As most of you know, I entered the built for the future – reuseit contest. I didnt do too badly as I spent 1hour on the css and used cubicgardens css as a base. But I've now recieved feedback from the judges on why I got the marks I got. At the same time I would like to say thanks to the Judges and specially Bob Sawyer. Maybe next time I'll spend more time on the design.
With that, here are the judges' comments: ==================== Too plain and bloggy (not in a good way though). Not enough contrast on the link text colour and I'm fairly sure Jakob would have expected the link text to be underlined. Sorry. ------------------------------ The simplicity of the color scheme is nice, but I found the layout lacking in organization. ------------------------------ suffers from similar problems original has -- poor separation of content. yeah, there's the left column, but within the 2 columns, it's tough to see where the different sections are. (IE5/mac os9.2) ------------------------------ One word: Yuck! Although based on my favorite color, the design of this site is immature and lacks a focus on the user, the primary message Nielsen provides those who read his work. It needs lots of work to become anything of value to a real world user. The site designer should also remember many people print Jakob's content and post it on bulletin boards, outside of office cubicles, etc. This entry does not print well. The site appears to render adequately in IE 5.1.7 for Mac OS. ------------------------------ I like your choice of steel gray--very easy on the eyes, but the links do not contrast enough. The top box is too tall and you need more leading before "news." Your focus is on "search" -- reminds me of Google. ------------------------------ An interesting take to go with light text on dark for the site, but you have a lack of support for resolutions lower than roughly 1000px or so which is a big usability no no. ------------------------------ ouch. this doesn't layout properly in mac ie5.1.7, it is just one column. dull colors, low contrast between link color and background. ------------------------------ ====================
Too early for comments at the moment. But yeah should have done a print style sheet and spent more time on design.