Preserved Topic: Critique new layout plz

Hey ya'll, Allewyn told me to check this place out so here i am. I was wonderin if ya'll could give some feedback on http://www.acharmedsite.net/ cause I just did a new layout last nite. Thanx, cya

I liked it...

fast loading, neat grahics ...

the only thing I can think of that was not so good was that some the text was in to lightgray which made it diffucult to read.

-= Veneficuz =-


The Greatest Illusion is the Illusion of Reality

Hey, welcome to the Asylum ACO! These guys will say it plain...hope you're ready

: shuffles off, fondling a palmfull of slime :

Oh lord.

:: If I was going to judge your site off of the splash page, I would never come back. Never, of course, until I was able to get the vomit out from between the keys on my keyboard. That's busy, it's messy, and the image for entrance has a big blue border around it. <img src="sjdgkj.jpg" border=0> will clear that up. And please do clear it up. Or define a different border. But default blue is nasty. Nasty, nasty.
:: If links are light blue, then all light blue text must be links. Consistency problem.
:: The inside pages have *absolutely* no corrolation with the splash page. Bad. Consistency good.
:: The rounded corner on the top left is jagged. Clean that up.
:: The photo montage at the top looks like it was thrown together in a half hour. Might want to clean that up a touch.

All in all, with all due respect and honesty, it looks as though it was put together by a ten year old. If you're ten, this is by no means a problem. However, I gather you're not. That being said, there are a few things I would want to clean up before the next version is released:

1 - On 800x600 (which you should *always* design for), the top banner is *huge.* Shore that up a touch. Say, no more than 150px.
2 - Light gray (#CCCCCC) is *very* close to white (#FFFFFF). Never define text as that gray on a white. Bad mojo, no readibility.
3 - Bevels and dropshadows all over the place lend themselves to a very messy layout. I'd use less of both.
4 - Add some consistency between the splash page and the inside pages. That or remove the splash page. It's superfluous anyway, and most people won't click through.

I guess that takes care of it right now. Really rudimentary stuff, very messy.


stephen

thanx i will work on that ummm.. also whats superfluous mean? o wellz thnx

"superfluous......"

"exists for no reason, unneeded, wasted, serves no point, useless padding, unnecessary distraction"

a few meanings of the word...

ymmv ~Vp~

lol thanx and i changed the splash to better link it w/ the rest of the site

I changed the Splash a little more, changed the top banner to only 150 pxl height and made it a little more artistic (if you could give me any tips on Photoshop it would be greatly appreciated, I've only been using it for a month, before then all I ever used was paint so I'm trying to learn how to use it lol) Thanx so much for the comments/critues they've been a great help. Cya

um, welcome charmedone...
uh, with a few minor exceptions, all twitch's criticisms still ring true.
my first issue with the splash page is: why the crosshairs? whats wrong with a good old fashioned clicky hand?
maybe you should make a few more of the changes before you resubmit, to avoid re-criticism of the same faults that twitch pointed out.
my additional comments (i speedread twitch's, sorry if i repeat his):
- centred text overkill. IMO, centred text is for titles, not body text.
- the little credits at the bottom look VERY unprofessional... try normal text... or nicely aliased text, i dunno, just neaten it up.
- the menu shows potential... i really dont mind it at all.. all it needs is mouseovers. hmm... looking at your code... OUCH! try and clean up your code a little... go to this site and learn a little CSS. the best use of CSS for you is "a:hover" properties...
- the border around that bottom photo is horrid.

well, it seems you survived twitch's site assassination... good... hope to see some improvement coming from your way shortly!
good luck!

Navagation = interesting
Navagation Comment = work it over, make it better.
Graphics = newbie average
Graphics Comment = fix the jaggedness of the 'rounded edge' get rid of the water washed effect, I don't need to know what version I am veiwing, that is what html comments are for, 741 is too large an image width.
Text = decent
Text Comment = Good use in the navigation, more consistancey needed within the pages. Light gray is not very readable.

overall = decent

Your page has potensial, you just need to work it over. I am not even going to comment on the splash page because it is not needed at all. I think you could do a lot with this site to make it better and more usable. I am not really going to worry about the code at this time. CSS is the way to go, learn it and love it.

Have fun, Good luck,

-mage-

ok so i should use css instead of a script i found on dynamic drive? ok thanx and the splash is gone as of my next upload (4 now)

This is kinda a reply to everyone:
Ok I got rid of the splash for now, plz look at http://charmedsite.hypermart.net/images/splash.jpg and see if that looks good for a splash image that coencides (spelling?) with the rest of the site, I changed all Silver text to Navy, and have gotten rid of the curves/embosses/copyright/version for now because i can't seem to make an even curve. On the point of the size, centering, and Crosshairs: Crosshairs are for sumthin special for the entrace IMO nuthin more I just thought it looked cool, centering is because the way the site is I can't really decipher between headers and normal text because their are so many subdivisions of each category and because it looks bad with almost everything centered, on the size of images/site issue I need the space for the information to be presented without it takin like way more height to show the text. I got rid of the table around pic of the month and redid the top image. Also i used sumthin hypermart had to lessen the size of the main image speeding up load time for slower computers. Thanx so much for your help. Sorry this is so long.

ummm... why not think of something else to put on your header besides a bunch of poorly blended heads. It's hideous.