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orion_joel
04-03-2009, 01:13 AM
Hi All,

Wanted to get your thoughts on the new design/layout i am using over @ No Fixed Office (http://www.nofixedoffice.com). The layout is almost in it's base form, and is the theme called Darkzen (http://twurl.nl/kze1jt). I have made one or two colour changes in the text to make things easier to read.

The main things i am looking for thoughts on is maybe the ad placements, i think they are not to bad. Originally there was 6 on the right hand side but i cut it back to just 4. Also I am trying to think of how to fit a graphic in the header.

SteveC
04-03-2009, 01:28 AM
Joel... you need to look at the site in IE7 as the blog search and the advertisement are intermixed together with neither one looking good...

vangogh
04-03-2009, 02:19 AM
I'm looking at the site in Firefox on a Mac and it looks good here. It's a simple minimalist theme. The color scheme is neutral. You can probably remove the meta info plugin. I never was sure what it's purpose was. I think the monthly archives can go as well. I don't know too many people who want to know what you wrote specifically in February of 08.

Most of your posts are showing as uncategorized. Get them in categories.

You should write more for your About page. If you plan on selling services through the site you should add those pages too.

A little more color would be nice. Why not give the headings a color. Even a little bit like that can make a huge difference. If you can rework the color of the AdSense ad I think it would look better and possibly work better too.

A logo would be nice. A text logo is fine, but right now it's white arial text. About as boring as can be. Use a different font. Add color to one or more of the words. I also notice it's wrapped with an h1 tag while the post headings are a div with a class. That's not good for seo. Let the logo be the div and give the post headings the h1.

I didn't boot up IE7, but I ran a test on browser shots (http://browsershots.org/) for IE7 under Windows XP and the screenshot came back fine. Steve were you looking under Vista by any chance? I know sometimes the screenshot could come back looking good and there could still be problems with the page. Sometimes two computers with the same OS and Browser can also see something off.

SteveC
04-03-2009, 02:58 AM
Yes... IE7 under Vista... with this set-up the right hand ad's / search are screwed...

vangogh
04-03-2009, 03:24 AM
Probably just need an adjustment to the width of the sidebar or the main content then.

orion_joel
04-03-2009, 09:02 AM
Actually the adds on the right hand side are a little bit iffy i think, 4 out 5 times i view it the first three ads sit right and and the adsense will drop to the next line, it was happening almost everytime i viewed the page but i set a height on the ad blocks and it made it not so common :S

Doing categories for the site is one thing that has been on my to do list for a little while now, the problem i had was the first half dozen posts i could not think of categories and this has probably just end up flowing on that i never did any. I suppose it will also be a good exercise to revisit my posts categorize them and also see where i may be able to use some more content.

I am seeing the same as SteveC in the ads and search. It is strange i am guessing it is some css that has the different things clearing each other which IE7 is not using.

Also what would suggest for the adsense colour? Make it more colourful to standout, or blend it more with the background?

Logo is one of the things i will be working on probably be something along similar line to what i had may just differ slightly.

vangogh
04-03-2009, 12:35 PM
I'd blend the ads in with the site, though that's the designer in me talking. If you're looking to make the most money from the ads you really need to experiment. Blend them in and see how they perform for a month. Then make them stand out and see how they do.

I think blending works better most often, but I know there are some who would say the opposite.

Definitely get the categories going. Do some keyword research and base the category names around the phrases you find.

KristineS
04-03-2009, 01:07 PM
I'm not a designer, but my first impression is bland and dark. It doesn't feel welcoming at all. I would think No Fixed Office would be about lightness and color and breaking the changes of the gray workaday world. This feels exactly the opposite to me.

vangogh
04-03-2009, 01:33 PM
I can see that Kristine. The theme Joel is using is called darkzen after all. I thought the colors more conservative than bland. I think splashing in color into headings and other elements would be enough to change your bland impression, but the color theme could be changed as well.

