ActiveWM.com

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

Please tell me what you think of my site at http://www.ActiveWM.com/

Thanks!

They have: 314 posts

Joined: Nov 1999

Hi,

I like it, and can't see that much wrong with it but I'm not all that great at webdesign. What I would say however is that for your links you need them to change colour on mouseover. And on your left and right coloumns you have little black lines that seperate stufff, on the right coloumn it looks fine but on the left it looks strange having one at ther bottom of your links. Also, it looks kind of strange having one line across the bottom onm your right one as well but the other line son the right look fine.

Just my views....

They have: 677 posts

Joined: Mar 1999

Seems this design is popular for webmaster sites.

A little too much space between your banner, your "welcome" and "news" tables. Put them closer together. The last thing is i recommend you get rid of the last banner at the bottom, I think one is plenty. Good Luck!
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Ken Prescott
http://www.21studios.com

Ken Prescott

They have: 184 posts

Joined: Jun 2000

Scrap the design. It's overused.

Other than that? Look to those people whose posts rest above this one, for they offer insight.

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

I don't understand what you mean.

Overused?

I haven't seen any sites quite like it. Post URLs if you can.

They have: 184 posts

Joined: Jun 2000

Hmm... I can't remember any URL's, offhand, but there were a number of web sites [Including Matt Kaufman's] that kind of fell into this kind of design.

Mike Fisher
Hypertrophy (design)
[email protected]
ICQ: 38389521
"Taking over TWF, one post at a time."

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

OK, yeah I do remember webmasterdir.com

However, that site is no longer on the net. I did not copy Matt's site either.

Any other sites? You said that it was overused

And please, I'd like constructive comments about my site.

Thanks

-Aidan Bahta
[email protected]

ActiveWM.com - The place for the Active Webmaster.

Justin S's picture

They have: 2,076 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Hmm, yeah, I agree that this type of design is used too much. Thick black borders, menu with descriptions, etc.. Used too much. Some site like it: http://www.devshed.com http://www.webdevresources.com http://www.webdevhq.com/beta

Anyway...

1) Add bullets to the menu. It will make it look more organized in my opinion.

2) There needs to be more space for the banners. They're really squished in there.

3) The overall feel of the site is boxy. You don't have one curved line in the whole site. Not good...

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Oh no, not another one! Maybe it's just that we've seen a lot of sites like this posted in this forum...

I like the logo - that part looks really good. Otherwise the deisgn looks like many others I've seen before. Experiment! Try something different!

YOu need a larger variety of articles on here - you've got three about optimizing download speeds. Some of these titles and explanations have grammatical problems as well.

What is the deal with those link explanations? A lot of sites seem to be doing this and it's almost always unnecessary IMHO.

As I said to dangelo, there are tons of other sites like this out there. You'll need a) a more unique design and b) a lot more content to stand out from the crowd and attract regular visitors.

They have: 98 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

I'd suggest using the same color scheme but with a different table format. Try something new and original rather than boxy traditional tables.

If you really want to stick with this design though, try adding some symbols and images for the different menu, voting, subscribing, and content areas.

R Smith
The XRS Network - Webmaster and Developer Resources, Tools, etc.
XRSolutions - Professional yet Affordable Design and Development.
Unified - An Extensive Site Dedicated to Creed.

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

Justin: I agree, my site IS too boxy. But the way I have things set up, I'd have to redo the entire site in order to add rounded corners. In the next design I will most likely used rounded conrers.

Megan Jack: I agree with you, I need more content and I need it fast. I hope to convert to the site to a PHP/MySQL database driven site in a few weeks, but I am not sure yet.

Yeah, there are 3 articles on speeding up sites. That's because I had a lineup of articles for my newsletter, and they don't say the same thing over and over.

The link explanations are unneccesary for the most part, but there are people who don't know what "articles" are. also, by having descriptions I have more keywords on the page, which can help me with the engines.

Thanks to all for your comments. From your help, I have determined that my redesign will include:

- More graphics
- Rounded corners
- More content

Keep suggestions coming in, I'd like to hear more Smiling

-Aidan Bahta
[email protected]

ActiveWM.com - The place for the Active Webmaster.

They have: 472 posts

Joined: Oct 1999

I've seen similar sites with similar color schemes as yours. You need something more original.

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

What do you mean? Using blue and gray is not original?

Yes, I know that many sites use blue and gray. But I think it is the best looking set of colors. I don't mind that more sites use blue than any other color - it means nothing.

Please support your point a little more Smiling

-Aidan Bahta
[email protected]

ActiveWM.com - The place for the Active Webmaster.

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

any other comments?

They have: 324 posts

Joined: Dec 1999

Who closed this thread? I just re-opened it...

They have: 184 posts

Joined: Jun 2000

Really, I think the design needs to stray away from the whole 'Blue-Grey' or whatever thing. Originality is key to grab visitors and keep them on your web site.

But, hey, if you don't like it, that's just perfectly fine with me.

[Edit: Whoa! I almost deleted this! Damnable board playing tricks on me!]

Mike Fisher
Hypertrophy (design)
[email protected]
ICQ: 38389521
"Taking over TWF, one post at a time."

They have: 58 posts

Joined: Jul 2000

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