all in all it looks fine for me. just a few things:
- get rid of that 3d-effect of the main table. it looks too weired.
- the navigation ('main', 'sign-up', ...) is very small. you have to point very well to match the link. probably some kind of hover would be nice (won't work in nn if you do it with CSS).
i'd say there's not that much to do yet.
The Webmistress posted this at 06:44 — 27th July 2001.
well, not very much else to be said. as has been mentioned, remove 3d stuff, keep all the pages in the same format yada yada...
what struck me more was the lack of impact the page had. the page just eased into my browser and straightaway i got reading. thats good if theres lots of useful info, but "flattering" your services isnt all that useful. let the user get straight to signing up...thats the only way you benefit. try experimenting with the "you get: [details]"...move it up, and shift the intro below. try re-arranging the text in the order which will get the user to reach the sign up page quicker. embolden the "Sign up today!" and center it. and maybe add "sign up today for ad-free webhosting." every bit of text looks too uniform otherwise.
the pic is good. maybe you could trim the left-side a bit. theres heaps of space. if that was intentional, i don't see the effect. maybe add a couple of flashy/techy effects to it. give it a little blue?
the login boxes may be better off on the left column, rather than up the top.
typos: theres one i noticed: "web-hosting without and gimmicks ."
and a tip: where you have links in a sentence, structure the sentence so the links are near the start, and the description after it. eg: "Check out our Frequently Asked Questions, and if you still have more, please feel free contact us. "
replace with "Click hereto go to Frequently Asked Questions, click here to contact us if you have any further questions. ."
it's these subtleties that can make or break a company/site. maybe you were gonna get to them later, i dont know..but i suggest you do this asap.
in terms of layout, content, product etc. its really good! it only lacks a bit of marketing impact.
So you're recommending that he use "click here" instead of other more meaningful words for the link? I totally disagree. People skim text on the web, so I think it's best to link words that describe where the link is going so it's obvious to people right away as they're skimming through the page. They don't have to do extra reading to figure out what the link means. With a hosting site you should expect your visitors to be fairly internet-savvy, so using a lot of "click here" links may make them feel like you're treating them as if they're dumb newbies.
"Build-in web editor" should be "Built-in web editor"
You've got:
Menu Category
Main
Sign-up!
FAQ's
"Main" confused me for a second actually - I'd probably expect the home page to be labeled as "home". There's quite a few grammar problems in your FAQ as well. Speaking of the FAQ - there are a few things I'd want to be made more clear here - there's no FTP access? Does it support CGI? PHP? Windows or Linux? SSI? Oh, and the menu is showing up halfway down the page so you probably need to valign=top that cell. Another thing is that, as we discussed in another thread not to long ago, you should label this as FAQ not FAQ's since it is assumed that when you say FAQ you mean more than one question. Using an appostrophe is definitely incorrect:
Megan Jack, i agree that the "Click here" method is over the hill. what i said doesnt necessarily mean the site needs to use that. there are better ways to do it than that.
eg: "[link]FAQs[/link] are here, if you have any questions.", "[link]Email[/link] us if you still have any further questions." Not only does that describe the link, but it is the link. i think that would be a better way to do it.
i simply didn't think about this when i posted. it still demonstrates the same point.
Adam Oberdorfer posted this at 05:21 — 28th July 2001.
I defiantly agree with the previous critiques regarding the table showdown. If you're going to use a shadow the shadow should be on the bottom and one of the sides. If you flip the site over it looks a lot better. I would suggest removing it completely though.
Otherwise the site looked pretty good. I would highly recommend reviewing your copy in more detail. There are quite a few mistakes and numerous improvements you could make. Keep your text professional and always link to items (as pointed out by the above posts) when you mention them.
I'll have to agree with dorn on that one. Purple is one of my favorite colors but that baby bout knocked my socks off. Talk about "eye shock". I think I blinked about 20 times. LOL Change the purple to the same blue that is on the home page. That might look good. Even white wouldn't be bad.
Also on the free counter and counter sign in page you might could change the color of the light blue table to something a little easier on the eyes. It doesn't fit the color scheme of the site.
Overall the site is good but it needs more stuff. I guess you are working on that though. I would get rid of the 3D effect on the table like some of the others said. I feel that it would look much more professional without it.
That picture on the home page is one of the clearest I've seen and it gives the site a warm feeling. Nice touch!
You offer webhosting, yet can't host your own forum? If you really can't, I'd lose the forum altogether. It looks unprofessional and does not inspire confidence in your hosting abilities.
Hi mOdulus, just visited your site and though unspectacular in design (which aint a bad thing)I do think you have a pretty smart and useful site with the color combos working well to gether. Load time is pretty impressive (10 secs on 56k modem), navigation is simple, layout good, works well in both browsers and thats about it because I cant really fault it, it works and a website that works is a good website-keep up the good work.
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merlin posted this at 05:35 — 27th July 2001.
They have: 410 posts
Joined: Oct 1999
all in all it looks fine for me. just a few things:
- get rid of that 3d-effect of the main table. it looks too weired.
- the navigation ('main', 'sign-up', ...) is very small. you have to point very well to match the link. probably some kind of hover would be nice (won't work in nn if you do it with CSS).
i'd say there's not that much to do yet.
The Webmistress posted this at 06:44 — 27th July 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
Nice looking but again I don't think the 3d effect on the table works, it looks out of proportion to me.
The logo is perhaps a bit plain, you could do with it in a different colour/font to make it stand out and give the site it's uniqueness.
