Rough design

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d a v e

New Member
logo is resized in the html and therefore looks awful.

there's no colour scheme - not to say you couldn't have a black and white site but this wouldn't be it ;) the only colour you have used doesn't even match the colour of your logo

arial is just not a nice choice for web pages - try verdana, georgia ... instead

you've used blockquote to indent "specialize" but it's not a blockquote, is it

put all your css in an external stylesheet

needs some graphics

the arrows showing that there are more options in your nav are really, really feint

header takes up too much space

the text, starting with "Please feel free to browse the site. " is ALL in bold - why?

why a transitional doctype?
icon in the code but nothing in my browser

ZR web design is superfluous (at least the ZR bit is) because it's in the header, in the logo

the good:
proper headings
decent sized text (apart from the oversizes "Please feel free to browse the site. .."
 
notarypublic

notarypublic

New Member
I'll second the notion with the logo. .jpg is a poor choice for a file format for this, because of the compression issues. Make sure that the image size being rendered on the web page is the same size as the actual image to prevent warping.

I can tell that you did this using dreamweaver, yes? Here is why:

* All of your CSS is embedded in the page - This bloats the page size and is bad practice, for many many reasons. Create the CSS sheet as a separate page and link to it.

* Your CSS rules are named "style1, style 2, style 3.. etc." these are non-descriptive names for something as important as CSS rules. Dreamweaver automatically names CSS rules for you as you make them, if you're doing so using the 'properties' pane across the bottom of the interface.. It comes off looking like you designed it as you went.

* You used a pre-fab spry menu bar for your navigation bar (Something I have only seen "out in the wild" on dreamweaver sites). Let alone that you have the same bar across the top and bottom of the site (For a site this small, it's a bit redundant), but if someone is viewing this and doesn't have javascript enabled, the navigation bar won't work.

...

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, but having photoshop and dreamweaver does not make you a designer. Take some entry-level design courses at a local community college if you can, but saying that you can create a website by dragging and dropping things in an interface is the same as saying you can write a novel because you have Microsoft Word.

Sorry mate, if I'm wrong on any of this I'll be the first to apologize. :/
 
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zaricpp

New Member
Thanks

I am using dreamweaver ;)
Im still trying to figure out dreamweaver. I do know html though. I will fix those things. Thank you for your time.

I did design it as I went. I was just throwing some ideas on the page. I posted this just to get some feedback. I am going to neaten up the code.

zaricpp
 
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zaricpp

New Member
jumpingspider said:
I've visited your site. this is what has appeared



I assume you're doing the changes others pointed out. I'll wait for the your finished lay-out. ;) Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah... I'm redoing all the CSS and menu bars. It'll be up in a few hours.

Thanks for your interest! Just so you know, this is my first site.
 
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zaricpp

New Member
All done

I just put the index.html up.

All of the links are broken fyi. I am just wondering what you think about the general layout and color scheme. If its ok then I will go ahead and do the rest of the pages.
 
Phreaddee

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
um what have you done to your logo?
looks like you've done the digital equivalent of putting it through a shredder.

you've also got what appears to be a copyright notice coming out of your menu??

your actual layout is essentially 4 blocks, a header, nav, content and footer.
there is no "design" with this I'm afraid, I know that sounds harsh but its true. If I was searching for a web design company, you wouldn't get my attention at all.

make your background fixed so it doesnt scroll.
 
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zaricpp

New Member
Phreaddee said:
um what have you done to your logo?
looks like you've done the digital equivalent of putting it through a shredder.

you've also got what appears to be a copyright notice coming out of your menu??

your actual layout is essentially 4 blocks, a header, nav, content and footer.
there is no "design" with this I'm afraid, I know that sounds harsh but its true. If I was searching for a web design company, you wouldn't get my attention at all.

make your background fixed so it doesnt scroll.
Click to expand...

What do you mean copyright coming from my menu? I don't see it on my computer.

This is the third time I've started over. Do you have any tips of what I should do? I'm trying to do it using only CSS for the layout instead of a table.
 
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ronaldroe

ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
zaricpp said:
I just put the index.html up.

All of the links are broken fyi. I am just wondering what you think about the general layout and color scheme. If its ok then I will go ahead and do the rest of the pages.
Click to expand...

All I'm getting is a a green box floating in nothingness.

I am using dreamweaver
Im still trying to figure out dreamweaver. I do know html though. I will fix those things. Thank you for your time.

I did design it as I went. I was just throwing some ideas on the page. I posted this just to get some feedback. I am going to neaten up the code.
Click to expand...

Best advice I can give you? Put Dw away and code with Notepad++ or Aptana, or hell even Wordpad for a while.
 
Phreaddee

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
haha yeah its just a green box now...

maybe this would be good for the mysterious magician in the other post!
 
