Antistatik gets a new layout...sorta

The anti-static thing on the left is garish and huge, it dominates the page, and draws away from the content.

The text doesn't resize, when I scroll down to escape the logo, I'm blinded by the glare of my monitor from so much white space.

Simplicity is nice, but I think you have used too much of a good thing.

The text doesn't resize, when I scroll down to escape the logo, I'm blinded by the glare of my monitor from so much white space.

Why would it? Are you suggesting that I have the text wrap the image? That would be:

1- A bad idea since long, stretched blocks of text are boring to read. Not to mention, they look awful.

2- Impossible since the news in that table cell is set to go vertically at a certain width and not any wide.

The anti-static thing on the left is garish and huge, it dominates the page, and draws away from the content.

That's the first I have heard of someone not being able to pay attention to the text without looking at the image. What do you suggest I put there?

Simplicity is nice, but I think you have used too much of a good thing.

Explain how using very little of something is too much. I could understand if the page didnt load in 3 seconds and it didn't fit into an 800x600 resolution, but it does. So what did I use too much of?

I respect your opinion however.

You have too much simplicity, I like pages where even the background shows a lot of talent and effort and technical mastery. Pages where I can scratch my head and say.. now how the hell did he manage that.

Its primarily your journal correct? Give it some personality, your choice in icons and desktop were nice, make the page nice too. Screw load time and browser sizes, and pour your soul into the page. If someone is going to click away just because of load time would you want the fickle bastard reading your journal anyways?


The solid black and light green stripes of the axiom logo contrast very highly with each and other and the white background. They draw the eye very aggressively, the text can't compete with it. The diagonal slope of the lines pull the eye downwards, to the circle and the middle of your text. Every time I look up to read the start of the news or look at the site nav I have to fight the urge to look down.

Personally I don't mind wide text or wrapped text, better that, then a whole lot of null space that drowns out your message.

I personally like the site a lot for its simplicity. Yes, the green color is very bright, but I don't think it's used enough to actually be distracting. The text is formatted well, and the site is organized and easily navigable.

Czak, you make some good points about the logo and how it guides your eye.

The rest of your comments are just your personal opinion though. A lot of people are getting tired of overly flashy sites. Me definitely included. They are good for 'wow' value, but that isn't what Axiom is interested in people viewing.

I really don't understand how you can say that 'null space' is distracting. It's used to focus you on a certain point, by taking away all other distractions. Having a bunch of crazy graphics all over the place is what's distracting, not whitespace. Have you ever read a book? They use quite a lot of whitespace in those, and they have been around for hundreds of years. Long, extended lines of text are extremely hard to read. Your eye gets lost trying to find the next line of the text on the way back. That's why books have large margins and short lines of text so that you can quickly move back and forth across the page. That's why newspapers divide the page into 3 or 4 columns, instead of making a line of text 14 inches across.

Yes, it is Axiom's journal site, which is why he wants the focus to be on the content of the writings, not his flashy graphics. If you look at other sites where the focus is on good content rather than a bunch of fancy graphics, you will see they all do the same thing. They take away all the distractions of fancy graphics, so that people can just read the content.

Examples...

http://www.37signals.com/svn/
http://www.metafilter.com/
http://www.evolt.org
http://www.alistapart.com/index.html
http://www.zeldman.com/

All of those sites actually have something to say, rather than just showing how well they can draw pictures.

You say Axiom should put his soul into his site, well what if his soul says that he doesn't need a lot of graphics and blurry colors to make a good web site? What if he actually has something to say, and wants it to be heard above the noise of flashy graphics? Personality can be expressed much better in writings than in graphics.

Axiom makes some very nice graphics, but probably thinks that if his graphics are really good, then people will want to view them in a 'gallery' page on the site, rather than having to wait 2 minutes for them all to be forced down their throats when they first look at the page.

Those are just some of my thoughts on the subject of simplicity.

Your Antistatik image dosen't fit for me. You basically have one image on your index and its obnoxiously huge. You say you're focusing on content but you have this one big intruding image taking up a good portion of the site. And its eye catching, too eye catching if you ask me. To focus on content you have to make it the first thing people look at.

Every time I look up to read the start of the news or look at the site nav I have to fight the urge to look down.

Exactly!
Make your logo thingie small and descreet if your visitors are to be looking at text. Ah, well... That's all I have to say.

Sorry Ax, I'm sure you remember me saying that if I don't like something, I just don't reply to it. I didn't reply to this because I haven't been home all weekend.

I do like it. I'm ALL FOR simplicity. In as much as I like to look at pretty pictures, I do agree with Deker when he said that as a journal site, forcing big 'ol graphics down their throat is not a good thing.

But what I want to know is "What happened to the 3-table layout you were working on the other night on IRC?"

I liked that. What I was expecting when I clicked the link was that one. Although I am disappointed that I did not see it in action, I do like the site. Although that graphic is mighty big, I do not think it is so big that it takes away from the content that you are offering.

You only have 2 columns, but if you would have had 3 or more, then yes, the graphic would have been FAR to large for the page. I hate it when I am one of the last ones to post a critique of a certian site or graphic because I feel as if though what I want to say has already been said. But maybe you just feel that what I am saying is just backing up what everyone else has already said.

OK, something that hasn't been said. It's about your desktop. I can't handle it. I've tried my icons across the top of my screen, and it doesn't like me like that. Using Windows for so many years, I'm so used to everything that I need being at the bottom of the screen, so my icons are always at the bottom of the desktop. I just don't know how you can do it. At least put them on the left side,....for me.

Thanks,
Matt.

here is where I make a big joke out of people disliking that image and it's size.

http://antistatik.oesm.org/

I hope you can now pay attention to the stuff that matters.

ROFLMAO!!!! Good one Axiom!

except....I find those BIG words are distracting from the little words @ the right!

Ahahaha. Yes. Awesome.

no worries matt -

the reason I didnt use that layout ( i still have it btw ) is because it went against everything I wanted to do. The slicing of the image proved to be kinda complicated. I am lazy and didnt feel like doing it.

Sometime in the near future, I could use it as my layout.