please review/critique/bash my site!

wrollins · 7-21-04, 06:58 PM

i'd appreciate any and all comments, suggestions, flames, bashings, trashings, etc on my always-a-work-in-progress (aren't the all

) website.

i'm realize i'm no design guru, so take it as it is. i've been your typical dreamweaver user but am slowly moving towards coding by hand after discovering notepad++ and improving my html skills.

my site is a personal site, mainly geared towards families and friends but my stats are already showing some really random hits from places i definitely don't know anyone. gotta love the random internet stalkers!

so withouth further adieu, i present http://www.williamrollins.net/ ready for your comments.

thanks!!

PS: the only thing i havent been able to figure out so far is why the navigation section spacing changes under the pictures page. i'd like to keep it consistently aligned as is the case with all the other pages. could it be some css issues since i call a different css file for the picture gallery?? i looked through it but couldn't determine where the line spacing would be determined

and i'm considering changing the left margin to something other than 0 because that's been suggested to a few other sites in this critque section...

7-21-04, 07:30 PM

i love it. colors work good toghter. it looks good to the eyes. personally i wish i thought of that layout for my web site. keep up the good work.

7-22-04, 08:38 AM

Your site is very streamlined and clean. I see what you mean about the 0 margins...especially there on the left, seems like it could benefit being in a little bit, both the name banner and the navigational links. Also I like to see some graphic/photo/picture/image on the homepage to catch my eye....you have your name banner but would also like to see some other image to add a bit more oomph, especially with your subdued colour scheme (just my preference, others like really streamlined). I had a problem with your photo page stretching my page on 800x600 resolution, so you are likely optimized for a higher resolution. Your welcome text and navigational link text is very small....but again, some people really like that...me, I've got old eyes!

And one strange anomaly....I visited your site twice and both times it started to open up the Adobe reader when I went to your homepage (but not completely, just got the start up for Adobe and then it went away). I notice you have some pdf files available on your site (but I didnt' click on them) and I wonder if you have something on the homepage that is triggering my Adobe to load.

Overall, your site looks really nice...I'd say you're off to a great start.

YvetteKuhns · 7-22-04, 04:48 PM

Quote:

I visited your site twice and both times it started to open up the Adobe reader when I went to your homepage (but not completely, just got the start up for Adobe and then it went away).

Hey, I saw that, too!

I am not a fan of grey websites. Too much grey is depressing. But it is neutral and doesn't compete with the images. If you change the leftmargin in the body tag to 5, your text should not be too close to the edge of the screen. The site needs a little more color.

I also thought the text appeared very small on my PC. Those using a Mac view in even smaller sizes. On the plus side, I was able to adjust the font size in the browser, which means you used relative size instead of fixed size. Thanks!

The home page could use more info and pizzazz to get people interested. Nice start to a personal website.

wrollins · 7-22-04, 07:10 PM

hmmm that's really strange about the adobe reader opening... i don't even have a single .pdf file in on my site (linked or not)

the only thing that i could possibly imagine would be the addon for awstats that i installed. it's a javascript that checks browsers for Java support, Macromedia Director Support, Flash Support, Real audio playing support, Quicktime audio playing support, Windows Media audio playing support, and (this could be the culprit) PDF support. i installed it purely out of curiousity, and don't really have any immediate plans to host any of that content so maybe i should turn it off and see if the problem persists...

that said, i tried unsuccessfully to recreate this in both IE and Firefox, but i only have the full version of adobe acrobat installed (not just the free reader) so maybe that's it??

this baffles me...

