Web Site - comments/suggestions
Discussion
Guy's, just started putting a website together, and TBH I feckin hate coding HTML etc.
Still, giving it my best shot and people often seem to come here for an opinion.
So, a few excuses first, I've only really done one page so far. I need to sort out the black body background that trails to the right on the top pane, so resize you window to hide all that... (anyone got some Javascript that will resize the browser window for me?)
When it loads up, the only page that has been written so far is the 'Networking the WRC'.
I'm looking for a clean, no frills look to the site, but want to provide a bit of depth to the pages.
Does the water mark background image on the WRC page make it too hard to read, or does it add a bit of depth?
All comments gratefully received, apart from the ones that are going to say add some colour, change this, change that... - I'm friggin shit at graphic design, so need solutions with your criticism.
many thanks
Ex
*scurries off to monitor his apache logs*
*scurries back to edit his post*
http://80.242.40.43/
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:09
Still, giving it my best shot and people often seem to come here for an opinion.
So, a few excuses first, I've only really done one page so far. I need to sort out the black body background that trails to the right on the top pane, so resize you window to hide all that... (anyone got some Javascript that will resize the browser window for me?)
When it loads up, the only page that has been written so far is the 'Networking the WRC'.
I'm looking for a clean, no frills look to the site, but want to provide a bit of depth to the pages.
Does the water mark background image on the WRC page make it too hard to read, or does it add a bit of depth?
All comments gratefully received, apart from the ones that are going to say add some colour, change this, change that... - I'm friggin shit at graphic design, so need solutions with your criticism.
many thanks
Ex
*scurries off to monitor his apache logs*
*scurries back to edit his post*
http://80.242.40.43/
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:09
couple of things I'd suggest:
* Although I understand the potential for a "click next" enter screen, don't do it. There is little benefit in slowing people's access to your site - it might even force them away (it often does for me).
* Get rid of frames all together. They are harder to work with with regards to designing, navigating and cause search engines trouble.
* Don't start resizing people's windows, deliver your content in a plain crisp manor which whilst offering something mildly unique follows other people's designs fairly closely - familiarity is a powerful tool to be exploited not challenged.
* The graphic at the top is nice, but ends to suddenly into black, why not change the background to white that way you aren't seeing the definite edge.
* The WRC page has a huge background image which whilst pleasant and non obstrusive could take a while to download and doesn't match the rest of your site (for instance the plain white menu frame)
* You need more content - latest news features articles a year old in the top three. Have some more stuff like "What we do", "About us", "Contact" etc below the Latest news section. edit:: I just noticed the little links in the top bar, really they should be more noticable.
* The colours are veru dull and drab, nothing comes out of the page and says "yeeehaaa", which whilst to my personal tastes doesn't make an attractive website in this case. Why not try framing the content and menu's in a colour (say your light gray) with a black border and then leave the rest white? Could you maybe make your logo a different colour as well - it's green in print isn't it?
Instead of using frames, it might be an idea to look at CSS instead - it would make for darn site neater coding
It'd be fairly easy to cook something up as well...
>> Edited by docevi1 on Monday 19th September 17:30
* Although I understand the potential for a "click next" enter screen, don't do it. There is little benefit in slowing people's access to your site - it might even force them away (it often does for me).
* Get rid of frames all together. They are harder to work with with regards to designing, navigating and cause search engines trouble.
* Don't start resizing people's windows, deliver your content in a plain crisp manor which whilst offering something mildly unique follows other people's designs fairly closely - familiarity is a powerful tool to be exploited not challenged.
* The graphic at the top is nice, but ends to suddenly into black, why not change the background to white that way you aren't seeing the definite edge.
* The WRC page has a huge background image which whilst pleasant and non obstrusive could take a while to download and doesn't match the rest of your site (for instance the plain white menu frame)
* You need more content - latest news features articles a year old in the top three. Have some more stuff like "What we do", "About us", "Contact" etc below the Latest news section. edit:: I just noticed the little links in the top bar, really they should be more noticable.
* The colours are veru dull and drab, nothing comes out of the page and says "yeeehaaa", which whilst to my personal tastes doesn't make an attractive website in this case. Why not try framing the content and menu's in a colour (say your light gray) with a black border and then leave the rest white? Could you maybe make your logo a different colour as well - it's green in print isn't it?
Instead of using frames, it might be an idea to look at CSS instead - it would make for darn site neater coding
It'd be fairly easy to cook something up as well... >> Edited by docevi1 on Monday 19th September 17:30
Thanks Stefan
Agreed, once I have bit moe content in there, I'll move that blurb into the about page and drop visitors straight at something more interesting.
Could be a good idea, however, I grew u pwith frame coding so it doesn't bother me, my approach was that it stops full on page refreshes, making the site look a bit slicker and saves hits on the server. Is there something else I should be looking at rather than copying the same code over and over for the top of the page?
Can agree with you on this, but again, it screws up badly when peoples browsers open in full screen on a 1280 monitor verses opening windowed on a 1024 monitor.
