Web Site Design
Psycho_Squirrel
Join Date: 2003-08-29 Member: 20359Members
Join Date: 2003-08-29 Member: 20359Members
Comments
I'm also creating a website, not coming along as i hoped though, but i'm still working on it <a href='http://members.optushome.com.au/mmitsios/visualmirage/Visual%20Mirage.htm' target='_blank'>HERE</a>
VMirage... that looks amazing. Although i do think that "Visual Mirage" should stand out more some how.
But thanks 'jimmeh' for the nice comment
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>...that's probably taken longer to type than the website did.</span></span>
Ok, i'll split this into two main sections, as i usually do, reviewing each part to the site. The two sections will be the graphics and the layout.
Firstly, on to...
<li><b>Section 1 :: The Graphics</b>
<i>--- The General Colour Scheme</i>
Well, what can i say. I don't think i can legitimately call this a colour scheme. While we do have a prevailing black and grey theme running we also have splashes of gold, green, blue, pink and white. Oh dear. While i will grant you that the majority of those colours are in the Heavy Armour / Hive images, no work whatsoever has been spent attempting to make them fit in at all. The key point here to remember is consistancy. You've probably seen me rant on about it before, and, well, i'm gonna rant on about it again, it's too important to look over.
Try either fitting the external NS imagery into your colour scheme, or try adjusting your colour scheme to match the NS images. As it stands they look completely out of place, and do not work together whatsoever. Personally, myself, i'd adjust the colour scheme to match the images, but try not to make the colour scheme too boring or cliche'd, go a little overboard with colours that you think might work rather than just choosing safe colours with your colour dropper tool.
<i>--- Shapes</i>
Well let's look what we have. We have straight lines and 90° angles around the perimiter, then we have ~40° angles on the interior working in a slight fade effect (Although, i might add, some of these lines aren't parallell. I don't know if you wanted that effect, but it is noticeable.), then we have huge, very obvious looking, randomly sized elipses. Guess what, i'm gonna use that word again. <b>Consistancy</b>. I know, it's starting to sound like a dirty word. You have 3 very differing styles of shapes and lines, none of which go together. Straight lines and harsh angles go well together, straight lines and soft corners go together, straight lines, soft angles and harsh angles just don't work. At all. Try and settle on one or two different styles that <i>work together</i>. Don't just slap in as much as possible and think that quantity is better than quality.
<i>--- Header / Menu Graphics</i>
Developing a colour scheme is paramount at this point. The whole technicolour thing looks absolutely awful, and while you may claim that the menu and the header share the same colour scheme, you can't claim to have any form of consistancy or colour scheme whilst you allow these vomit inducing, technicolour filtermashing graphics to continue. Again, piling on as many effects of filters does not make it better, it also does not show that you have any skill whatsoever. Take some pride in your work. Rather than hitting as many random filters as you can in Photoshop, actually sit back and look what each filter does and ask yourself, honestly, "Does this look like i've spent any time or effort getting to look right, or does it look like my pet cat accidently enable the puke-filter on my images?".
<i>--- Fonts</i>
Well, it's nice to see a readable font at least. If it wasn't for the godawful colours you've used i'd say that it works quite well to use a futuristic font like that, but there is one problem. The font doesn't go well with the elipses / soft curves in the header border graphics. The font conveys a lot of angles and directions which the soft curves in the graphics do not do. It looks entirely wrong. But i wouldn't suggest changing the font, i'd suggest changing the curves.
<i>--- Image Selection</i>
*YYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn*. Seriously, the same old picture of the Heavy Armour with the HMG angled outwards and the same hive image you find on the NS.org screenshots page? Couldn't you either find / create something original or at LEAST use HLMV to get different angles of each of the images. These are exceptionally cliche images and are used on nigh-on most of the NS sites out there. Stand apart from the crowd.
<i>--- Miscellaneous Graphics Points</i>
Everything is far too plain. And i mean <b>FAR</b> too plain. The main header graphic is 800px wide and you're using only a tiny amount of it. And what you are using looks very plain and exceptionally boring. The hive on the left, for example, looks way too alone and just looks positioned very badly because it's just so far away from anything else. It's all so sparse. While i applaud you for not creating something that's way too "busy", like a lot of people do, but you could implement a lot more just to either fill the space or add something even remotely eye-catching. This page is ugly. Very ugly. And the whole technicolour thing going on in the fonts and in the glow around the menu buttons, my advice is to lose it. It's absolutely hideous and doesn't compliment the site, or your skills, at all.
<li><b>Section 2 :: The Layout</b>
<i>--- Menu</i>
Well, as for the menu positioning. I like it there. It's a good, solid, natural place to have the menu. But there are, as with a lot of things on this site, areas for improvement. The button graphics are way too big, and have WAY too much black, empty space around them. I'm running my monitor at 1280x1024 on a 15" CRT, and that's looking far too big. Ontop of there being too much empty space around the button images, i feel there is way too much empty space within the buttons.
<i>--- Borders</i>
First a little observation. I notice that the menu buttons go over the main border layer. I don't know if this is intentional at all, but it really doesn't look right. And that glow.... urgh. You may, also, find it prudent to reduce the thickness of the borders. Again, on my stupidly tiny screen resolution, these are appearing to be very thick, and ontop of that, they're exceptionally plain and not much to look at.
Another little bit of nit picking, with the Heavy Armour image you've cut the image off at the bottom with the same thickness as the border around the menu, but the hive image which appears to be in the same box goes right up to the edge. Is this intentional at all? I'd recommend, for the sake of consistancy that you choose one way or the other. Whether you want the border or not.
And finally with borders, is there going to be a main text box, and is that going to have it's own borders? As it stands right now there's nowhere for the text to go, and when you're at the designing stage of things, you should really have thought about that.
<li><b>And In Conclusion</b>
This requires a lot of work. And unfortunately for you (Since you've already made it to the html implementation stage.) this means going back to the drawing board. When it comes to design, it doesn't pay to rush head-on into things. Sit back and think how things will work together, how the font will relate to the design, how the colours will continue throughout the site and design. Don't be content with doing a half-arsed job like this, be hard on yourself. If you're not sure on something do it again, and do it better. Design is all about falling down and getting back up stronger. While this attempt may have been pretty poor, try and see where you went wrong (Not just in my eyes, but in your own and other peoples'...) and improve on it.
As long as you're not gonna sit back and say "F**k you, shut up, i like my design...", and you take any of this criticism on board, you will improve.
You should remember that IE isnt the only browser people use nowadays.
oh and did you just pick up this stuff, or have you had a web design class
oh and did you just pick up this stuff, or have you had a web design class <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I picked it up over the years. I'm qualified in Graphic Design too, and i'm doing an honours degree in it. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->