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Look and feel

reviewed by kamylienne

kamylienne
02/22/2009

Look and feel 2

I know I've been gone for a while, but I don't know if I can get used to RIA's current layout as it is right now. Maybe if I gave it a little more time, I don't know.

I think my big issue is that it's very, very cluttered. I guess that could be said of all the previous incarnations of the website's design, but this particular design feels like it's trying to cram in as much as possible in a small amount of space. There's a LOT of font and point size changes all on a single page, which makes it look a little untidy. Plus, the plethora of tiny little pictures (everyone's avatar is there for each posting, then there's those little 15x15 pixel or so images for the folks who've been most helpful today, then you've got your picture in the corner . . . . it's a bit overwhelming how many little images there are! Then again, the previous design had a lot of little pictures everywhere, but it wasn't nearly so cluttered . . . maybe it's the number of pictures along with the new layout that's not working for me?)

RateItAll's logo change looks like it's going for a more "friendly" look (actually, the Rainbow-Brite cascade of stars over the name has one has been around since the last change . . . . but what's up with the little smiley-face star on the window tab? I mean, don't get me wrong, I dig cutesy stuff and all, but damn . . . ).

I guess it'd be a little easier on the eyes if it were a little on the simpler side. I mean, it doesn't have to be quite as simple as the Google homepage (which is extremely effective), but I think it could benefit from a little bit of pruning.

Then again, I guess it's all about who the target audience is. It looks like RIA has been moving more towards a social networking site as opposed to an opinion/consumer review site, and I'm not that big on the social networking thing.

Well, RIA, whatever you choose to do, whatever direction you're going, I wish you good luck.

(PS. I just realized that, with those little bars, if most people rate things as a "3" it's going to look like a little middle finger. Might wanna rethink that one . . . LOL . . . )

Join to vote! 4 Helpful / 1 Funny / 2 Agree / 0 Disagree
Showing 13 Comments
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Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
Kamy...you trying to say that you can no longer appreciate how handomse I am?

kamylienne commented 284 days ago.
. . . dude, with the size of the picture, I wouldn't even be able to SEE you, anyway! ( . . . I guess size DOES matter . . . . LOL)

Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
Haha...how did I know that was coming?

kamylienne commented 284 days ago.
. . . . there's a "that's what she said" joke in there somewhere . . . . :)

magellan commented 284 days ago.
Thanks for the feedback Kamylienne. There are still a few things that we're missing from v2 like widgets and hottest lists, as well as a few annoying things like paging from the home feed. And I also think we should give the ability to blow up the user profile image.

But I don't agree with you on clutter. V3 has been drastically stripped down from V2 - if you remember the home page of V2, it was literally hundreds of links. Now it's just reviews. Is there a particular page that you find more cluttered? A lot of pruning took place (hence the complaints on missing features), but this is the first I've heard about more clutter.

Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
The "My Feed" feature is a definite improvement.

kamylienne commented 284 days ago.
Vic: Yeah, I'll agree: the myfeed thing is probably a good thing; at least for right now, when I switched over to the "everyone" tab, I can see that I'm not missing anything. Is the "myfeed" thing just for people in your trusted list or something? I guess I'll look into what the deal is with that.

Magellan: Hi! Yeah, I can't really put my finger on it. It seems cluttered to me, but if content has been decreased, then maybe is it the layout that's making it appear cluttered to me? Maybe spacing? Maybe the pics being as small as they are, they're kinda too small to make out so that it might not be worth having there? But then, I'm not sure if the solution would be to increase the size of the pictures, thus taking up more space, or to get rid of them at all, which would could make the page kinda bland? I'm going to have to chew on it for a bit to really figure it out. Or, maybe I'm kinda hard to please : ).

Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
Kamy...Magellan hates me because he is always wrong and I am always right. (did that show up on your feed?)

magellan commented 284 days ago.
Kamy, here's the full explanation of the feed:

http://rateitall.blogspot.com/2009/01/todays-lesson-configuring-your-feed.html

magellan commented 284 days ago.
Victor, now that you like the feed, I'm starting to have mixed feelings about it. Just kiddiing! It's pouring rain out here in SF so I will probably be lurking around here all day if anyone has questions / feedback.

Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
Magellan...that rain out there is probably the leftovers from the Bush-Cheney weather machine.

kamylienne commented 284 days ago.
Vic: ::swat:: Bad Vic. Be nice! Oh, and about the weather machine: It's busted. But it's okay, the company that runs it will get some bailout money to fix it. :)

Mag: Thanks for the link; I'll browse through it when I get back! :)

Victor83 commented 284 days ago.
LOL kamy...sorry.
Showing 13 Comments
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