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Review request of my new site

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italiano40 said:
their is php, that i didn't put on the site yet so that is all you are going to see, i just want a review of the layout and color scheme
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That's not really a layout, it's just a smattering of some things. You should probably develop it a bit more before you start asking for comments because I don't think you're going to get much in the way of positive comments if that's all your showing. Not trying to be mean, but there's nothing really there.
 
Ditto, but as to the color palette - in my personal opinion that green color for the nav bar is not attractive to me, and does not work with the other warm earth tones. Also, the image on the top with the top left to bottom right gradient (or sun angle) effect needs work. The text embedded should be larger or at least bolder, the name on the top left should not be subdued by the gradient effect as it is important content in critical real estate. I'd change the gradient to be top to bottom so the text shows more prominently, probably.

I withhold all other comments until you've got more going here.

-jim
 
Here's the direction I'm gonna take on this...

Find another hobby. Hire a Web Designer.
 
ntrigue said:
Here's the direction I'm gonna take on this...

Find another hobby. Hire a Web Designer.
Click to expand...

Bit over the top mate, not everyone is a designer. Though when i look at this one does think the OP would be best served with something like iWeb
 
ntrigue said:
Here's the direction I'm gonna take on this...

Find another hobby. Hire a Web Designer.
Click to expand...

I never claimed this is my hobby or i am a web designer, i am more of a software creator and i am using this site to display my twitter feed and my contact info and a place to host my little scripts and snippets so people can download

babyjenniferLB said:
Bit over the top mate, not everyone is a designer. Though when i look at this one does think the OP would be best served with something like iWeb
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can i use iweb on another web space i thought you can only use it on mobile me?
 
italiano40 said:
can i use iweb on another web space i thought you can only use it on mobile me?
Click to expand...

It use to be the case, but now you can upload an iWeb site on any web host (with some few exceptions) by using the Publish to Folder option in iWeb and then just uploading the contents of that folder to your web host. I'm not sure if iWeb 1 had that option, but version 2 definitely does. There's a few tutorials on that if you search for them, but it's pretty simple.
 
Trying to keep this polite and helpful to you, maybe some of the recent comments are hinting that you might want to study some complete themes in iWeb or other common development software. When examining a theme, look at the color palette, relationships of content areas in terms of alignment and size, font selection and consistency of use, and where important elements go such as search fields, login, nav bar, breadcrumb, logos, and so on as might be necessary between the header and footer. Below is a powerful and helpful link for all kinds of design tutorials based on software choices:

http://www.webdesign-tutorials.com/

Below are some web design best practices (I hate to use the word "rules") you might wish to follow, bearing in mind this is my personal opinion and by no means intended to be everyone's rules. We all do things differently, but it helps to view a list like this to formulate your own ideas:

Simple is good. Cramming too much into each page creates confusion. Having to scan through rows of links and images to find what you are looking for can be frustrating. We keep your pages clean so it will be easier for your visitors to locate what they need. Plus the pages will load faster.
Design is paramount. When you meet someone for the first time, you want to make a good first impression. The same should be true for your Web site. The overall look and feel of the site is the first thing your visitors notice. That is why all the sites we create look professional and attractive.
Navigation should be intuitive. There are few things more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for on a Web site. Pages should be well-organized with a top-down design so that people can easily browse to where they want to go on your site.
Consistency is key. Visitors shouldn't feel like they have been sent to a completely different Web site each time they open a new page on your site. Most people are accustomed to familiar layouts within Web sites. Consistency among the pages on your site makes navigation a much easier task.
Color choice is critical. Color selection can make or break a site. Most of us know what it is like to visit a site that is just painful to look at. When choosing colors, it is important to be consistent, choose colors that don't clash, and make sure there is a strong contrast between the text and the background. White is the safest choice for a background color, but other colors can work.
Don't forget the content. Even if your site has an amazing design, it will not be productive if it lacks content. There needs to be enough content on each page to make visiting it worthwhile. If a page is extremely long, it may be a good idea to break it up into smaller ones.
Make use of the full browser window. People with large monitors typically don't like seeing all the content of a Web page crammed into one tenth of their screen. Most sites created by Sharpened Productions scale to fill the browser window so that people with monitors of all sizes can make the most out of their screen real estate. If you need to use a fixed size, you can count on most visitors using a resolution of at least 1024x768.
Develop for multiple browsers. Despite what Microsoft would like you to believe, not everybody on the Web uses Internet Explorer on a Windows-based PC. That is why we check our sites in multiple browsers on multiple platforms -- to make sure everything appears uniformly. It is always best to catch problems ahead of time instead of relying on visitor complaints.
Check the site for errors. As any experienced editor will tell you, a wonderful piece of work can be greatly tarnished by a single small error. For websites, this includes typos, broken links, and images that do not show up correctly. Sharpened Productions is meticulous when editing your site.

