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inspiredMark — Amateur DJ Streaming Website
Published: 2009-11-03 09:12:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 11770; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 3461
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Description
I was approached to design and build a website for amateur DJ's to have somewhere to stream their sessions and have an archive for previously played sets.The style of music ranges from blues to rock, jazz to dance music. So with this in mind I couldn't theme it on any particular genre.
The design had to be clutter free and so I had to build upon the smaller details to make the design of some interest.
Stock: the footer speaker but with various tweaks
Many thanks for any critique.
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Comments: 20
I think there's too much open space and the layout seems to have no sense of direction. This is in part because of the footer, but also the content area which is seperated into three bits. A key ingredient in design is keeping related parts together. As such I would say that the player and the playlist should be together.
The header and the menu is far too dominating in the design. While a distinct header is important this is overdoing it. You've accented the section headers in the content area, why not do the same with the logo and put the menu as itself to the right of it and combine the logo with the catchphrase. In any case, the menu itself is not aligned with the content and it's far too big for the content. Rarely does a horisontal menu need to span across the content if there's less than 10 menu points.
Content wise, I think you've underestimated how much content a site should be able to hold. The main content pane - the one with the lorem ipsum - should indicated to your client that it's capable of holding plenty of content, which in turn should range from anything between blog posts, major news and a gallery. That is, if you don't have a layout envisioned for a gallery in itself.
The footer has been mentioned in the other comments so I won't point that out anymore than I think that the speaker in general is completely misplaced.
I think that you're onto something really cool regardless of all the negative things I've said. I think you WERE doing great with the music player, until you decided to go halfassed on it and just paste a screenie of iTunes in. The dials and the metal grate behind it are awesome and you should complete that and combine it with the playlist.
Large content areas are good, they're your best friend. They give you room to play with the content. Seperate content into several and you better have a good overall gameplay.
All capitalized text is bad, bad, baaaad. For web, you should use a web safe typeface - google it and you'll be good.
That said, I think the design itself is good but maybe a bit better suited for a tech / underground / construction buisness rather than some music site.
Vision: I think you headed in the wrong direction. This design doesn't scream "music" to me.
Originality: There's no such thing as 100% originality. So while it's seen before, your design is yours and that's good. I can't recognize any elements.
Technique: Nice play with textures, but broken lines are a bad thing. Alignment is of critical importance.
Impact: It didn't blow me away, but it did attract my attention.
(PS: I think you could learn something from Last.fm - originality is part plagarism as inspiration )
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"Content wise, I think you've underestimated how much content a site should be able to hold"
The only content to go into the site is a player, 1 sentence of text and a playlist. Seriously that's it. Trying to organise lack of content into a Last.fm layout isn't going to work. I struggled in all honesty and over compensated with over bearing elements.
"I think you WERE doing great with the music player, until you decided to go halfassed on it and just paste a screenie of iTunes in."
Agree 100%. In my defense I wasn't paid to skin an iTunes player. I've given the client the ability to paste in their own code as requested.
"All capitalized text is bad, bad, baaaad."
Agree 100%. Again in my defense only one line of text will actually be in that area. But still I agree.
I found it tough to put a design together with so little content. I guess that is why the header and other elements took more space that I would normally give.
Really appreciate the time you took to critique.
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I would move the "Now Playing" and "Up Next" and incorporate them into the header just to save on space. Then you will have more content space. As far as the color scheme I think it's great.
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Thank you 
Cheers!
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you have done a great job
really nice
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Naw, this is chill dude. just needs a footer. I do like how there is room for advertisement and banners. because if it is going to be as you say it is , those things will have to be on there. But all in all, i love this look, i have a grungy design myself that may lend some inspiration
here: [link]
cheers
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Backgroun not bad but that yellow/brown doesn't look good...maybe you can repace it by another colour ?!
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Hmm the colors are a good choice for these kinds of music i think.
Finally there are some things I dislike a bit.
The first thing is that the background is generally ok but these brushes on it let me watch away lol
Second: I know its a trend (or was) to mirror some objects. But on a "grunge" style page a mirrored soundbox looks a bit strange.
The last thing, the musicplayer. Is it an itunes plugin or something like that or can you change the style of it?
Keep it up 
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Thanks so much for comments. Yeah that player area is for the client to paste in whatever player he chooses.
Cheers!
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The one thing that I would for sure change is the font in the body text - IMHO using caps for long bits of text is a definite no no.
Another thing that is bugging me is the "blog" button it seemes that the text isn't aligned properly (the same thing goes for "forum").
The last thing that I would work on is the yellow color. I think you could make it a bit more saturated but I guess that's a matter of personal taste.
Cheers and no harsh feelings ;]
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I found the article that I had in mind when I was writing about the all caps in the body text - [link]
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Hey man thanks for taking the time to post that article. I will read for sure.
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Hey thanks for commenting. I appreciate it.
Harsh feelings? F*&k you. lol
Of course not.
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