Joel, Kristine does have a point about a more colorful scheme. The main theme of the site is breaking free of the usual daily grind and cubicle life. A more open feel to the design would help emphasize that. Brighter colors would definitely be part of that more open feel. You could go for light blues and greens to maybe give the feel of being outside. Blue sky toward the top and green grass toward the bottom.

nighthawk
04-03-2009, 03:13 PM
Actually the adds on the right hand side are a little bit iffy i think, 4 out 5 times i view it the first three ads sit right and and the adsense will drop to the next line, it was happening almost everytime i viewed the page but i set a height on the ad blocks and it made it not so common :S


The same is happening for me in Firefox 3.0.8 - the adsense adblock has dropped down a line and is covering the search box.

The design is very clean, but as mentioned by a few others it could maybe do with a little more colour. Some of the light grey text is a little hard to read, and each post could maybe do with greater seperation from the last, perhaps by alternating colour or adding in a horizontal rule or something to split them up better?

vangogh
04-03-2009, 05:34 PM
I wonder if the issue with the ads dropping has to do with screen resolution rather than the specific browser. Gavin what operating system are you using? Vista, like Steve?

orion_joel
04-03-2009, 08:49 PM
I don't think it is the screen resolution, as i find that it happens sometimes and not other for me on the same computer, it may be something to do with the padding and height and width of the div that they are in. I may try a little change and see if it works any better.

Also the light grey text, i will have to look at i thought i had got it all, but may have missed some, the headings were originally almost unreadable, so i made them darker, but will try and find it and fix it up. will also do some colour work.

nighthawk
04-04-2009, 10:24 AM
I don't think it is the screen resolution, as i find that it happens sometimes and not other for me on the same computer, it may be something to do with the padding and height and width of the div that they are in. I may try a little change and see if it works any better.

Also the light grey text, i will have to look at i thought i had got it all, but may have missed some, the headings were originally almost unreadable, so i made them darker, but will try and find it and fix it up. will also do some colour work.

I notice you have made a few changes - the darker greys works much better now. Your links under Pages / Blog Roll / Categories etc could maybe do with being darkened a little. Also, some of your links now change colour on hover, and others dont (the ones you just made darker I think do not).

The panel to the right is a different colour to the main page, but the colour change is far too subtle, I didnt notice the difference on the first PC, then checked on a second PC and could just tell they were different colours. Also you may need a touch of padding at the top of this column.

The horizontal rule splitting up posts certainly helps, although it maybe stands out a little too much.

The new logo at the top looks a little too much like Word Art, and kind of cheapens the look of the page a little. Also the Home / About boxes above, when you mouseover then the effect covers the orange bar below.

Your ads now appear to be displaying correctly on both PCs I checked it on.

Overall the page looks fine, maybe a few little adjustments here and there, but they are mostly just nitpicks.

vangogh
04-04-2009, 01:08 PM
I like the new bits of color too and also agree about the logo. It looks very amateurish. Straight text without the effects would look better.

Instead of 'think outside the box' as a tagline why not 'think outside the cubicle' or something other than box. In fact better to be something completely different. The phrase has been used so many times that saying it is now thinking inside the box instead of outside it.

orion_joel
04-04-2009, 09:19 PM
Ok Thank-you so much for the tips, help and guidance so far.

The header i have now completely changed again. Which if any of you remember the header i used to have with four images, the two image's in this one may be familiar. Additionally have just stayed with plain lower case writing, the lowercase for all of it is more to give a casual feel (which is i guess part of the idea of no fixed office, a casual environment to work in). Also just the one plain colour which matches the bar just above.

Possibly the amateurish look for the header either came from my lack of creative ability, i can see what i want but making it appear in photoshop is still no where near there. Or maybe that i am really needing to learn how to properly use photoshop. I kind of thought it looked a bit amateur, but did not really have anything better at the time.

Gavin - not to sure what part of the page you meant was to subtle, the main bacckground was a light but definite blue, the main content area was white and the sidebar was grey. I have changed the sidebar to a lighter version of the main orange i am using and have also used this colour for the post divider's.

