Design review needed please!

[barrymcgee]

Hi all,

I been asked to revamp:

www.maddenbrosltd.com and this is what I have came up with so far;

www.maddenbrosltd.com/test.html

Too much blue?

[ninacababa]

Hmm, yeah I think too much blue - I'm not really a fan of the darker background & lighter text, its a tough one to make aesthetically pleasing and accessible.

Completely discarding the old site4 may be a bit of a mistake (but do not emphasise the word 'bit'!). Firstly the banner isn't too bad and its compact, which is always good for those with 17 inch screens or less and toolbars pinned to their browsers. Secondly, from the home page, when you scroll down and the pics that brighten on hover is always a good idea - but they're hidden on the original. You see you need things to catch the attention of the viewer and cool things like that work - as do professional and neat designs. Though saying that, your obviously not limited to these brightening pics for attention grabbing.

By clicking this link (http://www.tokyocube.com/lifestyle.php?subnav=leisure&feature=toys&article=Gloomy%20bear...how%20cute!) you'll hopefully be inspired a few things.... One being the understated pallete and design (notice especially the use of shading and shadow rather than unnecessary colours). Another thing that this site shows is that its often the softer querks to a website that grab attention and that its not necessary to overcomplicate your site.

[ChiefNX]

I'm afraid the alignment of your content box for the test page doesn't work in Firefox or Opera.

I'd have to say that on balance, I prefer your original layout because it has: a cleaner and higher quality header, an ordered and more sensible layout and no code errors.

[Poxicator]

Cant say as this is an improvement tbh as its rather in-your-face. The seperate elements only distract from the text and the head is centred on page width while the rest is aligned left!

Some simple things to consider:
Provide more spacing between your lines of text, makes it easier to read, less mass and therefore more attractive.
Use an image for your nav bar - the products on offer and the places they've been installed seems upmarket so it would be a shame not to use images to improve your site.
Try to create a template giving each area room to breathe - on the old site things jump position from page to page and the main body text seems awfully close to your nav panel.

PS: Just noticed Larne! I redone a logo for Larne Football Club recently (via a friend).

[barrymcgee]

Firstly, I probably should have explained myself better yesterday, that one page was just a quick mock-up of how I had orginally planned to go with the project. I will in due course incorporate images, its just at the minute I'm trying to persuade the client to buy them!

Thank you all for taking the time to critique it so far, I'm very grateful of the constructive critism and have taken it all onboard. Check out the improvements (I hope!) that I have made today...

http://www.maddenbrosltd.com/test.html

:)

[Poxicator]

the banner is starting to look better, might I suggest the windowed area of the ship is in the middle to emulate the curve you've created. The main figure to extreme left to draw your vision into the site - would be nice to see more of him so we can see what he's doing. The curve itself should get a slightly feathered edge rather than the jagged edge curve you have now (which reminds me Ive got to do the same on my site).
The logo - a quick edit of the levels or threshold in PS would produce a cleaner black and white.
Don't they have their own stock library?

[fmiles]

Why did they want a redesign? Is it because of the changed logotype? In the old version the logo text is in Arial and in your test it's in Helvetica? Was this intentional?

I also don't like the use of Trebuchet in the new design. It gives the design a too childish tone, as it's a slightly more calligraphic font. I'd use the same Arial in body text, because that way you keep the company's image more consistent. It's still the same company, even after the redesign, right?

The new page is maybe a little too wide in pixels, which was already pointed out.

The new design has a better visual impact, but it doesn't work as well as the old one. I'd suggest putting more whitespace around the main contents, so that the homepage looks more balanced. Also indent the list items as they did in the old version, it helps readability.

[barrymcgee]

Thats for all the help guys...I'll put it all into practice!