Asia Weekly Magazine... help me rip it apart

[Newviewit]

Ok I'm still tweaking a few things but could use someone with a keen eye for detail to absolutely rip this thing apart down to the smallest details...

It's got another week or so before going live, got the fake content in there for now while I upload the new content...so here it is:

first/second/third level designs:

http://www.scientificoutlook.com/home.html
http://www.scientificoutlook.com/Opinion-Asia
http://www.scientificoutlook.com/Business-Asia.html

and subscriptions/advertising sign up:
http://www.scientificoutlook.com/subscribe
http://www.scientificoutlook.com/advertising

Please note that the menu is not finished because all the pages are not uploaded yet.

Thanks a bunch, I look forward to your comments, and have a great day!

[MadHat]

First Impressions:

• Clean
• Easy on the eyes
• Reminds me of a mixture of bbc.co.uk and another corporate news site * that I cant quite put my finger on right now (sorry)

* Suggests profesionalism!


Nitty Gritty
General

• Search almost looks hidden, perhaps make the "search" button bigger or the textbox itself
• Possibly try and vertically align the logo with the ad space, small point I know but it nagged me once I noticed it
• The free trial doesn't really jump out as much as it should, possibly make the web 2.0 starburst red

Navigation

• The silver rollover images make the text hard to read, try making the rollover/active tab graphic a lighter or darker shade of maroon
• The "go" and "ok" shiney buttons, again the gradient is too close to the font colour
• The left column "go" (for directors, blog etc.) images, make the location static, they look a bit too messy, also possibly add a red arrow on the right ( eg. [go>]side of them to make them jump out
• Lowest images (covers/news by country etc.) look unloved and slapdash. Try removing the bevel and adding a curved maroon border instead
• Gradient behind the aforementioned lowest images also looks strange and out of place.

Hope my points are helpful to you. On the whole I like the feel of the site, but with a few tweaks it could be better for your customers

[Newviewit]

Yes that's exactly the 'nitty gritty' stuff I've been looking for... thanks a bunch buddy!

Anyone with something else to ad?

[ilyalyu]

1. There is a problem with red menu in FF. When the mouse is over the leftmost item rounded corner changes to square.
2. I think left menu could be improved.
3. The string "Enter email address" in the imput field does not disappear when it is focussed.
Otherwise the website looks nice.

[ccRicers]

The style looks perfect for the magazine. It's very professional and the colors used are well-balanced. I like the slanted tabs on the various content boxes in the top and the right side.

I'm having the same issue with the first and last top menu items turning from rounded to square. The text in the items is too dark. Use white or a very light gray color. Left menu, same issue. The contrast between the grayish-blue background and blue text isn't great enough.

Not a big fan of the beveled picture buttons on the bottom. Some of the images are stretched, and it looks just thrown together. And it's strange to see the same menu repeated twice on the bottom. I don't mean duplicating links, I mean the entire design being re-used.

[pixelsoul]

Overall looks clean good.. like the poster above said, the bevel & emboss and the stretched pics don't look really good.

I would change the bg color from the left menu also when you hover over it.

The top corner has a tiny imperfection atleast in FF 3

[msl]

Site is down, nothing to review.

[Newviewit]

Yep the address above was the testing server... it's now live at

www.asia-weekly.com

[LisaAa]

Hi, here is what I would change about your site :

I would not use the name of the categories as <H1> such as home in the code. I would for example use the same font for the word "home" but put keywords in the H1.

I would use meta descritions in your code.

The riverside inn ad is too far from the overall design of the site in my opinion.

Good luck!

[Ken Sharpe]

Your main issue here is information hierarchy -- what is my eye supposed to focus on first? second? It's just a sea of similarly colored blobs of text.