New Site look - opinions please

[Jon]

We have just changed the look of our site to improve navigation.

Check it out at www.access-programmers.co.uk

What do you think? Prefer the old? Like the new?

 

[o1110010]

I prefer the old view. Nothing especially wrong with the new view though.

I like not having that pop-up.

 

[dt01pqt]

We have just changed the look of our site to improve navigation.

Check it out at www.access-programmers.co.uk

What do you think? Prefer the old? Like the new?

I would say it is more welcoming/simplified, which is good. The best interfaces are the ones you take for granted. Those users who want to feel like they are a part of something like a club or gang might prefer a more edgy/dramatic look (I call this the pseudo-coder look). Whereas most of us who go to these sites for help / reference/ discussion want an easy to use interface.

 

[Len Boorman]

Scared the living daylights out of me to start with. Thought I was at the wrong site.

getting the act together now and being one who is heavily influenced by pretty colours and flashy graphics (huh) new site is okay. cannot remember what the old site was like now so that's a good sign (dementia getting a serious hold now)

I think it is the new people's impressions that are most important. They are visiting this site because they have a problem and they need an easy way in. Exploring comes later and there are still areas that I have not been.

Yes keep the new image but please do not let the advertising invade like creeping ivy. Flashing popups and the like would not be welcomed by me

len B

 

[o1110010]

cannot remember what the old site was like now so that's a good sign

old layout = http://web.archive.org/web/20030618011510/http://access-programmers.co.uk/

 

[Kodo]

The older one had better contained structure. The new one is just hanging out there. There's nothing "holding" it together.

 

[Jon]

Kodo,

Can you be a little more specific? I am unsure what you mean.

 

[Kodo]

Certainly,

1.Not that white is a bad background, but there's an awful lot of that. Makes the site look "open" and the content look small. So I would try to put more color contrast to bring the focus of the visitor to the content. One can usually accomplish this by making a background color that is significantly darker or significantly brighter than the area in which the context is held. Not to be limited by this though, you can also use graphics with different variations of your color scheme to "close" the site.

2. The general appearance of the site leaves me having a feeling of floating on the site. I would suggest more defining lines to give it a structured appearance and feeling. Give me a defined left and/or right side. Your previous design did this better, but not great.

3. My personal opinion is the tabs on the top either need to go or need to be defined more. The graphics are flat and pastel.

 

[Parker]

Neat, clean, simple and unclutered --------- I like it

 

[BukHix]

Kodo have you seen this thread? New look of the forum and Mozilla / FireFox. I am not sure that it applies to what you are saying but I was a bit put off by the new look until it was pointed out to me that I had the wrong theme selected. Again not sure it applies but I thought I should mention it as a possibility just in case.

 

[thunderstorm]

i like the new one, nice and simple, but without being boring imo

 

[theserginhus]

new site

Jon, I liked it. Looks simple and efficient. No popups is a great thing not to have at any site.
I am new here, but so far I like it.
Great job.

 

[Kodo]

Kodo have you seen this thread? New look of the forum and Mozilla / FireFox. I am not sure that it applies to what you are saying but I was a bit put off by the new look until it was pointed out to me that I had the wrong theme selected. Again not sure it applies but I thought I should mention it as a possibility just in case.

Yikes, little late on the reply, but...
No,that's not the case I'm afraid. Looks the same in IE, MOZ etc.. there's just no containment.