It's HORRRRR - IBLE ! ! !

[mikeycorn]

Okay, I tried it from scratch and it sucks a$$! Think of your very first website and I think I out uglied it by about a factor of ten. The damn thing looks like a big grey foot.

The horror:

http://mm.vellosoft.com

So I ask you, kind WDF where next? Could the blue / grey color scheme work with a better layout? Is it just the ugly tabs or is there more to it? And yes I know I received a few suggestions to go with text hyperlinks instead of the tabs, I'm not being hard headed, but I have seen some cool sites with tabs before. What am I missing that they have? (Artistic merit I heard some one say? Well, what I might lack for in that I'll try to make up for with brute force and determination.)

Well, maybe you can give me a link to a site with tabs that does it well. I'd like to not completely overhaul, maybe just a few helpful suggestive tweaks.

[TheGAME1264]

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

I was always partial to this style, and maybe if you rounded off the edges that would "tabilize" it.

[mikeycorn]

That's pretty cool, it's kinda weird that the first row of tabs don't even have lines that connect, it almost looks like text art, I'm guessing what we're looking at is web design with the PDA in mind.

That would be a different direction to take, another row for the tabs underneath the logo instead of what I was trying to do with a big tab and then the little tabs all in a row.

Hmmm . . . Good link, a little too stoic for what I'm trying to do, but a good link nonetheless.

[Brak]

Erhm... it's not bad at all Just kind of bleh. Make the tabs more "tablike" (Heh.. that's a load of help ) and try some differnt colored text and liven it up somehow (sorry can't be more descriptive, but graphics ain't exactly my strong point )

[splufdaddy]

I would agree that the tabs need a more natural look, but I also think that changing the gray bg to white would be a good improvement. The blue text isn't the easiest to read, but black text wouldn't be that much better on the gray bg. Black text on a white bg would be much easier to read. Formatting the text and putting it into some columns with slim outlines could be cool too.

[smoseley]

LOL. It's not as bad as you make it out to be. Just fine tune it. Add to it. Enhance it

[GrandmasterB]

LOL...I almost lost it with the "big gray foot" comment.

Actually you've got a good start. In my opinion it's just a little too bland. You've got a great piece to center your site around. I'd try to incorporate the "miniminder" window into the design. Adding some depth would greatly improve your design. Keep going...you'll get it.

[mikeycorn]

Okay, I had to put it down for a couple days so I could come back to it fresh and I ditched some of the ideas I had been clinging on to.

Basically, what I then ended up doing is to try just about everything suggested here in this thread, and guess what? It looks a whole heck of a lot better:

http://mm.vellosoft.com

1. The big grey foot just had to go!

2. The toes, er tabs, have now been replaced with text hyperlinks.

3. Grey background now changed to white.

4. Great suggestion - I incorporated one piece of the MiniMinder program into the site design itself, the background of the skin was put into the gradient on the logo up top. I'm also trying to think of other bits that could be taken from the program screenshot and incorporated into the page as well.

Well, I think I've graduated from HORRRR - IBLE to at least halfway decent. The suggestions came in real handy, and of course, any new feedback on the revamped design will be greatly appreciated, also.

[GrandmasterB]

Wow!!! I'd say you've improved the overall design at least 75%. I was pleasantly surprised by the way you used the horizontal lines in the header...nicely done. I was actually thinking that you should take the button from the program and use it in your navigation, and do rollovers to one of the colors on the upper right. I know it's a standard os x ripoff, but why not? It worked for Apple. Can't wait to see more...

[splufdaddy]

Definately an improvement. The top right looks a little weird, because it has a hard edge, where on the left side the banner blends in. As for the design, I think the only thing I dont like about it is that everything is centered. It's not a major issue, just not something I'm used to I guess.