critique web design skills (not site, just look at scan)

[Ugly]

this is a project I'm working on in Writting for Online info sources. We have to design a site but not do a single bit of HTML and coding. Its more about nailing down a design and style and everything through extensive user testing.

Anyway, here's an image of what our homepage is going to look like. Wondering if everyone could kind of have a clue as to what its supposed to be about by just looking at the home page. (hint: We live in London, Ontario and we go to The University of Western Ontario)

Also, the content is dummy content, but it has to be written in a clear journalistic "news story" headline and bullitens. The course *is* called "Writting for Online Info Sources"

Criticism appreciated.

[Travis Meekz]

no Smashing Pumpkins news on the first page??? I don't get it

better not be a bad april fools joke

[dusty]

Wondering if everyone could kind of have a clue as to what its supposed to be about by just looking at the home page.

i like it. it's obvioiusly a page that deals with general music topics pertaining to london. so if a band wanted to post an ad for a drummer near by, he could do so. or if a music fan living in london wanted an update about a concert or album news, he could do so... etc.
i really like the fonts that you used, they stand out well and don't clash.
the only critism that i have is the white **********. it takes away from the page. i can't really think of a better color, but i'm sure that you could, since you're the one taking the class and all

[Ugly]

Originally posted by dusty
i like it. it's obvioiusly a page that deals with general music topics pertaining to london. so if a band wanted to post an ad for a drummer near by, he could do so. or if a music fan living in london wanted an update about a concert or album news, he could do so... etc.
i really like the fonts that you used, they stand out well and don't clash.
the only critism that i have is the white **********. it takes away from the page. i can't really think of a better color, but i'm sure that you could, since you're the one taking the class and all

ding ding. Hot dog. We have a wiener. you rule!

That's actually really great you were able to figure that out cuz it shows we did our job. whooho. Might even cite this in the paper as a bonafide "user test".

Truthfully, I don't really like the ********** either but my partner was really gun ho for it. But, also in this class the teach is driving into our head -- make it simple, make it simple, the information is important, make it simple or people leave the site. (he keeps telling us the average time someone looks at a page and then decides to leave is around 30 seconds or so) I think the gunmetal grey would have looked cooler. But, on the plus side, we're only really using 5 colours in there (mainly red, white and black - grey for the update section ********** and blue for hypertext) so it keeps it simple and consistent. All of the users we interviewed said "information is key, not flashy design." but we're trying to go for a little bit of slickness with simplicty to keep it at the audience its targeted for.

Thank you for participating.

[DeviousJ]

I like the fonts (especially in the white-on-black section) and the layout in the center. I'm really not making friends with the navigation bar on the right though - drop the art-deco font, it doesn't look so great at that point size. You might want to make the top banner a little more interesting, although keep it simple. And I personally wouldn't use the Broadway font for the 'Look-Listen-Live' bit. Or the Times one for the 'London Music News And Notes' line. To be honest, it seems like you're going for a minimal stylized look, and that relies on flat areas and smooth edges - the picture you *******d is pretty small and crappy. Get a decent paint package, and resize your image with it. Then either save as a high-quality jpeg, or (preferably) a gif and you won't get those annoying artifacts around the lettering

[Ugly]

Originally posted by DeviousJ
I like the fonts (especially in the white-on-black section) and the layout in the center. I'm really not making friends with the navigation bar on the right though - drop the art-deco font, it doesn't look so great at that point size. You might want to make the top banner a little more interesting, although keep it simple. And I personally wouldn't use the Broadway font for the 'Look-Listen-Live' bit. Or the Times one for the 'London Music News And Notes' line. To be honest, it seems like you're going for a minimal stylized look, and that relies on flat areas and smooth edges - the picture you *******d is pretty small and crappy. Get a decent paint package, and resize your image with it. Then either save as a high-quality jpeg, or (preferably) a gif and you won't get those annoying artifacts around the lettering

yeah, Broadway looked cool blown up but shrinking it down lead to eyestrain and mushes the words together. We had to change all the font for the nav bars. Gonna try to change Bands, Clubs & Classifieds but might keep Broadway for "New Additions"

I didn't even notice that the "London Music News and Notes" was in Times New Roman, I'm gonna change that ASAP.

My original idea for the banner was to have a guitar over a map of london, but I think that would just look cheese. Maybe a white box outline or two to make it look a little buiser and draw attention to the right side of the screen (gives it a different feel to keep it over there)

I wanted to change the "Look-listen-live" bit to a different font but got vetoed out on that one.

I agree the quality pics suck ass, but it don't really matter at all cuz this is all done in Powerpoint and its just for a presentation/ printing out for a paper. I just stole them from google image search and streched and proded a bit around. We have photoshop at UWO, but not for the labs that we're working on (IBM for site design and Mac labs for photoshop and you need special access to get in there.)

Heh. "Online user testing". Cool. I'll cite this as well.

[Ugly]

cleaned up (I hope)

[Julian, Porn CONNOISSEUR]

HA! A REAL HMTL PROGRAMMAR KNOWS THAT THE YOU MSUT USE ANIMATED GIFS FFILES TO REALLY SPICE UP YOUR WEB ARCHITECTURE ART! THERE ARE SOME VEY GOOD RESOURSCES ON THE WEB ON HOW TO REALLY KICK IT UP A NOTCH!!!

[the_boy]

Yo man, thats pretty awesome. The layout is really good, looks pretty logical and user friendly. I think some better colour scheme could have spiced it up a bit, but hey, if your prof says "simple, simple, simple" , then for God's sake keep it simple.
That "Point Jenson" piece is damn ingenius too. Well done

Oh yea, you'll probably read this before you get home, so some dude Chris called for you...he left his number. Gotta call him back before midnight.

Zelda later?
Ciao

[Ghetto_Squirrel]

Julian's looking a little pale.