[ProjectComplete] Due Aug 10th - Software -- $ 500

[bm]

Admin code added by Abby - 4M4838021U4650342

| Company Details
|
| 1a) Name of Company

Liԛbit (Software)

| 1b)Company Tag Line or slogan:

(None.)

| 1c) Do you have a company logo?

Yes:
There is also a ZIP archive available, containing a color reference and other formats such as .psd, .ai, .eps and others. I'm not sure if these are of any use for you. Anyway, the ZIP archive may be downloaded here: (3.5 MB)

| 1d) Do you have a corporate visual identity

No.

| 1e) What is the nature of your business?: Briefly describe your products or services:

Software ("shareware", "trialware") development.

| 1f) Who is your target market? Who are you hoping to reach with your site?

Computer users maintaining their own web sites, mostly home users and semi-professionals but also freelancers, self-employed professionals, small to medium sized businesses and the occasional corporate user as well. Most of them are located in North America or Europe.


| Website Details
|
| 1b) Do you have an existing website? If so, what is the URL?

Yes and no - www.bmsev.de . It's not directly related to this project, but it's my current website, it's hand-coded and it's not as good as it should be. Anyway, I want to abandon the menu on the left hand side and replace it with a horizontal menu near the top of the page.


| 2b) IMPORTANT: Please list at least 3 URLs (web addresses) of high quality sites
| that you like the look of (these do not have to be sites who’s business is similar
| to yours. It aids us in determining what your design style is.) Please consider
| layout, colors, navigation, graphics, and typography.

(in no particular order)

http://www.jcxsoftware.com
What I like about it: The colors, the rounded corners of the white area, the very unobtrusive gray shadow at the top and the bottom. I think the color matching is very well done.
What I don't like about it: The navigation bar is a bit too inconspicuous.

http://www.fathsoft.com
What I like about it: The clean, flat style. A few rounded corners are nice, and I especially like the way the "Read more" and "Download" buttons are part of the gray boxes.
What I don't like about it: The right half of the page is too gray, not enough contrast, buttons look the same as the navigation bar.

http://www.mystikmedia.com
What I like about it: What I like the most about this site are the More/Try/Buy buttons and the way they are connected to the product information boxes, which are also nicely done.
What I don't like about it: The header, the gray background and the horizontal color gradients.

http://www.infacta.com
What I like about it: Everything except ...
What I don't like about it: ... the JavaScript menu.

http://www.passmark.com
What I like about it: Very straightforward, no distractions
What I don't like about it: Just a bit too much plain text compared to graphics. I prefer information to meaningless graphics, but a bit eye candy would not hurt either.


| 3b) What colors or color schemes would you like?

I would like to keep the template's main colors close to the colors of the logo (Blue: PMS 286C or RGB 26,54,141 / Grey: PMS 430C or RGB 153,153,153).

| 4b) List the Navigation links for your Site:

- Home Page
- Software
- Buy Now
- Forums
- Support
- Downloads
- About Us
- Contact Us

- Footer links: Home Page / Copyright / Privacy Policy / Contact / Site Map

+ There has to be a small "Search" field somewhere. I like the way it is done at http://www.jcxsoftware.com

| 5b) What type of look are you trying to achieve? (e.g. clean, high-tech,
| conservative, warm, flashy, etc.)

Clean, professional, trustworthy.

| 6b) Please provide the addresses of competitors' sites, if possible:

(See above.)

| 7b) Do you have any images for use in the design of your site? If not, do you
| have images, can you offer suggestions of what you type of imagery you feel would
| be most suitable for your website:

Just the logo (see above).



| Deadlines and Deliverables
|
| 1c) What is the deadline for the design of your project?

2006-07-31

| 2c) What is required breakdown of the files you require our designers to supply
| you with on finalization of your project?

(X)HTML, CSS and graphic files.
If there are any graphics containing text (like buttons), I need them in at least two languages (of course I'm going to let the chosen designer know about the exact captions).

| Are there any other comments/specific ideas we should keep in mind while
| designing your project?

- I need valid (X)HTML/CSS
- I want to have two or three main titles followed by a few less important items, this is done very well at http://www.passmark.com
- Must not look bad when viewed with a screen resolution as low as 800x600.
- Please, no animations, no Flash, no JavaScript gimmicks
- Should be possible to derive interior pages from the main page


Thank you,
Benjamin

[Aliska]

Hello
Idea from me. Waiting for your comments.

[bm]

Hello Aliska,

thanks for participating :)

I like the menu and the way the footer is done. I think the overall look is good but just a bit too colorful, or some of the colors are too bright - I would like to have the blue a bit darker, more like the blue in the lower half of the logo. It might be sufficient to change the background color to something like navy blue.

