Any and all Suggestions appreciated (Full Version)

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mistareno -> Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 12:44:55)

G'day,

I do a website website for my car club and have just given it a freshen up.

I'm only a novice and have only learned through trial and error (more error) so any and all suggestions on how it can be improved would be greatly appreciated.

www.renaultnet.org



rdouglass -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:00:36)

quote:

I'm only a novice


Nice site for a novice. Very nice for a novice. Are you sure you're a novice or just plugging for a good backlink? [;)]

Calendar took a looooong time to load for me on a T-1 line.



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:08:14)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rdouglass

quote:

I'm only a novice


Nice site for a novice. Very nice for a novice. Are you sure you're a novice or just plugging for a good backlink? [;)]

Calendar took a looooong time to load for me on a T-1 line.


Not sure why the calendar was slow to load...

It's quite a small page really.

Defenitely just a novice, but if I had my time over, I'd love to have gone the web designer route.

I started the clubs site about 3 years ago and it's the only site I've done. It's been through quite a few rebuilds in that time though[:)]



anderskorte -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:10:34)

Veeery nice. Great work with the Renault logo, the website feels very much Renaultish and automotive.

Put more contrast to the grey area on the right, so it stands out better as an introduction. Something like #666666 or darker with white text. Use the same look on other pages, too. I don't know how it would go with the rest of the design though, feel free to experiment.

By the way, I can see you know a thing or two about graphic design. The presentation is very clear and usable.



Seventh -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:27:17)

Please forgive me, but I've seen this design somewhere else. Not sure where, but I remember this whole layout. Is this a template?[sm=ask.gif]



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:32:20)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Seventh

Please forgive me, but I've seen this design somewhere else. Not sure where, but I remember this whole layout.[sm=ask.gif]


Not unless you happen to own a Renault[:)]

The previous design was similar but had a java banner and only 2 columns on the home page and was longer with more text on the news items.

It was a bit cluttered and you didn't see much of the content without scrolling down.



Seventh -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:43:20)

quote:

Not unless you happen to own a Renault

I think you're missing the point. What I'm asking is were your design choices inspired by another site. When I clicked on the link I immediately recognized the layout and the colors, not the content. The way it's laid out is more than familiar to me for some reason.

And I think you were responding when I was editing my post. My last question was 'is this a template?'

EDIT---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, don't answer that. Who cares? It looks nice.[8D]



Tailslide -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:50:42)

The word "template" is mentioned a lot in the markup.... could just be the way the OP has structured the site though.

(There's nothing wrong with using a templates for your site - if it is a template then it's better to mention it in your post so that we know what we're critiquing. )



womble -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 13:53:42)

Very nice. Just one criticism - please ditch the flashing "new" arrow - it looks tacky.



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:00:11)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Seventh

quote:

Not unless you happen to own a Renault

I think you're missing the point. What I'm asking is were your design choices inspired by another site. When I clicked on the link I immediately recognized the layout and the colors, not the content. The way it's laid out is more than familiar to me for some reason.

And I think you were responding when I was editing my post. My last question was 'is this a template?'


I'm not sure if I should be offended but it is defenitely my own design and a direct evolution of the last design. As for inspiration, every site I visit, has aspects I like and dislike.

I know I'm only a newby here, but maybe if you think my site is a copy or rip off then you should prove it before tarring me with a brush.

BTW it's not a template.




womble -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:06:15)

Mistarano - I'm sure no-one meant to offend you. As Tailslide said, it's just if it's a template then we'd probably critique it slightly differently.



Tailslide -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:06:25)

I'd be flattered if I were you mistareno - you said you were "only a novice" but your site has a very professional look to it. So much so that there was the instant suspicion that it was a template!

Only thing I'd say is that some of the text is very small - you're using "pts" to size the text which is a bit of a no-no as it can't be resized properly. Ideally stick to percentages (maybe around 74%?) or ems. I personally have more luck with % than ems.

All we have to do is convert you to using CSS and we'll be out of a job... hang on a minute....



