Brief appreciation of a website design?

Recently I started a new project, after receiving a large amount of critics I decided to start it from the scratch.
Now developing the design before everything else.

I struggle at design and that's why I'm making this question to make sure I'm doing it right.

http://postimg.org/image/5zml3h52l/
http://postimg.org/image/5zml3h52l/

Main goals -

• Content design should explain itself
• Understandable
• Thorough / Simple
• Give confort to users
• Last but not least, aesthetic
• Design every element like it's for a contents

My last design attempt : http://vladimirlisovets.pancakeapps.com/

Things I tried to fix -

• Add contrast between the topbar, sidebar and main content block
• Better content representation
• Make the design represent the content

I would like to hear your opinion:

• How does it looks like ?
• Do you feel comfortable ?
• Is there anything you don't like ?

Thanks in advance and for your attention,
I'll appreciate any brief observation,
All the best !

 

Hi again Vladimir.

Design-wise, I really like the look of these:
http://vladimirlisovets.pancakeapps.com/houses.html
http://vladimirlisovets.pancakeapps.com/jobs.html
I would say, they are simple and effective. The symmetrical grid looks more pleasing in the eyes compared to the-now-boring-masonry-grid of pinterest and the like.

I also like the look of http://postimg.org/image/5zml3h52l/. The top bar menu reminds me of the days when I liked FB (that was about 8 years ago), compared to what they have now which seems crowded with icons and links.

In my personal opinion, I'll say that http://postimg.org/image/5zml3h52l/ is more suitable for pages that contain the most recent items, the most popular items, the most commented items, the most {insert query here} item, while the houses.html/jobs.html design is more suitable for search and search result pages. Why? Because when people are looking for most queried items I think they need more information about the items, therefore more details; on the other hand, when people are searching for specific keywords I think they tend to look quickly at the more attractive visual, therefore more pictures and less words. Behold! I am the first person in the internet to mention this! Let's see how well this will be implemented in the future

Content wise, therefore we are talking about the function about the site, I am not really sure about your audience. I am not sure how job-listing related with property-listing. It can work, of course, but honestly I do not know if jobs and houses can stay together on a single website other than craiglist. But, if so, you will have lots of menus or links cluttered around your pages and your site design will not be as simple and as effective as I said in the first paragraph. Having said that, don't let my opinions confuse you and carry on with your design/project!

 

Something looks off

 

You have made a bit of progress now. The menu is better than before. The content is clearer than before.
I believe you should add a bit more color or dark areas in there. Maybe try to make a full width colored footer.
Also try for bigger and darker fonts.

I look forward for more updates !!!

 

Thanks, I'll try to put some colors in the right place.
I can post here the site version of this deisgn, already update w few improvements.

 

Yes do that.