What I don't like is the glossy style of the buttons and the main menu (I feel it makes the overlying text harder to read, especially the captions of the smaller buttons) and the big green globe with the magnifying glass. The search box would be just fine without the green globe and the big "Search" title. After all, the search feature is just a little helper and shouldn't catch the visitors' attention as long as the visitor is not looking for it. I think http://www.passmark.com did this very well.

One more thing, I don't want to list any news on the home page, at least not in such a prominent way. I understand it's just text and I can change it to whatever I want, but I would rather use this space to focus on the software like http://www.mystikmedia.com does. Maybe something like this?
http://xs203.xs.to/xs203/06293/Clipboard04.png.xs.jpg (http://xs203.xs.to/xs203/06293/Clipboard04.png)

[Aliska]

Hello
How about the changes?

[Aliska]

Or that way?

[bm]

Yes, I like it. The center of the page looks a bit pale though, would it be possible to add a light, unobtrusive background image to two or all four boxes similar to the light blue background in the first box at http://www.infacta.com ? They wouldn't have to be all blue, maybe two in blue and two in orange or green... this would give me a great chance to play a bit with colors whenever I feel the need to, without having to change the overall look of the page.

I think a darker, possibly gray background could increase the contrast and let the colors stand out more, this is what I'm thinking of:
http://t.fl7.de/clip43195.png
or
http://t.fl7.de/clip96550.png
or
http://t.fl7.de/clip39795.png :unsure:

[Aliska]

Hello
some modifications from me :)

[bm]

Thank you, this looks really good. I'm wondering if you could change the buttons (read more/try now/buy now) slightly, I have the feeling they are a bit too simple compared to the other parts of the page... though I'm not really sure what to change, maybe something like this (http://t.fl7.de/clip3367.png) (looks awful but you get the idea), or they could be part of the glossy bar at the bottom of the box: http://t.fl7.de/clip7597.png. Anyway, this is really just a minor thing and we could probably still work it out in the Revisions forum if I choose your design. The current state is certainly sufficient to give me a good impression of what the page would look like.

[Aliska]

Hello
some more changes from me.

[LalitB]

Hello Benjamin,

Here's my entry. Looking forward to your comments.

ENTRY (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/)

Regards,
Lalit

[bm]

Aliska -- Thanks for the update! I prefer the button set in "liԛbit_changes01.jpg".

prelude785 -- Thank you for your entry. What I like the most about it is the very clean look and the limited but selective use of color.
Another nice idea is the way the inner part of the page is embedded in the background. It's a very smooth transition from the clearly visible borders at the top to no borders at all, and I feel this would be particularly useful for longer pages with a lot of text, giving the visitor's eyes more white space to rest.
I'm usually not a big fan of header images (partly because I would have to come up with a snappy tagline...) but I have to admit this one looks pretty good.
There are only two things I don't like at all; the overlapping logo and the gray rectangle just below the header image.
I am struggling to find any bigger changes I could ask you for :) but if you have any ideas I would certainly like to have a look at them.

[LalitB]

Hello,

Thanks for the feeback. Here's my revision.

Revision (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/rev1)

Regards,
Lalit

[bm]

prelude785 -- I prefer the first version's try/buy/more buttons because I think they are easier to read and match the overall look of the page better.
I would like to ask you for three changes:
1) Could you please use a bigger font for the "It is a long established fact..." paragraphs? I have something like Verdana 9 in mind
2) I think the footer is a bit too well done and I'm afraid it might catch the reader's attention too easily. I don't want to hide the footer, but I would rather hide it than risk distracting the visitor. In addition, the white part of the page, where most of the content will be, is pretty open at the bottom. Would it be possible to end the page more like it begins? - maybe similar to this: http://t.fl7.de/clip73475.png
3) There are probably too many menu items , but that's my fault - could you please remove the "Downloads" tab and use the Verdana font?

Thank you!

[LalitB]

Hello,

Thanks for the feeback. Here's my revision.

Revision 2 (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/)

Regards,
Lalit

[bm]

prelude785 -- Thank you for the update. I don't think the font in the center of the page is Verdana but Trebuchet or something similar, but the footer looks much better now.

[bm]

I would like to extend the deadline to 2006-08-10 to allow at least one more designer to participate. Thanks.

[LalitB]

Hi,

Sorry about that. Here's an updated version.

Update (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/)

Regards,
Lalit

[will]

Here is my concept :D

[bm]

will -- Thank you for your entry! I like the style of the navigation bar, the footer and the way you splitted the page into parts, but the text in the center of the page (the program description) is not easy to read, this might be because of the very small font size and the long lines. In my opinion, the overall look of the page is too dark, too grey and a bit empty.

