New Website
<div class="IPBDescription">Need your views</div> Lo,
I plan on buying the domain www.jimmeh.com before christmas (yes it is free, and has been for a year or so...)
Anyways, i started (and finished) the design and pages today.
Keeping in mind that i'll probably redo the banner as its not as good as it can be, and the things that are related to www.jimmeh.com (for example the services and contact pages) and that ill have some proper PHP forums when it is released, what are views?
Is the design good, or does it look like something that came out of a gorges backside <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> ?
Any constructive points hints/tips (this IS my first website using photoshop rather than html) ?
Are there any errors? Such as missing files, misaligned images etc.
Is the sky blue?
etc
<a href='http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jimmeh/' target='_blank'>http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jimmeh/</a>
Thanks guys
-Jimmeh
I plan on buying the domain www.jimmeh.com before christmas (yes it is free, and has been for a year or so...)
Anyways, i started (and finished) the design and pages today.
Keeping in mind that i'll probably redo the banner as its not as good as it can be, and the things that are related to www.jimmeh.com (for example the services and contact pages) and that ill have some proper PHP forums when it is released, what are views?
Is the design good, or does it look like something that came out of a gorges backside <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> ?
Any constructive points hints/tips (this IS my first website using photoshop rather than html) ?
Are there any errors? Such as missing files, misaligned images etc.
Is the sky blue?
etc
<a href='http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jimmeh/' target='_blank'>http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jimmeh/</a>
Thanks guys
-Jimmeh
Comments
that's a nice start
second...
your interface borders will start to get in your way, hacing a right and bottom border that's pre-defines will get to be a pain in the arse...
thrid...
more colors than grey?
2) I would fix it, but i'm not quite sure what you mean <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
3) Whats wrong with grey <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> I'll probably have blue, red etc colour versions in the future, but im having grey for now <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
You appear to have, Halo, Final Fantasy 7 - what looks like that Advent Children thingy
(Sephiroth bruning Niblehelm if I remember rightly), Agent Smith from the Matrix films,
a Heavy Armoured Marine from our beloved Natural-Selection, and a shot from the
film Equilubrium. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Overall: I like it.
oh boy... he's so honest it hurts me when i read his reviews of webpages.. they are usefull... but honest :/
oh boy... he's so honest it hurts me when i read his reviews of webpages.. they are usefull... but honest :/ <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I try not to be too harsh, but yes i'm honest, but if there's any advice or suggestions, i will give them. It's just up to the person who i'm criticising to be mature about it and realising that i am actually offering help, not just pointlessly slandering the page. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyway, it's now tomorrow, heh, and here's my little write up as promised.
<span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Another of ::esuna::'s offensive reviews!</span></span>
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>(Well i'm not trying to be offensive, heh)</span>
<li><b>First Impressions</b>:
Well at first, i'm impressed for the lack of garish colours and the complete absence of clip-art anigifs, and so on. So we're off to a good start and based on that, i'll treat you as a human being for this. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
The first thing that hits me is the banner ads, i know you're on free hosting so you get what you're given, but they do ruin it. Looking at the screen there's 3 banners visable, none of which you have any control over. Especially since you're using iframes, i suggest you compile everything down to flat html files. Basically look in your main content iframe, there's that unsightly yellow lycos banner which not only looks entirely out of place, but goes over the maximum width for the iframe, needless scrollbars = yucky.
---
Today, instead of leaping straight into the design / graphics aspects, i'm going to look at the layout, fonts and html first, to me, they seem like the biggest problem.
---
<li><b>Layout, fonts, html, etc</b>:
One thing you're doing, i can see why you're doing it but it's a total waste of bandwidth. For each section of the site you use 2 seperate files. For example, you have "downloads.html" and the iframe in downloads.html is "downloadiframe.html". This is entirely pointless. When you visit one of the sections of the site the design and layout don't change one bit, the only thing that is actually changed is the content iframe. Rather than having us reload the entire page, set your targets for the menu to open links in the iframe. This will cut the amount of html files you use in half, and will save a lot of loading time / bandwidth as opposed to your current method.
As to the fonts, i think you may find it to be a good idea to change the fonts. The default font being used is, well, ugly, and a serif font is not a good choice to compliment the design's hard corners and more futuristic style. Possibly try Verdana or Arial, both of these are supported on most OS's and look a hell of a lot better.