How to stop the Body Background image tiling and looking totally pants?
I know - I'll be working on that later, the black is was just a mockup to get the horizonta; bar under the top image, likely I'll just put it into the image.
Did you check the image size? 29K, I grew up coding for 14,400 modems so know exactly where you are coming from. Yup the menu fram needs something in there too. Good that you like it though
No prob, I've only worked on this for a few hours, wanna get a layout and theme started before I start putting in the content.
I'll look at bringing up the top right menu a bit more.
Agreed, this is why I don't do web site work for a living, I'm utterly lost when it comes to selecting colours etc. Guess I'll try a bit of messing and see if anything looks good.
Aye, I'm already using css t ocontrol fonts, colors etc, need to learn a whole heap more for using css for layout though.
Many thanks for taking a look.
best
Ex
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:40
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:42
docevi1 said:
* Although I understand the potential for a "click next" enter screen, don't do it. There is little benefit in slowing people's access to your site - it might even force them away (it often does for me).
Agreed, once I have bit moe content in there, I'll move that blurb into the about page and drop visitors straight at something more interesting.
docevi1 said:
* Get rid of frames all together. They are harder to work with with regards to designing, navigating and cause search engines trouble.
Could be a good idea, however, I grew u pwith frame coding so it doesn't bother me, my approach was that it stops full on page refreshes, making the site look a bit slicker and saves hits on the server. Is there something else I should be looking at rather than copying the same code over and over for the top of the page?
docevi1 said:
* Don't start resizing people's windows, deliver your content in a plain crisp manor which whilst offering something mildly unique follows other people's designs fairly closely - familiarity is a powerful tool to be exploited not challenged.
Can agree with you on this, but again, it screws up badly when peoples browsers open in full screen on a 1280 monitor verses opening windowed on a 1024 monitor.
How to stop the Body Background image tiling and looking totally pants?
docevi1 said:
* The graphic at the top is nice, but ends to suddenly into black, why not change the background to white that way you aren't seeing the definite edge.
I know - I'll be working on that later, the black is was just a mockup to get the horizonta; bar under the top image, likely I'll just put it into the image.
docevi1 said:
* The WRC page has a huge background image which whilst pleasant and non obstrusive could take a while to download and doesn't match the rest of your site (for instance the plain white menu frame)
Did you check the image size? 29K, I grew up coding for 14,400 modems so know exactly where you are coming from. Yup the menu fram needs something in there too. Good that you like it though
docevi1 said:
* You need more content - latest news features articles a year old in the top three. Have some more stuff like "What we do", "About us", "Contact" etc below the Latest news section. edit:: I just noticed the little links in the top bar, really they should be more noticable.
No prob, I've only worked on this for a few hours, wanna get a layout and theme started before I start putting in the content.
I'll look at bringing up the top right menu a bit more.
docevi1 said:
* The colours are veru dull and drab, nothing comes out of the page and says "yeeehaaa", which whilst to my personal tastes doesn't make an attractive website in this case. Why not try framing the content and menu's in a colour (say your light gray) with a black border and then leave the rest white? Could you maybe make your logo a different colour as well - it's green in print isn't it?
Agreed, this is why I don't do web site work for a living, I'm utterly lost when it comes to selecting colours etc. Guess I'll try a bit of messing and see if anything looks good.
docevi1 said:
Instead of using frames, it might be an idea to look at CSS instead - it would make for darn site neater coding
Aye, I'm already using css t ocontrol fonts, colors etc, need to learn a whole heap more for using css for layout though.
Many thanks for taking a look.
best
Ex
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:40
>> Edited by TheExcession on Monday 19th September 17:42
docevi1 said:I fully agree with you in every point, Stefan.
Instead of using frames, it might be an idea to look at CSS instead - it would make for darn site neater coding
>> Edited by docevi1 on Monday 19th September 17:30
The frames can be replaced with a php-embedded html template; for example
<?php
include ("head.html"
; ?>
Ex, do _every_ style information/formatting/element placement with CSS! It's easier than you think. Once you know how it is stored in one central stylsheet-file, you just need a reference with all the functions.
Get yourself the web developer toolbar for Firefox. You can test different styles on-the-fly in the sidebar:
example shows Ted's calendar with changed date background colour.
It might be easier to just put the black bar across the Click Next image itself..?
It does look better with the bar than without.. you could use this if you like.. then just change the top frame to white. That might look better when the page is loading aswell.
The only other picky thing is the mouseover colour of the links Personally I don't think it 'goes' with the rest of the colour scheme..
And if it was me I might centre the page -- although that's probably just me
- does look good left aligned though.
Dave.
It does look better with the bar than without.. you could use this if you like.. then just change the top frame to white. That might look better when the page is loading aswell.
The only other picky thing is the mouseover colour of the links
Personally I don't think it 'goes' with the rest of the colour scheme.. And if it was me I might centre the page -- although that's probably just me
- does look good left aligned though. Dave.
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