9 replies to this topic

[codie]

Ok well here is my friend Sid and I's new web site, we have just finished the testing stage and have it built and was woundering if you guys had any sugestions for the site.

we are a little stuck on weather to have the grey space in around the content box or weather to stretch it to the border

also any spotted errors in code would be good too but i think its bug free.

http://www.rev2.org/2tadpoles/

NOTE: only index works, nav dsnt lead anywhere

[greg]

Some honest critiques:

- All I see when I look at the general design (ignoring content) is a bunch of wildly colored rectangles.

- There are far too many "gloss" effects, none of which I think work real well.

- I think you already know what I think about that logo (from previous thread).

- The main navigation doesn't stand out enough.

- Too much negative space that doesn't work well.

- Lime green on baby blue = a pain in the eyes to look at.

- Content text doesn't fit in at all. Looks like you spent no time working on the typography aspect (I'm not saying you didn't, I just mean it looks that way).

- Background is dull.

Again, these are my honest opinions that I hope will help you improve on this design. Some people are too used to just getting compliments about their work, so when they get an honest opinion they get offended and think that the person is just being an ass. Hope you don't feel that way.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that you should look for a better quality picture. The current picture of those ferns is very poor quality.

Edited by greg, 11 March 2006 - 08:32 AM.

[sid]

Greg,
Thanks for your comments, much appreciate your honesty -- I think we need it. We're considering your other points but just a quick reply about the picture quality, it's just a fill-in image until we either buy some stock photography or take some pictures ourselves: currently, it's just to see how a stock photo in there may look.

In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing what some others think and if we need to start again from square one (in which case we've learnt a lot this time) or carry on this one, perhaps fix some things and make it better.

Edited by sid, 12 March 2006 - 04:34 AM.

[SimplicityDesigns]

Actually, I like the colors...the gloss isn't that bad either. One of my favorite website colors is that lime green, esp. on grey or white. Maybe tone down the blue just a tiny bit.

-BBHD

[kazaru-kun]

greg, on Mar 11 2006, 01:31 PM, said:

Some honest critiques:

- All I see when I look at the general design (ignoring content) is a bunch of wildly colored rectangles.

- There are far too many "gloss" effects, none of which I think work real well.

- I think you already know what I think about that logo (from previous thread).

- The main navigation doesn't stand out enough.

- Too much negative space that doesn't work well.

- Lime green on baby blue = a pain in the eyes to look at.

- Content text doesn't fit in at all. Looks like you spent no time working on the typography aspect (I'm not saying you didn't, I just mean it looks that way).

- Background is dull.

Again, these are my honest opinions that I hope will help you improve on this design. Some people are too used to just getting compliments about their work, so when they get an honest opinion they get offended and think that the person is just being an ass. Hope you don't feel that way.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that you should look for a better quality picture. The current picture of those ferns is very poor quality.

I got to agree with that with the addition of the rollovers , don't really care for the oversized lime green rollovers

[Pax]

Site looks alright...I'd make the content area the dark grey that's in the banner, but leave the button bar in the blue so it really stands out (might look like crap tho, so give it a whirl and see). I'm not a big fan of the scrolling div, either....looks tacky....the background on it isnt all that nice either. The whole div's style doesnt flow with the website.

At first, I really hated the rollovers, but they kinda grew on me. I'd still probably change them. Maybe have the rollover somthing simple, like the green show only under the button in that little grey strip?

Fix the copyright text at the bottom, can't read it...dont anti-alias your text in PS, unless its big.

Other than those things, I think its looking pretty good.

[coolaid]

Quote

Lime green on baby blue = a pain in the eyes to look at.

kudos.

its obvious you tried picking out odd colors and a lot of the times blue and green work well together.

BUT what you should do is lessen the amount of green used (or blue) and just make links/headers green (or blue) and make the content bg white.

[dEcade]

I like the looks of it, I would change the rollover on the menuto mabey the same background just lime green. The blue content box is just a little to bright makes it a little hard to read the white text. Ah and the copyright is a little blury. But Looks goodman keep up the good work.

dEcade

[sid]

Hi everyone,
Thanks a lot for all your suggestions and critiques -- we are taking them seriously.

I've fixed the copyright footer (it wasn't anything anti-alias -- just me being lazy and letting the HTML resize it rather than Photoshop) and followed the advice of Pax, with rollover sticking down - it looks quite good. I've also updated the div scroller and decide to have just 5 items at a time without one.

Still wondering what to do with the blue. Some great suggestions in here, though -- might have to try it in the weekend, or if someone thinks they have THE suggestion, feel free to post it.

Thanks again, I appreciate all your help.

[sid]

Hi everyone,
Just following up, I've finished creating another concept for the site -- just a Photoshop one -- but the end result in HTML/CSS will look roughly the same.
http://www.rev2.org/2tadpoles/v3.png

Note that the 'Portfolio' link shows a mouseover and of course, try to imagine it taking up the full window and center aligned as opposed to IE/FF's image display with left alignment/white all around.

So, what do you think? Also, would be interested to know how it compares to our previous one, http://www.rev2.org/2tadpoles/, and Codie's recent one -- http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2...layoutv39sf.jpg. Critiques are welcome.

Edited by sid, 25 March 2006 - 06:09 PM.