Easy Systems UK

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Ok, I posted in another section asking what I was doing wrong, see the thread Design & Layout > What am I doing Wrong? and heres the start of my site. What do you think ?

http://www.easysystemsuk.com/index1.htm

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Holy Moley! I thought I was back in 1996 for a minute then. How about putting a few pictures and a logo on the page? Liven it up a bit perhaps? Smiling

At the moment it's just dull...

Andy

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Yeah I know, the problem is designing images so there transparent and look good on the page. I also dont know the RGB values of the base colour of the page at the moment so cannot put this information into PhotoShop to get seamless looking images. I will put a few images on there though - but not for the sake of it though.

They have: 11 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Its an excellent start.
BTW the RGB values of your background:
R - 69
G - 75
B - 116

Its easy to find out using photoshop, just select the color picker and select your background.

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KarenArt's picture

She has: 354 posts

Joined: May 2001

I knew you were being too hard on yourself.
I like the direction your going here!

My suggestions (take what you want and ignore the rest)...

First take out every font tag small tag and background color out of your code. With a css file you also don't need anything in the body tag except the word body (unless your doing some fancy javascript).

If you use the code

html,body { margin: 0; border: 0; padding: 0; }
body { color: #999999; background-color: #454B74; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: small; }
'
in your css file your margins will be set to 0 and your text size will be small. You won't need all the code on your page. And you can change it much easier if you want to later.

Try to avoid making your text too small. Even I couldn't read it and I like small text.

One other thing that's just one of my personal things... Scrolling text rarely looks good, can sometimes be buggy and isn't neccesary. If you want to draw attention to the text, put it in a paragraph or div with it's own class. You can make the text bold, large, a different color, or put a box around it to make it stand out.

I'll be interested to see how this progresses. Don't worry about the images. The logo and "pretty" pictures will come to you I'm sure.

gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.

The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Can I firstly say I really appreciate your comments and this input is helping me loads!! Also, thanks to the person who got the colour values for me. Yes I know about the colour pickup tool in PhotoShop but could'nt get it to identify the colour somehow!!???

Anyway, a bit of a revision, taking what you guys have said on board, visit easysystemsuk.com/disclaimer.htm

Also, I've added a simple logo done in..PhotoShop. Smiling

Like I said, thankyou for all your comments

He has: 10 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

looks pretty decent, though readability could be bad with the small font and lack of contrast between text and bg.

gl!

They have: 10 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

looks pretty nice,but try to fill the page with some pictures,why the left side is empty ? try to put something there..you can fill it with a Tower

They have: 10 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

yup..looks great,but try to change the color of the serach engine box with a different color than the title,also your "GO" button should go a little bit down..everything else looks good,i salute you

**sorry this review doesn't belong in here** hope some one can remove it

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Ok after much revision and hard work, I've come up with a clean crisp front end. This is just a page header with some nice logos but see what you think

New Site Revision

KarenArt's picture

She has: 354 posts

Joined: May 2001

I like the look so far!
You are planning on putting more on the front page aren't you?

I don't live in the pc world (Mac person here) but the icons look a little familure somehow. Are they something you created yourself? If not, make sure they are ones you can legaly use for your site. If you don't have permission to use them on a website, you will get caught.

I think you're really getting there with this look. Laughing out loud
I will say again though.... put ALL your color and size coding into your css file! You won't believe how much easier it makes updating. There shouldn't be any reason to have a single font tag or background color tag on your page.

Keep having fun with it!

gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.

The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Yeah, I use a G4 at home & the icons are from the classic Mac OS x interface. I created the home one using an Icon Editor, the others are freeware so I can legitamatley use them. Yeah, of course more content will go on, it was just a page header, and I will be sorting out all the font tags !!! Smiling Thankyou very much for your feedback

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

These are really not that bad. You've got a nice basic colour scheme and layout going. I like the dark, but not black, backgrounds.

In the first one, the font size is way too small. Remember that not everyone spends as much time on a computer as you do. Keep the font size close to the default. The logo also need ssome work. Just a different font would improve this a lot. The navbar could use a little work as well. Just make them bold and a little bigger.

The new design is reasonably nice as well. The colour scheme is very unique and you've done a better job with the logo. Try not to choose a font that's readily available, unless you have good typography skills and can work with it. You may also want to consider finding a good logo designer to do one for you. You may be able to trade your programming skills in our Market Place forum.

The text here is a better size. Much more readable. Make the navigation links the same size, and fancy them up with some bolder text and more interesting hovers. Also do something about those icons on the right. They don't fit with the rest of the design.

mfdc's picture

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

Thankyou Megan for your comments Sticking out tongue I'm going to review a few more sites, then do some more work on mine & post the results here. Your right about the logo's, I keep having that many ideas I don't know what to put up & what not too. THanks everyone for your input

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