Topic: Attempt at a professional site.

Links are broken and the menu isn't final. I just want a general crit on the overall look of the site and if there's any problems in anyone's browsers. Also, the name isn't final either, incase it's already taken (which I 'm sure it is).
http://borg.cs.dal.ca/~dion/radium/



[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-04-2002).]

Not enough contrast!

From white to grey there just isn't enough contrast to make me want to stick around. Espically since the only contrasting bits are a ghastly bright green. I'd go for a different green with one other colour and some more contrast in the text. After all, your trying to pimp that text, not the logo or menu. Or use a different green, again with more variation and contrast in the textual areas.

The mouseovers don't quite fit. They also change too much. The background changes, the texture changes (hello scanlines) and the colour changes plus a little arrow apears.

You also need some other element to anchor the top of the menu. You have the first menu option inline with the top of the text which is fine but the logo sitting to the right leaves a hole in the design just above the menu. This makes it feel like something you've just slapped on or something floating about rather uncomfortably.

I'm not sure about the spans of grey in there either. They not communicating anything to be beyond, ?Hey look, I?m a grey wavy span, aren't I trendy?. Which isn't really all that bad but I think they?re a little too loud. As far as background noise goes, you've got a little too much contrast here for such a simple site. Although maybe just making the text darker would make me notice it less eh. You should also try to use such elements to draw the viewers eye to something. As the moment it?s grabbing my eye and throwing it off the page. Not cool.



[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 06-04-2002).]

Hey that sig is cool .. is the leaf on the inside or the outside kinda thing.. and its always nice to promote what you like, but the orange doesnt go witht the green.

About your site .. I think its good, but is it okay at low res ? And yea, the rollovers arent very nice at all, the interlace doesnt suit at all. And the dropped shadows with 'no distance' make it look kinda blurry, try keep it all in style with the big curve.

the site focuses on the firm name which is good, but I have to agree that it lacks contrast.
I know most businessmen are like that but still without the green glows in the menu, it would be a little ordinary.
And while I like the glows, I don't like the graphic background used with the glows. If the graphic were faded on top and bottom and not so sharp...but not greenish.
It's a pretty good start. Keep at it, you have something there...

Allewyn

Thanks for the comments guys I was initally a little confused with Dracusis' statements, but it appears the menu needs spicing up and apparently more contrast. Maybe the contrast issues could be addressed if I were to introduce another color? I'll ressurect this thread when I update the layout.

Other than the things that have been mentioned, has anyone had problems viewing it in their browser and/or resolution? I optimized it to work from 800x600 to 1600x1200 if I remember correctly.

[Edit: actually, it's slightly larger than 800 pixels minimum width. Hmmm, I'll try and fix that when I do up a new menu.]



[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-08-2002).]