I need help with this interface design!!!

[Placer14]

Heyas....

This interface is driving me crazy. The more I look at it, the more it looks like crap. I need some people with a good eye to take a look at this and make suggestions. I'm about to throw my monitor into the wall. Please help.

*sigh*

Linky - 81k

Pleeasee.....

 

[phatj]

I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

 

[aphex]

I was gonna update my clientexec interface as well... as soon as i get the time

 

[Phuz]

I do that two. The more you look at a piece the more you'll dislike it. Move on... code it... and make a DIFFERENT one.

 

[Nocturnal]

I suggest taking away the navigation from the bottom. Even a person like me who has no experience in web design thinks it would suck to navigate from the bottom of the page.

 

[Placer14]

Well...the buttons at the bottom are gonna be swapped with the images above when that page is visited. They won't be there in the final product. The left side will be a sub navigation for that page. THe box at the top will show overall account information for the administrator account. The bottom will have additional options for reports and such for the admin.

It's relly frustrating, i've put a decent amount of time into this already and don't want to redesign it...but I just might. Any other suggestions? Thanks guys.

 

[Regs]

The table row with the links can use a background image with lighting effects or a dark gradient and the black box with "Account Summary" can be embossed. Other than that, looks good.

 

[Tom]

Maybe make the corners on the various objects all have the same radius or not radius, but all one or the other.

Also will there be something in the large vertical black area on the left ? If not maybe the box at the top that says "account summary could be rotated and put there.

edit- never mind, you already answred about the space on the left.

 

[Placer14]

Thanks....i think i'm just gonna scrap it and start again and see waht I can come up with. Thanks for the input.

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: phatj
I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

Why must ppl still use tables...its so 1997

 

[MacBaine]

Looks kinda like LCARS

 

[DJFuji]

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: phatj
I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

Why must ppl still use tables...its so 1997

Why must ppl still use AOL...its so LOSER.

haha just kidding man. Aside from that, what alternative is there to tables? There is nothing out there that can match the versatility of nested tables for layout design.

 

[dighn]

looks good to me, except the rowof buttons on the bottom, they look outy of place

nm. it looks good

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: DJ Fuji

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: phatj
I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

Why must ppl still use tables...its so 1997

Why must ppl still use AOL...its so LOSER.

haha just kidding man. Aside from that, what alternative is there to tables? There is nothing out there that can match the versatility of nested tables for layout design.

Edit: also in his site you could break the top down to a few smaller pics and do the main backdrop part with with HTML and style sheets thus cutting down on graphic size and making the page load faster.

How about something that was made for layout like say CSS I will say it might take a little more to learn...but if you do it right it saves so much time down the line, and you know you did it right and are not just using some hack that has been used so much it has almost become standard practice. I mean his site would be so easy to do with CSS.

 

[fr]

Yeah, the bottom links have to go. I also don't like the look of the blue box on the top right. Maybe make it transparent. The yellow gap between the main content cell and the blue menu is too big as well.

 

[DJFuji]

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: DJ Fuji

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: phatj
I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

Why must ppl still use tables...its so 1997

Why must ppl still use AOL...its so LOSER.

haha just kidding man. Aside from that, what alternative is there to tables? There is nothing out there that can match the versatility of nested tables for layout design.

Edit: also in his site you could break the top down to a few smaller pics and do the main backdrop part with with HTML and style sheets thus cutting down on graphic size and making the page load faster.

How about something that was made for layout like say CSS I will say it might take a little more to learn...but if you do it right it saves so much time down the line, and you know you did it right and are not just using some hack that has been used so much it has almost become standard practice. I mean his site would be so easy to do with CSS.

Do you think CSS can do anything tables can do? If so, i need to learn more CSS...

right now i use tables for layout design because of its versatility. I just can't see why all the BIG sites would use tables if CSS were so much better. I use CSS to format text and some minor layout enhancements.