The font colours also need changing, in my opinion. You're using the standard icky colours that just don't conform to the greyscales used in the rest of the design. Perhaps use silver or gray (default html recognised colours) or a custom grey. This not only will make a world of difference, but paired with a nicer sans-serif font, the page as a whole will look a lot more polished.
Fonts are generally quite overlooked, but are one of the key differences between a polished, professional looking site and an amateur attempt.
As to the colour scheme as a whole, greyscale is very safe. And in my opinion looks very nice. The only thing it needs is conformity and control running consistant throughout the site, as with any colour scheme. One thing that does strike me, however, is the white background. While it works well with the header image and menu (Which are paler shades of grey), it doesn't work so well around the main content and "affiliates" windows. The greys used in those sections are too dark, there's too much contrast. Again, maybe select a shade of grey that you feel compliments the design well. One thing that i will definately recommend you change is the box inside the borders of the "Content" window. It needs some sort of definition to seperate it from the rest of the page and also to direct your focus there. I can't entirely explain my reasoning why it needs this, just try it and i think you may be surprised at the difference it makes to the page as a whole when you do.
Onto some sizing and placement issues. Everything's out of line and nothing conforms. It just all looks a bit jumbled up. The banner is in line with the left side of the main content area, but it's not on the right side, the menu starts before everything else on the left and finishes in the middle on the right. I'll refer back to this fact when i critique the graphics in the next section because i feel that conformity matters a lot.
Anyway, back to fonts. Quite frankly, there's too many of them. You've got the futuristic one in the header, a cartoony one in the menu, the sort of script one in the content header and a serif one for the text. You need to limit yourself a bit with the fonts, or at least use similar looking ones, or even just fonts that follow a specified theme (such as futuristic fonts, etc). On the whole variation is good, but not in design. You're trying to create a brand, a theme, but using every different style under the sun leaves you with a mess.
---
Bloody hell, didn't think i'd write that much. Anyway, onto the next section.
---
<li><b>Graphics</b>:
I'll start at the top and work my way down, heh. The header. Creating a collage of your favourite characters is a good idea, but i feel you could have spent a little more time on the blending work. A basic fade going from one to the next just doesn't look to great, i'd suggest maybe trying to cut out around the figure and overlay it onto the next image, and so on. It will take a lot more time, but i feel the end result would look a lot better than just a 10 minute job with the eraser tool. Ontop of this, the borders need modifying. Just having the 1px border there and the more complex borders to the content below, it just doesn't look right, try giving the same borders to the header and menu as you have to the main content area.
I won't comment on the menu much, but once again you've gone for a different style of font, design, size, everything. The menu just doesn't fit. It totally just looks out of place. I would suggest entirely redoing the menu to either conform to either the header or the main body, or build it into one of the aformentioned sections. This leads on perfectly to what i think would make everything conform a little better and look a whole lot better.....
Put everything together. Rather than having the page as 3 seperate sections which just look odd next to each other, implement them all into one solid design. You have a good thing going on with the main content section's borders, try implementing everything into that, menu, header, everything. I feel it will stop the design as a whole looking so mismatched.
And now onto the borders in question. I like your style here. It's very similar to a design i was running on my site a while ago, both in shapes and angles used right down to the colour scheme. I'm not saying you were influenced at all by my work, i'm just saying that it's a good style. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> I think it could use some improvement though. The first improvement i would recommend is change the bevelling. The soft spraypaint-like bevels (Which i presume is the standard layer blending option settings for bevel and emboss) look extremely amateurish, play with the size and hardness and see what you can come up with. Next is detail, which sadly you're lacking in. I see you've made some attempts at detail but in the end there's too much flat, boring colour. A simple gradient or texture layered ontop would improve it, experiment and see what you can do. If you don't want to add any detail, however, i would suggest that you thin out the borders a lot.
---
I don't think i have very much more to say after that, i hope it was of some help at least. Oh, and here, i'm attaching a picture of the design i did in a similar style a year or so ago. I'm not saying that this is what your site should look like, but it might inspire you, i don't know.
Let us know of any updates. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
edit: otherwise lookin pretty good, babe.
oh boy... he's so honest it hurts me when i read his reviews of webpages.. they are usefull... but honest :/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I try not to be too harsh, but yes i'm honest, but if there's any advice or suggestions, i will give them. It's just up to the person who i'm criticising to be mature about it and realising that i am actually offering help, not just pointlessly slandering the page. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyway, it's now tomorrow, heh, and here's my little write up as promised.
