Melting Point's new website!

[Agenator]

Review please!!! Good comments=good rewards. http://www.meltingpointband.com . Be sure to check out the news page, I'm rather proud of that feature (xml based using javascript to change articles). Also be sure to check out the flash mp3 players both under jewish music and media.
Best comments/suggestions will recieve credits!!!!
Thanks alot
Agenator
(PS I think I tried to post this once but it didn't work, but in case this is a double post, I apologize in advance )

 

[freecrm]

Here goes.....

1) margin at top of page is far too big. Try to reduce it to about 10px.

2) Quite like your header, but the menu font looks a little out of place and the edges seem to be degenerating. In addition, the roll-over effect shunts the remainder of the menu to the right, which doesn't look pro.

This is created by this bit in your css.

#navbar a:hover{
padding:15px;
font-weight: bold;
}

You could change the font-weight:bold to something like "color: #FFFFFF" or whatever color you fancy.

3) Your news page is good, but it only shows one article at a time. Most browsers won't even bother to click previous article. You might want to have this on a scroller? Google JS scrolling news bar.

4) Going through your css, I noticed that your wrapper is set to 837 pixels, which is a strange setting! Try setting it for 800 or more commonly 1024 (less the scroll bar and allowance for comfortable margin)

5) You use Lucinda Sans in the menu, but no font setting for the rest of the site. This leads to inconsistency. You can put a font setting in the body{} section and never have to worry about the font setting through the rest of the site. (except tables).

6) Not sure about your choice of light blue for your links - maybe this would be better in pink to suit the page? I would have prefered burgundy, but this won't show up well.

Don't know if this helps but at least its constructive!!

Like the site content.

 

[Agenator]

Okay, thanks alot!!!! Most of the astetics (fonts, colors, size) was preferred by the band, so I really cant to much about that. But I completely agree about the roll over. Ill just have to find a good color to go with it. Is there anyway to bold it without it pushing things to the right? As far as the news page goes, the most important articles, the newest ones or the ones they feel are important, will be displayed there so I'm not sure if I'm ready to do anything about that at the moment. Thanks alot for the comments again!!! credits most definetly added!!!!
Credits to any other good ones!
-Agenator

 

[farscapeone]

First of all white background just don't add up with the rest of the layout.

Try setting margin and padding to 0 for the body tag (CSS) to make your layout stick to the top of the page. Now there's a space between content and the top of the page that don't look so cool.

Navigation menu hover effect (bold text) isn't good cos everything is moving when you roll over one link. Purpose of hover effect is to point out one element (link) by changing something. In your case everything is moving witch distracts viewer attention from what's important. Try changing text color or some other effect instead.

Navigation menu text isn't centered (height) to menu background.

Newer and Previous article buttons on the "news" page don't have any style. Try making them links. People are used to links for that purpose, not buttons. If it's not possible (because of the coding) try make them look like links by using CSS.

Sorry to disappoint you but your "news" page don't work in Google Chrome

Next comment is my personal opinion. I don't like boxed site layout. It's only good for Flash sites. To me it symbolize boundaries and I don't like boundaries

I'm a logo lover so I have to say a word or two about any logo that I get my eyes on Your logo is cool. It' matches your content almost perfectly. Logo is all about message and your logo is sending a right one. Only thing I would change is color. Try to add some color to it.

I like the idea of "Get the Free Single".

You don't have any copyright and privacy notes on the bottom of the page. This can be a problem depending of the law in your country. I think that privacy have

Good luck.

P.S. I don't know if you are only making the site or you are a bend member but anyways ... I'm more into metal :biggrin:

 

[freecrm]

Is there anyway to bold it without it pushing things to the right?

Yep - in your css, set a to be displayed as block and then set a width.

i.e.

#navbar a {
 display: block;
 padding: 15px;
 width: 100px;
 text-align:center;
}
#navbar a:hover {
 font-weight: bold;
}

Thanks alot for the comments again!!! credits most definetly added!!!!

My pleasure!

 

[stunna]

Looks good.

 

[Agenator]

@ Leviathon: Thanks so much for all of the comments, they really helped me get a feel for how I can really polish of this site. Just for clarification: the colors were chosen by the band (which I am not a member of but an external designer for ) thus I will be sticking with them for now. Other than that, its about time for me to edit some of that code.
Also, @freecrm: Thanks for the tutorial on how to make it bold w/o moving it. Its really appreciated!
Credits to the both of you!!!!!
If there are any other comments, keep em coming please!
edit: I will worry about google chrome if/when it becomes more dominate, but for the moment, I'm most concearned about "the big 3".
-Thanks again
Agenator

 

[farscapeone]

I have a suggestion about loading XML news. Why don't you use jQuery? It has a simple load() function that works in every browser and is really easy to use. If you're going to develop web apps in the future jQuery is something you just have to learn/use.

Apart from that I think you can fix the Chrome issue quite simply.

Replace this code:

else if (document.implementation.createDocument)
{// code for Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc.
xmlDoc=document.implementation.createDocument("","",null);

with this code:

else if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc.
 xmlDoc = new XMLHttpRequest(); 
}

It's basic and if you want more advanced version look at this example.