new site, please critique

It is a little bland, nothing spectacular about it.

The logo is kind of hard to read, maybe try a different font for it (and make it a little more colorful?)

The menubar is ok, but it would look better if there were lines on each side to make it a rectangle.

The main area needs somthing, maybe a border around it or somthing.

The site is good, but just needs a little work. Good job.

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Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours.

1) It's too plain. I'll start with the logo: you can't see it. If the company has a logo, use it, don't just put the company name. It's really hard to read it will bubbly black text. Finally, I can tell a slight difference between the bg color of the logo and page.

2) The menu is also pretty plain/boring. I don't really like the "braces" you have around it, and I think it needs to be connected to the main content somehow.

3) You need something around the main content area. Right now it looks, er, lonely.

Overall it's a clean design, but too boring and needs some spicier graphics...

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The fireburn.com Network:

I keep trying but it keeps crashing my browser.

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~Parker Trasborg~
Formerly- ParkerT and sixflags111

Thanks for the help. Remember there is no content, and the guy hasn't seen the site yet on the account of his father being ill.

I'm going to use his logo, not that one. It's just temporary.

I will put something around that left menu bar though.

Thanks a lot

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

You say you're working on the logo, so no comment there.

I agree that the page looks a little bit bland as is. I think you could help yourself a bit by placing the nav bar on a colored cell background.

Alternately, you could place the body text on a colored background. Maybe both. Experiment. I think I'd make your "bracket" graphics wider.

Another thing to consider might be making some headers in the body text, eg. Location, Our Belief:, Why Choose Bri-Dan?, Contact Us could all be h2's, or h3's.

What's remarketing? Selling used cars? I've never heard the term, maybe you could explain what it is?

The site just sort of cries out for a car graphic somewhere...

HTH

Bimjo

Remarketing: remarketing cars. Putting them back on the market, i guess

I am gonna get car pictures of his cars and play around with them, remember, im sort of looking for review on the layout and organization, content and graphics will be added later.

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Well, there really isn't much layout to speak of. The navigation is boring, the pale yellow background colour looks bland... maybe some more colour would spice it up some.

OK, I changed it. Go look at the new layout: http://www.dangelowebdesign.com/bri-dan

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Eh- I don't really like it. It looks like you just threw something together in 5 minutes. Remember: the sites you design reflect your company image, so work on the site as much as you can to perfect it!

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The fireburn.com Network:

You really need to use anti-aliasing on the text... It looks horrible as is. Also you're breaking the VirtualAve TOS on your site and that client's site by keeping the banner "below the fold" I would recommend you get paid hosting, as it is much more professional.

Regarding the site design, it does need more graphics and definitely needs to be spiced up, in addition to anti-aliasing. Keep working on it and you may get it to look decent.

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Web Design - Hosting - Promotion - Programming
InfoStar Web Design - Click Here!

OK, I listened to all of you, and I changed some stuff around.

The logo is temporary, remember.
http://www.dangelowebdesign.com/bri-dan

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Eww- definatly not. You need to hire a good graphics designer...

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The fireburn.com Network:

Justin, that's not a review or critique, that's a bashing. I've seen you do it to other people before. Why don't you try telling me what's wrong with the graphics, that would actually HELP me.

I think Brooke put it best when she said that there are people behind these screens and these computers and have feelings. And refering to someone's site as "eww" isn't what a reviewer should do, let alone a forum moderator.

I'm not all that hurt by your remark, just a little shocked that the people leading these forums are people BASHING other's sites. It needs to be stopped. I've actually seen a post where someone said "I hate it..." and then went on why they HATED the site. Why are you doing that? Why can't you guys give advice. That's what TWF are all about.

Thanks.

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design
http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

[This message has been edited by dangelo (edited 03 March 2000).]

About the graphics...

I know the logo is temporary, and I really hope you can see what is wrong with the current one, but in case you can't, here goes:

1. Anti-aliasing smooths the edges of fonts so they do not appear jaggedy. Most graphics programs have an anti-aliasing setting for the text tool. For more on anti-aliasing, check out Project Cool's Anti-Aliasing which is a fairly easy to understand reference.