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omglookitsagoat

New Member
when I go to your site, all I see is a green rectangle with a white background. Is something wrong?

btw, the green color is too bright and would probably hurt people's eyes.
 
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zaricpp

New Member
Yeah the green box is wrong =]

I'm in the process of redoing the layout and I'm struggling to find something I like. Can anybody point me in the right direction? This is my first site btw. I uploaded what I have so far.
 
krymson

krymson

Member
This may sound harsh, but have you taken any web design classes? To me this is something i created back in high school (4 years ago). There is no styling on the menu's and links they are the ugly generic kind. Your background is horrid, there is no sense of typography its generic sans-serif font that is WAY to big. This is just the start bro, im sorry.

The best advice i can give you is take a look at freelance web designer portfolios, web design agencies. Look at how they look, how they function. Take a look at their code, look and see how it's organized. Then go to www.pixel2life.com or www.csszengarden.com get some inspiration. Pixel2Life has TONS of tutorials learn what you can practice, practice, practice practice. When you feel comfortable start offering your services for FREE, yes i said it free, you're going to need to build your professional portfolio, ESPECIALLY if you dont have any formal schooling because your clients are gonna ask where did you go to school, your gonna say you didnt and they're gonna ask to see your portfolio and you're not gonna have one and a paying customer is gonna go with someone else. Where as if you offer some for free and build your portfolio then you'll have somewhere to start. Till then im sorry bro but dont put yourself out there as a "professional" web designer.

I love your ambition but dont try and sell yourself until you can compete with the market otherwise people will laugh at you.

Sorry if my post was harsh but its the truth. I am willing to help you out and point you in the right direction because i love teaching web design so just PM me and we'll get started.
 
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zaricpp

New Member
krymson said:
This may sound harsh, but have you taken any web design classes? To me this is something i created back in high school (4 years ago). There is no styling on the menu's and links they are the ugly generic kind. Your background is horrid, there is no sense of typography its generic sans-serif font that is WAY to big. This is just the start bro, im sorry.

The best advice i can give you is take a look at freelance web designer portfolios, web design agencies. Look at how they look, how they function. Take a look at their code, look and see how it's organized. Then go to www.pixel2life.com or www.csszengarden.com get some inspiration. Pixel2Life has TONS of tutorials learn what you can practice, practice, practice practice. When you feel comfortable start offering your services for FREE, yes i said it free, you're going to need to build your professional portfolio, ESPECIALLY if you dont have any formal schooling because your clients are gonna ask where did you go to school, your gonna say you didnt and they're gonna ask to see your portfolio and you're not gonna have one and a paying customer is gonna go with someone else. Where as if you offer some for free and build your portfolio then you'll have somewhere to start. Till then im sorry bro but dont put yourself out there as a "professional" web designer.

I love your ambition but dont try and sell yourself until you can compete with the market otherwise people will laugh at you.

Sorry if my post was harsh but its the truth. I am willing to help you out and point you in the right direction because i love teaching web design so just PM me and we'll get started.
Click to expand...

Pm sent!

Thanks a ton.
 
D

d a v e

New Member
to be honest i think you need to learn how to be web designer before you offer your services.

would you hire a builder who barely knew the basics to make you a wall or extension? no thought not.

it's too dark, no real colour scheme, the globe is squashed (and it doesn't make a logo using clipart and plain text), dark blue links almost unreadable, transitional dodctype (for no reason), no favicon, no white space, 3 h1s, background image saved as a LARGE png (should be a high quaolity jpeg and no need to be more than 20-50px wide because it tiles).
"Weather you just need a one page information page for your business" please check your text - this is a live site don't forget.

by all means take your time and learn some basics of design (google is your friend), make some practice sites and then - when you have learnt enough - you can put up a page saying you're are a web designer and offering your services: doing so before is dishonest to customers, to our profession and to yourself.
 
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omglookitsagoat

New Member
maybe you could at least post a sketch or design of the layout you're planning to make. I post website composition pictures for review online first before I actually build my sites. btw, it makes it easier to create a better design if you finish the layout before you go onto actually building it. easier to make changes in the layout than a finished website too.
 
Phreaddee

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
whoa! have you even visited another website at all? whats the go with the disjointed job with the different elements?

firstly the header is too big, and boring. you need to seriously work on that logo - its horrible. the yellow and the red and the orange dont mix well together either.
i'd make your navbar fit across the width of the wrapper, and have your lowernav and footer also line up.

a business second? not even sure what that means...but it probably wont get you any work... tag-lines have to be catchy and "mean" something, or explain something, or describe something...

you need some white space in the content box. have you considered images? how will they work within the site?
whats the purpose of the right sidebar?

you have no differentiation between all your font elements. your footer text is the same as your body text etc etc....
 
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