Please vote on which website you like more.

[notfred]

I'm working on a website for a 'customer' (my father). First I did the layout that my dad asked me for, but I really didn't like it very much at all.

So, I made a second version of the site that keeps a lot of the things my dad liked about his site, but, in my opinion, looks a lot better.

I needed some objective 3rd party opinions, so here's the sites, please vote for the one you like more:
Site 1
Site 2

Edit: Here's a page with more content for site 2. I haven't added this page in site 1 yet because I haven't thought of a way to make it look decent with that menu on the left.

 

[MithShrike]

I like Site 1 more because I find the sidebar better than the top navigation. Yep. Either way the site seems a bit spartan.

 

[hdeck]

site 2

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Mith
I like Site 1 more because I find the sidebar better than the top navigation. Yep. Either way the site seems a bit spartan.

He likes spartan. The site is going to be spartan no matter what, or he's not going to like it.

 

[Konigin]

Originally posted by: hdeck
site 2

yeah, site 2 is much better.

 

[MrYogi]

Site 2. But change the font on the site especially ALARMS ICOM RADIOS SPECIALS etc

 

[deerslayer]

Site 1

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: MrYogi
Site 2. But change the font on the site especially ALARMS ICOM RADIOS SPECIALS etc

What would you change it to? I've really only got two options in HTML/CSS. "serif" and "sans-serif".

 

[Czar]

definetly site 2,

site1. looks very empty, no connection between the areas
site2. good color sceme (yellow comes out very nicely), looks more full, not sure if the overlay works though

 

[Phuz]

#2.. GJ.

I'd slide the text over to the left, so the briefcase is right under the 'home' link.
I'd move the main title up, so its centered between the top margin and the navigation bar.

Maybe anti alias the text for the buttons?

edit: I just read that you only have the two options in CSS... oh.. well, its dooable if you liked the idea, at least.

 

[godmare]

ugh, they're both just so terrible, but site 2 has much better balance, imo.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Site 1 IMO notfred :beer:

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: godmare
ugh, they're both just so terrible, but site 2 has much better balance, imo.

There's only so much you can do and still keep my dad happy.

He likes:
Lots of white space.
Large Type
His old drawings from the 80's

he does not like:
Cluttered or busy pages (see yahoo.com)
small type
Graphics as a part of the site design.

And Phuz, the type is antialiased if you look at it in win2k with smoothing screen fonts enabled, or on OS X, and I'd guess it's smoothed on XP, too.

 

[Regs]

Site 2. Less clutter, more control over the white space.

 

[MrCodeDude]

Site 2.
-- mrcodedude

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: godmare
ugh, they're both just so terrible, but site 2 has much better balance, imo.

There's only so much you can do and still keep my dad happy.

I know, I read the thread yesterday on it.
That's why I commented on the 'balance' of site 2; They're basically the same site, but the second is a more comfortable design.
imo.

 

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Mith
I like Site 1 more because I find the sidebar better than the top navigation. Yep. Either way the site seems a bit spartan.

He likes spartan. The site is going to be spartan no matter what, or he's not going to like it.

Spartan sucks - Wolverines all the way!

Oh right, the site. I like 1 better.

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Site 1 IMO notfred :beer:

Ditto. I think if there was more content in the middle on site 2 it would look better.

btw just checked out the USGS site, nice job notfred

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: OREOSpeedwagon

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Site 1 IMO notfred :beer:

Ditto. I think if there was more content in the middle on site 2 it would look better.

btw just checked out the USGS site, nice job notfred

There will be on the other pages. The front page has the least content of all of them, I just haven't created the other pages yet.

Which USGS site did you check out? I don't run usgs.gov, my site is ca.water.usgs.gov

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: OREOSpeedwagon

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Site 1 IMO notfred :beer:

Ditto. I think if there was more content in the middle on site 2 it would look better.

btw just checked out the USGS site, nice job notfred

There will be on the other pages. The front page has the least content of all of them, I just haven't created the other pages yet.

Which USGS site did you check out? I don't run usgs.gov, my site is ca.water.usgs.gov

I was checking out the http://ca.water.usgs.gov one, the one you linked to in the other thread.

 

[rh71]

What's up with the whacked fonts that are acting as the menu links ?

Site2's layout is 10x better.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: MrYogi
Site 2. But change the font on the site especially ALARMS ICOM RADIOS SPECIALS etc

What would you change it to? I've really only got two options in HTML/CSS. "serif" and "sans-serif".

Explain this - I'm not following. You can specify particular fonts in HTML (even though the tag is deprecated - it's recognized by browsers)...

 

[Stratum9]

site #2

how about adding a background color? without a bgcolor the text and content sits ontop of a blank IE application background which will be the color of whatever the users system colors are set to. Some people use some pretty dark schemes so the text would be hard to read in these cases.

even plain white is better than nothing. then the briefcase graphic would blend better.

 

[Yossarian]

I like 1. Vertical menus are better unless you have dropdowns from the horizontal ones.

 

[SWirth86]

Site 2, but on both of them the text for the 'HOME' 'ABOUT US' etc. links look grainy, or coarse...