Can't you have the cgi pages (sign up & site search) open in the same table like the rest of the pages? This makes it look disjointed.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 10:30 — 27th July 2001.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
hi,
well, not very much else to be said. as has been mentioned, remove 3d stuff, keep all the pages in the same format yada yada...
what struck me more was the lack of impact the page had. the page just eased into my browser and straightaway i got reading. thats good if theres lots of useful info, but "flattering" your services isnt all that useful. let the user get straight to signing up...thats the only way you benefit. try experimenting with the "you get: [details]"...move it up, and shift the intro below. try re-arranging the text in the order which will get the user to reach the sign up page quicker
. embolden the "Sign up today!" and center it. and maybe add "sign up today for ad-free webhosting." every bit of text looks too uniform otherwise.
the pic is good. maybe you could trim the left-side a bit. theres heaps of space. if that was intentional, i don't see the effect. maybe add a couple of flashy/techy effects to it. give it a little blue?
the login boxes may be better off on the left column, rather than up the top.
typos: theres one i noticed: "web-hosting without and gimmicks ."
and a tip: where you have links in a sentence, structure the sentence so the links are near the start, and the description after it. eg: "Check out our Frequently Asked Questions, and if you still have more, please feel free contact us. "
replace with "Click hereto go to Frequently Asked Questions, click here to contact us if you have any further questions. ."
it's these subtleties that can make or break a company/site.
maybe you were gonna get to them later, i dont know..but i suggest you do this asap. 
in terms of layout, content, product etc. its really good! it only lacks a bit of marketing impact.
good luck with it.
Megan posted this at 13:25 — 27th July 2001.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
So you're recommending that he use "click here" instead of other more meaningful words for the link? I totally disagree. People skim text on the web, so I think it's best to link words that describe where the link is going so it's obvious to people right away as they're skimming through the page. They don't have to do extra reading to figure out what the link means. With a hosting site you should expect your visitors to be fairly internet-savvy, so using a lot of "click here" links may make them feel like you're treating them as if they're dumb newbies.
"Build-in web editor" should be "Built-in web editor"
You've got:
Menu Category
Main
Sign-up!
FAQ's
"Main" confused me for a second actually - I'd probably expect the home page to be labeled as "home". There's quite a few grammar problems in your FAQ as well. Speaking of the FAQ - there are a few things I'd want to be made more clear here - there's no FTP access? Does it support CGI? PHP? Windows or Linux? SSI? Oh, and the menu is showing up halfway down the page so you probably need to valign=top that cell. Another thing is that, as we discussed in another thread not to long ago, you should label this as FAQ not FAQ's since it is assumed that when you say FAQ you mean more than one question. Using an appostrophe is definitely incorrect:
From this site - http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html
"Get this straight once and for all: when the "s" is added to a word simply to make it a plural, no apostrophe is used."
Megan
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Abhishek Reddy posted this at 02:54 — 28th July 2001.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
hi again,
Megan Jack, i agree that the "Click here" method is over the hill. what i said doesnt necessarily mean the site needs to use that.
there are better ways to do it than that.
eg: "[link]FAQs[/link] are here, if you have any questions.", "[link]Email[/link] us if you still have any further questions." Not only does that describe the link, but it is the link. i think that would be a better way to do it.
i simply didn't think about this when i posted.
it still demonstrates the same point.
Adam Oberdorfer posted this at 05:21 — 28th July 2001.
They have: 383 posts
Joined: Sep 2000
I defiantly agree with the previous critiques regarding the table showdown. If you're going to use a shadow the shadow should be on the bottom and one of the sides. If you flip the site over it looks a lot better. I would suggest removing it completely though.
Otherwise the site looked pretty good. I would highly recommend reviewing your copy in more detail. There are quite a few mistakes and numerous improvements you could make. Keep your text professional and always link to items (as pointed out by the above posts) when you mention them.
Dorn posted this at 08:35 — 30th July 2001.
They have: 42 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
Please change the color of the FORUM..... OOOOHH!!
Here is a link that is also posted here. It is all that and a bag of chips!
http://www.halfadot.com/color/
disaster-master posted this at 09:48 — 30th July 2001.
She has: 2,154 posts
Joined: May 2001
I'll have to agree with dorn on that one. Purple is one of my favorite colors but that baby bout knocked my socks off. Talk about "eye shock". I think I blinked about 20 times. LOL Change the purple to the same blue that is on the home page. That might look good. Even white wouldn't be bad.
Also on the free counter and counter sign in page you might could change the color of the light blue table to something a little easier on the eyes. It doesn't fit the color scheme of the site.
Overall the site is good but it needs more stuff. I guess you are working on that though. I would get rid of the 3D effect on the table like some of the others said. I feel that it would look much more professional without it.
That picture on the home page is one of the clearest I've seen and it gives the site a warm feeling. Nice touch!
disastermaster
taff posted this at 11:16 — 30th July 2001.
They have: 956 posts
Joined: Jun 2001
You offer webhosting, yet can't host your own forum? If you really can't, I'd lose the forum altogether. It looks unprofessional and does not inspire confidence in your hosting abilities.
.....
sticky posted this at 22:59 — 30th July 2001.
They have: 30 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
Hi mOdulus, just visited your site and though unspectacular in design (which aint a bad thing)I do think you have a pretty smart and useful site with the color combos working well to gether. Load time is pretty impressive (10 secs on 56k modem), navigation is simple, layout good, works well in both browsers and thats about it because I cant really fault it, it works and a website that works is a good website-keep up the good work.
Chris @ Stickysauce
http://www.stickysauce.com
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