Design for Database Administrators

Question

I'm Jin, and I'll be working on the designs for the Stack Exchange sites as they graduate from the beta phase. Each site will have its own unique theme that will reflect its topic. However, all sites will share common elements so they feel like they're part of the Stack Exchange family.

First, thank you for starting the design discussion early. The answers in that post helped me a great deal. I agree with most of them, especially Leigh's suggestions:

• The theme shouldn't be garish.
• The theme shouldn't distract from content.
• The theme should fit in with other SE sites.
• The theme's widgets not be too strange and should be easy to understand for new users.

Other concepts that might fit the site design:

• A grid reminiscent of a table storing data.
• ER diagrams.
• Venn diagrams.

During my research for this site's design, I talked to several DBAs and programmers, as well as looking at many screenshots of DB related software UIs. I decided the design should be very clean but with enough visual elements to give the site its own unique branding and personality.

_{(click image below for full resolution version)}

To convey the "DBA" theme visually, I believe a cylinder logo, badge key and chart symbol motifs work well since they're universally recognizable. This is not a graphical heavy design, but I don't think it needs to be. The simple and elegant look suits this site.

I'd love to hear your feedback. If there are no major design changes, I'd like to launch this site early next week. So an early grats from me!

Answer 1

While I really like the idea of getting out of beta as soon as possible, and I feel a bit guilty since my comments factored so prominently into the design, I wonder if some improvements could be made.

There are things that I like about the design. The key logos, the relational tab lines, and the grid background all work well for the design. Here are some hopefully constructive comments.

• The big three sites (stackoverflow.com, serverfault.com, and superuser.com) all have a very cohesive color scheme that tie into a color on the site logo. The logo in this design does tie into the text color of the tabs, but if this is to be the theme color for the site I wonder if it (or shades of it) should be used in more places like the question text, user names, ask question button, tags, etc. Some things may need to be different colors and certain elements require differences such as the green answers and the key colors.

• The logo is unmistakably a database logo, but if you were to take the logo outside the context of this site, it isn’t distinctive enough to be a site brand. Someone who sees this on a tee-shirt, bumper sticker, etc. would recognize it as a database and nothing more. Perhaps the cylinders should be opened up to show some gears inside. That may be too complex. I’m not sure what it should be I just know the big three sites and many others do this well and a more distinctive logo would do wonders for site recognition.

• The big three sites and some of the others tie the site name into the logo although the logo should be able to stand on its own, the logo and the site name should also be able to stand on their own and look like a cohesive brand.

• I like the crows feet connections to the tabs, but I wonder if they don’t seem like tabs any more. Perhaps if the border on the bottom was removed and the left and right borders extended to the white space they would feel more like tabs and therefore provide necessary affordance. This may not be simple, but it shouldn’t interfere with the crows feet. If they become clearly tabs when rolled over, then this suggestion may not be needed.

• The site would be more distinctive if the shape around the answer number were a cylinder silhouette rather than a circle.

• This isn’t a specific idea, but overall the design has an unprofessional almost child-like feel. I appreciate that you avoided logos that were too cartoonish, but when I look at sites like tex.stackexchange.com, english.stackexchange.com, and security.stackexchange.com they scream, I’M A PROFESSIONAL, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING! This site needs that. A user should come to the site and should immediately get the impression that these people know what they are doing so I will get good answers here. I’m not quite sure how to achieve this design wise, whether it just needs darker colors, a more complex header, or something else entirely. I hesitate to say start over, but Jin, I know you can do better.

Note: I am not a designer; I'm just passionate about this site.

Answer 2

I dont really like the font used in the title 'Database Administrators' at the top. It seems out of place and very typewriter-ish.

Also, the logo, is good, just not awesome, I think. Please excuse if you all think otherwise. To me, it looks like a database covered in honey!

I have really loved the designs of some other SE sites like

• https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/
• https://cooking.stackexchange.com/
• http://area51.stackexchange.com/

and by the standards we set there for ourselves, I think this one is a little behind.

Answer 3

1. I love the keys for badges.

2. I'm not fond of the circles for answers, though. I prefer, as someone else mentioned, the idea of cylinders for answers.

3. Also, like many have mentioned, the logo is nice, but not unique. I hate criticizing it, though, since I don't have anything helpful to say on how to change it.

   And when I do try to improve on the logo, I end up with this, which isn't any better. ;)

Other than that, I really like it.

Answer 4

Here's my attempt at designing.

According to @jcolebrand's answer, could we incorporate a few of the colors of the RDMS into the logo? Each layer could be a different color (orange, blue, grey) or so.