BWD: thanks for your reply. i had tried to keep it compatible for 800x600 and everything was good until i added my photo gallery and just forgot to check that again. thanks for pointing it out. i'll adjust accordingly soon. and i'm considering moving to a larger font size as well... the small font seems to be a trendy thing to do so i was trying it out for kicks, but as YvetteKuhns pointed out it's a relative size so your browser can increase/decrease to your will (but i realize most users won't think to do this though)

YvetteKuhns: thanks for your critiques. i was hoping you'd reply since your posts are always carefully thought out and full of excellent suggestions!

i'm going to try out a few more color schemes since i do agree that the gray can be kind of drab and depressing. and i'll look to spruce it up with some color pizzazz

when i find some decent pics that would be appropriate for each section.

the one thing i still can't fix is the navigation link section line spacing that changes under under the "Pictures" page. this ONLY happens in Firefox though (just tested in IE and it looks normal). any ideas out there?

thanks

YvetteKuhns · 7-22-04, 07:23 PM

Quote:

the one thing i still can't fix is the navigation link section line spacing that changes under under the "Pictures" page. this ONLY happens in Firefox though (just tested in IE and it looks normal). any ideas out there?

<table border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="101%" id="AutoNumber1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">

You have a width of more than 100% which is strange, but that code appears in the other pages. Try creating another Pictures page using one of the other pages as a template. You may have a missing closing tag or something that you overlooked. Sorry I was too busy to look for it.

You used a relative font size of 1, but I usually recommend using no smaller than 2 unless you are a used car salesman.

wrollins · 7-27-04, 12:52 AM

well i scrapped the whole thing and went for another complete overhaul, haha... i took a few suggestions into account (thanks again for all the comments) and am liking the results so far. there's a few more adjustments that i need to make to the pictures page (pics opening in the same thumbnail page causes an ugly table resizing), and maybe a little more content in some areas...

any other suggestions/comments/thoughts/critiques??

original design here:
http://www.williamrollins.net/

re-design here:
http://www.williamrollins.net/version3.0/

thanks in advance as always,
bill

YvetteKuhns · 7-27-04, 03:05 PM

The blue color scheme is more appealing to me, but those are the colors on my site. And I recently discovered that it is a sign of creativity and trust and perfect for Virgos! Anyway, the design still appears to the left and not centered which is noticeable in a higher screen resolution. But still much better!

wrollins · 7-27-04, 03:21 PM

is centering the whole design recommended? i went with the align left because i feel like most sites do it that way (cnn, abc, fox, espn, even powweb! to name a few). but it would be an easy fix if that's more appropriate for a personal site with the amount of content that i have...

7-27-04, 05:00 PM

I like that picture script you have there -- is that a custom script or one that you've downloaded? if you've downloaded it, whered you find it?

wrollins · 7-27-04, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blade83

I like that picture script you have there -- is that a custom script or one that you've downloaded? if you've downloaded it, whered you find it?

i used SPGM (Simple Picture Gallery Manager). i looked at Gallery and
Coppermine as well as a bunch of others, but felt they were more than i needed.

SPGM offered a simplistic interface that was pretty easy to customize and there are some really useful modules/plug-ins for it. i'm still working on tweaking a few things though, but i'd definitely recommend it.

7-22-04, 07:10 PM	#5
wrollins Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 30 Reputation: 5	hmmm that's really strange about the adobe reader opening... i don't even have a single .pdf file in on my site (linked or not) the only thing that i could possibly imagine would be the addon for awstats that i installed. it's a javascript that checks browsers for Java support, Macromedia Director Support, Flash Support, Real audio playing support, Quicktime audio playing support, Windows Media audio playing support, and (this could be the culprit) PDF support. i installed it purely out of curiousity, and don't really have any immediate plans to host any of that content so maybe i should turn it off and see if the problem persists... that said, i tried unsuccessfully to recreate this in both IE and Firefox, but i only have the full version of adobe acrobat installed (not just the free reader) so maybe that's it?? this baffles me... BWD: thanks for your reply. i had tried to keep it compatible for 800x600 and everything was good until i added my photo gallery and just forgot to check that again. thanks for pointing it out. i'll adjust accordingly soon. and i'm considering moving to a larger font size as well... the small font seems to be a trendy thing to do so i was trying it out for kicks, but as YvetteKuhns pointed out it's a relative size so your browser can increase/decrease to your will (but i realize most users won't think to do this though) YvetteKuhns: thanks for your critiques. i was hoping you'd reply since your posts are always carefully thought out and full of excellent suggestions! i'm going to try out a few more color schemes since i do agree that the gray can be kind of drab and depressing. and i'll look to spruce it up with some color pizzazz when i find some decent pics that would be appropriate for each section. the one thing i still can't fix is the navigation link section line spacing that changes under under the "Pictures" page. this ONLY happens in Firefox though (just tested in IE and it looks normal). any ideas out there? thanks Last edited by wrollins : 7-23-04 at 01:03 AM.

