Comments on: New navigation system for Freewaregenius

By: Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:53:50 +0000

The link I posted above for the eyetracking study is outdated. The new version is at http://rapidshare.com/files/245464062/Scientific_Web_Design_-_23_Actionable_Lessons_from_Eye-Tracking_Studies.iso

This is a “sanitized” (ads removed) local archive of stuff that I find helpful when doing page layouts.

By: Samer

Samer — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:34:37 +0000

@Joe.
The height of the rows is large that way in order to give the eye some breathing room (compared to the way they were before), making them more likely to be read rather than filtered out.

Your screenshot blocks out the google ad to the left of the search box, leaving what might look like wasted space to you, but what is an important element that is there for a reason.

I suppose I could move things around in order to eliminate one of those rows and reduce the height of the banner by approx 29 pixels, but that might make the left hand side way too compressed/cluttered. In any case I am happy with this result. It is always going to be a tradeoff between form and function and I think this tradeoff is good.

Thanks for all the thought you’ve put into this!

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:03:10 +0000

I came back here to find that Ian pretty much said what I wanted to say! I would tighten up the banner a bit more (you could reduce the height of each row to match the size of the font better) and to move the search bar up, just as he suggested. As you can see by the screenshot I linked to below, the banner still takes up about half the view on my 1280×768 laptop, even with my pretty slim Firefox setup.

http://img46.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freegenkp7.jpg

Ask for criticism, and you shall receive.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:00:05 +0000

Didn’t like the ‘new features’ initially (sorry), however I feel the update is good. IMHO it’d be still better cut down a few bars, taking the search function above the line and giving that space to the page. Add all your posts to the scroll window, and it would provide a useful benefit. Still a fav site

By: Samer

Samer — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:50:49 +0000

Updated it.
I hope now it has a better balance between form and function!

By: Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:38:39 +0000

I like the featured articles links, just don’t like the way they dominate the top of the page. Some articles are going to have a little more life. Your summary articles such as the recent turn-based games one and the older only-freeware rebuild one are good. IIWY, I’d strongly consider a move back to the old design with a banner and 3 columns, the left-most of which is dominant. That seems to be fairly common in a lot of places with good reason. Look at the articles I mention above about the F shape and you’ll see why. Maybe it’s cultural conditioning, maybe it just makes sense with the way Western text is organized.

By: pedro

pedro — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:28:52 +0000

I would also like to add i like better the old design, but the new functionalities are indeed interesting, and should not be trashed.

Still, the main problem, i believe, remains:

your link for the software/website featured on every article and for the author’s website is minuscule!

You always have people asking “where’s the link?” and rightly so.

Surely it is just a simple matter of changing a css element!

just my 2 cents of an euro,
pedro

By: wvluv

wvluv — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:23:34 +0000

Just wanted to give thanks for all you do. And for what it’s worth, tho some may find the site a bit busy, my personal experiences have always yielded results by simply utilizing the search bar. Also, I have come to enjoy scrolling and clicking through the site aimlessly for the fact that I usually stumble across that very useful program I may have skimmed through previously without giving it full attention (for whatever reason). Most significantly , I find myself gaining knowledge of my OS and habits with every visit. I have learned more about computing since I stumbled upon this site than in all my xp years of trial and error ( and microsoft.com).

By: Samer

Samer — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:05:43 +0000

Thanks guys for all your feedback.

I am going to get his design changed to something much much simpler and more compact, but I will retain the Ajax tabs in some form (will make sure to reduce the informational overload and give each entry a lot of space). I’m hoping for a good trade off between form and function.

The featured articles part will be gone, though.

Some notes:
@ fae: the categories are still accessible throught the “category list” tabs in the new nav.

@jae, Brian: not everyone is coming in for the latest story. Approx half my traffic comes from Google into older posts, and very few of these people read other postings besides the one Google served them. The whole point of the new navigation was to get them to look at other posts (that’s why the Nav system appears in the individual posts).

By: Hitendra

Hitendra — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:25:31 +0000

Sorry.. I meant the tabs form on the right… I think the new layout made me lose my orientation for a minute..

By: Hitendra

Hitendra — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:24:38 +0000

I don’t like it – the tabs forum on the left appear too crowded and take too much space horizontally

The headline article is not prominent and appears suppressed and the colour scheme is not attractive

Overall, I think the new design has lost that intuitive easy navigation feel which you had earlier.. strongly recommend a re-design

By: Wholly Cow

Wholly Cow — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:18:24 +0000

Sorry, thumbs down. My eyes have not yet forgiven me.

By: fae

fae — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:55:37 +0000

I really don’t like it. I enjoyed the search by topic down the side. I always find a couple of things I didn’t see before and always find what I need. I had to leave this site to find the software I needed today.
I miss the other look.
Thank you for the great site.

By: jay

jay — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:41:20 +0000

Way, way too busy. You’re trying to do too much.

I agree with the comment about ajax stuff needs to die. It’s exremely slow on every site I go to.

Nearly everyone is coming for the latest story. At the bottom of that story you might have some related posts. And of course search is needed. Beyond that, it’s way overkill, way too busy and extremtly confusing. The latest content isn’t even visible above the fold.

Focus on content, not web design

By: Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:24:11 +0000

Changed my mind. Here is a direct link to the web design article with the linked pages and all of the relevant parts of the useit and poynter web sites. http://rapidshare.com/files/116755885/Scientific_Web_Design_-_23_Actionable_Lessons_from_Eye-Tracking_Studies.zip
Another good reference is the sitepoint book, “Principles Of Beautiful Web Design”.

By: spooz2

spooz2 — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:29:35 +0000

First out of the gate, please use some other color for the letters, like black! Henry Ford was right!
He said, “you can have any color as long as its black.”

Legibility is the first order of business!

By: jsanderz

jsanderz — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:33:44 +0000

Samer,
I suddenly feel lost on your site, it is to busy for me, you could try simplifying it and putting the menus etc at the bottom of the page.
Regards.

By: Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:04:17 +0000

It’s really lousy use of space. The added functions might be nice if they are moved out of the way. Social bookmark links are too darn big. Personally, I don’t find them helpful at all. They lead to snowball status without merit. YMMV.
Take a look at this: http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/scientific-web-design-23-actionable-lessons-from-eye-tracking-studies/
I’ll send you an archive of that and some of the linked pages, sans web bugs and other crud, via your email link.
IIWM, I’d put all the stuff you have up top and the social links (as little bitty icons) in the left column just below where it says “FREEWAREGENIUS RECOMMENDS”
You might also get some ideas from CyberNet News but don’t adopt their empty space at the top of the page. SnapFiles is another example of a useful page with a stupid design. The whole first screen is filler. Look at the page with a thumbnail view (Thumbstrips or similar browser extension) to see if it’s designed well. If you can’t easily see the “meat”, the design is poor.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:04:05 +0000

I like it, but I don’t think it should be at the top of the page once you go into an individual post.

It’s fine for the homepage, but could you move it into a sidebar or something for when you go into a specific article?

By: Toni

Toni — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:47:56 +0000

I agree that the new article should be more forefront and not the headline at the bottom of the page. The tabbed thing is nice but on the whole I think there is too much information on one page. Personally I like a more minimalistic approach.
10 most recent instead of 17 would be a nice idea.
But I wouldn’t try to win space by cutting away all the blank space. It will make the page look more crowded, and it would be less easy to find stuff on the page.
Blank spaces are an important part of page design methinks.