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Theme Design Opinions

Which type of feel do you like best?

  • Open Feel

    Votes: 5 50.0%

  • Closed Feel

    Votes: 5 50.0%
  • Total voters
    10
R

roadlesstraveled

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
318
I'm in the process of designing a theme for my website and am stuck in the early stages. I'm having trouble deciding whether to have a more open feel or a closed in feel.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about an open feel would be engadget.com and a closed feel would be anandtech.com

The site will be for me to do reviews on the various electronics I have as well as software mods / tweak guides. It will be in the format of a blog on the front page similar to what you'll find at the above two sites.

What look do you like best?
 
Do you mean fixed vs. flexible width? If so, both of those sites are fixed width, engadget simply has a flex width header section, but the content area is fixed.

Fixed width layouts are far more popular because they give the designer a lot more control over the placement and consistency of content.
 
No, I did not mean fixed vs. flexible width. This question was more designated towards the text itself. On anandtech the text has borders around it and on engadget the text is more open.
 
i voted for closed. i personally like the definition provided by the different background color and such.
 
roadlesstraveled said:
No, I did not mean fixed vs. flexible width. This question was more designated towards the text itself. On anandtech the text has borders around it and on engadget the text is more open.
Click to expand...

ahhh.. In that case I'd have to say comparing Engadget to Anandtech, I'd vote for Anandtech, but in general though I tend to give the nod to open because I think it looks better with today's wide screen monitors.
 
It all comes down to the site having a clean, consistent design. A good design can go either way but the chances of your design being great are inversely proportional to how much you focus on the popularity of individual, quantifiable characteristics of the design.

Both Anandtech & Engadget are successful, readable sites because the designers focused on how the whole design works together. It'd be very easy for an unskilled designer, by only changing one or two things about the site, to churn out a painfully unreadable mess.
 
I believe a lot of it is about preference. As long as the site maintains easy navigability with a clean look, either way is fine.

I personally use an open design right now. Upon the standardization of CSS3 in all modern browsers (when IE gets up to date and in a few years when fewer people are on older versions of it) I will start using more of a closed look, as I believe the rounded corner closed look is very nice.

It all comes down to just keeping it clean and easy to navigate. If you can achieve that then you have a successful design ;)
 
It's really down to preference, and in the end of the day, either will look great if you put in an honest effort. As mentioned a few times, just make sure it's clean, attractive, and easy to navigate.
 
Closed being your eyes want to gravitate towards the center of the screen because the color is so dark around the edges (like a frame). Where as Open being white space for your eye to wander off or at least be open to exploring the boundaries. I personally prefer closed. I feel a piece of artwork is complete when it is properly framed, and to the opposite extent I feel uncomfortable when I feel like I can "fall off" the page or work. I think people that are afraid of heights tend to like the "safe" boundaries that the framing of Anandtech applies.

Its all personal preference I'll say. You can't please everyone. I would rather Engadget use some framing at all, than its absence of, that being my preference. You can sure try to guess what the majority of users prefer, but I'm not so sure it would be worth the research investment to find out. It's your website and your design. Grab some inspiration from what ever sources you feel, and crack away at it. In the end, its your website, your rules. If money is on the line, figure out the best you can what your viewers and readers want. Otherwise, pick your favorite color or favorite shape and start from there, or anywhere, it doesn't matter. Just be happy that its what pleases your senses :)
 
Open, though I like to scatter and scan with my eyes... others might be different
 
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