[will]

Here are some changes. Let me know if you would prefer another direction for the design :D

http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/liqbit_idea2.png

[bm]

will,
Thanks for the update, this is definitely better than the first version. I have to admit I'm not really sure about the direction - what I like about your concept is that it is really focused on the content, but I think there is something missing, it's just a bit too plain. I had a quick look at your portfolio and saw this (http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/agua/templates/imagenbig_10.jpg) template, and while I wouldn't want to have those big images in the center of the page, I think the page looks more complete. The "Announcements" box has a nice title bar similar to the "Welcome" and "Sample" bars on the right and the small "More" buttons look similar to the "Announcements" title bar and the navigation bar.
Another very nice template is this one (http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/agua/templates/imagenbig_7.jpg). Completely different theme and certainly not where I want this project to go :) but the overall look of the page is just great, the page looks very complete. If I were a gardener, I would be very happy with this template.

[will]

I think I understand the idea you are pointing at, I'll give it another try, maybe including some generic images and customizing more the titles and buttons. :D

[will]

Let see how this one works. The main image has a watermark but I plan on buying the original if the concept it approved. :D

Note: Maybe in the screens it can be shown some screenshots of your software or the logos of the programs if they have one.

[bm]

will,
Thank you, I think this is a definite improvement. I like the colored titles and the dotted lines in the smaller rectangles in the lower part of the page, but the big image is not really what I was looking for. I tried to combine what I consider to be the best of both worlds and these are the results: http://t.fl7.de/clip783006.png and http://t.fl7.de/clip732811.png (slightly bigger buttons, moved to the right) . I think the buttons are too bold and don't match the style of the other elements very well. I would prefer flat buttons, more like those in the "Highlights" box. Another thing I don't like about the buttons is the changing text color (should be either black or white but not both).

[will]

Changes :D

[bm]

Over the last two days I had a few people looking at your entries and I found many of them made similar comments. As there are only about 48 hours left, I thought I would post a short summary of these comments here. I understand these would lead to rather small changes, so if you think these changes should be worked out in the revisions forum when (if ;)) your design is chosen, this will be perfectly OK. However, if you feel like tinkering with your design - read on :)


Aliska,

Everyone seemed to like the layout, but the colors are just too intense. I commented on the intensity of your colors earlier and you changed something, but it seems this was not enough. I would really appreciate it if you could tone the colors down to achieve a more serious look similar to this template: http://www.oxygenworks.net/templ/29b.jpg
Just to clarify; I like the way you used the colors, so there is absolutely no need to remove any colors, I just think they are too insense. If I were offering games and/or targeting a younger audience, I would probably like these intense colors.


prelude785,

General comments were: Good layout, nice colors.
The gray color gradient is too dark, it gives the page a dark look. The current gradient starts at RGB(121, 128, 134) and ends at RGB(56, 59, 68), ending it at RGB(77, 80, 89) might be enough to remove the darkness from the top of the page.

I would like to ask you a technical question - I noticed when you added the blue background at the bottom of the page, you added the blue color to this background image: http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liԛbit/bg2.jpg so the height of the white space is fixed. What happens if the page is longer than the sample page at http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liԛbit ? I would like to have the colored parts fixed to the top and the bottom of the page with the white part getting stretched to the appropriate height. Would this be possible?


will,

Thanks for the changes, it's another improvement. I tried really hard but I couldn't find any specific change to ask for (and I'm not going to ask for random changes just for the sake of it). Of course, if there is anything you would like to change, I'll be happy to look at it.

[Anne]

Here is a design form me

Anne

[Anne]

and

[Aliska]

Hello
changes from me.

[LalitB]

Hi,

You may view the design with a lighter gray top here (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/)

As for the content bg, I have created a test page for you to look over. You may view that here (http://www.eyeseedesigns.com/do/liqbit/test)

I would never want you to be restricted to a fixed height. I hope this answers your doubts. :) Let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Lalit

[bm]

Aliska, prelude785,

thank you both for your changes and, prelude785, thank you for the clarification regarding the background image.


Anne,

Thank you for your entries. I prefer the first one with the blue background. I like the flat, elegant style of the header and the tabs in particular, but I think the rest of the page looks a bit too plain. Could you please use the beautiful blue color from the navigation tabs as a fading title bar in the content boxes to add a bit more color to the center of the page? I prefer having the buttons at the bottom of the box like you did it in your second entry with the gray background, but maybe you could try another style. For example, one idea would be to connect the buttons with each other like I did here: http://t.fl7.de/clip7597.png , but to use the full width of the box. Thanks.

