Drawar

two things...

the lines are very "distracting", though, you mentioned a possible change in color scheme, so that might help...to me, the white lines are the "distracting" element in that they are very contrast to the design.

your h2 titles, they are kind of small and dark, and overpowered by the white lines. A change of sorts to the h2 titles that makes them a bit more prominent may offset the lines contrast I mentioned

there's my two cents...and dammit...now I'm broke again...

Overall, I really do like the design ! !

Here are my to cents... Wow now you got four :D

Somehow my first thought was that is was some kind of church site... Maybe you should reconsider the white and gray lines use, or make them not so thick.

Overall the site isn't bad, it just needs a little color if you ask me.

I completely agree with Trevor - I was thinking exactly the same. The background leads your eye away from all that troublesome text and off onto better things. The titles are almost invisible too.

You've also got a funky (in the bad sense) bump going on underneath your navigation. Not sure if that's "by design" or not...

The concept isn't a bad one but you've got the contrasts all the wrong way around. Your titles and content want to be the highest-contrast elements on the page.

I would suggest swapping the background colours to the current title blue and a grey, switch the content text to ivory/white.

I'd also be tempted to put the title and date for each post in the right hand side... Just the related posts makes it look a bit pointless.

I see, you guys confirmed my own suspicion. The gray theme is in general, depressive.

Oli: Your reason for why the content should be high contrast really hit me. Thinking back, I did put more emphasis on the related posts during design and it unconsciously comes out as the highlight. I will have to reconsider if I want to put focus on the content or the different attractive titles that exists.

tervor: It has come to my attention that my monitor (Dell 2005FPW) overall is brighter than normal when I checked my site from work. So it probably explains why I don't get the same distractiion as you. Does the white line distract you from reading the content? Or is it physically uncomfortable to the eye?

Pjotter: Can you extrapolate on how it reminded you of a church site? It is important because it was the last thing on my mind when I designed it.

Thanks for all the great inputs so far. Wish me luck on the colored layout on version III

the white lines are definitely a distraction, and they do have a slight element of...and it's hard to explain, but almost like looking at one of those odd optical illusion images...does that make sense?

I agree with Oli regarding title/date and such on the left side...the related posts seem to take my attention away from the content as well

hmmm... well it's original.. have to give you credit for that, Personally I don't like the theme/layout, and can't even think of something to make it look nice, but hey thats me, try the advices trevor,pjotr and oli have said, and maybe it will become more unified and easier to read.

I've just noticed version 1 of your design,the white one, and have to say I like that one more than your current (2nd one)

hello guys,

i personally feel the site looks tooooooo serious, so i guess usage of one contrast color lets ay, a neon green hot pink will make it alive and yes ofcourse, the lines need to be little more finer!!!overall, a new layout..i must say..

Causalien, somehow the first thing that popped out was the cross of the white lines. So its not like a church theme, but the lines made a the holy cross pop out.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Peter_85/ultracrepidate.jpg

I'd also say :

- Too grey (definitely need more colors, or something more impressive)
- Imbalances with spaces (margins very large sometime, very thin elsewhere)
- Not enough contrast put on text and titles (agree with Oli)
- Navigation links seem to offer a large clickable area, although they don't
- Plain grey and white thin rectangles shouldn't be the first thing I'm looking at
- Structure should be easier to understand, the way the lines are put puts a little confusion

Good luck nevertheless!

trevorlee_nc : Yeah I agree. I thought it might just be me who's seeing the optical illusion.

Pjotter : Haha, now I see... but that is everywhere!!! Could it be the reason why it projects seriousness as well?

matehat : Thanks, these sounds very reasonable.
What I learned from this that didn't even cross my mind before:
- Imbalances with spaces

Overall, there are a few comments that echoed some of my suspicions during design time, but since I never received formal training, it didn't really get attention. This is great.

I think it's a really cool idea, but the weights of the negative space needs to be balanced with the size of the content area. I think the outer "gutters" could use less value to make the content appear brighter.

Causalien, it could be, but the color is imho is the big one :)

I'll agree with everyone else here, it's too dark. What mood do you want to set? The content of the site seems like a regular personal site. The writing is pretty upbeat. Why throw a wet blanket over it?

I'm cool with the lines actually. I think if you had a very light background color you could wash those lines out to the point where they were just visible. I think you could still get the same effect but without the distraction.

Here's what the lines say to me: a modern approach to something. If modern is what you're going for, you should use some more modern colors. Check out some palettes on colourlovers.com.

Anyway, hope that helps. Nice work.

USE SOME COLORS!

:)

darkmotion: Thanks for that suggestion. I didn't know that space balance can have effects like that. Will try it during the next design phase

dbme: The design was done about a year ago and it was never released because I was still grappling with organization and navigation. Aside from the layout, V2 is mainly focused on friendly navigation for readers. And thank you for noticing the modernism I thought I totally flopped on conveying that feeling.

taylor: I think Bauhaus design suits me better. Kandinsky is too chaotic for me. I'd say I want about 80% Bauhaus and 20% Kandinsky. I can only find architecture design pictures from Bauhaus style though. Do you have any images or links to images based on that style?

I think it's very interesting, but the lines make it really hard to concentrate on the content (for a website content > design).

If this was something like an advertisement, or a poster, it would work great, but if you expect people to read your blog the white lines completely pop over everything else and make it kind of dizzying to read. MY eyes can't figure out where exactly to go - I start to read your entry but my eyes get pulled back lines on left.

I don't know if anyone has already said this, (too lazy to read all the comments), but I would add more gradients, and use a bigger variation of colors.