On a side note - previous opinions you need to add more content and maybe finish the site still stand. The above advice is generic (not about your site) to help get you started.

-jim
 
Hi

I'm more of a page visitor than writer, so I'm not going to mention css, etc. i visited with images on, so hopefully you've got alt text and sizes worked out. And in that vein...

i like that the brown text-in-header-image melts (somewhat) into the page's brown bgrd. should the bgrd color be sampled from light side of image gradient or mid? i'd sample from the light side of mid, because light page backgrounds are usually better.

IME, the pale cornflower twitter boxes don't work with the olive main menus

I personally dislike text in images, but recognize that you wanted that font.

Biggest problem, IME:
The left column is huge, and stays huge at various browser window dims. worse, the right column disappears when window is narrower (i often run text editor at about 2/5 of display width, so browser tends to be roughly 1/2 display width). for whatever reason, a horiz scrollbar doesn't even appear to indicate page area exists off the right side of browser window. A reply below used the term "scale", which you would use when googling info. eg: Scale "CSS 2.1"

i personally dislike oversize logos/headers/filler, especially on any page except the "home index" page. nav menus should be designed with similar consideration.

i am using this site to display my twitter feed and my contact info and a place to host my little scripts and snippets so people can download
Click to expand...
IME, then it's ok, even as it (except for the column waste). You're not worrying about eking out the tiniest .006% margin of visitor revenue. (besides, ebay and many news sites are frakkin messes, and they seem to do ok) (As exists now) your page is not even close to painful to visit. ;)

As some suggest here and elsewhere, "analyze" pages on the web that you like. Find one with no (or inconsequential) scripts, wget a copy, then play around with layout, etc.

{quoting a bunch of "Jim Goldbloom" reply:}

Simple is good.
Actually, simple is easier. Complex, dense, and good is better.

Navigation should be intuitive
putting "intuitive" in quotes... then yes absolutely.

Consistency is key
something like that. on larger sites, giving a regional feel is a bit better. (there's a term for this ITRW, but the term slips my mind right now.)

Don't forget the content
absolutely. compared to a mess like ebay et al, I much prefer visiting someone's gnu ware page from 1997, that appears to be simply paragraphs of plain text (yet in my default font). but in all cases content is what brings me, keeps me, or doesn't. At worst, i can pull down View>Page Style> No Style. Or fall back to view-source (eg, view-source:google.co.il/) to see what's scruud up. When I bother to do that, content has obviously won over truly miserable scripts, etc.

Develop for multiple browsers
This is less of a problem when you assume ie6 is dead (yay!)
you'll usually find browser differences when you're experimenting.
i'd dev in ff, check in opera (usually just fine), then check in ie7. adjust for ie7 by adding an {if ie7 }.. {endif} conditional around your final {link... css /} in your {head}... {/head} This seems most reliable, IME (limited experience, though)
http://www.google.com/search?q="if+ie7"+endif+Conditional+link+rel+CSS

...
unfortunately it's difficult to immediately see one's own work with a fresh eye.
 
No matter what you wind up doing with this, be sure the change the line "Check out if your my twitter friend..." which should read "Check out if you're my twitter friend...".
 
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