Monday, September 14, 2009

My kids mocked my website

I made the mistake of clicking on my website in front of my son (aged 9). He howled with derision and called his sister (11) over.

"No, Dad, no! Colour clash! It's so amateurish! You should have got us to do it! That's terrible!" All this was accompanied by much laughter, and the occasional patronising "Aww" at a particularly inept bit of design on my part. It comes to something when you're patronised by your own kids.

It was quite hurtful. I mean, aren't our kids supposed to look up to us at that age? Isn't it only when they're teenagers, and work out they can beat us in a physical fight, that they're supposed to start treating us with the contempt we deserve? I was hoping I had a few more years of uncritical admiration to go yet.

At least my wife was on my side. She had to be, as she had approved my original design. Though now I am beginning to wonder whether her "Yes, dear, very nice" at the time was quite the ringing endorsement I was looking for.

Anyhow, their main problem with it seemed to be the colours of the typeface. I had bright red and bright blue contrasting vibrantly. A bold statement, I thought. They claimed it hurt their eyes. So I toned down the colours.

This is the revised version. I haven't shown it to my kids yet. I don't think I can stand the humiliation.

3 comments:

E.G. said...

Love the new design, Roger. My sympathies regarding the unimpressed children...reminds me of the time I took my daughter into the changing room while I tried on a dress...she said (aged 4) "Oh no, Mum, you look like Little Bo Peep." Harsh.

rashbre said...

The red is still very punchy. I think it goes with the themes of the novels.

Dunno if you know but there's various color wheel aps around to help get colour balance for web designs and similar. Painter's Picker is an example.

Roger Morris said...

Yes, Emily, our kids are our harshest critics. But I suppose they keep us grounded.

Hi rashbre, thanks for looking in. I didn't know, of course! I will do some research.