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:07:08)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Tailslide

The word "template" is mentioned a lot in the markup.... could just be the way the OP has structured the site though.

(There's nothing wrong with using a templates for your site - if it is a template then it's better to mention it in your post so that we know what we're critiquing. )


Oh brother...

You will find the term 06TEMPLATEFILES and 06TEMPLATEIMAGES about a squillion times in the source as that is where (strangely enough) the Template Images (mainly the tags and vertical page labels are located) and the top menu and slideshow (now flash) are located in the 06TEMPLATEFILES sub directory.

I had to put them in different sub directories when I updated the site as some images and files in the web were of the same name and I wanted to try and keep it all organised a bit better than last time



Tailslide -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:09:44)

^ see my last post!



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:17:10)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Tailslide

^ see my last post!


Sorry, just read your earlier post...

As for CSS, I really should learn how to utilise it as I know it saves alot of work. Especially if you stuff something up.
Can you recommend any self teach books on CSS?






Seventh -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:17:56)

quote:

I'm not sure if I should be offended but it is defenitely my own design and a direct evolution of the last design. As for inspiration, every site I visit, has aspects I like and dislike.

Sorry, mistareno, I'm not trying to offend you at all and I'm not accusing you of ripping off anyone.

As far as the template issue, I asked that question because I was wondering if that's what it was. You said it wasn't and I'll accept that.

Yes, inspiration comes from any and everywhere. I agree with you on that.

By the way, welcome to OutFront. Helluva introduction, dontcha think?[;)]



Tailslide -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/30/2006 14:20:59)

There's a load of 'em. I've found that "Designing with Web Standards" by Jeffrey Zeldman and "Bulletproof Web Design" by Dan Cederholm are good.

In general though you might be better off starting with some online tutorials.

Here are 2 particularly good ones:
http://www.cssbasics.com/
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/cssbeginner/

You'll find that lists come in very handy when laying out your CSS sites (for stuff like navigation for instance) and one of the best resources on the web for styling lists especially for navigation is:
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/31/2006 0:11:49)

As a side issue, I was thinking about changing the content labels from individual gifs (as they are at the moment) to a uniform background gif with html text.

This is how the site looks now seperate tags- Renaultnet

This is how it would look with the html text instead - Renaultnet with HTML tags

or with lowercase html text instead - Renaultnet with lower case HTML tags

FWIW I would probably change the first and last line of Flash Text to Lower Case to maintain the style if I went with lower case but would leave the Navigation text in upper case.

Do you think the trade off in download speed is worth it?

It would probably save a little work in the future but does it look much worse/better?



Tailslide -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/31/2006 2:56:30)

Personally I'm all in favour of using text rather than text-in-images - unless you're using image replacement techniques. The reason is for accessibility rather than download speed though! You could use normal upper/lower case text and then transform it to all lower using CSS - that way it all makes sense without the styling too.

So if you had all the headings (and they should be actual headings rather than just text made to look bigger/bolder) 

<h2>What's New</h2>


then in your CSS 

h2 {text-transform:lowercase;font-size:80%; font-weight:bold;}


I'm using h2 for these headings as I'm assuming the big heading h1 will be used for the main page heading.



mistareno -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (8/31/2006 3:36:29)

Thanks for that. At 88% the font in Upper Case looks almost exactly the same as the Flash text so I might stick with that.

What's the go with having a text size as a %?

The text is 88% of what?

Is it compatible with all browsers?

What are the advantages (apart from the wider range of sizes).

Do they render smoother?

FWIW, I'll defenitely take your suggestion re CSS on board but I'm not quite prepared to take the jump to CSS yet.

I might download First Expression and get confident using that before launching into another rebuild with CSS...



Midnight -> RE: Any and all Suggestions appreciated (11/3/2006 0:57:03)

I'd have to say that it's really professional. Really love it. I'm a newbie who knows nothing really. I'm reading these forums to find out things I may be doing wrong and for ideas. But top points from me.



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