Comments on 3 Templates please.

[Andrew]

Hi,

I am working on 3 'bare-bones' CSS templates. Can I have some
thoughts on the very beginnings of this work?

All flexible layouts with no browser hacks and a bare minimum CSS:
they are designed to be built onto rather than be a total solution in
themselves.

http://www.andrews-corner.org/2_column_header_footer.html
http://www.andrews-corner.org/3_column_header_footer.html
http://www.andrews-corner.org/1_column_flexible.html

Thanks very much for any input,

Andrew

 

[Dylan Parry]

I am working on 3 'bare-bones' CSS templates. Can I have some
thoughts on the very beginnings of this work?

It depends really on what content you have to put into the templates. I
am presuming that you're going to use one of these templates for your
own site? Anyway, I am basing this response on that (dangerous) assumption.

http://www.andrews-corner.org/2_column_header_footer.html

This is a layout that people are comfortable with. It's an easy-to-use
format, and the navigation is clearly set apart from the content. I
would personally say this is best suited to you site.

http://www.andrews-corner.org/3_column_header_footer.html

It's a familiar layout, like the above, but it really depends on whether
you have content that warrants having the third column. I don't
personally think that your site does, so I would probably not go down
this route.

http://www.andrews-corner.org/1_column_flexible.html

Boring It's too much like a 1996-everything-is-centred layout for my
liking, and doesn't look like it's taken anything in terms of thought or
design skills to put it together. You could probably make it look very
good if you spent a long time putting things together in Photoshop to
spruce it up a bit, but it lacks the pre-built design elements that
you'd get from using a column layout of some sort.

Yes I realise that your current design is based on this theme, but
evidentially you are looking for a change - so I suggest you make the
most of it and go for something more interesting.

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

Programming, n: A pastime similar to banging one's head
against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward.

 

[Andrew]

It depends really on what content you have to put into the templates. I
am presuming that you're going to use one of these templates for your
own site? Anyway, I am basing this response on that (dangerous) assumption.


This is a layout that people are comfortable with. It's an easy-to-use
format, and the navigation is clearly set apart from the content. I
would personally say this is best suited to you site.


It's a familiar layout, like the above, but it really depends on whether
you have content that warrants having the third column. I don't
personally think that your site does, so I would probably not go down
this route.


Boring It's too much like a 1996-everything-is-centred layout for my
liking, and doesn't look like it's taken anything in terms of thought or
design skills to put it together. You could probably make it look very
good if you spent a long time putting things together in Photoshop to
spruce it up a bit, but it lacks the pre-built design elements that
you'd get from using a column layout of some sort.

Yes I realise that your current design is based on this theme, but
evidentially you are looking for a change - so I suggest you make the
most of it and go for something more interesting.

Hi Dylan,

Thanks for your thoughts on the 3 pages. In fact I will eventually
migrate my own small site to one of these templates. My plan was to
slowly work up all three over 6 months or so and then change.

You are quite right about the single-column template that is drawn
from my current site. It was directly inspired by several existing
sites and it bothers me more than a little that there is so little of
my own thought & design in it.

Thanks again for your time & trouble,

Andrew

 

[David Segall]

Hi,

I am working on 3 'bare-bones' CSS templates. Can I have some
thoughts on the very beginnings of this work?

All flexible layouts with no browser hacks and a bare minimum CSS:
they are designed to be built onto rather than be a total solution in
themselves.

http://www.andrews-corner.org/2_column_header_footer.html
http://www.andrews-corner.org/3_column_header_footer.html
http://www.andrews-corner.org/1_column_flexible.html

Thanks very much for any input,

Andrew

They are what I would call workmanlike. If you want to create the
impression of a capable, knowledgeable, but boring web author they are
fine.

Contrast Jukka Korpela's http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html and
Roedy Green’s http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html. They both cover
the technical content well and they are both "good" web sites but they
are world's apart in the interest they create and what they reveal
about the authors.

I decided that I did not have the visual talents required to create an
attractive web site so I chose one from OSWD <http://www.oswd.org/>.
Their advanced search allows you to restrict the results to specified
[X]HTML and/or CSS standards. If you are redesigning your site it is
well worth a visit if only to gauge what _you_ regard as visually
attractive.

 

[mbstevens]

Contrast Jukka Korpela's http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html and Roedy
Green’s http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html. They both cover the
technical content well and they are both "good" web sites

Not the second one, by any stretch of my imagination.
And look here:
http://tinyurl.com/ncu6w

but they are
world's apart in the interest they create and what they reveal about the
authors.

The content of Jukka's site is what creates interest. The good design
just allows it to be accessed easily. I don't think you're taking into
account what that particular site is _for_. No, it could not be used to
sell Nike running shoes. Yes, it could teach you some very interesting
things about your craft.

 

[David Segall]

Not the second one, by any stretch of my imagination.
And look here:
http://tinyurl.com/ncu6w


The content of Jukka's site is what creates interest. The good design
just allows it to be accessed easily. I don't think you're taking into
account what that particular site is _for_. No, it could not be used to
sell Nike running shoes. Yes, it could teach you some very interesting
things about your craft.

That is exactly the point I was trying to make. I am not surprised
that Roedy's site fails to verify because his eclectic style indicates
that "following the rules" is not his first concern. I have learned
interesting things about my craft from both those sites and I believe
that the technical content of Roedy's site is just as valuable as
Jukka's. I chose the two sites to contrast style, not substance.

I agree that, in one sense, I did not take into account what the OP's
site is for. I assumed that it was about some technical aspects of web
site design. My post was intended to encourage the OP to reveal a
little more of himself even if that was only reflected in his web site
design rather than his web site content.

To paraphrase your post: "I don't think you're taking into account
who that particular site is _from_".