Hey,

 

I know the code isnt clean, still doing alot of editing and stuff, but I've got the site uploaded, just want to see what people think of it. Clicky

There is a little preview of how the site will look when we've got the 50 cards: Clicky

 

I know the copy isnt very good, working on the design at the momment. Also, just to save making another thread, is there away of making the File listings look better (Clicky)

 

 

Thanks Youuu!

Maisy!

Isn't this kind of like secret postcards (aka postsecret)?

 

Anyway, you should increase the font size, i'm struggling to read it (although i am half asleep). And check for grammatical errors.

 

I'm sure some brutal comments will follow, i however have an appointment in the land of nod.

Hey

 

Thanks. I'll increase the font, it is alittle small. Yeah, thought there'd be some mistakes in the text, but thats me all over! I'll re-do the copy soonish.

 

Thanks, Hope nod-land was good.

Maisy!

I'd anti-alias the logo, so that it looks less jagged. maybe add a glow effect. something like this maybe... (see attached)

 

Dan.

Hey, Thanks Dan

 

I've added some anti-alias to the logo, you can check on the gallery.php link, thats the future logo. I'll play with some glow tonight, see what I can come up with.

 

Thanks again.

Hi,

There's no information about what the sites about. The Centered text looks nasty, I'd sugest left justification, Push the logo to the left too, Trim is down to about 950px, wrap it in a div

.wrapper{margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto} then <div class="wrapper"> your whole page here</div>

and center the whole lot on the page. I like the colour scheme, although I'd make the colour of upload box a bit lighter, Its hard to see on some screens.

"I know the copy isnt very good, working on the design at the momment."

 

The text below the upload form isnt staying much longer and its part of the 'centered' upload form. I'll see what the left aligned logo looks like. The width has to stay at what it is now, becuase its all measured to fit the cards (check the 2nd link).

 

I'll sort the upload button out now.

"I know the copy isnt very good, working on the design at the momment."

 

The text below the upload form isnt staying much longer and its part of the 'centered' upload form. I'll see what the left aligned logo looks like. The width has to stay at what it is now, becuase its all measured to fit the cards (check the 2nd link).

 

I'll sort the upload button out now.

 

I'd then re-think the size of the cards, there's nothing mor off-putting then a horizontal scroll bar.

How many people are there out there who have screens smaller than 1000px? I mean this site is just short of it....

We've already had 32 submitions, chaning the size of the cards now would make them all go to waste...

I'd say 700 is a good size.

 

There should be an ability to leave comments, ratings or something.

Now, thats a good idea Skysurge! Any ideas on what I could use to do it?

Hi

 

I think you will get plenty of screamers, because it’s so original.

 

The design will far out way anything.

 

Then it can be written in a screaminggggggggggggggggg - mode.

 

Good luck.

Hi Maisy,

 

I looked at this the other day. Then I came back and looked again. Then last night I thought about it again and decided I would write something this morning.

 

My problem is, I think this is a really awesome concept. I think it has great potential. But I think the design is disappointing and potentially going to hold the idea back. I'm sorry if what I write is harsh, but as I say, I believe in the idea so would like to see the design match up to it in greatness.

 

Firstly, I know that I have a deep personal aversion to black sites, and that is a large factor in why I dislike the design. So if you want to discredit my opinions on that basis, I understand. I have seen people pull off black designs (there was one here I while back but who it was escapes me) but it is very hard to do, and I think this is because of the simple fact that light-on-dark is harder on the eyes than dark-on-light.

 

I can understand the atmosphere you're trying to create with the sight is specifically a dark one, but it also needs to inspire people to scream. A black canvas won't achieve this.

 

Your design breaks quite heavily from the design trends in social media sites - I don't know of any which is predominantly black. You could say that in this case your design is originally, but when breaking so strongly from the trends you need to make sure you know exactly which trends you are breaking and exactly why. Trends exist for a reason - they work.

 

Off the top of my head there are three main social media design trends (in terms of use of colour):

http://facebook.com, http://digg.com, http://last.fm all use predominantly light pages with the colour limited to blocks at the top & highlighting.

 

http://twitter.com http://tumblr.com http://deviantart.com/ all use background colours with light boxes to contain there contents

 

http://google.com http://flickr.com http://youtube.com are all predominantly white. They use colour only in logos, typography and to differentiate content boxes.

 

I guess the way I see your site being is somewhere between google home page in layout - which you have achieved - simple yet effective - but perhaps more like deviantart in design.:

- Dark but not black,

- carefully balanced with lighter content areas for easy reading

- modern (look at the use of subtle gradients and highlights to create 3d effects without looking like photoshop's bevel & emboss lol)

- spacious - each piece of content has plenty of space around it so that each can be seen individually.

 

One thing I would do is add the word "BETA" to the site, so that if you did decide to do something drastic like change the size of the images, your users know this is a result of the Beta testing phase and will be more comfortable with it.

 

If you are going to have such a simple site in terms of content and design, you need to pay a LOT of attention to typography to ensure you get the balance right - I'd use a vertical rhythm.

