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Bryan Connor’s comments
I am Bryan Connor web and graphic designer and head of http://www.connorstudio.net . This is a design for DISH food magazine in the Virgin Islands for their website. The client and I tossed around several layouts and settled on this one. Now it is time to refine some of the details of the site and flush it out a bit, making it more fully featured and finished. I would love some feedback on what you think of the design overall, suggestions for visual and layout improvements, and of course compliments. Constructive criticism is very welcome. I am looking to add some details to make it seem more finished. I am not sure what exactly it is lacking so I was hoping you could tell me.
Thanks
Bryan
http://www.connorstudio.net
Feedback
testing
I added markup.
Dean
Hello, Bryan.
You've got a great start here that should do well for your client. I just have a couple of suggestions; here goes:
• the masthead: The title is taking up a lot of real estate on your page. It seems like you could add a few elements about Dish up there, such as the tagline or issue no./date or even a quote to draw your eye to that space in a useful way.
• the menu: Currently, there is tension between the size of the menu images and the size of the main strawberry image. With these well-sized images drawing your attention, it's hard to get to and stay focused on the strawberry image. You could easily decrease the height of the images and create a stronger sense of hierarchy. Plus, the three images on the left are going to call your attention as well, so you will have many things fighting for attention if all is left as is.
• sizing of the top: The masthead and the menu areas are roughly the same height, thus making the menu area feel a bit static as well as taking up valuable space. By decreasing the height of the menu area, you could lead your viewers through the page faster and more effectively to get them to the cover story area.
And that's it. You do have a good start here, and I hope you are getting lots of good suggestions.
Dean
Bryan Connor
To everyone who has commented so far on this thank you. I would love it if you would commented on my other backboards located below:
http://www.getbackboard.com/view/V2VUbNwYf9
http://www.getbackboard.com/view/eD47HuBAC2
Chris
Nice work - the only thing that was slightly confusing was the run-on flow of "The Sweet Issue Chocolate" tagline. Also check out my video BUBBLEcomment ON THIS SPECIFIC WEBPAGE review here:
http://www.bubblecomment.com/comment.php?id=93376336
Bryan Connor says: Thanks for the bubble comment. That looks like a cool service I'll be looking into in the next few days.
As is the case with one of the other comments, this element was designed by the client which i may or may not have some sway over in the future.
Thanks for the comment and introducing me to your service.
Daniel Bucher
Bryan I saw you use Mootools on your studio site. Mootools 1.2 has the native '.fade' you could add a mouseover event to the top thumbnails' class/elements and do $$('someclass').fade(1.0); on them to get them to POP!
Bryan Connor says: I did think about doing something like that in earlier design phases. Maybe I'll try that again or see what it looks like when i code it. Thanks for the feedback!
Daniel Bucher
The font for Dish could use an updated look to refelect a more modern stylish san-serif font, looks kind of 95-ish. Also maybe a lighter 'double' border, and text, on the restaurant, recipes, chef pro... section with a change to highlighted dark on hover... Just some thoughts!
Bryan Connor says: I don't have a whole lot of leeway with the masthead because it was provided by the client but it is a possibility (and i agree with you).
As a rollover i think a column of that dark green color surrounding the section picture and text will be used. Also the text will turn white on hover. This style will also denote the current section on the interior of the site.
Kimber
Bryan, I really like the change in the orange header from the first version. This time around is much cleaner and doesn't compete with the delicious-looking food.
Perhaps you could bring the orange color back somewhere in the footer. That might help the page feel more cohesive.
Bryan Connor says: Thanks for you comments. I like the idea of an orange element in the footer somewhere i will definitely try that. I don't think i mentioned it before but the client will be able to change that orange color when each issue of the magazine comes out so something at the bottom to tie that in would be good. thanks again.
