First time newbie asks for criticism

Hello Delmar! Welcome to TWF. We'd appreciate it if you could help us out and review a couple of other sites.

Aids Info

Overall it looks alright. Definitely do something different with the left menu there. Change the font to a sans-serif done in green and move it in a little from the table edge so the arrows are more noticable. Fix up your table corners so they look more curved.

Definitely get rid fo the i-frame -it's just in the way on that page. I usually hate pop-ups but I don't mind how you've used them in the FAQ there.

Ovarian Cancer

Honestly, this reminds me of something I would have done three or four years ago. Poorly done graphics, poor use of fonts, weak colour scheme. You have to stop using plain serif fonts for logo headers - try someting more interesting. Here you've used three basic fonts - the serif logo, the sans-serif body, and that italicized semi-script. They're not working well with each other. Also try adding something to the colour schme - teal is rather hard to match... black would really strengthen it a lot - give it sort of a dramatic look which might not be appropriate here, maybe try a soft purple like #996699or a pinky-peach like #FF9999 - that would be a very hospital-ish look, reminds me of nurses uniforms.

The font on this one is a little too large - on the other site it's a little too small.

WOW. Thank you for the hard criticism! I need to hear that stuff. Being the only "web guy" around here kind of makes everyone else think that no matter what I do is special since they don't know how to do it. (How can that be a complaint?? LOL). Anyway, it makes you go soft a bit I think - not to mention the fact that I am somewhat of a newbie at this anyway.

Ok, so I took the IFRAME out of all the "nyaidsline" pages except for the first menu item, mainly so that others can compare and tell me what they like best. I think all I needed was someone to tell me not to use them, though. Now that I've turned them off I really don't feel the urge to turn them back on.

Also, I think I need to read a good tutorial on the proper use of fonts (if one exists, can someone please let me know?)

And yes I will do my best to review other sites as well.. it's only fair.

Webmonkey.com has a long tutorial about Typography up right now - I haven't had a chance to read it all right now but I'm sure it offers a lot of helpful information. It doesn't seem to offer much about what looks good together and what doesn't - I have some resources at home though so maybe I'll write something up.

Here's that link: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/design/fonts/tutorials/tutorial3.html

I just wanted to add one more thing about your sites - you've got the basics down. You've got colour schemes, navigation, content, logos etc. - you just need to refine your skills.

Megan, it's funny that you should mention that Typography article. I was just looking at it. It has some pretty good information.

Delmar, the first site wouldn't load at all in Netscape 4.78. Probably has to do with your mouseover script or maybe the IFrames. It also always looks very unprofessional to have the statement that the site is best viewed in IE 4.0 or above.

The nyaidsline site displays for me in Netscape4.7 but has gaps and alignment problems.
You should always use width, height and alt tags for images, if the images are just spaces, just use alt=""
add border="0" to your table tags and it should fix the cellpadding showing.
try use the code instead of the html symbols, like instead of > use > " (double quote) is " use the symbols can mes up your layout if you have a end tag or quote missing from somewhere.

the table replacing the iframe isnt full length in Netscape, add cellspacing="0" and border="0" as well as widh="100%". your also getting the dashs at the bottom right of your links, make your links on one line, or rather one per line

link
<- bad

link <- good

Table cells (td's) should also be on one line but multi lined cells you can get away with a tag or some text straight after the td tag.

in IE it looks great, the links at the left are a little fuzzy but overall its looking good

oops forgot the second site,

This again has a few issues in Netscape 4.7, mostly the left side links sitting away from the margin and gaps between them

In ie there are actually dots at the end of the image links, but none in Netscape.

your code has similar problems to the other site, but try add align="left" in the table the image links are in, also in the td before it, this should fix the netscape display problem. also putting the links on one line (line per link) will fix alignment plus the lil extra line it adds.

I just discover something, your mouseover images slide over in IE, but in Netscape, only th etop one does, the rest just are normal or extended.

Overall looks good, who is Gilda Radner ? I'm a male so the subject itself really for me, but some history or info about Gilda could make it more friendly, homey.

keep up the great work

Quote: Originally posted by Busy
Overall looks good, who is Gilda Radner ? I'm a male so the subject itself really for me, but some history or info about Gilda could make it more friendly, homey.

Man, Busy, it's almost like you are from a different country or something. Gilda Radner was a comedian that was on the original Saturday Night Live. She married Gene Wilder and died of Ovarian Cancer a few years ago.

On your 1st site. Liked it very much. Only thing I would do is on your scroll bar effect sence the scroll bar is not needed change the whole scroll bar color sceem to the background color. That way you make the whole navigation bar go away.

