New web site layout.

[CJ023]

Hello everyone,

I finally got a new layout together for my site. Only the main page is up and running and most of the other sections are currently non-functional. Please check out the new layout and let me know what you think. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Keep in mind I just got it together and uploaded it last night on the fly. It's not complete.


www.creativesolutionsnky.com

 

[leafypiggy]

Honestly, you took a huge step BACKWORDS.

That layout isn't appealing at all. In fact, it makes my eyes burn. If I put my screen on my laptop almost 180 degrees, I can finally see the "gradients". It is way too white on white. Define a border for your site, and make things viewable.

Everything is just floating there. I see a little tiny gradient with rounded corners, but then its just white. continue your gradient all the way down your page, or otherwise use:

border: solid 1px grey;

on your container.

Also, as a general rule, people read left to right; as does the internet. You should call everything you are using on the left side of the screen first (aka your sidebar), and THEN your content. not vice-versa.

You definitely have A LOT of work to do if you ever want your site to look professional. Like I've said before, why would people buy a website layout or graphic from you if you can't even make your own? Your logo is just a line of text! It's not even a logo!

The images that you DO have are way too big. Your navigation bar is too large for the page, as are the backgrounds for the sidebar headers.

Plus, the "links" in your sidebar aren't even controlled by CSS, they are just sitting there inside <a></a>. Put the sidebar content inside <div>s, and you can define how they are displayed even better.

I think you need to re-think whether this is really your calling.

Overall Score: 1/10

 

[CJ023]

Ok, so it may not be perfect. But dang leafypiggy.... someone must have took a huge **** in your cerial this morning. I would hate to work with someone like you... Thanks anyway. I'll be ok on my own without the advice of others like yourself.... wont post here anymore.

 

[leafypiggy]

You spelled cereal wrong. And I skipped breakfast today.

Plus, I'm just trying to help you. No one will buy anything from your site if you don't have a clean, professional, nice looking layout!

 

[Sharky]

Well, I hate to agree with leafypiggy, but it does require some changes.

Thing that strikes me is the sentence:

I am NOT an expert or master of web design nor am I saying that I am in any way.

Really doesn't inspire confidence, and people usually want to be confident they're making the right choice before parting with money!

Just out of interest, what's NKY?

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

I would give it a 4/10, I've seen a lot worse.

I would do some darker background behind the content, because now it seems like it is full-width, but it is fixed-width, and it doesn't look too good that way.

Maybe add something like

background-color:#eee !important;
border: 1px solid #ccc;

to #page, and then edit the images a bit to work with it.

 

[sourfacedcyclop]

Okay this is what I see, for one, I do agree with vigge_sWe that it could use a darker background which would make the other parts more defined. Second, I think you need to decide what its going to be about, I don't see why you would have a game, chat, or shop link if your just doing web design. I would also look into making a logo. You need something that people can associate with your site and just text doesn't cut it for me. Thats about it, I don't think it looks bad, I personally like it better than the last one, but thats just me....

 

[CJ023]

Thank you sourfacedcyclop.... I was looking for someone to say at least a little bit of improvment had been made.... at least it's better than the last so I can say I have made some progress. I was only asking for suggestions about the layout of the site..... not the content or wheather or not you think I should be charging money for web design.... I'm not asking for opinions on those things I was simply asking about the layout. I honestly don't care wheather or not people think I will succeed or not that's for me to worry about.

Still LOTS of work to be done trust me I know. I don't have hours and hours each day to mess with this stuff... I work a FT job 50-60 hours a week and also have a little one. This is kind of a spare time project.

 

[Anna]

I haven't seen the old page, but I think the site looks good, although I can agree that the actual container could be distinguished better from the background in some way. One way of doing that is making the gradient stretch a little longer down the content, and possibly go between two light shades of gray instead of ending in white.

 

[CJ023]

I plan on getting a logo together.... I'm not very good with graphics so thats the problem. The few I have actually made are not site worthy images at all.

I'm looking to get together a network of people who know what they are doing to help out with things that are over my head. I already have a few in the works. The idea of the site is so that I can simply expand my knowlege of web design, learning new things as I go, and maybe making a few bucks on the side. Just because I can't do something does'nt mean I can't find someone who can, and have an end result that will please my clients.

The other sections of the site that are not web design related such as the games, chat, and store section, these are to give the rest of the non web design crowd some interesting content. Everyone can think what they like, but I think in the end this is going to turn out well.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk business I'm trying to get this layout together first. Thanks for all the input. I know it needs work thats why I'm trying to get some input from everyone.

 

[sourfacedcyclop]

On thing you might want to do is make sure its XHTML valid. You have an <a/> and an <li> tag in there which don't have a corresponding element. Also, in XHTML all tags must be closed, so I would replace your <br> with <br />

 

[farscapeone]

The blue rounded boxes for navigation menu and "Content", "Affiliates", ... are too big. Navigation box has too much height and others have too much both with and height. Other then that it's really clean looking site.

P.S. Logo would be nice

 

[diabolo]

I think you are over using the rounded corners and gradients too much
you only have 3 distinct elements, and to create a whole website on that will be very repetitive

also as many people have said before the colors can stand about more

 

[Haavdwee]

Honestly, you took a huge step BACKWORDS.

That layout isn't appealing at all. In fact, it makes my eyes burn. If I put my screen on my laptop almost 180 degrees, I can finally see the "gradients". It is way too white on white. Define a border for your site, and make things viewable.
...

I didn't even know there where gradients
I'll give it a 5/10, because it is -like the others said- too white, i'll recomend you to add some darker colors and make a nice background for the sidebar.

Grtz Hans

 

[Matt]

I agree. There is a lot of white on the page. The grays are extremely light, and I had to tilt my screen to see that there was a border going around the dates stuff was posted.

It is a little too plain/simple.