New web site feedback

[Jon]

I've been working on a site redesign. It's not terribly sophisticated, but hopefully it's better than the current one. I welcome constructive feedback before it goes live (constructive meaning comments and suggestions that can be feasibly achieved without yet another major overhaul). The new site is temporarily housed at

[url removed -- the new site is up]

The Buy page is active, but should not be used to place real orders.

Jon
Sonny Software

[hrashid]

Jon,

Really like the redesign. It definitely looks more modern than the current design. A couple of comments:

1. The background color seems a bit jarring to me. I would go for something a little more subdued to fit with the black banner.

2. The navbar on the right didn't register right away. I personally prefer navbars on the top or on the left. If you are going to leave it on the right, maybe you can do something to set it off so it stand out more than it does now. A shading to the background might do the trick.

I know these points are really more personal preference than anything else, but I thought I should share.

Thanks,
h

[Jon]

Hi hrashid,

Thanks for the feedback. Personally, I like the color combo (obviously, since I chose it). I'm curious to hear what others think, too.

I've moved the sidebar to the left side.

Jon
Sonny Software

[hrashid]

Jon,

Wow, that was fast.

The readability of the site got a lot better for me with the move to the left. I don't know if you want to fill some of the whitespace in the main column, but there are a few key screenshots that I think would really help to sell BE. The list of references is nice, but doesn't say enough about the app in my opinion. Perhaps a screen cap of editing a reference and for me the in-application reference surfing. Maybe a picture of a JSTOR session? and/or a COinS enabled site? To me these really define the reason I enjoy using BE.

Regards,
Hussein

[Jon]

Did you explore the site? Click on the Bookends link (on left) and subtopics appear. There are even some nice special effects when you click on a small image to enlarge it.

Jon
Sonny Software

[hrashid]

Thanks Jon. I did poke around and I wasn't clear in my comment. I am suggesting moving a few of those image to the front to fill in the whitespace in the main column. There are good arguments for leaving the whitespace, but in case you didn't want it I was putting forward what I think really makes BE "fun" to use and might catch somebody's eye.

Again, great job on BE and the site. You and the Redlers are getting a shout in my acknowledgements for giving me the tools to finish my dissertation.

Regards,
Hussein

[Jon]

Ah, I see. You mean the white space at the bottom of the main page (which is wasted now, I agree). I'll play with that.

And good luck with the dissertation. :-)

Jon
Sonny Software

[Gerben]

This is a nice redesign, kudos. I agree with Husein on the color, the combi black with yellow bar doesn't really work for me. The yellow bar is a bit too strong by contrast, at least for my eyes on a MacBook. But I have to admit I am not so yellowish so that's my problem

Some other details, sorry for nitpicking a bit...!:
- the font of the menu on the left is rather small in comparison to the rest, it doesn't really stand out, also because the color yellow for the highlighted menu item does not contrast very much with the white background (I find it at least a bit difficult to clearly see). I wonder if a navbar on top would not be clearer so that the menu does not "compete" with the users comments?
- perhaps a somewhat wider font for the title, so that "Sonny Software" comes out a bit more?
- two different fonts are used in "seek and ye shall find"
- I wonder if on the overview page the BE logo could be made somewhat smaller? The overview page right now feels a bit "crowded"

Anyway, this is visual details, I think the redesign brings out the functionality of BE very well.

Gerben

[Jon]

Hi Gerben, thanks. I've made some changes based on your comments, and I'm adding more content to the Overview page (hopefully it won't be too crowded, but a good central place to click to other pages). I'll be uploading the changes later today.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

The Overview and FAQ pages have been modified. Please check them out.

Thanks,

Jon
Sonny Software

[Gerben]

That looks good, I like the screenshots on the overview page, FAQ looks very nice.

Only thing that remains a bit too small for me is the menu font size (since the user comments below that are in a bigger font size my attention is almost automatically drawn away from the menu and site navigation).

Gerben

[Jon]

What browser are you using? I don't see that (the menu size is larger than the user comments font size)...

Jon
Sonny Software

[ozean]

I like the colors, although I think that the logo graphic (ole Sonny himself and the sun in the background) should be updated too. The edge of the graphic is not clean and the “dithery” style of the logo graphic does not fit too well with the rest of the design which seems more plain and soft. If you re-work the logo, you might also try to go for a color that fits better with the nice yellow that you introduced – the current background color seems to be taken from Sonny’s sun and does not fit too well with the main yellow (for me, at least).

For accessibility and aesthetic reasons, I am actually fond of sidebars positioned to the right.

I am not sure what I think about the fonts yet - I do like the serif font that you are using in the title and in the navigation thingy in the sidebar. But it seems a bit cluttered or confusing to have two different fonts of almost the same size in the sidebar. (I think using the serif font for the “What our users are saying about Bookends” headline is ok, though. Maybe you could even set everything in the sidebar in serif, since it is all “personal comment” – except for the navigation, of course. Hmm, another difficult decision…) Using the serif font for the heading subtitles does not please my eyes too much – I guess I would either set both in serif, or only the main line (but that would be an odd choice, I guess).

I guess the blue boxes around the graphics will be gone once you are done with the layout…

The Sonny picture in the attachment section is great, of course

The font size in the “What’s new”, “Support” and “FAQ” sections is different and the colors in the latter are wrong.

The buttons on the “Support” page are too big.

Have you thought about using the yellow bar on the top as the navigation bar? That way you would not run into some of the problems with using different fonts in the side bar…

Also, I am missing the information about Sonny (maybe you could offer it as an “easter egg” for those who click on him in the logo? but then again, logo clicks are often used as links to the start page…)

[Jon]

Hi ozean,

I've changed the font for user comments in the sidebar to a serif font. The font is fixed in What's new. The other pages will be a bit more difficult.

The blue boxes appear in Firefox but not Safari! I assume they're showing to indicate that the images have links. I'll have to see if I can do anything about that.

I'd like to add back the easter egg about Sonny, but as you say the logo isn't a great place for it...

Thanks for the feedback!

Jon
Sonny Software

[Gerben]

What browser are you using? I don't see that (the menu size is larger than the user comments font size)...

This is on Safari 3.

Gerben