opinions on concept, layout and graphic design

Oh, what a night. We ate, we drank, we made merry til quite late.... this is WAY YELLOW! :explode:

I'll check again in a few hours, a few aspirin, a few coffees.

Happy New year d-m!

ok, I'm much better now.

I think I like it. I really like the "jaggedy" page bottoms. Perhaps if you could incorporate some "edging" between the yellow and white it may be a little sharper? Both on the sides as well as the bottom

I'm undecided on your mouseovers. I've used the changing background approach once myself but not really sure if I like it in general.

hey - I agree it looks nice - however, I'm getting a display you don't want on N6 {see attachment) - I'm thinking placing a nbsp in that 60px width cell might help, but it looks like that'll just push it down

hmmm, no attachments, eh?

first impressions, awesome, clean, simple to the point but with shape and character.
for the star thingy at the top could try have the red and yellow dropped drop shadow (shadows on ground rather than behind) to give it some impact, the yellow banner itself is quite neat with the woodgrain effect but think the background yellow is clashing with it to much, maybe even a black line around your design could help. (below banner down and around)
as for the page links with the css background mouseover, if you want cheesy then go for it, I reckon that effect is one of the biggest "look i can do css" toys there is, doesnt do anything for your work. personaly I think you'd be spoiling it with it, just my opinion.
The more I look at it the more I am unsure about the red links at the bottom, it kind of gives another look to it which could be confused for another site if many windows are open (like I have now lol), maybe have the links within the white section?
depending on how much text you have, if you have a lot those indents could be a lil to much, if its like it is now or less should be fine.

useless information: we spell mom, mum, crazy huh

Got rid of the mouseover background. I will have to rethink my link colors after I decide what I am going to do with the colors for the layout.

I shall work on the top bar and see if I can make it a bit more interesting. I have tried different things with the "star thingy" and this was my favorite so far.(the Star of Life is the symbol for emergency medical services...your EMS lesson for the day;))

Quote: depending on how much text you have, if you have a lot those indents could be a lil to much, if its like it is now or less should be fine.

what do you mean by the above quote busy???

thanks mmi for the screenshot. That should be fixed now in NS.

I am still undecided on the yellow background. It does seem a bit much at first but it sorta grows on you (or it did me anyway).

I have done another version in blue. See what ya think.

BLUE VERSION

YELLOW VERSION

hey - I like both colors :rainbow: - maybe you could somehow (mmy favourite word in critiques ) work them both in - a couple of blue stripes in the "margins" near the top? - something that looks "medical?"

Looks good! I definitely like the blue background better. Interesting effect you've got on the bottom there! I like the one on the yellow page better though - less jaggy. I see you've got red yellow and blue in the tri-star thing or whatever you want to call it at the bottom. Maybe try to incorporate more red? I'm not sure how.

That's all I have to say.

Blue is better. It offers a nice contrast with the yellow and is easier on the eyes at higher res.

I liked the yellow, but blue could be better - flip a coin as both look good

At the top links, have you tried red (or yellow) links, with yellow (or red) on mouseover? and white for mouseover.
A little thing I do if I dont use underlines on links is to have a underline and different color (usually the hover color) on the page name your on, makes it kinda say "you are here"

Still reckon try the bottom links just above the jaggies.

Oh and as for the indenty quotey thingy ma bob
(i know your not) but it looks like your using two blockquote tags, when one is all thats needed, does that help or make sense? the text should be longer than the links text width (start before the "H" for home and end after the last "t" for contact

I tried the red and yellow for the links in the top nav but I felt that the red looked washed out and the yellow was a bit hard to see.

Good idea on making the current page nav link a different color. I am using a style sheet. How would I specify this for just one link?

Bottom links are just above the jaggies now. Does that look better??

Quote: Oh and as for the indenty quotey thingy ma bob

Are you talking about these that are in between the links---> ::

Quote: the text should be longer than the links text width (start before the "H" for home and end after the last "t" for contact

not sure what you mean about starting before the H etc. etc. busy :confused:

Hey Megan, I have found a new toy that I didn't know I had in Microsoft Image Composer. Look at the different effects I've used at the bottom of each page.

I have added another. Here are three. I have already chosen one but just want to see what you guys say.

Yellow
Blue #1
Blue # 2

I think your enjoying yourself to much on this one

can I pick the old blue? (less jaggies?)I think the jaggies you have now are to jaggied (thats gotta be a new word )

To do the current page link a different color (and i usually underline it as well) just make another class and add class="thename" into the link of the page your on (hope that makes sense)

Links above the jaggies? IMO looks better, but maybe different color and a fraction bigger (font size) or same as the top ones

the H and the t thing, i'll try a image do da
_ = blank space

______ Home :: Link :: Link
__Text should start before links width

with the text shorter than the links length, the page is made to look very skinny, sorry for not explaining it properly, and the :: is a nice effect, I'd do the ::'s a black thou.

I agree about the jaggies. Those new ones are nice but they just don't go with the smoother look you have for the rest of the design. Keep the old look.

Very nice

I like the blue but with the bottom torn look of the yellow one.

I likw Blue#1 best, but I am sure that blue#46 will be tremendous
It's always the small details that take the most time isn't it !!!

Mika

The forum is awfully quiet so I will give you all someone to fuss at.

Here is # 46

I still prefer the first blue one with the bottom part of the yellow one!

