How about a Website Review?

They have: 4 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

If you have time please review my site. I'm still kinda new (as far as experience) at design and I respect the adcvice of proffesionals. Let me know what you think and what improvements I could make. Don't worry about hurting my feelings...

http://www.hostingbee.com

Thanks for your time, I'll buy ya beer next time your around my way...

Ben
http://www.hostingbee.com
We take the sting out of web hosting!

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

Well I'm no pro but since i'm here I'll throw in my .02 cents worth.

first impressions - nice layout, tidy does what it should

Went to click a link and oh no, multi colored links (onmouseover), this would be classed very close to an animated gif wouldn't it? In my opinion takes a lot of the professionalism out of the site.

the links you have in the top banner, now those could maybe do with a (single) mouseover color change.

there seems to be a lot of white, and on the hosting page the "NO" is hard to read in very light grey.

All in all its a nice clean layout

They have: 16 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

Hi, well i'm having my own problems here, so I'm certainly not one to be critical, to me it looks good, I understand what "Busy" is saying about the coloured mouse overs, being a newby to web pages I like that type of effect, but perhaps just one colour change rather than multi.
It's obviously a commercial site and the continuity & design of the pages works well IMO.

now back to pulling my hair out..

Mick

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

My first impression is that the colour scheme is too garish. The green works well as text but the large area of that, along with the yellow, red, and brighter green is just hard on the eyes. And lime green + red clashes badly. The logo graphic is poorly designed and looks very fuzzy to me - that needs to be completely redone. If you're going to use those bee clip-art pieces for the logo, you should make them bigger, clearer, and use colours from them for the rest of your colour scheme (blue from the wings would look good with black and yellow). With a name like "Hosting Bee" you'd expect bee-like colours.

Those links are really annoying with the rainbow thing going on there. Stupid Web Trick anyone?

ON the hosting plans page, you should try to use some table background colours to organize the information in there better and/or try to separate all those things into groups to make things easier to read.

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

The colors (colours for you Canadians and UKers) give your website and unprofessional look. Plus you are missing out and having a theme for your site. Think of all the bee-related stuff that you could have. Instead of Economy, Standard. You could have stuff like maybe BumbleBee and Killer Bee plans. Anyway you have the site name, so you might as well brand it better.

Things that don't work

  • The mouseovers. Kind of made me want to leave kicking and screaming. Plus you have no mouseovers on your top Navbar.
  • Text - home page and throughout. Must you have that green text. It's maybe okay for a link but why you chose to intersperse it with black text on your hosting page is beyond me. Also I am not sure why you chose to put a faint No on your hosting plans.
  • There is only one site listed on your client showcase.

Overall I think that the logo needs work, mostly changing to bee colors. The color scheme needs the most work. The content is fine. The problem is the way that it is presented.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

They have: 11 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

First of all.. I don't like the green.. too bright.. looks like a kid's site.. Should be more professional.
Do put hover buttons or something on the site in the navbar..
The bottom changing color thing you have might be neat.. but it looks like it's there just so you can show you know how to do it.. not to fulfill any kind of purpose.
I would definitely get rid of them..
Also don't like the title..
Just way too much green.. Green's a hard color to get to work.. especially for a professional web site where you're trying to attract clientele.

They have: 6 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

yeah, the greens at the top are a little hard on the eyes, but other than that, i like what you'vedone, its a nice neat layout, nothing too dramatic but its easy to navigate and it does its job. You just need to maybe have a better color scheme and some more professional graphics. Nice job Smiling

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