<span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Another of ::esuna::'s offensive reviews!</span></span>
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>(Well i'm not trying to be offensive, heh)</span>
<li><b>First Impressions</b>:
Well at first, i'm impressed for the lack of garish colours and the complete absence of clip-art anigifs, and so on. So we're off to a good start and based on that, i'll treat you as a human being for this. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
The first thing that hits me is the banner ads, i know you're on free hosting so you get what you're given, but they do ruin it. Looking at the screen there's 3 banners visable, none of which you have any control over. Especially since you're using iframes, i suggest you compile everything down to flat html files. Basically look in your main content iframe, there's that unsightly yellow lycos banner which not only looks entirely out of place, but goes over the maximum width for the iframe, needless scrollbars = yucky.
---
Today, instead of leaping straight into the design / graphics aspects, i'm going to look at the layout, fonts and html first, to me, they seem like the biggest problem.
---
<li><b>Layout, fonts, html, etc</b>:
One thing you're doing, i can see why you're doing it but it's a total waste of bandwidth. For each section of the site you use 2 seperate files. For example, you have "downloads.html" and the iframe in downloads.html is "downloadiframe.html". This is entirely pointless. When you visit one of the sections of the site the design and layout don't change one bit, the only thing that is actually changed is the content iframe. Rather than having us reload the entire page, set your targets for the menu to open links in the iframe. This will cut the amount of html files you use in half, and will save a lot of loading time / bandwidth as opposed to your current method.
As to the fonts, i think you may find it to be a good idea to change the fonts. The default font being used is, well, ugly, and a serif font is not a good choice to compliment the design's hard corners and more futuristic style. Possibly try Verdana or Arial, both of these are supported on most OS's and look a hell of a lot better.
The font colours also need changing, in my opinion. You're using the standard icky colours that just don't conform to the greyscales used in the rest of the design. Perhaps use silver or gray (default html recognised colours) or a custom grey. This not only will make a world of difference, but paired with a nicer sans-serif font, the page as a whole will look a lot more polished.
Fonts are generally quite overlooked, but are one of the key differences between a polished, professional looking site and an amateur attempt.
As to the colour scheme as a whole, greyscale is very safe. And in my opinion looks very nice. The only thing it needs is conformity and control running consistant throughout the site, as with any colour scheme. One thing that does strike me, however, is the white background. While it works well with the header image and menu (Which are paler shades of grey), it doesn't work so well around the main content and "affiliates" windows. The greys used in those sections are too dark, there's too much contrast. Again, maybe select a shade of grey that you feel compliments the design well. One thing that i will definately recommend you change is the box inside the borders of the "Content" window. It needs some sort of definition to seperate it from the rest of the page and also to direct your focus there. I can't entirely explain my reasoning why it needs this, just try it and i think you may be surprised at the difference it makes to the page as a whole when you do.
Onto some sizing and placement issues. Everything's out of line and nothing conforms. It just all looks a bit jumbled up. The banner is in line with the left side of the main content area, but it's not on the right side, the menu starts before everything else on the left and finishes in the middle on the right. I'll refer back to this fact when i critique the graphics in the next section because i feel that conformity matters a lot.
Anyway, back to fonts. Quite frankly, there's too many of them. You've got the futuristic one in the header, a cartoony one in the menu, the sort of script one in the content header and a serif one for the text. You need to limit yourself a bit with the fonts, or at least use similar looking ones, or even just fonts that follow a specified theme (such as futuristic fonts, etc). On the whole variation is good, but not in design. You're trying to create a brand, a theme, but using every different style under the sun leaves you with a mess.
---
Bloody hell, didn't think i'd write that much. Anyway, onto the next section.
---
<li><b>Graphics</b>:
I'll start at the top and work my way down, heh. The header. Creating a collage of your favourite characters is a good idea, but i feel you could have spent a little more time on the blending work. A basic fade going from one to the next just doesn't look to great, i'd suggest maybe trying to cut out around the figure and overlay it onto the next image, and so on. It will take a lot more time, but i feel the end result would look a lot better than just a 10 minute job with the eraser tool. Ontop of this, the borders need modifying. Just having the 1px border there and the more complex borders to the content below, it just doesn't look right, try giving the same borders to the header and menu as you have to the main content area.
I won't comment on the menu much, but once again you've gone for a different style of font, design, size, everything. The menu just doesn't fit. It totally just looks out of place. I would suggest entirely redoing the menu to either conform to either the header or the main body, or build it into one of the aformentioned sections. This leads on perfectly to what i think would make everything conform a little better and look a whole lot better.....
