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Hi Chad
Many thanks. I had been thinking about that so have made the change with new nav bar background color so the logo is visible
I hope the site is now getting more up to a pro standard
I am still thinking about a total revamp in wordpress however, having seen such pro sites on this site!
All depends if I can find a good template having determined the needs of the site
Thanks again
Originally Posted by whland
The logo is bent way out of proportion at the moment. Make sure to refresh your browser to see what we are seeing. You really don't want it set at width: 970px when its natural width is about 221px.
Thanks for your message. At the last update the authoring software totally corrupted the entire site, so I have now repaired it
and it should be appearing ok now. Hope so!
Yep, working now.Although I find the contrast between the logo and the gray background a bit harsh on my screen.
Yes I am not happy with the grey tone and indeed had problems even changing from the black
Should it be a lighter tone of grey? or another colour? Art is NOT my strong point!
Have you changed the shade of gray? It looks lighter now ... much better.
Oh, uh, hi! I guess that kind of obliges me to review your site - I see what you did thereFor example Connor4312 and his reply to corwinmso, here goes. As always, I apologize in advance for being nitpicky, but the pixels matter. That's why print designers don't automatically make good web designers, after all.
- The header needs to be more flowy. A continuous bar/s across the top would be much nicer Possiblly, with a little modification of layout, a header similar to <http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/> would work out.
- Add more padding after the header, before the title.
- Have the "Facebook" "Tumblr" "Twitter" buttons stretch all the way across the sidebar, but keep the text centered.
- Remove the right border from the content area if you add a white background. Reduce the intensity of the border on the left, and bring the border/s up to cover the entire sidebar. A table would work perfectly for this.
- With a gradiented background, it's best to have the content area backed by a solid color. In general, you want to avoid color changes behind body text/area. It would benefit from a plain, white background.
- Make the navigation buttons shorter. You may wish to remove the background altogether if you go with the tutsplus feel. Otherwise, I would make it into a "pilled" box, like <http://puu.sh/15TsV>
- Argh! Header in Arial again! Use some different fonts for headings and titles. You can find a list of web safe fonts <http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/16-gorgeous-web-safe-fonts-to-use-with-css> or check out the free Google Webfonts <http://www.google.com/webfonts>. Although Arial (aka 'sans-serif' on most systems) is fine for body text, I personally prefer "Droid Sans," which you may find on Google Webfonts. It's on its way to becoming the next Helvetica, it seems.
- Ok, it's a nice microphone, but it doesn't have a place there.
- Giving half-again line height ("line-height:1.5em" in CSS) increases the attractiveness and readability of body text.
- Share stuff should go at the bottom of the page, after everything else, just before the footer.
- The "Other TV Shows" buttons are nor vertically centered.
- The microphone <http://puu.sh/15TEp> seems awkwardly squeezed in. I would take it out - the page has already filled its quota of visual interest.
- On the same page, have the music Tweet buttons all the way below the music players, and have their right edges aligned with the music players' right edges.
- On the same page, the red text burns! Apply a nice, subtle background to that area instead.
- On the contact page, the form alignment is off in Chrome <http://puu.sh/15THe>
- On the home page, the Privacy Settings button is unnecessary. Users already have a choice not to be tracked (called "Do Not Track"), a feature which, with its addition to Google Chrome in November, will be implemented on all major browsers.
- Finally, the footer should be a little more different form the rest of the page.
To answer your question. I have never liked the so-called "web authoring tools," i.e. those that let you drag and drop around pretty pictures to make a website. I firmly believe that the best way to build a website is by hand. It's more efficient (so faster download), hand-coded sites tend to be modular and maintainable by necessity, and moreover you get to know how your site works and how to edit it easily. You also avoid the temptation of the easy out, for example, "make me a dropdown menu" button, where a hand-coded method would generally lead to more care being put into it and thus better results. In web design, don't rush. Sure, try and find the most efficient way to get towards and goal, but don't cut the corners of quality in that mission.
Having said that, I'm sure there are some good authoring tools that generate decent, fairly efficient code. A simple judge of the quality of code is by looking at it. Good code will look clean and organized. Bad code will look like a blob.
