Easy Systems UK
Hi everyone
(especially Megan & KarenART) who helped me a great deal last time!
Well, I've reviewed a few more sites before posting this & have done a bit of a revamp with the colours. The whole site was initially to promote a small IT company, we build & sell custom PC's you see. Over time though, I want to incorporate more & more of my own personal interests into it too! I understand that a personal homepage & a business homepage cannot be mixed if you want to look really professional so I'm using this as a continual practice for the next few months. Employing new ideas, & really, it's going to be a bit of a test bed.
Eventually I'll buy a new domain & perhaps work on what I consider to be a proper business orientated site. In the mean time, I'm just playing around with ideas etc.
I know the site looks a bit dull, more graphics will be added, ( I'm becoming fairly decent with Photoshop now ) but what I need is some advice for the layout. Although done in FrontPage, ( I dont like dreamweaver ) its one of the first sites that I've done completeley on my own in terms of layout, table format & graphics, CSS etc. So this is quite a big deal for me. I like the narrow main body that a lot of sites adopt now so I've decidded to go with this.
Let me know what you think, be gentle, ( ) & I do understand it's very basic compared to what some of you guys do but .......
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 13:29 — 26th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Hmmmm. Nice, clear simple design. Not my choice of colours, though.
You can have less dull colours but still be professional. Many companies use blue, for example. :lovesick:
Megan posted this at 13:29 — 26th August 2004.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Not a bad start. The colour scheme is really nice and the graphic in the top right looks promising. Get something to go all the way across the top there and you'd be set. Some sites just use a photo blown up in some interesting way. Simple, but effective.
One thing you could work on is your navigation. It looks like plain text there on the left side. Work on your CSS so you can do more with the menu. I personally like a navbar that is set up sort of like a table with backgrounds changing on mouseover.
One big problem I find here is that the text size is way too small. Remember that not everyone is as young and well sighted as you are. I've said this time and time again, but people never seem to pick up on it. Ever notice how everyone over the age of 45 needs reading glasses? They can't read that tiny text. At least keep it close to the default size. People can always set their browser to display fonts larger or smaller (assuming they know how!). But, by defining your font sizes in pixels you're preventing them from doing that. Use relative font sizes so people will be able to adjsut them as needed.
I also notice that sometimes you're rferring to yourself as "me" or "I" and sometimes as "we" or "us". That should be consistent. One of my pet peeves is people who pretend to be something they're not. In the case of online business this often means pretending to be "us" intead of "me". Best to be honest.
Megan
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mfdc posted this at 14:08 — 26th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thanks, yes good point about the consistency in 'I' 'we' 'us' etc but 'we' is'nt a over stated claim, theres over ten of us !!!! I'll carry on working! Thankyou
mfdc posted this at 14:37 — 26th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Took the site offline again, I'm going to make sure its 100 % functional first.
KarenArt posted this at 15:06 — 26th August 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Awwwwww geez! You're just trying to taunt me.... mention my name... talk about interesting color choices and graphics... then take it down before I get here....
Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing what you come up with when you bring it back!
btw: I don't mind being teased, but don't take too long.
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
mfdc posted this at 08:32 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Ok, Karen, don't want to tease you too much
so here's the start of my main page. Take a look here
KarenArt posted this at 12:24 — 27th August 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Wow! This is such a vast improvement over your first design! I'm really impressed by what you're doing here.
Yes, there's always room for improvement (on any site), but you're really getting the hang of it now. See, it's easier than you thought it would be.
One thing I notice is that you have your text set to 10px. It doesn't effect me since I'm on Safari so I can still change the text size, but... people on IE won't be able to adjust the size of the text. You might want to consider using em instead of px. You can still make the text small (perhaps 0.8em), but users can adjust it larger if they need to.
I'll be looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your logo!
One question though... What are you going to do that you require IE 5.5 or later?
Keep going... it's coming together now.
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 13:15 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Nice to see you've used blue. Just make sure your logo matches.
But well doen, your site is so cool. (In fact so cool just looking at it makes me go blue)
mfdc posted this at 13:42 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Ok, I quickly rendered a half circle & blurred on some 'land' for a globe effect. I traced some slight white lines on to for that 'hi-tech- look! Theres a slight faulty artefact at the right most edge which I need to sort but you can look here
KarenArt posted this at 14:00 — 27th August 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Well, I don't want to be discouraging but...
My first instinct is globes are so over done. You did a pretty good job making this one, but it is another globe.
Is there any type of image (or simply colors) that you visiualize when you think of the products and services you'll have on this site?
I'm not saying you shouldn't use the globe if you want, just my random thoughts on it.
btw: If you're UK shouldn't the landmass showing on your globe be Europe?
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
mfdc posted this at 14:15 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Yes, thats a very good point, I've also found a globe on the 'net thats very similar so I'm going to be changing it shortly. Thankyou for the advice on font size, that'll be changed too, watch this space
KarenArt posted this at 14:50 — 27th August 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Will do!
Dragon of Ice posted this at 16:05 — 27th August 2004.
He has: 578 posts
Joined: Jun 2004
Well, I really like the colors. It loks look a solid, professional layout and colors.
I also really like the title! "C:\Documents and Settings\mfdc\My Documents\newwebsite\index4.htm". Just rolls off the tongue, don't you think?
mfdc posted this at 15:35 — 28th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Yes good point ( that did make me smile! ) I'll be looking at that shortly!
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