Topic: site sujjestions

i havent heard from the owner yet but 2 people say the backgrounds very bright....

I LIKE IT PERSONALLY.. ANY SUGGESTIONS????
http://www.melstudios.com/htm/welcome.htm


ALSO SHOULD I CENTER THE TABLES?

WILL THAT GO BETTER IN VIEWING ACROSS SCREEN SIZES????


ALSO2 SHOULD I MAKE THE PICTURE ROW- ONE WHOLE ROW RATHER THAN IT BEING BROKEN UP INTO DIFFRENT CELLS?????
THANKS =)



[This message has been edited by mel (edited 05-11-2002).]

First of all , less CAPS , we all know how to use the CAPSLOCK button, it comes across as shouting, and isnt needing, infact I actually just read your first line. and then clicked on the link. Anyway

my first impression of the site was that it was very 'loud' colorwise, its kinda like some sort of propaganda site(not sure why) the red and blue are too .. something I cant think of the word for, maybe if you make one pale and the other dark, it also doesnt suit the links, which would look good if you matched the rest of the site with them .. Oh I just noticed the rollovers , there cool !

Center it if you want , it might look better but it wont affect what it looks like in different screen sizes, it wont improve or hinder it. Tables will still do their magic.

The Picture row ... couldnt tell you , I really dont think it would make a huge difference, but seeing as though all the pics have black backgrounds , maybe make them one picture ? or at least touching each other.

well...
you gotta do something about the colors... red and blue ...doesnt work out that well, maybe you should try red and light-red or blue and light-blue... you cant keep it the way it is right now...

and you dont need flash for those buttons...why not an animated gif??

using table "built in" border isnt always the best way to achieve a good border effect...look into this thread and you might be able to redesign: How to design this table effect? Please help?

I love centered tables so i wouldnt mind if you do that....but it really doesnt mather that much for different screen-resolutions...but the page loads well in 800*600 and pretty good in 1280*1024 as it is now...

you might consider putting your <font> tags into css instead...try search the forum or go to http://www.gurusnetwork.com/ and learn about it...


whats this code about????

<td height="33" width="16%">
<div align="center"><img src="PLK2.gif" width="109" height="139"></div>
</td>

you dont need to put in div-tags into that...place the align="center" in the <td>-tag instead...and
for every <img tag> you should fill in both border=".." and alt=".." attribut...

i dont know if it works out in netscape...i havent got any nn-browsers where i am right now...you might wanna look into that to...


/m

Given the promotional nature of the site, the colors work, even in my personal tates is for something a bit toned-down.

The CAPSLOCK advice applies to the page in addition to this forum. And lose the umpteen exclamation marks. One is quite enough.

Be consistent in the logo. ALL uses two lowercase "L"s. Either CAP them or use lowercase in Stars.

The logo itself is much too huge. If the purpose of the site is to stroke the client's ego, then leave it. If the purpose is to sell stuff, make the stuff more prominent. (Especially since the client is the only horse in a one-horse town.)

Centering? Yeah. I'd go with it.

Picture Row: I'd remove the blue bars too. And what is that thing in the middle? Machinery to make the product? If not, a better image is needed. If so, I'd lose it and replace it with more product pics. As proud as the client may be of his machinery, retail customers buy the finished goods, not the manufacturing process.

Personal Pet Peeve: "Located in", especially in combination with "conveniently". I've been excising those words from ad copy since the 70s. People are smart enough to know that when you give them your address, that's where you're located. And they're smart enough to know whether or not it's convenient for them. And if they want what you're selling, they'll come there even if it's inconvenient, (see the one-horse town advice above.)

Try, "Visit us in Statler Brothers Shopping Center!" (Note: No abbreviation, mixed-case and a single exclamation mark.)


"the most incredible feats are often accomplished by
those who have had the most incredible challenges"

lighten up in here will ya .. ok i used caps ......sorrie geeze......

boi this took a bashing.......those are dreamweaver buttons they are kinda kool though...i will werk on the caps..yeah it is a machine .... they wanted it i will nix the borders around da pics

and mebby a white background? .. that copy is from a flya........

hey thanks for yer comments......
ahh but.......bruce?......(drum rooL))))))))) doesnt the product go by beyond its function to its perception..........
booooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

,;.ba dum ching';.,

No But yer comments are right i will center n stuff ..thanks..

kool__--

Well first impression I get from the bright background is that it's some sort of ad, or cheap company, because the first thing those types of companies do is try to get your attention with bright flashy things. So, unless that's the look you're going for I would suggest dulling the background a little.

