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In no way do I consider myself a "professional" web designer. I design based on what is aesthetically pleasing to me, and I may not follow all of the "rules". Personally I don't think there are rights and wrongs when it comes to design, beyond the obvious of making sure the information is readable. It's just a matter of personal opinion. I've been given the opportunity to review a web design blog called Stylish design. I was curious to see this person's version of the "rules", and whether he practices what he preaches.
I like the overall look and layout of the site, but there are a couple of small issues when viewing the site in Firefox. The first is that in the search box, the text is cut off at the bottom. Secondly, the blog title and subtitle overlap a bit too far, making the subtitle hard to read. In Internet Explorer, the overlap is less pronounced, but could still be reduced in my opinion.
The method of laying out recent posts in a two-column grid on the front page is... well, different. I kind of like it, but I was confused at first as to whether the entries were ordered left to right, row by row, or top to bottom, column by column. I suppose that's why most blogs stick to a simple single-column format for their entry listings.
If you browse the archives, there seem to be entries missing. For example, the oldest entry in the web design category seems to be a continuation of something. Where is the rest of it?
I read the most recent post, Top Three Web Design Basics. Ah, so here is where the writer proclaims what he deems to be right and wrong in web design. I had some major disagreements with him right off the bat.
"A great example of this is hyperlinks inside text. Always set your style to underline and change the color of hyperlinks (preferably the default blue) so that people's eyes are drawn to them inside blocks of text."
Hyperlinks do not need to be underlined to stand out as links. In fact I find it quite ugly. There is nothing wrong with simply having the underline show up when the user mouses over the link. One thing you do not want to do, however, is have the link turn bold or italic when moused over. This changes the amount of space the words occupy, causing the rest of the text to either shift or overlap. And the default blue color for links? Unless it actually fits into your color scheme, to me that has "amateur" written all over it. If you're going to take the time to design a color scheme, then your hyperlinks should be coordinated to match. You'll note that the links on Stylish design are not the default blue, nor are they underlined (except on mouseover, just as I described, and just as I do here on confoozled.com).
"High contrast pages are difficult to read"
Wrong. High contrast is easier to read. This is why Windows has high contrast color scheme options for users with low vision.
"(white text on a black background or purple and green are complete non no)"
I'm assuming he means no-no. Well.  (In case you're reading this via the RSS feed or using a screen reader, confoozled.com has white text on a black background, and the design element colors are purple and green.) White text on black is actually much less stressful on the eyes than the reverse. Yes, it can be jarring to go from reading white on black to something with a white background, but that's only because all that white is very hard on your eyes. The reason I chose purple and green begins with purple being my favorite color, and then goes to a fundamental sixth-grade art lesson: colors opposite each other on the color wheel, i.e. colors that are the complete opposite of one another, are also known as complementary colors. They look good together; they complement each other. The precise hues of purple and green that I have used here since day one are exact complementary colors.
Stylish design is off to a good start. Robert needs to emphasize more - and perhaps that starts with accepting it himself - that his opinions are just that: his opinions. Design is very much a matter of personal taste, and just because one designer thinks things should be done a certain way does not mean that's the only way to do it. And I would highly recommend that before he preaches a "rule" of design, he double checks whether it's something he does himself. The type of advice I would much prefer to see on a web design blog is not so much how things should look, but more tips and tricks on how to make things look the way you want them to look.
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