New Design and what's not

[Sludgert]

Whatchoo all think? :confused:

Comments?

Thanks!

http://fusioncses.com

[SrbShooter]

looks good. although i'd get rid of the thing on the right where you move your mouse over the text and it moves the words

[BCB]

Agreed. OVerall, looks good. The moing text is messed up. The mouseover is fine, but don;t move the text. I'm guessing this is in error though. Using FireFox to view, by the way.

[BCB]

Also, why so narrow? Looks like you have it coded for 640*480. I assume everyone has at least 800*600.

[Sludgert]

The moving text thing wasn't in error, it was more of a "when you put your curser over the word, it moves so you can still see it" thing. It's an object of debate, a lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it. I'm neutral on the subject.

I created it that skinny to make it look like we had more content. You see, when you don't have much content, but you have a large site, then you look like a moron. It looks "average thin" in 1024x768, and it looks good in 800x600. In 1280x1024 (and the like), however, it does look a bit skinny. I'm hoping that those using such large resolutions will appreciate the technical side of the skinnyness. :D

[YvetteKuhns]

The site is very generic, but it is appropriate. The color scheme is pleasant and appropriate. The site should fill any screen size. Use fluid design and white space will just be more in higher resolutions. You mentioned lack of content to fill the screen. Perhaps a larger font size would fill the screen and make text easier to read.

The mouseover text that jumps is very distracting. No one I know likes it. In fact, many of us complain about it. Consider your target audience. Most people who can't fix a computer are mature adults like my husband who is over 50 years old. He couldn't read this website even with his bifocals! I am 37 and I hate jumping text, especially when staring at a computer all day.

The copyright info is an image instead of text. If you did that to simply change the image each year, you could simply change one file that is called by an includes. Search engines read text and will notice the updated text.

To improve your search engine ranking, you should exchange links with related websites. The site includes web design services which seems odd since the site looks like a template edited with a WYSIWYG editor. I guess that everything just looks the same to me after a while since I spend too much time looking at websites.

Good luck with your forum. That is one thing I never bothered to do for MY site, because I am always posting HERE! :D Good luck with your website. :)

[Mirzabah]

The moving text thing wasn't in error, it was more of a "when you put your curser over the word, it moves so you can still see it" thing. It's an object of debate, a lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it.It is not a matter of debate. The only people who like it are a handful of freaks who only just discovered that they can do it. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.

As for beaing able to see the word even if you move your mouse over it, well most people are clued into the fact that a word with a mouse cursor over it is the same word it was before they put their cursor over it. Even if their attention span is so damaged that they forgot what that was, then they can always refresh their memory by moving the mouse cursor off the word.

[Sludgert]

The site is very generic, but it is appropriate. The color scheme is pleasant and appropriate. The site should fill any screen size. Use fluid design and white space will just be more in higher resolutions. You mentioned lack of content to fill the screen. Perhaps a larger font size would fill the screen and make text easier to read.

The mouseover text that jumps is very distracting. No one I know likes it. In fact, many of us complain about it. Consider your target audience. Most people who can't fix a computer are mature adults like my husband who is over 50 years old. He couldn't read this website even with his bifocals! I am 37 and I hate jumping text, especially when staring at a computer all day.

The copyright info is an image instead of text. If you did that to simply change the image each year, you could simply change one file that is called by an includes. Search engines read text and will notice the updated text.

To improve your search engine ranking, you should exchange links with related websites. The site includes web design services which seems odd since the site looks like a template edited with a WYSIWYG editor. I guess that everything just looks the same to me after a while since I spend too much time looking at websites.

Good luck with your forum. That is one thing I never bothered to do for MY site, because I am always posting HERE! :D Good luck with your website. :)
Ah.

The reason I went with an image for the copyright was due to a few issues I was having creating a text area down there. The way I wanted certain parts of the theme to come out just didnt want to work with putting a text area down there. Since we do offer a web design service, I do plan on keeping the template upto date, if you will, so the C2005 image wasn't of concern to me.

Yes, it is a template, one for Mambo at that. The reason for this is because I wanted to showcase what we could do with Mambo for our customers. We are currently developing a Flash site for the "ooh and ah" crowd.

The forums were kind of an idea from Dell and what's not. Don't want it to really be a chit-chat forum, just a play people that like that type of support can get it from us.

t is not a matter of debate. The only people who like it are a handful of freaks who only just discovered that they can do it. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.

As for beaing able to see the word even if you move your mouse over it, well most people are clued into the fact that a word with a mouse cursor over it is the same word it was before they put their cursor over it. Even if their attention span is so damaged that they forgot what that was, then they can always refresh their memory by moving the mouse cursor off the word.

That was harsh, but I get the point. I'll more than likely end up removing it eventually.

Thanks!

[Mirzabah]

That was harsh, but I get the point. I'll more than likely end up removing it eventually.Yeah, that's pretty much the reason I moderate this forum rather than participate in the actual critiquing - I have a habit of telling it like it is... Some things in particular draw my ire - blink tags, gratuitous window resizing, audio on entry pages and, of course, dancing text. Glad to see you rolled with it :)

The actual highlighting of those text elements looks good - I wouldn't recommend changing that. It's just the moving bit that is unpleasant.

[YvetteKuhns]

I guess we collectively made the point that jumping text is NOT a good idea. We are a bit harsher on those who advertise to be web designers, because we expect them to know better! ;) But we know that clients often ask for things that we really do not recommend. We didn't expect to see it on your site. Sorry for nagging. :D

Yes, it is a template, one for Mambo at that. The reason for this is because I wanted to showcase what we could do with Mambo for our customers.

If you have a Mambo site in your portfolio, you can change your own site. I personally create customized solutions most of the time, so when I see those CMS websites, I get bored. They all look alike after a while.

The reason I went with an image for the copyright was due to a few issues I was having creating a text area down there. The way I wanted certain parts of the theme to come out just didnt want to work with putting a text area down there.

You can put text over a background image! Just a suggestion.

[Sludgert]

If you have a Mambo site in your portfolio, you can change your own site. I personally create customized solutions most of the time, so when I see those CMS websites, I get bored. They all look alike after a while.

Ah.

I didn't really see the need to create a custom site with different designs on every page, which is why I went with a CMS for this site. On top of that, my boss wanted to be able to edit the site without my help, and he doesn't really know HTML and such. I needed an editor, so I went with Mambo, created a custom template that wasn't too horrible looking, and there you have it.

Besides, I don't see the reasoning behind using custom pages for each link - Realistically, even if I did make the site a custom solution I wouldn't be changing the design on every page, so the site doesn't suffer all that much. And like I said, we are working on a flash site for those that would like to be impressed.

Most people find the site easy to read, well laid out, and a joy to browse. Had I made every page different from the other, with stuff jumping back and fourth (*slaps self for CSS jumping links) and what's not, well, a lot of people wouldn't have really enjoyed that.

I thought it came out pretty well for being a CMS site. :confused:

[YvetteKuhns]

On top of that, my boss wanted to be able to edit the site without my help, and he doesn't really know HTML and such.

Ha ha. Don't you love it? :D

I thought it came out pretty well for being a CMS site.

Yes, it did. ;)