ENOUGH of the square website templates

[richinri]

Damn it! lol I have held this in a long time. I am TIRED of seeing website template after website template based on squares and rectangles. We can use whole screens now. How about templates that don't look like table based websites from years ago?? How about whole screen sites that still look ok on smaller screens. Can we get out of the damn square sites please? As this will show, this issue bugs me -->

[steve.ledger]

How about you design one yourself?
It's quite possible in Xara Web Designer and Designer Pro you know.

Even make one scroll horizontally if you wish
► http://xara-users.info/demos/horizontal-gallery/

(hover your mouse over the white area and roll the wheel and it will scroll horizontally)

Just use your imagination and you can create much more then free yourself from the burden of using 'templates'

[Big Frank]

what about a square site with rounded corners...?

[Luke.Hart]

No, Apple have a patent on that...

[gwpriester]

Templates are starting points. Sledger is right, design your own however you want. It's easy and more fun than paying your taxes and insurance.

[richinri]

There are idea people and artistic people. I suck at design and am the type of person that has to tell people the idea I have and walk away to let them do the design stuff. My point was, looking at all the program templates one can see they all have the same basic look. This is not unique to Xara, I see the same issue in almost every program I have looked at. They all look like table based layouts with text rearranged which they call a "different" template. The 955px limitation is gone and I for one would like to see some real creativity used in creating program templates instead of looking like they are all from the same mold. I agree templates are a starting point for some (not all) so let's have different starting points instead of always starting with a 955 px square with squares. I see Gary put one together probably in 2 minutes (damn him lol, it would take me hours). His is a good example. We now have a canvas to make websites with most seeing websites on HDTV's and program templates are still stuck in a centered 955px box with boxed layouts. While my designs are rarely copied, my ideas usually are. I am hoping those gifted with the visual creative skills run with this idea big time so when someone sees a program template it is a fresh experience from the templates before and after it. And if I am elected.....

[gwpriester]

Fair enough, and to be honest it took 15 minutes.

Try this then, and it is almost as much fun. Find a few creative sites that you like and ones that break out of the rectangular format, and then challenge yourself to recreate the page in Web Designer or Designer Pro. You will learn a lot in the process and maybe get a better sense of what you want to see in a template.

Or, take an existing template and modify it.

[Jimi King]

I agree that the average website is too square. Nature doesn't have straight lines so it would be good to get away from them if possible.

Problem is, that although the Xara software is very good at allowing a non tabular layout, any external content usually requires a rectangular placeholder, or is rectangular in design itself. I just tried to add a photo slider to my events website, and attempted to put the placeholder on a layer below the main layout, with a cutout above to introduce some curves to the overall effect. Sadly it didn't work. The placeholder ended up on top. One day maybe.

[Big Frank]

we're stuck in a rectangular world
web browsers are rectangular
screens are rectangular
therefore websites are rectangular

designers for the most part design for other people whose aim is to show their information to more other people
if you're looking for as large an audience as possible then you look for common denominators
designing a website for yourself is not a common denominator
although it might well be innovative and groundbreaking

which of the following are easier on the eye
never mind easier to make cross platform across all media



it isnt the elipse the star or the triangle im afraid
sadly when you are designing for lots of other people (ie end users) your own personal objective opinion doesnt count for much

when screens break out of that rectangular mould (shouldnt be that much longer tbh)
thats when youre going to see a big change
for example when you can have an internet browser at the bottom of a glass or a mug
then websites for beer and tea will be round etc etc etc

but remember that books have been rectangular for 500 years for a very good reason

[steve.ledger]

Nature doesn't have straight lines

Not quite true, the are 7 straight lines in Nature -
Seriously though, you can find many instances of naturally occuring straight lines. Take a close look at a spiders webs - many use dead straight lines, honeycomb, crystals - especially pyrite crystals), snow flakes and many more examples.

Your second point, this is possible.
Even with a Youtube video and photo sliders..

► http://xara-users.info/demos/non-rectangular-youtube