If you want a way to simple manage your website's content, you can look at something like Wordpress. Here's a beautiful little illustration to show a content management system vs a web authoring system. In a content system, the template is truly independent of the site.
15T8w.png
Anyhow, good luck on the site.
Yes I have thanks for your comments MUCH valued
I copied the top part of the background and inserted this as a background png
connor4312 THANK YOU THANK YOU
so much valuable detail - I will make changes
I forgot to also thank you for your graphic and comment on Wordpress.
In an earlier reply in this thread it was mentioned that what matters, amongst other things, is content and the choice of web authoring software is less critical
For SEO I think I must now write a regular blog and if people do find the site they find a professional looking site. It is not that yet.
So if a blog will be key and while I improve the site I am also reviewing now the need for a total redesign and use Wordpress.
So before I launch into this learning curve any comments? I have seen it written that Wordpress is "so" Google friendly. Is this really the case. Does G respond to the authoring format?
No problem. For Wordpress, the control panel is one of the most intuitive and easy to use on the admin site. In terms of custom theme development, well, I always feel like I'm trying to wrestle with it rather than smoothly create. You can do it, just it doesn't feel "graceful/" Then again, I've only made four or five custom themes, so it'll get easier I'm sure.
Wordpress is fairly SEO-friendly, and there are a myriad of extensions to expand on that, such as http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/.
Thanks again to all who have added so much detail. Am amazed at how many Wordpress templates there are!
If anyone on their trawls sees a wp theme with
static uppper part of the page then a screen to play video and a bar to play a sound and below this
Three columns showing tweets, logos, blog that would be great.
Meanwhile I scan templates, learn up wp and try to identify what is the closest template that may be used without too much code editing
I can only complete some of the changes - all are super valid from connor4312 and MUCH appreciated. The software I used does not open up to allow editing of CSS and other elements
Had I used my previous software it would ! Wrong choice. Better still as he writes, start a site from scratch.
So I am now working on an entire redesign.
O dear! It's definitely worth switching to something else, then.
Hello Peter,
You have made a very good website, it features everyting we need to know about you!
There are some improvements that could be made in my opinion
The first thing I noticed when my browser loaded the website was a very oldskool lay-out/design.
This is because of a couple of reason, I will give an overview the reasons + a possible fix for you here:
- Logo: The logo is a bit too sharp, round the edges to make it look softer. Maybe add an effect like shade to it.
- Icons: The social media icons are basically the same sharpness as the logo, find some better looking ones. Google: social icons.
- Background: The background color is too dull/dark, maybe just go for the plain white. It has been proven to be the best in most occasions. =)
- Colors: Add more colors to the website to make it more alive. Pictures are also good.
Well I hope my feedback helps you improve the website a bit,
Milan
Thank you very much for your valuable advice
I am going to start a total redesign and also use other colours and a new logo as with the authoring pack that I used for this site, this time, it is too limited in its functionality
I wanted to get a site up fairly quickly and it has ended up taking much longer due to poor initial template and lack of full CSS and other editing functions
Also red and blue are harsh colours
Thanks again
I think your site is good for what you want to do. I think with services businesses where you don't really rely on the fancy designs and images this is a good start because it gets straight to the point and the fact that it looks genuinely written makes it feel as though you have put in the effort to focus on what you are writing and saying which for your purposes as a voice over man makes sense.
Saying that there are lots of ways to improve the overall design by using some colours that stand out more.
Another thing of note is that I would expect that you are trying to build more interest in your service and therefore your contact button has to be bigger. I believe it needs to be enlarged and needs to be so obvious that you are trying to get people to contact you. Maybe creating a larger icon and a caption to get people to contact you on every page would help in this.
I hope that helps and good luck with the site.
Thank you very much - I have spent so many hours on this, wastefully, due to my level of competence and in my view a very limiting (in terms of no deep code editing) ie wrong authoring package, that your words are hugely encouraging, thank you! It is hard to know what NOT to include. Sites can work with concise text. Also there is a risk I think if too many services are offered. Focus focus, I hear!
I will make the call button larger, good point, and carry all the advice on this thread into my new design that is via another software route.
Great effort. In my view, the website looks good, just an idea about the coloring, may be a bit too dark.
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