Topic: WIP : WolfenMedia

This is a bit of a work in progress ( for about 6 months actually ).... but check it out!

Finally got off my behind and started fully working on this now. I know it needs the rest of the pages... but I have a few up as examples... Also as soon as I get the cash flow, I will get the domain name. This is more considered my play site starting out. Going for simple here too for the moment.
http://www.postebox.com/andrea

[This message has been edited by Wolfen because the dumbass forgot to put up the site address...]

[This message has been edited by Wolfen (edited 04-05-2003).]

clean and simple

Looks good, but it feels like the layout lacks something. Not really sure what I'm aiming at, it just feels too empty right now. Maybe try to add a slight change to background color in the 'main area'?

You should also do something more with the menu. At least a some kind of rollover effect. The space between the different elements varies as well. The is a big space between 'My Art' and 'Web Design', but barely any space between 'Signatures' and 'Links'.

There should also be a link there somewhere taking you back to the front page. The logo might be a good choice for this link... In the 'Signatures' page you should also add a link at the top of the page that takes you back to the original page.

Coding wise, there are a couple of more things that should be changed as well... First of all it is the lack of a Doctype. Every page should have one. You should add a couple of meta-tags to the head section as well (description and kewords at least).

Remember CSS is your friend. Remove all the font tags and use CSS classes instead. You should also drop the table layout and use CSS to create the layout instead...

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

Wow... yes, "empty" is a good description. As it stands, the design is very sparse. I'm not against minimalism, of course, but there's not really much to chew on here.

V had some good suggestions, and I'll just add a few thoughts...

The horizontal rules on the front page--what purpose do they serve? The content is enclosed in the table box, so there's really nothing for the rule to separate. If the rules are there simply to add something to the page, they are definitely being used in the wrong way (and it should also say something about the sparseness(?) of the design).

The table borders... they just aren't that pretty, to be honest with you. V suggested checking out CSS for layout, and I would second that suggestion. It's amazing what you can do with CSS, and how much easier it is to make a nice looking page. For starters, you might want to check out BlueRobot's Layout Reservoir. They have some ready-made CSS templates to get you started. The current design you have there would be even simpler, since the elements (menu and content) would just flow one after another (as far as your menu goes, ALA has a nice article on using CSS for lists, and one of the techniques is to turn a list into a horizontal menu).

Some other nitpicky stuff... You definitely need some space between the borders of your box (be it a table or CSS) and your text. As it is, it runs up right against the edges. Yes, a rollover (or simple hover effect, easy with CSS) would be nice for the menu. You didn't specify a font (again, easy to do in CSS), which means that a lot of visitors will see Times New Roman, which is absolutely hideous for online reading (just my very biased opinion, of course).

What else? Ah, yes: color. It is your friend.

Hope I wasn't too harsh. Stop by the basement if you're feeling blue--I think I have some biscuits lying around.




www.liminality.org

well, you guys were about as gentle as having teeth pulled with no novacaine ... But serisously thank you guys. My webpage building skills are about 4 years old and in desperate need of updating. I do thank you for the suggestions....

Suho: I am a bit hungry.... and I need a shock treatment too, it has been a couple of months.


The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH''

Wolfen's Sig Site

Don't worry, Wolfen, I know the feeling. When I started doing HTML, CSS wasn't even a gleam in the W3C's eye, and even after it did come out I stuck with tables because of the spotty support (for CSS). Then I come back years later and my dreams have come true: CSS is a reality, and building a web site is now what I always dreamed it would be. I know, it's still not perfect--it never will be--but we've come a long way in that time. Start dipping into CSS--you won't regret it, trust me.

And feel free to stop by the basement at any time. I've been feeling rather ornery myself lately--there's nothing like a good surge of electricity to cleanse the soul and clear the mind.

Suho: acutally, my building webpages go as far back as about 1994 with HTML 2.0 (you probably recognized that with this site.) Though recently I have been re-visiting my HTML 4.0 books (Lemay's Teach Yourself HTML 4.0 in 14 Days, but I call it my Big Blue Bible.), Webpages that Suck and Son of Webpages That Suck books too. I am currently looking up CSS basic tutes and messing with them.