Please critique design & help with validation issue

[mynameisraj]

I recently followed the wpdesigner wordpress tutorial and created my own theme (my second one). I tried to follow a very minimalist design (inspired by Daring Fireball) and keep mellow, grey colors with a vivid blue. Please give constructive criticism and positive aspects of my blog (do not mind the content, it's not that important). I would love people to critique the design in general - color scheme, layout, sizing, etc.

http://www.mynameisraj.com

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. I really appreciate it - you have no idea. I'm new to MacRumors (forums) and I absolutely love this community

 

[kfordham281]

I'm no design expert so that these comment with a grain of salt.

The gray bar that is with Pages, Meta, Blogroll, etc in the sidebar looks odd. I can't place why I feel this way, it just does for some reason. That's all I have right now.

Congrats on designing your own Wordpress theme!!!

 

[Me1000]

the label tag (<label>) is an inline element, where as the h2 tag (<h2>) is a block element.

You shouldn't place block elements inside of inline elements.

<h2><label for="s">Search: </label></h2>

Will fix it...


While you are at it, your code validates XTHML 1.0 Strict, you might as well use strict instead of transitional.

 

[mynameisraj]

the label tag (<label>) is an inline element, where as the h2 tag (<h2>) is a block element.

You shouldn't place block elements inside of inline elements.

<h2><label for="s">Search: </label></h2>

Will fix it...


While you are at it, your code validates XTHML 1.0 Strict, you might as well use strict instead of transitional.

Thanks for your help. I did both those things.

Much appreciated

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

The gray bar that is with Pages, Meta, Blogroll, etc in the sidebar looks odd. I can't place why I feel this way, it just does for some reason. That's all I have right now.

I don't see that, I think the right side content area is well done, actually. Maybe we're seeing two different things - I am using FF 3.0.4 on a Mac.

@OP:

Aside from the technical stuff which has been well addressed, I applaud the minimalistic theme and think it looks great. There are only three changes I might consider:

First, move the register/login and search to the TOP right - where the user will look first, and not have to scroll down to view. I consider those essential elements which justifies the move.

Next, include the RSS subscribe link on the home page somewhere prominent or you might add that into your head section of your HTML. This is because most browsers these days look for that and allow users to subscribe by clicking on the RSS icon in the address bar of their browser.

Finally, reduce the number of items in half before it paginates the content area on the left. No need to scroll down that far and will help balance the two wells you've created.

But aside from that, nice looking colors, very no frills which was your intent and gets the job done nicely.

-jim

 

[angelwatt]

1. I'd lighten the background color or brighten the text color to increase the contrast.
2. I would also increase the font size. The small font and low contrast make the site very hard to read. Remember some people are using 13" Macbooks.
3. You don't seem to have any dates next to the posts. I always like knowing when posts were written.
4. You might want to increase the space between posts, they sit kind of close.

 

[mynameisraj]

Thanks

Thanks everybody!

I've increased the contrast, included the RSS feed, increased spacing between posts, added the date in articles, and halved the number of articles shown.

I don't think I need to increase the font size as MacRumors uses a small font size and people are still able to read it. With an increased contrast it will be much easier to read.

I appreciate everybody's input.