UI Improvement - Retouching Retouch Pro

[mooie]

I'm relatively new to RP. From the short time that I've been here I've learned so much about retouching I am eternally thankful to those that have shared their knowledge. I would like to give something back.

I am a User Interface designer turned photog. As a UI designer I think the usability of the RP forums could do with a bit of retouching themselves. By changing 2 simple interface details, the RP forums can drastically improve its usability.

Referring to the attachment:
1. The area labeled as sect.1 is white while sect.2 is gray. As with photography, the eye is automatically draw to lighter areas vs darker areas. It’s more logical from a UI standpoint to have the comment area in white and the author's area in gray. Since the comment area is the more important of the 2, it should be brighter in color.

2. The area labeled as sect.3 is the left margin or gutter for the post. As with photographs, negative space is just as important as positive space. There needs to be some padding or negative space around the text area so the eye has something to anchor itself to while it scans long amounts of scrolling information.

Click the below link to see an example of the above 2 adjustments applied. (click on the image to toggle the before and after state):
http://markdarren.com/client/retouchpro/After.html

By implementing these 2 simple fixes, users will be able to quickly and more effectively access information from the RP forums.

Mark

[Kraellin]

i tend to agree with this, but i wouldnt make #3 that dark. i'd make it a dark gray or dark blue. the reason is that some of us are using 16:9 aspect ratios with high resolution monitors and that puts a lot of black space already outside the forum area.

[mooie]

I agree with you Craig. I myself use a 30" dell with a screen res of 2500x1600.

I could list a dozen UI fixes that would increase usability but I think that would just overwhelm the site admins, heh. Padding and inversing focus colors are 2 really simple things that can be achieve with 3 lines of css code.

[Kraellin]

well, post any suggestions you wish here. that's what it's here for. i doubt you'll overwhelm doug. you may confuse him, but i doubt you'll overwhelm him

[Doug Nelson]

Thanks for the input.

[_jason_]

I also think, this site urgently needs an artistic redesign.
Even the header banner is ugly as hell.