2. The car looks like you have performed a number of effects on it without properly masking it or using different layers. I don't know how to quantify this so it makes sense, but it looks amateurish and extremely non-professional. It may very well be a copyright violation as well, unless you have permission from what, Ford? Is that a Probe? The parts that look amateurish are the jaggies top right, the background that is grey against the white page, the cut off shadow, the blurry look, the partial outline of parts of the body and around the edge and the patchy colour.

3. The white is better than the buff colour from before, especially for a business site, but the big rectangular high contrast buttons are, well, unattractive. They prevent instead of encourage the eye from reading them. Smaller text links would be preferable, and/or a graphical navigation system 'above the fold' Ideally the navigation will not compete with the text (main information that the user will need) but will be recognizeable and easy to use when it is needed.

4. Graphics should augment the user experience, create an impression or feel (in this case top quality vehicles, not the current Used Car Sales Lot feel it has at the moment). They should lead the user to the information (and the sales page!) and not conflict with the information. The perfect graphics are not noticed, sorry to say, on a business site, other than, a general feel. If you ask a user what they most noticed about the page, it should be 'that I can get a great remarket car from Bri-Dan!', not 'the graphics were really rough', or even 'those were the best graphics in the world!'....

hth,

Suzanne

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Zero Cattle
Suzanne
Tables DeMystified

Yeah, I know, that logo looks like crap. I threw it together in 2 minutes, just until we get the main logo scanned in. Thanks.

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

OK, I got a new logo. It still isn't THAT good, but it's as close as I can get to his real logo, no joke.

Go check it out, and tell me what you think: http://www.dangelowebdesign.com/bri-dan

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Well the logo still looks like crap but if it's close to their logo then there ain't nothing to do about it...

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The fireburn.com Network:

Justin, how is a comment like that going to help me at all?

It's not.

Why don't you try helping people by telling them whats wrong with their work, instead of telling them that it "looks like crap"

Thanks

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Well, I like the menu and the logo doesn't bother me too much, but I don't like where the text is. It just looks too plain.

Try this maybe:

Make your menu all in one line. And than right below it make a table the same width as long as the 6 menu images combined are. Make the border colour of the table the same colour as the border for the images. And just put the text inside that table.

Try it and see how it looks?

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Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours.

I don't understand, what text do you mean?

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Oh, never mind, I get it, ok, you are talking about the main page only. you're right. Im gonna do that.

I was noticing that it looked sort of plain there, I thought it WAS missing some color. I'll do that right now.

I think Im gonna keep all the images like they are though, because I dont want to have to scrool sideways.

Ok, look now. I think it looks good. Thanks robp.

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

Well I was telling whats wrong with the logo: it looks like crap. Just some text and two boxes- woohoo. I think that you should use you're creativity to create them a good logo.

Well the text part looks better now, but there are still some problems witht he navigation. It's too big and bulky.

Also- everything is flat. You need some dimentions and 3D maybe...

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The fireburn.com Network:

I disagree, Justin -- I think the logo is the best thing on the page. It is simple, yes, but effective.

The running down the center style of page layout is troublesome, though. The navigation takes up the entire first screen! Get it out of the way, and out of those huge boxes. And the center button (bri-dan.com) needs to be 'on' or some indication of where I am in the site.

I would make the buttons smaller or ditch the outline around them (they are too high-contrast and are visually jarring making my eye move AWAY from them, which isn't what you want for your navigation. Move the content up where the user can see it, with the nav to the left, right, top of the content (one of those).

The little banner thing can go at the bottom, or get rid of it altogether unless is it representing an ad, in which case find somewhere for it to live. Each element needs to be placed with forethought, not just put in order down the page.

hth,

Suzanne

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Zero Cattle
Suzanne
Tables DeMystified

OK, thanks for the tips. I changed the front page around, and the other pages around a lot. http://www.dangelowebdesign.com/bri-dan

** edited by js. fixed the link. **

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design
http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

[This message has been edited by Justin Stayton (edited 04 March 2000).]

Well- I still don't like the logo too much, and the buttons are still too big and bulky looking. Also- everything is still flat.

I am glad that you moved the navigation though...

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The fireburn.com Network:

It still crashes my browser.

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~Parker Trasborg~
Formerly- ParkerT and sixflags111