I work quicker than Rob , so my redesign is already up and running.

 

http://www.calmbanana.co.uk/

 

I wanted to experiment with an image-free layout, because my strengths don't lie in image-manipulation. I don't think it turned out too badly.

 

All comments and criticism are welcomed. Don't be too harsh, mind you.

 

In all seriousness though, I'd like to hear what you think, especially about suggestions for how to tweak it.

You missed the 'b' in your link

 

Onto the design: I like it. Not a fan of left aligned layouts though. The pink and grey work well together however there is a lot of white which balances it.

IMO I think there is too much of a gap between the main content and the sidebar, other than that it is good. I am even liking the serif font even though I usually hate it as main text.

Thanks Bobbi-Lee, I've fixed the link.

 

I think I might leave the sidebar where it is. I fear that if I move it further left, more people will say it's too close. Talk about trying to find the right balance!

not a bad design... nice colors

Thank you.

<-- likes

 

uncluttered and neat. Easy to find things without a load of extra guff. And just to be different, I like the left alignment.

 

'sgood.

I'm glad you went for the Georgia in the end, it does suit it waaay better than a sans-serif font.

uncluttered and neat. Easy to find things without a load of extra guff. And just to be different, I like the left alignment.

 

Thank you very much! You totally understood what I was trying to achieve with it.

 

I'm glad you went for the Georgia in the end, it does suit it waaay better than a sans-serif font.

Jem, you need to get the Vista fonts. It's even gorgey-er with those.

I LOVE this site muchy! At last a gorgeous design that's eye-catching, unique and catchy that's all about the copy!

 

My only suggestion? Seek help about liking chocolate raisins - peanuts yes, raisins no!

 

Pretty cool design, like the use of typography

 

Only suggestions from my side is the very top pink bar might be better if it was a little taller in white and with the title written in pink. Might just open up the top of the site a little more...

 

See the attachment for what I mean:

Hey Rachael.

 

I like the new look, apart from the left alignment.

The side bar is just about right position wise, and I love the overall colour scheme.

 

Definitely better than your recent baby sh*t green/off yellow thing. Of course, that's just my opinion

 

Regards.

I LOVE this site muchy! At last a gorgeous design that's eye-catching, unique and catchy that's all about the copy!

Awh, high praise! Thank you very much.

 

My only suggestion? Seek help about liking chocolate raisins - peanuts yes, raisins no!

Help? I don't need help. I need more raisins.

 

Only suggestions from my side is the very top pink bar might be better if it was a little taller in white and with the title written in pink. Might just open up the top of the site a little more...

Firstly, please may I have your mac? <3

 

Secondly, that really does make the title pop. I'm a bit unsure about how it makes the 'other' headers look though... :/

My 2p

 

The font doesnt render nicely AT ALL for me, all gritty and shiz - windows XP SP3, FF2

and I dont like the 'skip to' links at the top

 

other than that, very clean

My 2p

 

The font doesnt render nicely AT ALL for me, all gritty and shiz - windows XP SP3, FF2

and I dont like the 'skip to' links at the top

 

other than that, very clean

Do you have ClearType turned off?

 

I did, for such a long time... I was stubborn, and I didn't like how Verdana rendered with it turned on. However, I turned it on last year and found that so many websites looked more fantastic than I'd ever realised. Georgia is actually a lovely, smooth font with ClearType.

 

If you're not sure what I'm on about.. right-click your desktop > Properties > Appearance > Effects.. and then under 'Use the following to smooth screen fonts' select ClearType.

 

Of course it's about personal preference but I thought I'd mention it

It's an intresting simplest design. I will be honest and say that I didn't like it when I looked at it this afternoon, but I thought it might have been because I the huge widescreen monitor I was using making it look all squashed to the left. I was right it was, it looks better now that I am home.

 

Improvements wise:

The text at the top: 'Skip to: navigation · content ...ect' there isn't enough contrast to it and with it being quite small it is hard to read

 

 

Thee ar a couple of other things but they are just picky personal opinion things so I will leave it with just saying the one thing I feel should be addressed

I like the new look, apart from the left alignment.

 

People either like it or hate it.

 

I think it works nicely with the website.

 

 

200th post

Pretty cool design, like the use of typography

 

Only suggestions from my side is the very top pink bar might be better if it was a little taller in white and with the title written in pink. Might just open up the top of the site a little more...

 

See the attachment for what I mean:

 

I prefer it how it is (no offence!). The reason is that it makes the pink menu bar stand out a lot more, and highlights the fact that it's not horizontally aligned with anything. I mean, there's a sort of alignment where the top of the bar aligns with the midpoint of the top two grey bars on the right, but that's not a natural connection to make.

