Building a better Q8PD
July 2, 2009
I’m sure by now, many of you have seen the new theme for Kuwait Paper Dump. That design is the result of a long decision making process that my partner and I had to go through, but it was well worth the effort.
Just to give you an idea: we contemplated numerous functionality scenarios for of the site and tested for overall user experience. We had to decide on fundamental options like: two columns, or three? Bounded or unbounded layout? Gird or list view? Font sizes? Colors? Ad positions? I think you get the idea.
To build a useful website, content needs to load fast. Kuwait Paper Dump is full of images, therefore the theme must use as little graphics as possible to guarantee fast load times.
This was our initial wireframe. The graphics consisted of the site logo and small icons for metadata. It was fast compact theme, but there was too much whitespace. Once we added the navigational tools and included search, problems began to arise.
Entry Filed under: General. Tags: design, kuwait paper dump, layout, template, theme.
13 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Shaymaa | July 2, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Q8PD is such a brilliant idea and i want to thank you, yer team and everyone contributing. keep up the great work!
2.
3baid | July 3, 2009 at 12:29 am
Thank you :)
3.
ansam518 | July 3, 2009 at 12:32 am
I totally agree with Shayma!
4.
elieruby | July 3, 2009 at 3:05 am
Great work.
- I find small search fields extremely annoying, so good move on that one.
- The light blue faded background looks much better and easy on the eyes.
- Icons for nav, much much better than wording. The mouse-over titles match that aswell.
- The new logo looks much better. In the old one the flag is sort of blocking the first 2 letters.
The site content is great. :)
5.
3baid | July 3, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Thanks elieruby :) Glad you like those points.
6.
Aurous | July 3, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Q8PD is really an amazing creative idea..
It really shows how much work you’ve put into it and trust me, many people appreciate this great site :)
7.
3baid | July 3, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I hope they do :)
8.
Intlxpatr | July 4, 2009 at 11:03 am
So much thought goes into making your site user friendly and usable. You guys are the best, and Q8PD is a great resource.
9.
3baid | July 4, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Thank you Intlxpatr :D
10.
Marzouq | July 5, 2009 at 11:44 pm
First off my hat goes off to you guys for doing an AMAZING job with q8 paper dump and further developing it! Keeping the content updated as well as updating the look and the load time!
Great job, keep it going! Love the colors! The correct matching of all the tags, I have done a lot of testing on your site and poking it with random queries and you guys have done an amazing job! Please keep it up! :D
11.
3baid | July 6, 2009 at 12:25 pm
We appreciate all the compliments :]