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Hello friends,
A couple of days ago I made a post requesting some artistically advanced dotTechies to help me out with a few logos/buttons I needed designed for dotTech. Since then I have deleted that post because so many people have offered to create the logos/buttons and since I can only pick one, I don’t want a lot of people spending their time for no fruit if you get what I mean.
The logos/buttons have been designed, created, and in fact already implemented as most of you may have noticed. Before I spill the beans further, however, I would like to thank Liam, Steve, Dae, and everyone else (who’s name I may have forgot to mention) that offered to and/or worked on a logo/button for dotTech. Thank you all so much for being willing to help out!
That being said, I would like to thank Tejas for creating the new (awesome) dotTech logos/buttons. These new logos/buttons now define dotTech’s new “rating” system as follows (listed in the order of worst to best rating):
- If the software/website/product being reviewed is rated to be below par and not worth purchasing/downloading/using, it will be stamped with this:
- If the software/website/product being reviewed meets the bar (i.e. is “good”) and is worth purchasing/downloading/using, it will be stamped with this:
Take note while the software/website/product has been rated to be “good”, if it does not say “recommended” that means I feel there is a better software/website/product out there which you can grab.
- If the software/website/product being reviewed is excellent in almost all areas and there is no other software/website/product which can effectively perform better than the one in question, the software/website/product will be stamped with:
Any software/website/product with the “recommended” stamp is recommended by dotTech.
- There may be multiple recommended software/website/product that perform similar jobs. The new “favorite” stamp…
…is meant to to show the best of the best. More often than not, a software/website/product with this stamp is being used by me hence it being a dotTech “favorite”.
If you are the developer/owner of the software/website/product I reviewed, feel free to post any of the above stamps on your website to show people because we all know a dotTech review carries a lot of weight ^_^. However please don’t hotlink to the images; rather download them and upload them yourselves.
While I love the new icons for “Rejected” and “GOOD”, I would lioke to see them of different colors, say green for Good and red for rejected.
Mad Money’s Jim Cramer does this on his CNBC program and it drives me wild. His BUY sign and his SELL sign (actually a Bull and Bear) and both Red. What help is that? By the time I recognize the little bear and bull pictures, he is on to another opinion.
Anyway, please think about making GOOD Green like the Go traffic light and REJECTION Red.
Your Recommended and Favorite icons should stay Gold colored. I like having them as well. Good choices. They are different, yet, from GOOD and REJECTED colors (I hope). Gold to me means something like a KING’s crown.
Does this make sense to anyone else?
@david roper:
I think that’s a great idea, and if Ashraf wants, I can do that. (I’d also like to figure why they’re distorting on the top, and left side of the stamp)
@david roper: Great idea.
@tejas: Green light from me =).
@tejas: Oh I know why its distorting… I will e-mail you about it.
@david roper:
I agree, but possibly 4 different colors, just so it stands out a little better.
@david roper and amnesia: What do you guys think of the updated ones? You request and Tejas was kind enough to update them =).
@Ashraf:
I think that looks better.
edit, how about 2 thumbs up for favorite?
@amnesia: If that is popular demand sure. I myself have no right hemisphere so I don’t know >.>’.
Ashraf, brilliant new look
my suggestion will be AS FOLLOWS
Regected is Red
Good is Yellow
Recommended is Green
Favorite mix between Yellow and Green
Fabulous stuff, and a credit to all concerned.
The only caveat I’d offer relates not to the logos but to any wording which *might* attach to them, either now or in the future.
As an ex-copywriter, I’m perhaps unnecessarily picky about potential ambiguities in any text (hence the ‘keep it short, keep it simple’ diktat). One such has arisen inadvertently here in an explanation of the logos, viz:
If the software/website/product being reviewed is determined to be below par
which, of course, can be taken to mean that either:
* the software/website/product has been deemed to be below standard, or:
* the software/website/product has been created with the deliberate intention of being sub-standard.
This, I know, is a very, very minor point, but it does show what can happen when a word like ‘determine’ (and its derivatives) comes into play.
For that reason, I’d be inclined to eschew the use of that word and go with ‘rate / rated / rating’: there’s no ambiguity about that.
Otherwise — and as noted, my point is really pretty trivial! — I think the graphics format as developed and refined is excellent. Well done, everyone!
Love the logos–and your site! Great work.
@muhammad: Great ideas but I think leaving them as they are right now is better; don’t want to confuse people now by changing colors.
@MikeR: I am always willing to implement a suggestion from a friend. Thanks =).
@thebluejay: Thank Tejas for the logos =).
@Everyone: how is v3 of the buttons? The thumbs up/down match with the stamp now. What you guys think? I think it looks better.
I think they look GREAT as v3. Thanks. Harold
v3 is top-notch, and works cohesively. I like the colour coding from a prospective purchaser’s / prospective user’s perception:
RED for don’t progress any further with any consideration of this product
GREEN for this is a good product and well worth proceeding to consider among others
GOLD for this product meets the Gold Standard for software of this kind
BLUE for this product is such a Blue Riband winner in a competitive field that it’s part of dot.tech’s own stable of trusted applications.
Again, congrats to all (and to Ashraf: I hope I didn’t come on in too pedantic a fashion. . ! Thanks for making the minor changes!) :-)
I know you said you don’t want to change the colors anymore but I agree with muhammad. I think they should go in order:
red=rejected+thumbs down,
yellow=good+thumbs up,
green=recommended+thumbs up.
Leave favorite as blue but give it the 2 thumbs up. It’s early enough in this new rating system that these changes can take place without causing confusion. If you tried changing them a month from now it would be another story. But regardless, nice job by tejas. :)
Just my 2¢
@Jon: Hmmm. Lemme confer with my expert graphic designer =P.
I do agree with the two thumbs up for Favorites though.
I’m on it! :)
I agree with Muhammad and Jon… the graded colours for the first three ratings from red through to green, then blue or even purple for recommended. (And if you do two thumbs up it is two hands- one behind the other, not two thumbs on one hand ;) )
If you do end up doing two thumbs up how about reversing the first hand, and then have the second hand as a mirror image.
@amnesia: Eh… that would look kinda odd.
@Jenny: Tejas will have it done soon np.
The stamps have been updated to v5 (v4 was not published). What do you guys think? I think these ones are by far the best.
Thanks Tejas!
NOTE: If you can’t see the updated stamps, press Ctrl + F5 to refresh your browser.
I like those thumbs up better than the other ones. Ashraf how many right hands do you have?
Well I for one give them 3 blue thumbs up now!! I think they look great! :)
@amnesia: Not enough.
Hey Ash :D
Yeahhhhhh :-D • :-D • :-D
Doing the Happy Dance :!:
You got around to doing a new favicon!! Or was it Tejas? ;)
Bravo!
My old brain needs visual cues to get around. It helps a lot as I remember more easily a favicon & graphics than sites names.
Well … actually I had assigned a favicon to your site (just an old plain yellow square) so I could spot it faster on my (humongous) BM Organizer :roll:
Keep up the good work
Peace