7-27-04, 03:05 PM	#8
YvetteKuhns Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Allentown, PA USA Posts: 14,885 Reputation: 447	The blue color scheme is more appealing to me, but those are the colors on my site. And I recently discovered that it is a sign of creativity and trust and perfect for Virgos! Anyway, the design still appears to the left and not centered which is noticeable in a higher screen resolution. But still much better! __________________ Yvette Kuhns Power Pages Web Design Customized Internet Advertising Solutions

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7-21-04, 06:58 PM	#1
wrollins Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 30 Reputation: 5	please review/critique/bash my site! i'd appreciate any and all comments, suggestions, flames, bashings, trashings, etc on my always-a-work-in-progress (aren't the all ) website. i'm realize i'm no design guru, so take it as it is. i've been your typical dreamweaver user but am slowly moving towards coding by hand after discovering notepad++ and improving my html skills. my site is a personal site, mainly geared towards families and friends but my stats are already showing some really random hits from places i definitely don't know anyone. gotta love the random internet stalkers! so withouth further adieu, i present http://www.williamrollins.net/ ready for your comments. thanks!! PS: the only thing i havent been able to figure out so far is why the navigation section spacing changes under the pictures page. i'd like to keep it consistently aligned as is the case with all the other pages. could it be some css issues since i call a different css file for the picture gallery?? i looked through it but couldn't determine where the line spacing would be determined and i'm considering changing the left margin to something other than 0 because that's been suggested to a few other sites in this critque section...

7-21-04, 07:30 PM	#2
cavey Posts: n/a	i love it. colors work good toghter. it looks good to the eyes. personally i wish i thought of that layout for my web site. keep up the good work.

7-22-04, 08:38 AM	#3
BWD Posts: n/a	Your site is very streamlined and clean. I see what you mean about the 0 margins...especially there on the left, seems like it could benefit being in a little bit, both the name banner and the navigational links. Also I like to see some graphic/photo/picture/image on the homepage to catch my eye....you have your name banner but would also like to see some other image to add a bit more oomph, especially with your subdued colour scheme (just my preference, others like really streamlined). I had a problem with your photo page stretching my page on 800x600 resolution, so you are likely optimized for a higher resolution. Your welcome text and navigational link text is very small....but again, some people really like that...me, I've got old eyes! And one strange anomaly....I visited your site twice and both times it started to open up the Adobe reader when I went to your homepage (but not completely, just got the start up for Adobe and then it went away). I notice you have some pdf files available on your site (but I didnt' click on them) and I wonder if you have something on the homepage that is triggering my Adobe to load. Overall, your site looks really nice...I'd say you're off to a great start.

7-27-04, 12:52 AM	#7
wrollins Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 30 Reputation: 5	well i scrapped the whole thing and went for another complete overhaul, haha... i took a few suggestions into account (thanks again for all the comments) and am liking the results so far. there's a few more adjustments that i need to make to the pictures page (pics opening in the same thumbnail page causes an ugly table resizing), and maybe a little more content in some areas... any other suggestions/comments/thoughts/critiques?? original design here: http://www.williamrollins.net/ re-design here: http://www.williamrollins.net/version3.0/ thanks in advance as always, bill

7-27-04, 03:21 PM	#9
wrollins Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 30 Reputation: 5	is centering the whole design recommended? i went with the align left because i feel like most sites do it that way (cnn, abc, fox, espn, even powweb! to name a few). but it would be an easy fix if that's more appropriate for a personal site with the amount of content that i have...

7-27-04, 05:00 PM	#10
blade83 Posts: n/a	I like that picture script you have there -- is that a custom script or one that you've downloaded? if you've downloaded it, whered you find it?