Jeff Croft is a master of Django, grids, and baselines. In the latest rendition of his personal website, Jeff takes his amazing handling of grids and APIs to a new high. The level of content and information on Jeff’s site is mesmerizing and leaves the rest of us in the dust with our jaws to the floor.
Taking a good look at the homepage shows Jeff’s attention to baseline (def: the imaginary line on which the bottoms of primary letters align). Jeff hadn’t managed to achieve this level of detail in his previous designs, but one realign sure took care of that. If there’s one thing that Jeff does better than design websites with incredible attention to details, it’s his innate ability to truly use information.
Just take a quick glimpse at his homepage. Aside from showing the date of the latest post, he tells us where he was when he posted it. Check out a sample photo page— he has the geographically location (and a map!), his tags from Flickr (where he stores his photos), details on the camera used, and even nearby places.
Jeff’s site might not be the most visually aesthetic (it certainly does look great though), but his design excels beyond others because of his unifying structure and theme. Jeff takes all of his online activities and centers them here at his personal website. It sometimes feels like you’re Big Brother when you are reading through his lifestream. Creepy or the single greatest step in unifying online social networking?
This kind of site is what we need to see more of online. In an age when everyone is diverting our attention to different social services on the Web, Jeff’s site is a step in the right direction. It’s clean cut, engaging, easy on the eyes, and manages to accomplish a great deal with minimal design cues. Now that is design.
This site looks good, just like Britney looks good with a shaved head. In fact, I really did prefer the original crap to this. 1px borders with thunder thighs, ugly just like Croft’s picture of himself. Jeff, did you mean to rip off Subtraction.com? It sure looks like it. Oh, and btw, your shades of grey and orange are horrible together.
Joseph:
How about keeping a lid on the trolling? His site isn’t about his picture or your opinions of borders in design.
Does his “thunder thigh” borders inhibit the usability and accessibility of the site? No. Does his picture make the site less readable? Does using a grid-based design automatically mean he ripped off Khoi? No.
I think you’re mistaking your own personal tastes and preferences with quality design that expands on user experience.
At any rate, thanks for the feedback.
Mark,
You do realize that the name of this site is “Unmatched Style” right? Doesn’t that imply that the site featured should have say… a nice design, that is `unmatched’? Perhaps I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain that’s correct. FWIW, your site sucks too. Why is it cut up by the extremely long grey bar? Ugly. Thanks for commenting.
P.S. Nice Portfolio, but I’m pretty sure 404- Not Found wasn’t your creation.
Alright, guys, you both make some good points, but they’re lost in the delivery. I’m not going to delete these comments yet, despite the fact that they violate the commenting guidelines, but whether they stay long-term all depends on where we go from here.
Rudeness isn’t helpful or appreciated.
I wasn’t trying to be rude, and sorry for any misunderstandings. I was simply clarifying why this site was, in my opinion, unmatched.
This particular site is unmatched because it’s apparently limited design cues don’t interfere with the usability and experience of the site. On the contrary, the design enhances the experience.
P.S. My site is a work in progress, but thanks for checking it out :).
Jeff’s site might not be the most visually aesthetic (it certainly does look great though), but his design excels beyond others because of his unifying structure and theme.
That pretty much nails it. On first glance, it seems like a standard and clean blog layout, but the handling of information behind the scenes is an entirely more difficult and subtle discipline, specifically the LifeStream and his implementation of the Flickr API — amazing.
My only complaint is that Helvetica looks really iffy on Windows XP/Firefox.
“leaves the rest of us in the dust with our jaws to the floor”
Someone needs to learn what “hyperbole” means.
I wonder if Croft’s latest mediocre web site would be here if he didn’t spend so much time plastering comments on every web design gallery, forum, etc. he can find. One wonders when he has time to do his job.
Alto:
Care to back up that claim, or is your comment, besides a borderline confession of a being a stalker, an hyperbole as well?
I hardly think that his online activities has anything to do with his design skills, nor this discussion either.
Please refrain from simply posting something like that without any proof or substantial evidence – it’s pretty much just trolling. I do appreciate you taking the time to comment though; I’d just like to hear more from you :).
“Care to back up that claim, or is your comment, besides a borderline confession of a being a stalker, an hyperbole as well?”
Claiming that someone is a stalker merely because they are aware of Jeff Croft’s self-promoting nonsense is more hyperbole. Someone who is writing articles for a professional web site really ought to have a better grasp of the language.
As for Croft, his web site is nothing special. I see several dozens sites per week that are better designed. It’s certainly not deserving of being featured here.
more color. adding more color to the pages would go a long way. the layout is cool however; it keeps the site clean.