Crtique of Site Redesign

A change of color scheme will be nice.

a:link.class
a:visited.class
a:active.class
a:hover.class

Consider a:link to be an attribute so you don't forget.

a.class:link works in IE, but isn't valid.

And the links need to be in the order above for hover to work.

Suzanne

Thanks for the CSS info. That helps me with a new solution to control the hover effects etc.

What exactly is wrong with the colors? Blue and greens are usually pretty neutral. Not offensive, and no bright.

Brian Wilmot

Since I'm already posted a critique of this before the board was upgraded, and I think you remember it, I'll just point out the major problems again.

1) Color scheme. Ouch! That bright olive green color doesn't go with the rest of the site at all. You might want to consider adding some grey to the color scheme.

2) Logo. Very boring. No symbol or icon or logo, just text. I would add something cool that signifies the site, as well as spice up the text.

3) Side menus. I believe the side menus don't have to be so wide. They only leave a little room for the actual content.

We might just have to agree to disagree on the colors. Except for the olive green. I might change that. What would you suggest: lignt red, Red?

With the menus, thats where I want the majority of the users to go to. Do you think that by making them smaller they would be less likely to be drawn to them? The menus (except for the left) go to sub sites of mine, or affiliate links. thats where I'd like to direct traffic. I triedmaing the left menu smaller, but isyndicate content looked real bad when condensed.

Do you think the mouseover color works (light green) I know I need to reduce the amount of it. Problems on way to being solved.

Brian Wilmot
http://www.uglybillboards.com/ (Newest Project)

It doesn't look good at all at my resolution. E-Mail me if you want a screenshot or something, but it looks pretty bad. FYI: 1280x1024

There isn't much room for content, while the sidebars take up tons of room. Remember, users go for the content, not the sidebars!

The colors are ok, but things seem a little cluttered. You might want to have less colors. I see:

• Light Green
• Medium Green
• Dark Green
• Navy
• Bright Blue (links)
• Black
• Light Yellow
• Dark Yellow
• White

Thats quite a few.

Also, you could have done much better with the logo. It is huge, and not really creative.

Sorry for my harsh words, but that's what I think. Good luck improving your site!

Brian,
Hope some of the following is of help:
1)Links: you use all of the following as links:
a)black, non serif normal font
b)blue non seif normal font
c)blue non serif bold font
d)black serif normal font
e)blue serif bold font
f)white non serif normal font
and I think there are a couple of variations in font size.

This is poor usability. It will confuse users who function best on blue or something close to it

2)Fonts I won't list all the fonts you use, but there is at least 10 with no real rhyme or reason to it. Pick a body text and stick to it, pick a link test and stick to it etc etc

3)layout, the columns at the left and right are too wide.
4)the logo is too simple/boring
5)the login button is too big
6)I couldn't see a privacy statement anywhere

Hope some of the above helps

Dr Gonzo

bwilmot requested a screenshot via e-mail and I have sent it to him.

Phew...

- There is links all over the place. Right from the start I'm confused.

- Use a brighter color scheme all the bigger engines have bright ones that catch your eye.

- I am on that high screen resolution too and there is like no room on the sidebars.

- You need a better logo. Just the text won't do. Unless you add like little picture things to the text like Yahoo! does.

- Good domain. People will remember it and come back to it.

Try to get rid of some links and stuff and make it look less cluttered. Change the color scheme to something lighter and fix up your logo. It will look much better then.

Thecolumn problem seems to be originating with my tables being in percentages. How would you get around this without making resolution specific pages?

I believe all the fonts are the same. Are you viewing it with a mac? They don't support Arial I don't believe so that could be the problem. I'll look at redundency consistency.

Logo - Yes it is simple. I'm working on getting that fixed. I just need something functional for the time being. But, I hate the yahoo logo. Its horrible. Talk about antialiasing needed. Just had to say that.

Some of the big engines have horrbiel design. Ugly, loud, and dsiorginized. Altavista before the redesign is an example. You werent able to find anything on that page. I'll fix the link colors even though all of two diff. colors for links on different backgrounds doesn't seem bad to me.

By colors aren't bright cause thats the point. I hate brightcolored pages, so I built this page with that in mind.

Thanks for your help.
It nice to have a different set of eyes viewing it.

Brian Wilmot

Have the left and right columns set to a pixel width (such as 125) and the center column to 100%. This will have pages with sidebars the same on all resolutions.

Dr Gonzo mentioned Font SIZE not actual font. The sizes of fonts change from place to place. As long as it is reasonable, it isn't a problem.

Macs do support Arial, as long as that font is installed. Macs come with it installed by default.

Abahta, thanks again for the e-mail/screenshot and the clarification. I'm currently working on getting some of these problems resolved. I hate to hard code table widths. In smaller windows the page can look real bad. Thats why I've gone with percents. Do you think suchhigh resolutions are really worth the hassle, considering the small amount of users at that res.

Brian Wilmot

1) Put some color in the logo

2) Change the colors

3) Arail?! ugh, Maybe it is just me, but I really hate that font

4) The sidebars are WAY to big

5) The bottom of the sidebars are a different color, dunno if I like that...

Good luck with the site!

I only know 2 others that work at over 1024x768 so it is no big deal. However, things are slowly shifting towards these resolutions, so it is good to make it look good on them.

Hi again,
sorry I wasn't clearer about the fonts - as was menioned the size does vary, but you also slip between serif and non serif fonts. I can see why you have the smaller font under the link titles, but some of the others mystify me - feel free to change font size and style as you see fit, but it is best done with a reason behind it. Personally I prefer non-serif font so would suggest you streamline the site by sticking just to a non serif. Try verdana - it is OK

Re the columns, if you used a percentile split of say 15/70/15 then it would work reasonably well, though you'd need to wrap some of your link titles - at the moment the columnsare way too wide (I'm on 1024*768)

BTW I'm on NN 4.71 W98

Seeya

dr Gonzo

I think the design itself is good- but the sites content is lacking, as such, in that there isn't really anything to bring the users back, and nothing to differentiate it from say Yahoo, Dmoz or ABout.com.

Adam

Adaml - I'm working on the content, I have to have some traffic before I can consider spending a large amount of money on content. Most of what I have is avaliable cheeply or free. It started as just kind of an experiment, but I thought I'd try to make something of it. Its also a compliment (or will be) to its sub sites. Uglybillboards and digital inspector etc. More to come.

I think Arial is simple and good. Can't stand the Times that a alot of sites use.

Lets agree to diagree on the colors. They aren't changing.

I know I know I'll work on the logo. Actually am working on it now.

Dr. Gonzo - Where do you see this? I don't see where the font type shift is. The sizeand boldness is dependant on trying to get a good heirarchy going. It tough to balance the size of the headings with the sub content etc. I changed the urls(mousovers and some bolding) If you have specific suggestions I'd appreciate them. I'd change the menus in a heartbeat, but I know people stil use 640xwhatever the other dimensiopn is. I'm trying to find an optimum width.

Thanks everyone for their posts. This has been very helpful and educational. Its given me an idea of what others thinik. Ater working with it for so long you need a different set of eyes to look at it.

Brian Wilmot

Hi again,
front page.
At the lower section (with the greenish background) and again further down where the screen is white the font is a serif fonr - my guess is Times, but who knows. The rest of that page is in some sans serif font - arial?

I'm on NN 4.71 w98 - let me know if you need a screen shot.

Cheers

Dr Gonzo