Finally i have blended the sidebar adsense into the theme, but left the header one standing there with a white background. Will see how they go this month, and then maybe try blending the top one to see what happens.

vangogh
04-04-2009, 09:37 PM
Joel the page is certainly more colorful than before and I think the lighter color fits more with what you're trying to do. Would I be correct if I said the color scheme is a play on the beach and being able to work from the beach?

With the logo since you seem to be sticking with a text logo, I'd suggest making it text and not having it be part of the image. I see what you're going for with the spacing, but I don't think it works. Too much space between the letters. You can do that with css if you want. Use letter-spacing, but still I think it would look better if the letters were closer together. Something very simple would be to have the text be text and use two colors. Pick one of the words and make it a different color than the other two.

Overall the site keeps improving as you're working on it.

I'm not sure if the image in the header adds much, Again I know what you're going for, but the image gets lost. The AdSense dominates the header area. I know you want to make money from the site, but I'd question how much you'll make from the links in the header and wonder if it's worth losing the branding by having the ads dominate so much.

orion_joel
04-04-2009, 10:41 PM
Hmm, i wish i could say i had put that much through into the colour scheme, however the colour scheme sort of started working with blue on my mind. I also asked for some advice the same as here on twitter, and someone mentioned orange, which is also a sort of feature piece colour in my other blog. So i went with the bright solid orange. Then i kind of toned down for the other bits, and kept the cool blue colour in the background.

I have taken the header back to text, however i am at this point still hesitant to remove the adsense from the header. The reason being that in the first two days of the new layout i had a number of clicks on the adsense ads, unfortunetly i was just running on one channel for the site, and could not pinpoint which ads were clicks, however i am not running a serperate channel for sidebar and header so will see which is working and which is not.

KristineS
04-06-2009, 12:52 PM
I like the new color scheme better, but I have to agree with Vangogh about the header. The picture gets lost and so does the name of the site. You're sacrificing branding for ad space. If the site is primarily about getting people to click ads, then I suppose that doesn't matter. If you're trying to do something else, than it really does.

Blacktalon
04-06-2009, 06:40 PM
One other thing is the copy. There are so many spelling/grammar errors (just in the first paragraph alone!) that it makes the reader question your professionalism.

For example, right in the first paragraph. It reads:

"If you are thinking of just what sort of business you may be able to operate without having a fixed office. Really you should not need to think to long."

It should be:

"If you are thinking of just what sort of business you may be able to operate without having a fixed office. Really, you should not need to think too long (about it)."

Second, the first sentence of the second paragraph is incomplete.

"While there are many different factors that you need to consider when setting up a business. The decision in regards to having an office is often the one decision that many people see as more a which office to lease, rather then a do i really need an office."

It should read:

"While there are many different factors that you need to consider when setting up a business, the decision in regards to having an office is often the one decision that many people see as more a which office to lease, rather then a do i really need an office."

If you start a sentence with "while," it should connect two statements with a comma. Your original structure finishes the first part of that clause with a period when it should be a comma.

Third, I found this as I was about to end this post:

"Of course there is some area’s that just literally would not work without having an office, but for the moment they are for another post to come soon."

This is lacking agreement. It should read:

"Of course there are some areas that just literally would not work without having an office, but for the moment they are for another post to come soon."

I'll scan over the rest to pinpoint any other discrepancies I see.

Yours truly

orion_joel
04-12-2009, 10:12 AM
Through some struggles with my own thoughts, i have decided to do away with the adsense banner in the header of the site. Also have rearranged the advertising in the sidebar. As well as dropping the archives, and putting everything into categories. I guess i can just wait and see how the changes actually go.

vangogh
04-13-2009, 11:08 AM
Removing the ad makes a huge difference. I see you added link units below the header now. Hopefully they'll work for you better than the header ad.

orion_joel
04-14-2009, 12:30 AM
I see you noticed those links there, i think it sits in a little better, it is still there, people may or may not see it. I just really want to at least know i am trying to monetize it in some way