Topic: School website (experimental) Pages that link to <a href="https://ozoneasylum.com/backlink?for=10403" title="Pages that link to Topic: School website (experimental)" rel="nofollow" >Topic: School website (experimental)\

 
Author Thread
ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-08-2003 22:07 Edit Quote

I thought it'd be fun to redesign this school's site and convert it to a purely CSS-based layout. Before you guys start bashing the crap out of the page, I'd like to point out that:

a. This page is purely experimental.
b. I'm a volunteer, and i'm not being paid or anything.
c. This probably won't ever make it into the actual school's site. Remember, this is an *experiment*.
d. It's really plain, because there aren't any graphics yet.

With that said....
http://ozphactor.home.comcast.net/msjhs/


Oh, and also, the navigation links are dummy links (ie. they don't work).

Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

[edit]This layout breaks in IE5/Mac and IE4/Win. Needless to say, "I'm working on it."[/edit]

[This message has been edited by ozphactor (edited 07-08-2003).]

Veneficuz
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From: A graveyard of dreams
Insane since: Mar 2001

IP logged posted posted 07-08-2003 23:35 Edit Quote
quote:
b. I'm a volunteer, and i'm not being paid or anything.


That shouldn't have anything do with it. Make a site that you can be proud of later on and it doesn't mather whenever you got paid or not.

The layout looks ok, no need to add any images there imo. If you do, use simple (and small) images. One thing about the layout is that all of the colors seem kind of bland (is that a word?), none of them stand out. The "hover background color" on the menu is nice, it contrasts nicely with the rest of the page. Maybe try and use that same color as the background behind the 'Navigation' and 'Home' titles?

The menu has too many links. I think I read somewhere that the "optimal/max" amount of link to use in a menu is somewhere around 7. So you should do some work on that and at least move half of the links in under another link. There should also be some difference in the color of the 'student organization' title and the 'student organization links' in the top bar. Right now you can't see which of them are links without hovering over them first.

The footer might look better if you had the adress field intended so that it aligns with the main text area.

I think that is about it for now. Keep up the good work



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

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-08-2003 23:46 Edit Quote

In point b, what I meant to say was that I wasn't working for anyone, and as such, I didn't recieve any specific direction from a "client." I hope you didn't take that the wrong way. I'm proud of any and all work that I do.

Yes, I realize that there are a lot of links. On the original page, there were over 20! I tried to cut back by grouping them together and placing them in a sort of hierarchy. I'll see if I can strip out anything else that's unnecessary.

The footer section is supposed to be seperated from the rest of page. It is not intended for the site viewer, but rather it is a requirement listed on the "School District Site Design Guidelines" or something like that.

As for the color scheme, forgive me, I'm not to good at coming up with nice balanced color schemes. I'll do my best, though ;-)

Suho1004
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: Seoul, Korea
Insane since: Apr 2002

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 04:00 Edit Quote

Just to add a few points to what V said above...

1) color scheme: I've got to admit, it bugs me. Not so much that the colors don't stand out, but that they don't jive. If you look just at the hues of the colors, you've got (from top to bottom) 120, 140, and 75--so even though they are all vaguely green, they don't really mesh. There's also very little difference in saturation between the top two colors (try desaturating a screen cap in PS to see what I mean), so neither of them stands out from the other. As it is, they are just slightly off--you'd be better off making them the same color.

I realize that you will most likely have to stick to school colors for you main colors, but you do have some leeway, right? I have a number of color utility pages in my bookmarks, and although they might not solve all your problems, you might find them helpful:

Color Schemer
Easy RGB Color Harmonies
Quick Color

If I were you, I would start with #006600--it's your strongest and most impressive color. Plug that in to the pages above and see what you come up with. They should give you some ideas of where to go with your secondary colors. (I personally like what Easy RGB spits out for #006600--there's a nice light green shade in there that you might consider using.)

2) content text: It's a bit cramped, I think. I would find it easier to read with wider left and right margins--more whitespace is better in this case. You might also try upping the line spacing just a tad. Not too much, of course, but a little more room between lines might be nice. Don't go overboard, though.

Overall, not a bad effort. It looks clean, and your code is clean too, and that's always nice to see.




www.liminality.org

skyetyger
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: midair
Insane since: Jul 2001

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 04:01 Edit Quote

I like the colors, they are bland but very nicely blended. As a school site, if it is an Administrators page and those are the school colors..that would please me as a client..but that overlap on resize on the top and the footer information being on the far far left is a setting teeth on edge as the rest of the page flows together well..

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 05:26 Edit Quote

Hmmm... I was already familiar with EasyRGB and I, too, noticed that specific shade of green that went with the 006600.

Somehow, it looks better on the palette than on the canvas. The light green shade (a8ce9b specifically) rather than harmonize, almost seemed to clash with the dark green. Either that, or I'm going colorblind.


Either way, thanks for the comments. I'll take everything you say into consideration.

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 05:34 Edit Quote

Regarding the white-space issue:

Yes, I know the text gets even more unreadable at high resolutions due to line length.
Readability is only slightly improved when you up the line height.


All I can say it... curse IE for not supporting min-width and max-width!

Suho1004
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: Seoul, Korea
Insane since: Apr 2002

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 10:34 Edit Quote

As for the light green, what about using it instead of the olive shade you have in the menu?

And I figured line-spacing would be of only minimal help. You'd probably get the best results out of relative margins.

Arthurio
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: Rapla, Estonia
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-09-2003 21:42 Edit Quote

I think it's nice

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-10-2003 05:16 Edit Quote

using the light green instead of the olive shade: on what?

Are you referring to the navigation buttons? The "rollover state" or the "currently selected" state?

Right now, the rollover is set to dark green and the selected is set to light green.

Suho1004
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: Seoul, Korea
Insane since: Apr 2002

IP logged posted posted 07-10-2003 10:02 Edit Quote

Ah, that would be the "currently selected" state. Maybe it's just me, but that color really doesn't seem to jive. You could try it out and see what it looks like, at least, and then if you don't like it just stick with what you've got.

WarMage
Maniac (V) Mad Scientist

From: Rochester, New York, USA
Insane since: May 2000

IP logged posted posted 07-10-2003 14:58 Edit Quote

I have a little usability issue here.

Notice that in your about section you have a sub menu. Mission

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-10-2003 18:59 Edit Quote

warmage: there's actually a "return to top" button in the footer, although I must admit, I didn't really make it obvious.

And yes, I do try to see it from a user's standpoint, although the designer is always somewhat biased ;-)

That's why I posted it here.

ozphactor
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: California
Insane since: Jul 2003

IP logged posted posted 07-10-2003 19:02 Edit Quote

As for the "previous" and "next" navigation, I'll consider it, but I'm not going to implement it until I know for sure the order and arrangement of the pages.

After all, I've hardly filled in any content.



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