I just noticed the button rollovers, after reading other people's posts. I really like that, maybe it's just me, but I think it would look better if the buttons didn't move to the right a little bit when you moused over them. I also agree about the caps and many exclamation marks.

I think the logo is fine to have blue, but I would change the bg of the content to something less contrasting, as well as dull the bg of the whole page a bit, as I mentioned before

kewl

Mad Scientist

[This message has been edited by maninacan (edited 05-11-2002).]

First of all no one bashed your site. Reviews were given and they aren't always positive.

The logo design doesn't seem to be overly impressive IMO. I'm personally not a big fan of flash but thats another topic entirely. I think the logo could stand to be reworked and better fitted for the company your creating it for. Of course thats assuming you did in fact create the logo, if you didn't well I suppose your off the hook for that.

The color scheme isn't overly appealing either. The colors are two bright and generic. They look like low quality versions of red and blue. Try heading over to Colours on the Web and try developing a better color scheme.

Centering the tables would be nice. That really wouldn't improve performance, although it would look better. Also you could stand to lose the borders. Maybe you should work on the text a bit too. I'm not sure you went with the most professional looking fonts. Feel free to ask any questions.

That's really all I have to add. It's an alright design, could use some work though. Keep us in the loop on the revision.

-Jestah

[This message has been edited by Jestah (edited 05-12-2002).]

oh what i meant by bashing was you guys dugg into it.. _L i really dont mean to offen any one _L yeah jestah... yeah i wanted to get this out of the way i was looking for a color wheel and none of the local art stores carry one ... also i need to recalibrate or do that adobe monitor set up thing - i just got a new vid card and monitor(there is kelly paper who charges 70 bucks for a color wheel ......i need help in the colors dept)

so i stoped by this embrodery shop and said hey you over there know where i can get a color wheel and he said why you need that? i said for school ... he was like school? and i says yeah im an aspiring graphic artist.

and he said you do web page and i replyed yeah .. and he said how much and i says 70 bucks so.. he like price...and say make 6 pages for 70 bucks..... so i get home and think err way to cheapo so he get cheap site....

......anyways im rethinking this out... and may do a better job -he still hasent seen it yet ... so if he wants changes ill do it ........ but i slacked in the begining ill talk to him on monday (usa -time) who knows maby he has some ideas...


Massapequa! farmingdale! yeah long island those where the dayssss

ok thanks all.......

mel: If you are still seeking reviews then I'll throw a few thoughts your way. There have been some good suggestions (or is that sujjestions??) so far so take some of those comments on board.

1. The look and feel is very much late nineties - I really think you would benefit from more subtle colour variations and a less boxy look.

2. Those product graphics could do with some work (esp. the one on the right which is dingy). With the above in mind I'd try for more of a product montage worked into the background colours.

3. Now lets imagine I turn up without Flash.... I can't see the address or contact details and I can't navigate further into your site. This strikes me as a fundamentally bad idea it excludes a portion of the audience (esp, people using voice browsers for whatever reason) and will stop any robots indexing your site in their tracks. Considering the promotional nature of the site this has to be changed.

4. You'll also want metatags (keyword, description and abstract) for some search engines.

5. You'll need a DOCTYPE declaration at the top too.

6. You need to use CSS to get rid of a lot of that formatting - esp. the FONT tags. Things like this:

quote:

---

<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><b><i><font color="#FFFFFF">
ALL STAR PROMOTIONS</font></i></b><font color="#FFFFFF">ETC.</font></font>

---

7. There is a lot of unnecessary code like:

quote:

---

<div align="center">
<div align="left">
<div align="right">
<div align="left">

---

8. Don't use PRE tags in that way - use the HTML structural tags and CSS.

9. You need to have a copyright page linked in from every page.

10. Centre the table - things rarely look good attached to one side of a big screen.

So overall it really needs a good rethink on the colours and design front but the main thing is that the Flash must go. It has its uses and works well in the right place and this is probably the worst way to use it. Create some graphics to replace it - possibly along those lines as they are OK and get the colours working together. As it is a promotional piece you need to keep an eye on search engine optimisation as well as making the vital details clear an accessible to everyone.

Emps