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This is a web page

justinjackson.ca

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Re: This is a web page

#81

Post by tehwalrus »

chas wrote: post #75
jaykru wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your site looks great. I especially like your logo.

The logo is nice, but the aliased angled lines really kill it for me. I think a vector (or better anti-aliased) logo would really make a positive difference in the feel of the site.

it looks as if the colour is just a background-color attribute in CSS, which changes on mouseover. If so, it should be white->transparent anti-aliased in the RK image, which is looks like it's trying to be.

Vector, e.g. drawn with Canvas, would be better (e.g. with a fallback to a single colour png.)

Re: This is a web page

#82

Post by laureny »

> At it's heart, web design should be about words.

If you're going to praise the power of words, you might want to start with spelling them correctly.

Re: This is a web page

#83

Post by jorts »

rkuykendall-com wrote: post #59

This was a bit of an obsession of mine ever since I saw Coding Horror a few years ago. I had seen a lot of extremely minimalist designs, but they were all doing things to accomplish that minimalism. As a developer though, you have a nagging feeling in the back of your brain saying "that's a lie, it's not simple, it's very complicated, it just looks simple." Coding Horror is complex, but it was plain enough for me to…

FYI - You didn't spell starting correctly in the sentence about your graduate studies.

Re: This is a web page

#85

Post by rkuykendall-com »

jorts wrote: post #83
rkuykendall-com wrote: post #59

This was a bit of an obsession of mine ever since I saw Coding Horror a few years ago. I had seen a lot of extremely minimalist designs, but they were all doing things to accomplish that minimalism. As a developer though, you have a nagging feeling in the back of your brain saying "that's a lie, it's not simple, it's very complicated, it just looks simple." Coding Horror is complex, but it was plain enough for me to…

FYI - You didn't spell starting correctly in the sentence about your graduate studies.

That's what I get for trying to make a quick edit after my acceptance. Thanks.

Re: This is a web page

#86

Post by muppetman »

mijustin wrote: post #64
muppetman wrote: post #60

Sure, that page is just text. But I found it via hackernews. If hackernews looked like that, I wouldn't visit it every day.

Don't you think Hacker News does look like that? A lot of people (below) have commented that they like HN because it is just text and links on a page.

Absolutely, it's one of the things I love about HN, it's simple.

But the fact it appears simple doesn't mean no design's gone into it. It's still visually appealing.

I suspect if HN was just that, regardless of its content, it'd have a lot less traffic.

Re: This is a web page

#87

Post by Tloewald »

anigbrowl wrote: post #70
devilshaircut wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it not self-obvious that if every page attempting to serve up content similar to that in the OP (pictureless editorial), the web would be bleak and characterless? Not debating the effectiveness of that kind of design, but rather pointing out the obviousness that this sort of anti-"always, ever" statement is easily validated.

Most of the web is awash in ugly junk. Whenever I go to a machine that doesn't have adblock, Ghostery etc., I am increasingly horrified. It's like a highway with so many billboards that you can't see the direction signs, never mind enjoy the view. That or some sort of infinite supermarket magazine rack. I HATE the way web design has evolved. I want to make the design choices at my end, not have them imposed on me or…

"Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams."

Re: This is a web page

#88

Post by weixiyen »

adventured wrote: post #76
weixiyen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

change "words" to "content".

I don't think so. That isn't what the person said. Their entire post was built around stripping down web design to the words. In fact, the author was very precise in the usage of the term "words." This for example: "But the most powerful tool on the web is still words." That blatantly is not the case in my opinion. Photos are vastly more powerful than words on today's web. That's why 3/4 of all the posts on Reddit's…

He was taking a stab at visual design / aesthetics being prioritized over content when building a product.

Words are used simply here to better communicate his point.

Nowhere did he say that words are more important than photos or video.

You say "No" to him, but yet you know he would not disagree with what you have said regarding photos and video. I find the whole response to his original post borderline strawman.

Re: This is a web page

#89

Post by conanbatt »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #34

First time [1] my in-laws saw "the web" they were trying to find information about vacation spots in Brazil but their travel guide was obsolete, I found a web page a student had written up about where the best places to stay and see were in Brazil. I could almost see the dots connect when they realized that someone they didn't know, in Brazil , had written up a piece of information at some point that they were now se…

Just like your Pachinko reference

Re: This is a web page

#90

Post by roc »

ignostic wrote: post #37

Sure, simple text is fine for a blog. But if I'm selling something like a piece of art it's all about the images: large, high-quality images from multiple angles. Pinterest wouldn't be called minimalist, but it does a damn fine job of accomplishing its goals. Design should help accomplish business (or personal) goals. We run into trouble when we adopt some sort of "minimalism, always, ever, for everything" dogma.

Just s/words/content, if you like.

If your content is pictures, the same philosophy applies: ditch any ornamentation that gets in the way, just post your damn pictures. If you're selling the pictures? Get the pictures out there and get the "buy" controls out there.

It's still minimalism, and all it's saying is: "if your goal is to show pictures, that fancy layout that pushes all your content into a slick grid of thumbnails, just so people can see some slick fly-out animation when they're clicked upon, is probably just wasting everyone's time."

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