http://benheck.com/book/Overview_Menu.htm . It wasn't as easy as I would like to glance over the list and quickly know where to click. I guess this is a side-effect of faux-translucency
I agree the Genesis had that effect quite often, but the Neogeo tops the list, IMO (the SNES actually had true translucency! woohoo)
Really? I have no problem reading the text... Maybe you should adjust the contrast or something on your monitor, or try a different web browser.EmreNU wrote:Hey Ben,
Really nice looking site, I love the art. The only thing I noticed was that it was not easy for me to read the white-on-faux-translucent text on http://benheck.com/book/Overview_Menu.htm . It wasn't as easy as I would like to glance over the list and quickly know where to click. I guess this is a side-effect of faux-translucency
I agree the Genesis had that effect quite often, but the Neogeo tops the list, IMO (the SNES actually had true translucency! woohoo)
It has a very different look to it and it really works.
You're right -- I was on my school's Dell computers with LCD monitors. The links look better with my monitor at home. It's all A-ok!HK-47 wrote:EmreNU wrote:
Hey Ben,
Really nice looking site, I love the art. The only thing I noticed was that it was not easy for me to read the white-on-faux-translucent text on http://benheck.com/book/Overview_Menu.htm . It wasn't as easy as I would like to glance over the list and quickly know where to click. I guess this is a side-effect of faux-translucency
I agree the Genesis had that effect quite often, but the Neogeo tops the list, IMO (the SNES actually had true translucency! woohoo)
Really? I have no problem reading the text... Maybe you should adjust the contrast or something on your monitor, or try a different web browser.
-
A.J. Franzman
- Posts: 216
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:38 pm
- Location: La-La Land
- Contact:
Re: Preview my page for the book
Shouldn't that be 6*9=42?HK-47 wrote:Lol, I just noticed the 6*7=42 thing.
Mum! Dad! Don't touch it! It's EEE-VIL!
WTD: Donated dead Atari 2600 consoles, mobos, or their ICs.
2600 NTSC cartridges and manuals.
Click for TRADE/SELL and WANTED lists.
WTD: Donated dead Atari 2600 consoles, mobos, or their ICs.
2600 NTSC cartridges and manuals.
Click for TRADE/SELL and WANTED lists.
-
SpongeBuell
- Senior Member
- Posts: 5190
- Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2004 10:52 am
- Location: Colorado
- Contact: