Need feedback on my Template please!

Hello everyone,

After 2 rejections from ThemeForest (which as I look back now, are perfectly justified), I worked my ash off to enhance my template for approval. I still have to fix some IE issues and minor other bugs, transitioning to XHTML Strict, as well as rounding up the package (documentation, etc)

Also, some pages need a lot of work, mostly the entire Blog section. Still, I hope to be ready to resubmit late next week. Please spare some time sharing some feedback on my progress, and if you think my template is good enough for submission or I should work even more on it.

I have mostly worked on spacing and typography, you can see previous versions here:
http://roussounelosweb.gr/quartz1.0
http://roussounelosweb.gr/quartz1.1
And here’s the latest:
http://roussounelosweb.gr/quartz1.2

Many thanks in advance, Nikos Roussounelos

PS: I would really appreciate if a reviewer could shed some light on whether I’m getting close to approval or not.

Hey

Over all it’s nice but if you look at your footer on the right side the flicker images are not lined up with the content that’s above it.

Also above the footer on the right there is too much space below the 2 buttons.

The rest of the pages there are some minor spacing issues but other than that the template looks nice maybe the blog list page need spacing between the columns and it also looks a bit busy.

Cheers

Lester

Hello Lester and thanks for your time!

As I said in he original post, I am aware of the issues of the Blog pages, they need the most work. Haven’t noticed the alignment issues of he footer though, thanks for pointing that out.

Also congrats on your latest approval, I loved the theme. I would give feedback on your latest work, I am not confident enough of my abilities within the marketplace yet to do so.

Thanks again! Nikos Roussounelos

Along with Typography concerns, your design is much too similar with some best sellers, you have to avoid this as much as possible. I refer to the picture shadows.

Then another issue I can see is that the minimized pictures don’t look pixel perfect, but look dirty and not professional. You may have to find a way to use thumbnails instead.

Next, and maybe most important, your logo does not look good enough. Sorry.

Macro spacing is another issue, Google for some tutorials.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, dnp_theme!

All valid points, I agree Typography needs some ironing out still, and macro spacing is an issue, especially in the Blog pages.

As for the pictures, one of the best characteristics of my template is that jquery automatically resizes any image to fit to the boxes, I’ll have to improve on that.

Finally, I have provided 4 different shadows in my PSD , maybe I should provide a different one to differentiate myself?

About the logo, I really haven’t thought this could be an issue, will improve.

Again, thank you for the feedback, I’ll work hard and post back! Nikos Roussounelos

routsounmanman said
PS: I would really appreciate if a reviewer could shed some light on whether I’m getting close to approval or not.

Upload it and see what happens! Best way to find out what the reviewer thinks about your item!


Here are a few things that I suggest working on!

Typography for the first 3 columns under the slider. font-size:12px would look nice. At the moment it’s quite small.

The menu items fly from over the menu, try giving the menu holder a overflow:hidden; property, and speeding it up a little. If you accidentally move your mouse away and it disappears it takes too long for it to fly back in. It can become annoying after a while.

I have nothing against Flash, but considering it’s ThemeForest and most people have iPads, in this case I wouldn’t use The Piecemaker. It’s amazing… but not for the audience here. Maybe showcase a jQuery slider for the landing page. If I am interested in a template that must work for iPads and the first thing I see is the Piecemaker, I might close the window

Cufon is outdated, it has problems with SEO . Try Google Fonts or the @font-face techniques

The grey overlay on the thumbnails looks strange. Maybe a different color and lower opacity.

You overuse the black to white gradient. That gradient reminds me of PhotoShop’s default gradient… it takes away the “premium” from everything.

The border of the bottom latest blogs looks wrong. So does the font. It’s too small for the text and the headings need improvement. Also, try leaving only 3 items on the latest blog instead of 4. There’s a lot of white space to the right side which gives it a strange look.

overall typography needs improvement. The font size in certain places is just too small! . Try using H3 Tags for page headings, like the Drop Caps words for example. Using a big heading means having extra height/white space/blank space, in the places where there is no text, which can give the apparent of the heading being bloated.

The between section divider, the line with a shadow, needs some work. The shadow start after about 10 pixels after the line starts. looks strange

On the contact page, the general inquiery box, is not the same width as the name and e-mail box, and is out of line

Overall, my personal opinion is that you should take each element, in part, and check for typography, padding, color, font size, alignment, and improve them! Attention to detail is critical! I hope I haven’t offended you in any way. These are just the things I’d change

Note: these are my personal opinions as an individual member and author of this community and not representative of Envato Staff or the Envato Item Reviewers. My personal opinion does not guarantee the approval of this file for sale on the Envato Marketplaces.

Hello Enabled,

Thank you for the amazingly detailed feedback, and for your time! And don’t worry, no offence taken, in fact, harsh criticism is the best for me, makes me want to strive for perfection!

Will look into every detail you provided and then some, I won’t settle for anything less! Will postpone my upload for another 1-2 weeks then, to polish even more. Can anyone answer me these 2 questions, though?

1) I have created 1 PSD main file (the index page), then built the HTML upon that. Then, I have another 10-20 PSD files with gallery boxes, hr line, etc. Maybe it would be better to work backwards and create a PSD for every page I provide instead?

2) Can I upload the file without documentation and the PSDs to check for approval, and if I get the OK, I round up the package, then upload proper? Or am I violating any rules?

Thanks again, Nikos Roussounelos

http://awesomescreenshot.com/05esmh8e3

-Scott

routsounmanman said
Hello Enabled,

Thank you for the amazingly detailed feedback, and for your time! And don’t worry, no offence taken, in fact, harsh criticism is the best for me, makes me want to strive for perfection!

Will look into every detail you provided and then some, I won’t settle for anything less! Will postpone my upload for another 1-2 weeks then, to polish even more. Can anyone answer me these 2 questions, though?

1) I have created 1 PSD main file (the index page), then built the HTML upon that. Then, I have another 10-20 PSD files with gallery boxes, hr line, etc. Maybe it would be better to work backwards and create a PSD for every page I provide instead?

2) Can I upload the file without documentation and the PSDs to check for approval, and if I get the OK, I round up the package, then upload proper? Or am I violating any rules?

Thanks again, Nikos Roussounelos

I’m very glad to hear you get motivated. I do the same, it’s always helped me learn more and strive for best possible quality. Regarding your questions:

1. I usually build the PSD file first. Using only Google Fonts, set to Crisp. That way, I’m sure it will be as close as possible to the HTML generated fonts. It all depends on how you can work faster and more efficient.

2. Well, if you do that, what is the purpose of learning from rejections? Reviewers don’t pre-review files to inform you if you should upload the full template because it’s good or not. They either reject you, or approve the file. If you do just upload and ask for a pre-review, you will get a very short message stating that you have uploaded the wrong files / your template is not ready yet. The only way to receive feedback is by contacting support. The exact instructions are presented in the bottom lines of your rejection e-mail.

Note: these are my personal opinions as an individual member and author of this community and not representative of Envato Staff or the Envato Item Reviewers. My personal opinion does not guarantee the approval of this file for sale on the Envato Marketplaces.

iKreativ said
http://awesomescreenshot.com/05esmh8e3 -Scott

Hey there, Scott!

Thanks for your feedback, but emmm… sorry for your time, as this is the old, 1.0 version of the template. Things have been vastly improved since; please see

http://roussounelosweb.gr/quartz1.2
for the latest build