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As you can see the new design just went live. Which means this site has been officially launched! Congratulations! Thank you for your valuable design feedback.

If you're still seeing the old favicons, please load the follow urls and do a hard browser refresh.

http://sstatic.net/dba/img/favicon.ico

http://sstatic.net/dbameta/img/favicon.ico

If you see any CSS bugs, please start a new post and tag it with "design" and "bug."

Congrats on the launch!

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    Amazingly fresh look ! Nice structure chart, ER diagram look on top !!! ( and a +1 ) Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:43
  • Jin mang, the ER diagram is slick. Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:53
  • @Jin does the font-size of the total number of questions increase with more questions? Just noticing that SO, SF and SuperUser has the # of total questions quite large (taking up some of the extra whitespace). Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 20:55
  • It doesn't normally, no.
    – jcolebrand Mod
    Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 21:33
  • Neat and futuristic look. Cheers. Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 8:56
  • Hi Jin, mind taking a look at this: meta.dba.stackexchange.com/questions/537/… ? Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 20:23

9 Answers 9

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Here is a small tweak suggestion. The grid might be more reminiscent of a table structure if each cell were wider than it were tall. Here is an example cell.

enter image description here

This may not look right when applied to the whole page, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case it does.

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  • this is a great idea. you will see the change in the next deployment(later tonight). you may have to refresh in the morning(EST)
    – Jin
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 5:39
  • Very nice. Subtle yet distinctive. Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 11:48
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I like the design - this is a suggestion for a minor tweak. The selected tab loses its 'table' look when it is selected but I think perhaps it would be better if it didn't. The 'Tags' tab below has what I think is the right look (presently it appears like that when you hover, so something slightly different may be needed for that)

example

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  • yeah, kinda like it holding the outline of the box...makes it look a little cleaner.
    – user507
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 13:35
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I missed the "before" thread.

I'd say

  • the text is small
  • a lot of white space compared to SO and others

If you compare SO, Programmers.se and SF with this, you get less information on screen.

Obligatory cheeky remark: the only thing missing is Comic Sans font

I haven't checked on my HTC Desire yet...

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    +1 on there being too much white space decreasing the content space. Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:55
  • too much white space, ok, but specifically where is there too much white space? Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 2:04
  • 2
    My vote says the whitespace is just new, and will be ok.
    – jcolebrand Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:06
  • 2
    @Jeff Atwood: If you compare SO and DBA.SE side by side you have 5 questions on SO and 4+title on DBA.SE (The /questions page). So, the top bar at least (and has smaller font too then SO). The logo/buttons are too tall
    – gbn
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 6:00
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In spite of the color, the "accepted answer" checkmark looks too similar to a down-vote arrow, IMHO. Any inclination to make that icon slightly more checkmark-y?

Otherwise it looks great. Though I agree a bit about the vertical spacing... you could take quite a few pixels off the vertical join lines and still have roughly the same aesthetic. I'm no CSS guru so I don't know what's all involved, but with a few minutes in Photoshop I was able to knock 31 pixels off the top without losing any of the intended look (at least I don't think so). The maroon charlie brown divider is just to show that I reduced the width in order for the image to fit in this post by chopping out the white space. Paraphrasing someone else, 31px is 31px. :-)

enter image description here

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  • Why do you want to lose the width? I want the site wider.
    – jcolebrand Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:04
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    I don't want to lose the width. I tried to explain that I made the graphic skinnier just so that it would fit into the post better. So, to reiterate: I think the header could be 30+ pixels shorter, and I have no desire for the site or the header to be less wide.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:11
  • ooooh. My bad. I think that the vertical height is nice.
    – jcolebrand Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:48
  • @Aaron - how about going even further than that? Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 18:08
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Like the design but the color distinction between questions that contain watched tags and non-watched tags are not visible to me... I need to look very carefully to see a slight color difference. Removing the alpha from the background makes it more readable but the color is too pink-ish for my taste. I'd like to see that in a more orange-ish tone like the "Ask Question" button.

Overall, good work!

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  • I had to use Firebug in order to determine that there is a difference with the "tagged-interesting" class. Get rid of the alpha at the very least, then please find a better color. Commented Sep 10, 2011 at 0:27
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Inspired by Aaron's answer, I wondered if we should go even further with slimming down the title section, something like this:

enter image description here

Then have the tabs hold their outlines (like SF)

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    and lose the excess whitespace too :-)
    – gbn
    Commented Aug 24, 2011 at 6:58
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+1 for @gbn comment on small text.

I would also add the color of the text is a little difficult to read the question titles with the white background, to me. IE show the question titles as a blue color and FF shows a dark yellow. Increasing the text size might help.

Overall I like the design.

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  • which text is small? I have not decreased the quuestion/answer body text from the Beta theme. It's 14px.
    – Jin
    Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:38
  • maybe it's just the different font that makes it seem smaller Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:54
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    @Jin: For one, the header is monstrous compared to the other sites. It looks nice, but you're eating some serious real-estate bringing the "tabs"/"buttons" down that far. Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 19:57
  • @Brad the new header is about 40 pixels taller than the previous one, that's only half a question list block tall on the homepage and question listing page. It may be a matter of getting used to the new design after months of using the Sketchy theme.
    – Jin
    Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 20:04
  • @Jin: I didn't say it didn't look nice, but when it comes to where the prime real-estate/viewport is, 40px is 40px. ;-) Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 20:59
  • sorry I was not able to post for some reason yesterday...the text being small could just be the way colors look to me. With a light color on a white background.
    – user507
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 13:35
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Something else I see, or not seeing, is the static bar at the top of the page is gone. The bar that showed what user you were logged in as and links to chat, faq, and your profile?

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  • Are you still seeing this? Mine is fine, though the text is quite a bit smaller: bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/dba-header.png
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 2:04
  • what? it's still there.. Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 2:04
  • @aaron I agree, the text is too small on the topbar Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 2:05
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    I for one like the smaller font on the topbar tho.
    – jcolebrand Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:05
  • I think it could be 1px larger for us old folks (even with 20/10 after Lasik I find myself squinting at that text).
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 3:12
  • Yep, still missing. I cleared my cache, cookies, reset IE settings and still notta.
    – user507
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 13:33
  • Wait...I see the bar in Firefox, but not in IE????
    – user507
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 15:06
  • @all - the text is too small at the top.
    – JonH
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 19:21
  • found for my account the bar is missing with IE7 on top of the page. If I check on FF 3.x higher and IE 9 I see it just fine.
    – user507
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 19:48
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I think the site is clean but I really despise the blue logo for this site? It just looks really odd...whats up with the gears inside of it as well?

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  • Do you prefer this? If so please vote it up (or down if you think it's worse) Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 19:31
  • @Jack Douglas - Yes I do prefer that it looks clean and simple. the current logo is overcomplicated and just plain ol ugly.
    – JonH
    Commented Aug 23, 2011 at 14:21

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