Welcome to our site: Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing

"Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing" by Brent

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 14:30:02 -0600

So Matt, what you’re saying, basically, is, “It’s a doberman, I say let it have its ears.” I can dig that.

"Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing" by Matt Johnson

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:03:02 -0600

I would agree with most of Nat’s ideas. I won’t however go into as much design detail, as it seems you guys have that covered. Your main concern seems to be readability and information architect. The part where I agree with Nat is embrace more white space. White space is no longer an enemy. Its your friend, and you should let him in. The thing that bugs me the most about this site is the shadows on the columns – and not even that. But the text laying on top of the shadows. If you made the columns bigger so the text could fit inside the shadows, it would probably look more open.

I think this site falls off the bandwagon when it comes to overrated navigation bars, which might make it seemed pretty cluttered. Everyone is used to some sort of identifiable navigation bar with the main pages of the site. Even if it is two pages.

But at anyrate – White space is friendly, open, and easier to read.

"Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing" by Brent

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:55:58 -0600

Nat – Man what fantastic and thorough comment. You seriously dropped a goldmine of outside perspective, and we really appreciate it.

Also, I checked out your site’s recent redesign, and I like it a lot. I’m a huge fan of your portfolio pieces.

Kathan – Thanks so much. Its been really awesome hearing both sides of feedback from people outside of the realm of friends and clients, but compliments are always the most fun part of feedback. Thanks for dropping by!

"Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing" by Kathan

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:30:03 -0600

I actually hopped on over from Unmatched Style to check you out, this really is a lovely layout!

"Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing" by nat

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:58:00 -0600

I love the design. It’s one of the best I’ve seen lately, though I have to agree that it seems quite cluttered.

I think that the thing that would help the most is simply some white (blank) space. Specifically, the center column seems very cluttered. It looks nice at the default size, but the type is quite small, and if the user increases the font size, it becomes very hard to read – only one word per line in some of the items. I think if this column were 15-25% wider it would help tremendously. I’d increase the margins in the column just a bit and maybe bump up the type size a tiny bit. Also, I’d move the RSS feed link to the bottom of the column, but that’s just a personal preference.

The About US header doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the site. It just feels stuck on, and it isn’t immediately recognizable to the first-time visitor as an important bit of information. Personally, I’d like to see it treated more like the main header graphic – spanning the full width of the column maybe with a light gray version of the diagonal pattern, equal to the height of the main header and with the about us type slightly larger and aligned with the baseline of the word trabian. that would leave some extra space above the words, too, which i think would be quite nice.

The third column could also benefit from increased left and right margins. The type feels cramped now and some extra space would help. Also, your leading is inconsistent. The type in the “Open Source CU” section is much easier to read than the “About Us” section due to the increased leading (line-spacing). Also, the red bands are somewhat distracting as they provide an unnecessary visual ink between the red center column and red background on the right. I think they might be better in just a darker shade of gray. More vertical space between the 3 sections of the third column (About Us / Open Source CU / Address) would help.

The drop-down Contact Us form could use some breathing room as well. I think it would be nice if it was as wide as the text area of the main column. The way it is now, with the header and blog entry partly visible behind it adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the site. I’d make it cover the full width of the column (not the margins, just enough to block out the text) and also increase the white space around the edges of the form fields.

I think that the blog excerpt could use some sort of header like the “Recent Projects” header. The blue type and accompanying white space would make for a nice transition between the red logo and red blog headline, and also identify what the content is to a first time visitor, who may be confused by the overwhelming amount of content on the page. My initial reaction was that the about us section should go here, below the logo, but after thinking more about it, I think that simply making the About Us header more substantial and giving some kind of section title to the blog excerpt would help to clarify things both for the first-time visitor who is looking for general information and for the repeat-visitor who is looking primarily for new content. I’d also like to see a bit more space between the Continue Reading link and the Recent Projects section.

Finally, I think that the yellow background in the comments is too yellow. I assume it is the same yellow as the links in the side columns, but because it is such a large field of color, it reads much darker, visually. I think that making it about 10-20% lighter would make it easier on the eyes while still providing a nice contrast with the white page background.

I realize that this is long and rambling and could probably be summed up as “more space everywhere,” but hopefully some of it is helpful and doesn’t come off as overly-critical, which is not my intention, since – as i said at the beginning – i really like the site. Okay. I’m done now.

Unmatched Style is a beautiful thing

brent@trabian.com (Brent Dixon) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:27:00 -0600

We want to thank Shane at Unmatched Style for featuring us on his fantastic behemoth of a CSS showcase site today. His review was probably the nicest thing I’ve ever heard that didn’t come from my own mother’s mouth. It has lead to some incredible feedback and an enormous influx of visitors.

We’re all completely blown away and are really appreciative to him – and all of you for dropping by. Also, I have a question for you all after the jump…

One piece of feedback that we’ve heard through the comments on Unmatched Style involved the amount of content we include on our homepage. Here’s a segment from one:

“It��s very nice graphically, but seems a little cluttered. My first impression upon visiting was that there was too much packed onto the page, everything seemed to demand my attention at the same time.”

I’d like to hear some thoughts on this from you guys. Our reason for going for the one-page vibe was actually to simplify the amount of jumping around visitors had to do to round up information about us. It’s kind of an interesting balance to try and strike, putting enough information right in front of users, while not cluttering up the message.

This is especially an issue because our target market, credit unions, are generally not the most web-savvy group out there.

Thanks again for dropping by, we’re all looking forward to your comments. We like to get better at this thing however we can.

*Update: We just noticed that we were also added to CSS Mania, another fantastic CSS showcase that currently indexes over 2300 sites. Check them out right this second. And also, we somehow made it to the del.icio.us popular page. Honestly, we’re astounded. Thanks guys.