Camen Design Forum
I've been working on this design on and off the past year; I'd really like to hear what people think.
The site's for a design group that produces freeware aircraft for Flight Simulator.
I've meant for it to be minimalist, but elegant, with good contrast and typography.
http://www.pairbus.com/
http://www.pairbus.com/downloads
Cheers
I think it's a bit too minimal. Looking at the front page I have no idea what the site is for.
I'm not sure what to do with the front page yet, but I've added some flair (I think) to the download pages.
Cheers
my first thought: "spacing!!!" on the main page, you need spacing between the links (do it via CSS). same on the download page: paragraphs, links, individual lines (use "line-height"). they'd all be easier to read if they had some free space around them. it would make headers stand out more, too.
and yes, at least a tagline would help a lot. even just "freeware aircraft for Flight Simulator" in big letters would be good.. but put it in a H1 tag, you know, for search engines and stuff ;)
well, those are my 2 cents, hope that helped. personally, I would also make the page centered and fluid, but that's a matter of personal taste I guess, no "biggie". but the spacing, that is a biggie! (to me :P)
I like the lightness of the site, there is no clutter. It's a breeze to go through the site :)
The spacing can be an issue, especially if you compare your header with the paragraphs and the list of downloads, it seems to be compressed into a block.
Is there really too little spacing?
Here's what it looks like here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18934189/Screen%20Shot%202011-08-27%20at%2013.30.27.png
Might be 'cos I've used rem units with no fallback. What browser are you using?
Cheers
This is how it looks in Opera 12: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12463176/Skjermbilde.PNG
I'm using firefox, the spacing is just like your screenshot, I find it a bit crammed with the list of downloads, but that's just me.
Opera users does seems to have problems with the spacing.
I've fixed the spacing for Opera, and increased the line height for the lists and paragraphs.
Cheers
Oops! Yeah I'm using Opera, didn't even check other browsers sorry :)
What do people think about the serif headings? Other places I've asked for feedback I've been told they don't fit with the rest of the design.
Cheers
well tastes differ, I kinda like them. (but of course, with a billion fonts to choose from, there might always be a better one ^^)
I took a look at your code, and I wonder why you don't use the close tags on the <p> element, the <body> element and the <li> element on the download page.
Except for the last list at the downloadpage, where the closing tag for the </li> suddenly appears.
Isn't using the closing tags considered best practice now? And for the future html versions required?
Closing tags has always been (for the most part) optional since HTML2. XHTML mandated closing tags every time. HTL5 can do either.
The increased spacing is nice. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of differentiation with the FS9/FSX headings for their respective columns. There’s also a lack of information, I feel, to each of the downloads; no images, no descriptions, nothing.
I've pretty much redesigned the whole thing:
The biggest issue I've been facing is: white text on a black background on OS X looks awful. I've been able to force the 'CRT setting' with '-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased' in WebKit, and Opera's got its own sub-pixel algorithm, but there's nothing I can do about Firefox—by the look of it.
Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think.
It’s bold and stark and looks very nice.
A suggestion would be:
The phrase:
“Project Airbus is a group that produces freeware add-on aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator.”
Should appear on the home page somehow. Perhaps somewhere bottom right; you could use some CSS3 animation to fade it in or some effect to keep it interesting but subtle. Having that message on the home page would greatly help with "what does this site do" questions.
You’re already a competant designer, so you're just fretting over details. Make sure it serves its purpose, it’s being used and so forth -- be practical. :)
Thanks. Yeah, you're right. I just felt it'd be out of place—sort of 'hanging in the void.' I'll see what I can come up with.
Cheers
Hi Kroc,
I just wanted to let you know that the site now runs on DOMTemplate. I love it.
Wow, I didn’t think anybody would use DOMTemplate, I’m glad to hear. I hope it wasn’t a pain to implement!
Nah, it was quite simple. Unfortunately, though, the downloads page takes a bit long to generate (about 500ms).
Interesting. The `repeat` method must be very slow (attaching nodes all the time). It could be faster by doing it on a shadow DOM, but I’ll have to experiment.
Let me know if you'd like to see the code or a trace log.
Kroc added on
That might help, especially a trace log. I’ve not done any performance testing with NNF because it appeared to work fine as far as NNF is concerned. If you want to help me track down the performance problem, then please get in touch via kroc@camendesign.com or let me know an alternative method you’d prefer.
Duh, appended my comment to yours instead of doing a reply! Brain not working there at all.
Your friendly neighbourhood moderators: Kroc, Impressed, theraje, Martijn
