This is a great first app. I assume you are looking for ideas of things to think about and work on next, otherwise I wouldn't criticize. So here are a few ideas:
- Right now you have to click directly on the checkboxes and radio buttons, which are small targets. There is an easy way to let users click on the text next to the checkbox, and a padded area around it a few pixels, which will make them much easier to use.
- You are mostly using the browser-default typography. Most web applications look better with sans-serif fonts, like the ones you see in any menu on a desktop application.
- The url is currently a bit ugly for the default case, with lots of ?blah=all. Can you figure out a way to remove those and just assume "all" as the default if it isn't in the url?
- The filter tab currently has what I would technically describe as "a big jumble of options". Everything looks the same and is the same size, as if you expect all of the options to be equally used and to have the same relationship. Can you think of a way to provide more understandable structure, by making some of the options (the more useful ones) stand out more, and others be out of the way. Or can you find some relationship between the different options that can be expressed visually?
- "Only free themes?" All, Yes, No. Are "all" and "no" the same? Perhaps you mean: All, Free, Paid?
Have fun! I know how exciting a time it is tuning your first big thing. Good luck.
I came to offer advice on your first bullet point. Definitely look into the <label> element. This will let you click on the text associated with the button. Not knocking you here (as this is your first web app!) but I am shocked by the number of large websites that do not do this properly. Drives me bonkers.
You can use it one of two ways. Wrap the text and radio/checkbox button in the <label> tag such as :
Excellent first app! I'm sure you've learned a lot about building it. That would actually really interest me, a blog post perhaps detailing all of the things that you learned while building it.
This is a great first project, and I wish you luck. I have a decent amount of experience with rails and backbone, feel free to email me if you ever have questions or want code reviewed: asolove@gmail.com
- Right now you have to click directly on the checkboxes and radio buttons, which are small targets. There is an easy way to let users click on the text next to the checkbox, and a padded area around it a few pixels, which will make them much easier to use.
- You are mostly using the browser-default typography. Most web applications look better with sans-serif fonts, like the ones you see in any menu on a desktop application.
- The url is currently a bit ugly for the default case, with lots of ?blah=all. Can you figure out a way to remove those and just assume "all" as the default if it isn't in the url?
- The filter tab currently has what I would technically describe as "a big jumble of options". Everything looks the same and is the same size, as if you expect all of the options to be equally used and to have the same relationship. Can you think of a way to provide more understandable structure, by making some of the options (the more useful ones) stand out more, and others be out of the way. Or can you find some relationship between the different options that can be expressed visually?
- "Only free themes?" All, Yes, No. Are "all" and "no" the same? Perhaps you mean: All, Free, Paid?
Have fun! I know how exciting a time it is tuning your first big thing. Good luck.