Do you have ClearType turned off?

If you're not sure what I'm on about.. right-click your desktop > Properties > Appearance > Effects.. and then under 'Use the following to smooth screen fonts' select ClearType.

 

Ooh you learn all sorts of things from you clever people - I now LOVE YOUR SITE EVEN MORE!

Thanks for that tip - I never even noticed that 'Effects' button before!

I love the colours. It's a very clever design.

 

Looks even better now I've got cleartype turned on! Little things

Hey Rachael,

 

I love the redesign, but you already knew that!

 

I think the left align is great and really fights against the spate of centre aligned sites that are popping up lately (guilty as charged!). The way you've not used any images in the layout of the website is commendable, it really makes your content pop and it shows off how powerful pure CSS can be.

 

My only suggestion is to make the titles of the footer elements contrast more against the text in the footer.

 

All in all, along with your great content you have a winner!

 

Rob

I was just looking at your site again for inspiration - I want my site to be all about the copy (obviously) and you've pulled it off amazingly. Then I thought - hang on I can't let you off that easily! I still love it but was stuck by a thought (which I'm sure all my 'disciples' were too after reading 'Words as Brushes'):

 

Your site is called 'Calm banana' but the design is funky pink clashing (in a very good way) with grey. I do love the design but do you think you should use a soothing yellow instead of shocking pink?

 

Hope you take that in the spirit it's intended (your design did make me want to go back) - and that's a real question I asked not a motherly "Should you be playing football indoors?"!!!

 

Rachel (nice to see you back on the forums BTW) I didn't comment yesterday because I thought I was missing something.... I was! Because I'm viewing the page on my archaic system, I was seeing a grossly compromised version of your layout, but seeing that screenshot, I can now see what all the fuss is about. It's really very nice. My only criticism would be that folks with older systems will see something inferior.

I'm surprised and encouraged by how nice this is.

Do you have ClearType turned off?

 

I did, for such a long time... I was stubborn, and I didn't like how Verdana rendered with it turned on. However, I turned it on last year and found that so many websites looked more fantastic than I'd ever realised. Georgia is actually a lovely, smooth font with ClearType.

 

If you're not sure what I'm on about.. right-click your desktop > Properties > Appearance > Effects.. and then under 'Use the following to smooth screen fonts' select ClearType.

 

Of course it's about personal preference but I thought I'd mention it

 

I do have it turned off, by choice though!

We design sites to be backward compatible with IE6, so IMO they should be backward compatible without cleartype - as is shown by this thread, a lot of people don't even know what it is, let alone how to turn it on or off

Indeed, but the site works without ClearType turned on so your logic is flawed a tad there.

Your site is called 'Calm banana' but the design is funky pink clashing (in a very good way) with grey. I do love the design but do you think you should use a soothing yellow instead of shocking pink?

 

Hope you take that in the spirit it's intended (your design did make me want to go back) - and that's a real question I asked not a motherly "Should you be playing football indoors?"!!!

 

What's wrong with playing football indoors?!

 

I do see your logic, yes, but... I also think that if I change my colour scheme to yellow and grey, it might end up looking a bit like a bumblebee! Not that that's a bad thing, I just don't think it's entirely appropriate for my main site.

 

What I have in the works though is a colour-switcher, so you'll have several choices for colours schemes you can use if you're threatened by pink.

 

Because I'm viewing the page on my archaic system, I was seeing a grossly compromised version of your layout, but seeing that screenshot, I can now see what all the fuss is about. It's really very nice. My only criticism would be that folks with older systems will see something inferior.

 

How archaic are we talking? I've tested it on Windows 2000... Can you get more archaic than that? Judging from my stats, visitors with older / obscure OS / Browser combinations are very rare. At this moment in time, it's a justifiable sacrifice. Also, I've been careful to make sure that my site is still usable when CSS is disabled, so that might help you if you're having trouble. (A screencap would be awesome though!)

 

We design sites to be backward compatible with IE6, so IMO they should be backward compatible without cleartype - as is shown by this thread, a lot of people don't even know what it is, let alone how to turn it on or off

I have no idea whether my cleartype is turned on or off, and the site works for me. Also, isn't cleartype something which affects the way the fonts are displayed? They're still displayed whether cleartype is on or off... So they should still be readable. :/

ClearType is just the way the OS renders the fonts, basically it smoothes them when it's on. It wouldn't effect anything drastic with your website apart from the fonts being jagged when it's off.