 

[MrCodeDude]

I use CCS for my styles and scripts. That's all I've found use for it.
-- mrcodedude

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

No, CSS can't replace tables, except in gecko, but even then you'd be nesting div's in the same fashion as tables, the only difference would be that it would be more "correct." People use tables for pixel-perfect placement, and CSS just isn't as good at that, not to mention that it's a crap concept in the first place.

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: DJ Fuji

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: DJ Fuji

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: phatj
I think it looks good but I dont think the links on the bottom of the page are necessary (home, admin, etc). I'd say make the tables more square-like... just a personal preference though. The logo looks reallly good and the colors blend well together in my opinion.

BTW I just uploaded my new site phatj.net

Why must ppl still use tables...its so 1997

Why must ppl still use AOL...its so LOSER.

haha just kidding man. Aside from that, what alternative is there to tables? There is nothing out there that can match the versatility of nested tables for layout design.

Edit: also in his site you could break the top down to a few smaller pics and do the main backdrop part with with HTML and style sheets thus cutting down on graphic size and making the page load faster.

How about something that was made for layout like say CSS I will say it might take a little more to learn...but if you do it right it saves so much time down the line, and you know you did it right and are not just using some hack that has been used so much it has almost become standard practice. I mean his site would be so easy to do with CSS.

Do you think CSS can do anything tables can do? If so, i need to learn more CSS...

right now i use tables for layout design because of its versatility. I just can't see why all the BIG sites would use tables if CSS were so much better. I use CSS to format text and some minor layout enhancements.

Yah I kinda thought the same way till I gave it a try...

here is an oswd.com that I converted from table based to CSS jsut for kicks:

table based

CSS based

keep inmind that I did not move all the body content from the first one over but there is nothing there that could not be hard to move, and secondly I made a few improvements like the top nav buttons now have mouseovers. I also make the style sheet mostly dynamic and pull its info from a database. The long term goal is to make the page skinable, but that stuff does not effect how the CSS sheets work. but if you ask me they look pretty much the same and the CSS is much easier to chance down the line and much more powerful. Just get ready to use sometags you might not of before. instead of using <tr> and <td> alot get ready to learn <div> and <span>

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
No, CSS can't replace tables, except in gecko, but even then you'd be nesting div's in the same fashion as tables, the only difference would be that it would be more "correct." People use tables for pixel-perfect placement, and CSS just isn't as good at that, not to mention that it's a crap concept in the first place.

Thats not really true you can use CSS for absolute placement.

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
I use CCS for my styles and scripts. That's all I've found use for it.
-- mrcodedude

I will admit that if you dont want to learn CSS its pretty easy to just use tables but when you really get into it CSS is a better solution.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: jonmullen

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
No, CSS can't replace tables, except in gecko, but even then you'd be nesting div's in the same fashion as tables, the only difference would be that it would be more "correct." People use tables for pixel-perfect placement, and CSS just isn't as good at that, not to mention that it's a crap concept in the first place.

Thats not really true you can use CSS for absolute placement.

However it won't work like tables do, unless you use display:table, table-row, table-cell, etc, but then you might as well say screw it and use tables (oh, and those won't work in IE, so you may as well just rule them out). I agree that ideally tables should never be used for layout, but going without them is just not practical for a lot of designs. A lot of designs also suck, so ...

 

[jonmullen]

However it won't work like tables do

Thats true, but you can get the same effect in most situations. The thing you have to remember is that tables are still a hack for HTML layout's.

but then you might as well say screw it and use tables

You will notice that I did use two tables in my design...one to hold the nav links and one in the body. But those are small none nested tables that just help me place the objects side by side easily w/o using abosolute posistioning of browser specific commands.

I agree that ideally tables should never be used for layout, but going without them is just not practical for a lot of designs.

But alot of designs can mix tables where its needed and CSS where it works. In my opinion the idea is not to just use tables of CSS but to try and seperate design and content as much as possible.

A lot of designs also suck, so ...

hey...do you not like my work?

Edit:typo's