[will]

Here are 2 new variants :D

[bm]

I'm sorry about the delay, but the high quality of your submissions made the decision very difficult :) I would like to thank all designers for their work, their time and their dedication to this project. After careful consideration I decided to choose Aliska's design.

Aliska, there are a few details I would like you to change (mostly color and font related changes, plus the button captions I had mentioned in my first post). I will post a short but detailed list of these changes as soon as possible.

(This thread may be moved to the Revisions forum.)

[will]

Congratulations, girl :D

[Aliska]

Hello
Thanks for choosing me :)
And thanks Will.
As for the changes, any detail which you probably don't like could be changed easily. Just let me know what would you like to change.

[bm]

Aliska,

All of the following comments apply to this version: http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=63259


1. General.
a) The current width of the page appears to be 728 px, I think this would be a bit too thin. The "Must not look bad when viewed with a screen resolution as low as 800x600" requirement remains valid, but I do not want to waste any space. I do not want to force a horizontal scrollbar on 800x600 users either, but I think a width of 775 to 780 px would be fine.
b) I would like to use RGB(192, 192, 192) / HTML #C0C0C0 as the background color.


2. Fonts. Please use a clearer font and a slightly bigger font size for the navigation menu. I understand the font size might always look different on the user's system but I would like the default size to be more like the second one in this sample: http://t.fl7.de/clip117108.png (Arial 10, bold). For the text in the content boxes, please use a font similar to Verdana 9 or 10.

3. Captions. As I wrote earlier I need each button in two versions with different captions:
- Menu items (I'm not sure they are text links. If not, please use these captions: )
a) Home Page - Startseite
b) Software - Software
c) Buy Now - Bestellen
d) Forums - Forum
e) Support - Support
f) Downloads - Downloads
g) About Us - Über uns
h) Contact Us - Impressum
- Buttons
i) Read More - Mehr ...
j) Buy Now - Bestellen
l) Download - Download
- Search
m) Search - Suchen

4. Read/Try/Buy buttons:
a) I would like to have the order of the buttons changed to (from left to right) Red/Buy Now | Green/Download | Blue/Read More .
b) The font is too thin, I would like to use something similar to Arial 9, bold, with "extra smooth anti-aliasing" (this is what my graphics software calls it). In the end the buttons should look a bit more like this: http://t.fl7.de/clip291886.png

5. Colors. While I think the colors of the main menu and the Read/Try/Buy buttons are too intense (especially the blue and the green parts), the colors in http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=64281 are too dark and too gray. This is a bit difficult to explain, but instead of lowering the color saturation I would like the colors to look softer and smoother, more like http://t.fl7.de/clip300096.png (bright) or http://t.fl7.de/clip525431.png (dark).

[Aliska]

Hello
Changes from me. Waiting for your comments on them.

[bm]

Thank you, this is almost perfect. I do have a few comments though:

http://t.fl7.de/clip452758.png

1. Some elements are a bit blurry. This might be due to the JPEG compression but I wanted to point it out anyway.
2.-5. The height of the "waves" in the background should match the height of the wave on the opposite side.

- Could you please change the gradient of the "Search" button (I would like to have the bright part at the top and the dark part at the bottom).

- Please use the all captions exactly as I posted them in my previous reply. For example, please use "Buy Now" instead of "buy now" and "Mehr ..." instead of "mehr". If you feel you have to increase the width of the buttons, please do so.

- Please decrease the transparency of the Read/Buy/Try buttons; the glossy edge should still show through but not that much.

[Aliska]

Hello
Changes from me.

[bm]

Please don't forget to change the caption of the "Mehr" button to "Mehr ...". Apart from that it is perfect, please send me the files. Thank you.

[Aliska]

Hello,

Sorry, I'm out of town now. Be back on Monday and apply all requested changes. Hope that's not a problem...

Thanks for understanding...

[bm]

No problem, thanks for letting me know.

[Aliska]

Hello
Here's the changes from me.

[bm]

I'm sorry but I can't see any files attached to your message. Anyway, I think your previous changes were sufficient, all I need to be changed for the final version is the caption of the "Mehr" button (it should read "Mehr ..."). Thank you.

[Aliska]

Hello
Sorry, trying once more.

[Aliska]

If all is ok, let me know and I will proceed with coding. Do you need table-based or Div based coding?

[bm]

Perfect, thank you. I prefer table-free code, please use divs if possible.

[Aliska]

Hello
I have sent you a private message with a link to your project files. Please do not hesitate to email or message me if I can help you further.

[bm]

Files received and everything looks great. Thanks again!