On your second site I'm gonna use your left link mouse over code if its ok by you... LOL 2nd site very well done looks great.

Quote: posted my Marving
Man, Busy, it's almost like you are from a different country or something. Gilda Radner was a comedian that was on the original Saturday Night Live. She married Gene Wilder and died of Ovarian Cancer a few years ago.

I guess I stood tell you, I am from another country , never heard of Gilda Radner, but have heard of Gene Wilder, didnt he do charlie in the chocolate factory (only thing that comes to mind)

I also noticed i missed a few words out in my post lol

Quote: I'm a male so the subject itself really for me, ...

Think i missed out "... 'isnt' for me" but that sounds a bit insenstive so reword it so it sounds ok

1st - go ahead and use it, but you'll need the .js file that my code sources. If you can't figure out how to pull it down via the browser just let me know and I will send it to you.

Thank you to everyone who replied in the past 24 hours: your feedback has been invaluable! I now have the "nyaidsline" site behaving rather nicely in Netscape except for the right hand side of my table which is now just missing the tiled graphic altogether- if anyone has any ideas why that might be the case, please lemme know!

Again, let me just say- you guys rock!

Roswellpark----I like the colors that you have used. Looks great on IE 6.0. On the FAQ's page I think I would have just put the answers to the questions on another page instead of a pop-up. The pop up is a neat effect but generally I believe that they are used for small amounts of information. I feel that a whole page would be more appropriate here.

On the NY Resident info page in the New York State Referals part there are a couple of contacts that need to have a paragraph break in between them. They aren't seperated and it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. Other than that I think it looks good for an information site.

Ovariancancer -- The nav bar on the left is yet another neat effect but it takes them a little long to load and also for the script to react for me. It has sort of a delay on popping out. I do like playing with moving things on a web site though. Not crazy about the colors on this site. They are blah. It needs some jazzing up. Gildas photo is blurry.

Nice job on both though. Oh, and welcome to TWF!

you have the image commented out in the table cells which makes a empty cell, add &nbsp; and the background will appear

Busy: Thanks for the heads-up!

All: Well, I feel like a chump after getting all the (rightly-deserved) comments on ovariancancer.com so I decided to try a quick redesign. If you want to check ovariancancer.com/new2 and let me know your thoughts it would be greatly appreciated. All it is right now is one giant static image for the face page but I was hoping you guys could let me know your thoughts before I go back to the client and say "um, here's another idea...?" if you know what i mean?

thanks kiddies

thanks kiddies - I feel young again

nice layout, a few things thou, the sqiggle line behind the title bottoms out at the lowest point, maybe raise this a little (gee I'm picky lol), the "y" alos overlaps the bottom but there is a lot of blank space above it, the font used in the title banner is a little had to read. also try mirror the head shot as it looks like shes looking out of the screen, faces should always be loking into the page

The word "Ovarian Cancer Info" is kinda to long for your link section, maybe just use "O C Info" or something.

This new layout is nice and clean but maybe missing something, jasc.com had a good example of what you could of done, they used a side section with the picture as the buttons, you could use a picture of Gilda Radner or similar, the buttons had a very slight bevel on them to seperate but gave a great effect, I'll try find another sample for you to see cause without it you'll probably think i'm nuts hehe

keep up the good work

The first thing that I noticed is the pic of Gilda is a good one but it looks like her head has been cut off. maybe you could try blurring the bottom of her neck or make it irregular some how. Not real sure the best way to do this.

Actually, I like the other one better. The text for the title is a little hard to read but I do like the way you have the background for the green top part. I know that you said this was just an image sample but the body text looks a little small. It is out of proportion and doesn't go well with the big links on the left.

Busy said to shorten the ovarian cancer info link. The correct abbreviation for cancer is CA but I am not sure if the general public would know this. "Ovarian CA info" ...hmmm someone might think it means california.

Keep trudging along. It will come together nicely eventually.

Nice. I too agree with Busy about the top part but would also add that that font is also very hard to read. If you came to the site not knowing exactly what it was about you'd perhaps have to read the first line of actual text to find out. (that's maybe just my opinion)

I would also change the font for the main text to something like veranda as it is easier to read and gives a clean professional look but make it slightly larger.

I would also make the links on the left a bit smaller.

Thanks for the input. I made some changes that you guys suggested (and some you didn't) on the site. It's not complete now but it's more than just a static image. Please take a look and let me know what y'all think. I need to find some way to make the left-hand menu interactive so if anyone has suggestions, please lemme know. Thanks!