 

You also need to think heavily about how your site works. Don't show users the file listing - this is bad practice. You will need to think about users - will they have a feed? Will they be able to add friends and get updates on their friends latest screams? Will you have an API so that people can write external apps that link in to the site?

 

I really truly love this idea, but think that you haven't seen how potentially BIG it is, and what needs to be done to secure the success of the concept. I say GO FOR IT. Draft in developers and marketing experts etc if need be.

 

Sorry if I've offended, best of luck with this,

 

Eris

Hi Maisy,

 

I looked at this the other day. Then I came back and looked again. Then last night I thought about it again and decided I would write something this morning.

 

My problem is, I think this is a really awesome concept. I think it has great potential. But I think the design is disappointing and potentially going to hold the idea back. I'm sorry if what I write is harsh, but as I say, I believe in the idea so would like to see the design match up to it in greatness.

 

Firstly, I know that I have a deep personal aversion to black sites, and that is a large factor in why I dislike the design. So if you want to discredit my opinions on that basis, I understand. I have seen people pull off black designs (there was one here I while back but who it was escapes me) but it is very hard to do, and I think this is because of the simple fact that light-on-dark is harder on the eyes than dark-on-light.

 

I can understand the atmosphere you're trying to create with the sight is specifically a dark one, but it also needs to inspire people to scream. A black canvas won't achieve this.

 

Your design breaks quite heavily from the design trends in social media sites - I don't know of any which is predominantly black. You could say that in this case your design is originally, but when breaking so strongly from the trends you need to make sure you know exactly which trends you are breaking and exactly why. Trends exist for a reason - they work.

 

Off the top of my head there are three main social media design trends (in terms of use of colour):

http://facebook.com, http://digg.com, http://last.fm all use predominantly light pages with the colour limited to blocks at the top & highlighting.

 

http://twitter.com http://tumblr.com http://deviantart.com/ all use background colours with light boxes to contain there contents

 

http://google.com http://flickr.com http://youtube.com are all predominantly white. They use colour only in logos, typography and to differentiate content boxes.

 

I guess the way I see your site being is somewhere between google home page in layout - which you have achieved - simple yet effective - but perhaps more like deviantart in design.:

- Dark but not black,

- carefully balanced with lighter content areas for easy reading

- modern (look at the use of subtle gradients and highlights to create 3d effects without looking like photoshop's bevel & emboss lol)

- spacious - each piece of content has plenty of space around it so that each can be seen individually.

 

One thing I would do is add the word "BETA" to the site, so that if you did decide to do something drastic like change the size of the images, your users know this is a result of the Beta testing phase and will be more comfortable with it.

 

If you are going to have such a simple site in terms of content and design, you need to pay a LOT of attention to typography to ensure you get the balance right - I'd use a vertical rhythm.

 

You also need to think heavily about how your site works. Don't show users the file listing - this is bad practice. You will need to think about users - will they have a feed? Will they be able to add friends and get updates on their friends latest screams? Will you have an API so that people can write external apps that link in to the site?

 

I really truly love this idea, but think that you haven't seen how potentially BIG it is, and what needs to be done to secure the success of the concept. I say GO FOR IT. Draft in developers and marketing experts etc if need be.

 

Sorry if I've offended, best of luck with this,

 

Eris

Wow, first off, thank you for taking your time to write this!

 

No, offence taken at all. Now that i've read this and looked at your exaples of lighter sites, i'm starting to really agree with you. I'm going to leave the site up, how it is at the moment, i'll add the BETA sign to it. And i'm going to start working on the new design right now, as soon as i've had a shower.

 

I too, am not all that keen on black sites, but, like you said I was trying to creat that 'atmosphere'.

 

After looking at some of the sites like deviantART and Digg, i've realised that my design, just looks, wrong. So i'm going to take some of there ideas and some of your ideas and try to make the new one refreshed and alot lighter

 

Yeah, I'm trying to keep the design simple, but with help of those sites you gave me, I think I can have ago at making the site less simple, but still simple. If that makes sense...

 

I understand about the file listings, i'll take that off in a bit. I like your ideas about giving users a feed, but I'm not sure at all how to do this, at the momment its just html with me updating it, if you have an ideas how I could do it more effectivly, i'm listining. I'll have a look into API's and feeds, see if I can get anything I like going.

 

One thing that springs to mind is wordpress, if the hole design was striped, it would work right?

 

Yeah, I first thought of the idea as alittle bit of fun, but on the first day I posted a link to some friends, I got over 20 pictures. Everthing is starting to get more realistic now, and a little scary

 

Thanks again, soooo much for writing that, really! And sorry for all the spelling mistakes and problems, i've just got up

 

Maisy.

One thing that springs to mind is wordpress, if the hole design was striped, it would work right?

 

Wordpress isn't really going to cater for your needs in this situation.

 

It totally depends on you and how you want to proceed with your concept. I would suggest that this requires a bespoke PHP build and you will need to draft in developers as I think you are a front-end developer and designer only?

 

The good side is that it is a relatively small bespoke build, the bad side is that unless you can get a hobbyist on board, bespoke builds can be costly.

 

I do have an idea that I'll PM you regarding