centered or not?

centered, but lighten up that shade of blue...

Yes, I definitely like the centered one better. That darker background gives the impression that there's more "meat" to the design. Not sure about whether or not that colour should be lighter... try it and see I guess.

I know you didn't ask for opinions on other aspects of the design but I just wanted to point something out. Notice how all the header, title, and navigation text is done in the same font, same colour and similar sizes. There is no type contrast there and it makes it difficult for the eye to prioritize the information. In design it's a good idea to give the viewer a visual impression of the hierarchy of importance. The site title/logo is most important, so it should be bigger or in a contrasting colour in order to distnguish it from page headers etc... Size differences should be big enough to really show some contrast. I should write that typography article I was talking about and explain this more...

Definitely centered and I agree with what Megan said about differentiating between the font sizes and colours, can you not make the title more of a logo type thingy?

Megan,

Of course I asked for overall feedback!

Your point is well taken. Let me play a bit

on NEtscape the naviagation is misaligned, the "about peter", "selected writings" and "photo gallery" are out from the rest of the links, they start inline with the "a" from biography, is different between ie and netscape so thought i'd point it out. (netscapes version looks better)

The centered one looks great in ie, but in netscape it needs work, the dark color (looks like purple) is also between your table cells the cause is the cellspacing of 20, the easiest way (less work) would be to add a couple of cells (dont forgot to include the   in the empty cells) to take up the slack and use no cellspacing, or another way is to make it with 3 or 4 nested tables instead of two

Quote: Originally posted by Busy
on NEtscape the naviagation is misaligned, the "about peter", "selected writings" and "photo gallery" are out from the rest of the links, they start inline with the "a" from biography, is different between ie and netscape so thought i'd point it out. (netscapes version looks better)

Intentional indents (subcategory) but I can see how that might be unclear. I'm reworking the nav

Quote: Originally posted by Busy
...the dark color (looks like purple)...

purple? purple?!? grr. I could have sworn I had web safe clicked. The background SHOULD be the same blue as the lettering

I never DID get around to testing the centered one in Netscape before I threw it up - thanks

I liked the second one a lot better with the dark blue. I like that blue, it looks professional.

Another idea to throw out. I agree with Megan on prioritizing the title. Maybe even try making it a different color.

~Chris

#2 is good

But like said above, you need to seperate the logo from the rest of the page to make it stand out from the links you have there.

Quote: Intentional indents (subcategory) but I can see how that might be unclear. I'm reworking the nav

had a feeling it may be but it didnt work in IE and figured it hadnt been checked in Netscape so ...

Quote: purple? purple?!? grr. I could have sworn I had web safe clicked. The background SHOULD be the same blue as the lettering

My mistake, a closer look proved I was wrong, it is dark blue. I think it was the coloring of the word biography made me pick purple of all colors, sorry
my screen views better at night than during the day, the suns not on it but colors do appear different, clearer, more defined by night. (cheapo moniter)

Busy? what version of IE?

taff, glad it ain't purple!

I bumped up the font differentials but didn't really alter the face with the exception of dropping the nav to straight arial and italicizing the logo font. It ain't flashy but either is the subject matter.

I'm a little reluctant to change things too drastically. The client is more than happy with the original layout. Most of this "futzing" is for my own benefit

I haven't made the navigation collapsible yet (starting to wonder whether to bother) so you'll encounter some redundancies. Should also work in Netscape.

http://www.sitesunseen.com/clients/cicchino/concept2/index.html

Looks much better. The only thing I could suggest is maybe to lighten up the font on the drop downs... also check your line spacing in there, it looks a little off to me in places.

I have IE5
This version looks heaps better, the slight indent is the same now in Ie5, Netscape4.7 and Netscape6

and the background is still blue

I looked at your site in IE 5.5, NS 6.1, and ns 4.76 @ 1280X1024.

I have to agree the centered design is much more professional looking in IE5.5, however in both netscapes there was considerable spacing between the head navigation and text areas where the blue background showed through. this really takes away from the clean look. as far as the blue goes I think a darker business blue might look better.

Another sugestion might be to use a simple small gif tiled as the background in the blue area, I often use a 4 or 6 pixel high gif with the top pixel slightly lighter and the bottom pixel slightly darker to give the page some texture.

Quote: Originally posted by bubba
I have to agree the centered design is much more professional looking in IE5.5, however in both netscapes there was considerable spacing between the head navigation and text areas where the blue background showed through.

Bubba, where you looking at this one?
http://www.sitesunseen.com/clients/cicchino/concept2/index.html

hello,

No, I was looking at the urls in your original post:
http://www.sitesunseen.com/clients/cicchino/bio.html

http://www.sitesunseen.com/clients/cicchino/bio2.html

I rechecked the new url in the same browsers and the spacing problem was not there,I still have to go with a centered presentation, but the flat blue does seem to command to much attention.

If you can I'd appreciate a look at the site review request I listed today. thanks.

I think it looks really clean and crisp. I guess I missed out on all the misalignments and stuff. The only thing I keep thinking is that the flag needs to darker. I like the effect you are using here but it looks a little too faded. If the client likes it though....don't mess with it.
Oh, do I see a faint cross in the blue field of the flag or is that just my imagination?
Nice job taff. Oh, and I like the blue background around the edges.

Quote: Originally posted by disaster-master
I like the effect you are using here but it looks a little too faded. If the client likes it though....don't mess with it.

uh oh. my American wife had the same complaint! Too bad to both of ya - the client DOES like it

HAHAHAHA!!! Guess it's that USA pride coming out huh?