Put everything together. Rather than having the page as 3 seperate sections which just look odd next to each other, implement them all into one solid design. You have a good thing going on with the main content section's borders, try implementing everything into that, menu, header, everything. I feel it will stop the design as a whole looking so mismatched.
And now onto the borders in question. I like your style here. It's very similar to a design i was running on my site a while ago, both in shapes and angles used right down to the colour scheme. I'm not saying you were influenced at all by my work, i'm just saying that it's a good style. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> I think it could use some improvement though. The first improvement i would recommend is change the bevelling. The soft spraypaint-like bevels (Which i presume is the standard layer blending option settings for bevel and emboss) look extremely amateurish, play with the size and hardness and see what you can come up with. Next is detail, which sadly you're lacking in. I see you've made some attempts at detail but in the end there's too much flat, boring colour. A simple gradient or texture layered ontop would improve it, experiment and see what you can do. If you don't want to add any detail, however, i would suggest that you thin out the borders a lot.
---
I don't think i have very much more to say after that, i hope it was of some help at least. Oh, and here, i'm attaching a picture of the design i did in a similar style a year or so ago. I'm not saying that this is what your site should look like, but it might inspire you, i don't know.
Let us know of any updates. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
grr.... too much to read ?_?
Anyways, after reading all that, i agree with you on most of it.
I didnt like the banner myself, and have already finished a new one that i have already started intergrating.
I used to have a black background instead of white, but i scrapped this because it was hard to edit the design.
The nav-bar isnt in line because of the way i did it. I'm so dumb i couldnt figure out how to get both ends circular, so i extended it and erased it.
Well at least you like the design/border thing on the main + affilate bit.
I'll probably merge it all togther and have a diff navbar on the left.
Also, with the iframes + fonts, the html part was VERY quickly put togther for display, and i will be getting a proper domain on 11th December (meh b/day! w00t t0 m3h!) . I like iframes, and it makes it ALOT easier to edit for me, so i think ill stick with that. When i do finish the HTML part, each page will have a header which goes along with the rest of the theme (which will be a future type thing, rather than loads of good looking fonts that dont look so good with each other)
I'll update it again at the end of the month, make some last minute changes, than show you the final piece, which will be without ad's (yay!) and hopefully everyone will like it!
When i do finish the HTML part, each page will have a header which goes along with the rest of the theme (which will be a future type thing, rather than loads of good looking fonts that dont look so good with each other)
I'll update it again at the end of the month, make some last minute changes, than show you the final piece, which will be without ad's (yay!) and hopefully everyone will like it! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What i'd suggest, again to cut down on bandwidth usage, and also if you have to redesign it'll make your life a lot easier, is use php templates. Knock up a bit of php code that detects a variable from the address bar and includes the page necessary. It's a very very small amount of code and it can save you a LOT of hassle.
<!--c1--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->
<?php
if ($page) {
echo("<iframe name='iframe' src='$page.html' width='190' height='390' frameborder='0 scrolling='auto'></iframe>");
}
else {
echo("<iframe name='iframe' src='default.html' width='190' height='390' frameborder='0 scrolling='auto'></iframe>");
}
?>
<!--c2--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->
Paste the above code into your page wherever you want the iframe to display.
Using this your url will look something like this: "index.php?page=test". The part after "page=" will be whatever you want. What the script does is pick up the page variable and dynamically implimentes whatever page you choose. For example, if you put "index.php?page=test" it would make the iframe display "test.html". If you don't enter a variable for "page" then it will, by default, include "default.html".
<!--c1--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->
<?php
if ($page) {
echo("<img src='images/headers/$page.gif' alt=''");
}
else {
echo("<img src='images/headers/default.gif' alt=''");
}
?>
<!--c2--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->
This works in the exact same way that the above does, but this time, instead of calling on "page" to add the content, this one calls on it to add an image header. With the address bar reading "index.php?page=test" it would display "images/headers/test.gif", and if no "page=" was specified, it will display "images/headers/default.gif". Simply paste it in where you want the header image to display.
I think you'll agree, pretty simple stuff. Just save the file with the .php extension and it should work perfectly.
This is, of course, depending that your server supports PHP. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
*EDIT: Also, if you want an example of the above code running, i'm using it <a href='http://deus.org.uk/test/' target='_blank'>here</a>.
www.angelfire.com/ak5/jimmeh/index.html again