I hear ya Webmistress. But I just can't get that same effect in blue. Maybe in time. For now I have another accomplishment to tell you all about. I did my very first XHTML page tonight. And it even validated. I still need to work on my CSS a bit but it validated also. Can you believe it??? See HERE
:jump:
I was getting a bit depressed about this site because I can't get it like I want it but doing the XHTML page has really got me hyped. I better go get in the bed before I get started on PHP or PERL or something like that.

Bet ya'll think I am crazy. LOL

I like that one! Who's in the picture?

I perfer the other top section, this one looks like flames - kinda.

Congrats on the xHTML, easy huh, nothing to stop you now,
today xHTML, tomorrow Perl, PHP, MySql etc then your own language

Just a warning thou, just because it validates doesnt mean it displays the same in all browsers (wish it was that easy)

in IE, NS4.7, 6 and Opera I notice you've lost the grey button look on the top naviagation, the ends are there but not the mid section, (you can add a background image in your css)

in NS4.7 the contents section is now skinner than the top and bottom sections

in NS6 there is a gap between the yellow banner bit and the links

in Opera (set as Opera) is same as IE

Sorry to be the one to burst your bubble

That is my daughter. Isn't she a beauty? And my dog.
She was "critiquing" my layout yesterday and asked me to put that picture online. The page called "Allie's Page" will be hers and the pic will go there when I finish. I was just filling space for now until I decide which layout I am going to use.

Oh, I won't leave those buttons (XHTML and CSS) on there. I just had to show off my new found talent.

Do all the tables and graphics line up properly? I figured that Netscape may throw things off a bit.

ACK!!! busy, why did you have to ruin my party? I figured that it would do that. The bar background should be there now. I had forgotten up re-upload my css file last night. Guess I got excited about the xhtml thing.

I don't know what I can change to fix the space in between the yellow banner and link bar. Any clues?

Quote: in NS4.7 the contents section is now skinner than the top and bottom sections

Do you mean that the table width is less than the top and bottom or do I just need to expand the cell that the text is in?

the cells beside the main content are blank, add the ole   and you should be right, its only really NS4.7, it also has a gap around the second to last table, try take out the valigns in the bottom tables and in the tr before it, or use valign="top".
trying to find the cause for NS6 but is a lil hard to read code when image tags are over seperate lines lol, try take out the valign="top" on the first td cell, or make it valign="bottom"

and you earned the right to use those buttons, display them proudly, show em off

the grey background shows now oh and you may want to check you alt tag on the 3 star thingys at the bottom

Is it fixed now?

Quote: trying to find the cause for NS6 but is a lil hard to read code when image tags are over seperate lines lol

When i was learnign xhtml they had the image tags displayed that way. Is it an xhtml requirement to do them that way or can you just leave them the old way?

XHTML doesnt have any layout requirements as such, just expects lowercase and all closed tags, the way the images tag have been done is a way, a personal preference, if you find it easy to code this way go for it, if you find it easier on one line with no gaps, go for it, just as long as you close things like and image tags you'll be right. its like doing your table like so:

...

i find it way easily and practcial to do it like so:

... with indents on both, but dont show up here.

Its better in NS4.7 but not quite right, still a slight gap in NS6 also, I'll download it and try some thing rather than try this and than - back soon

Ok, add border="0" into the second table, that fixs NS4.7's problems as for NS6, the background looks like it repeating itself but its not, also has the gap between the top and navigation. I have to get early tomorrow so better get to bed, I'll have another look in the morning for ya

add class="nav" into the 3rd table cell (has width of 100%), but leave the td class from the same table set there as well. that fixes the repeating/alignment problem on the navigation bar in NS6, still have a line under the yellow banner (is now yellow) thou.

I found the problem, just remove the doc type tag (one before the html tag) its only needed to validate, but wont validate without it, so validate it, then remove it and your alignment problems will be solved.

I've never come across this before, really weird

ok done. did that fix the line?
The tutorial that I have been using says this:

Quote: The is Mandatory
An XHTML document consists of three main parts:

the DOCTYPE
the Head
the Body

The DOCTYPE declaration should always be the first line in an XHTML document.

Are you sure that the DOCTYPE can be removed with no problems???

Quote: the DOCTYPE
the Head
the Body

what if you use frames? the body tag isnt used for a frameset page, what tutorial are you using?
so many how to sites out there are wrong and teach bad habits, never just use one or two, use as many as you can, I remember finding a html how to site and it said you didnt need end tags for things like the , , etc, so am guessing this person never used netscape or anything other than IE.
I have an old HTML tutorial site, once I get my own domain sorted am going to update it with XHTML stuff. [personal plug ]

your site displays the same in IE5, NS 4.7, 6, Opera6 (as opera, mozilla 5.0, 4.7, 3.0 and MSIE 5.0) thats without the doctype tag.

maybe later it may be needed, but for now its not, even that meta content type tag is new, only really is needed to validate pages and not much more but as things change things like that probably will be needed.
that charset tag, I reckon is going to be more hassle than its worth in the future, as you'll be required to install multi language plugins if your not using what the web master has stated. but thats another topic.

Oh and dont forget that 3 star image (sol.gif) it has the alt tag of the other image, alt="allie and purdie", and if you dont use a alt message, close the quotes, "", not " "

here is the tut that i used: http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp

i just found this at another site though

Quote: Don't be afraid of adding this line to your HTML documents. Browsers don't really use this information. Just remember to add it as the first line in your HTML files. It's only used when you validate your files.

Oh, I forgot to say a big "THANKS" busy!!

Your very welcome, am glad I could help