Nottingham Forest FC - site critique

1) The red part is boring. You need to have better logo, which will help.

2) The banner on the top isn't linked.

3) I like the menu, but the text is to close to the frame. It's butted right up against it.

4) Why does it say "Thong-Free Zone"?

Overall it's kinda boring. Really boring. I do like the menu though.

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The fireburn.com Network:

My first though is that you need to think about your colour scheme. The gray and blue looks good, but the hover backgrounds don't match the blue of the titles. I don't like the red - too bright and glaring and it doesn't go with the muted colours you've used for the menu and stuff. It makes the page look unbalanced and incoherent.

I agree with Justin that it is a little boring looking. Maybe if you used some brighter colours it would work better (yeah, I said I didn't like the bright red - that's too bright, but something a little less dull than the gray/blue might be better. What are the team colours? It would probably be a good idea to use those.

Your gramamar and writing style needs some work IMO, but maybe it's just the perspective of a Canadian reading Irish (?) english

What is "Nottingham Forest" anyway? Your front page should give the visitor some idea of what the site is about.

I agree with Justin about the Menu - overall the design is pretty good - just needs some spicing up.

Thanks for the comments.
The banner isn't linked because it's just a test page and I havent applied to join teknosurf or burst media yet. Its just a test banner.

The "thong free zone" is a dig at a soccer player who was involved in a scandal where his wife "Posh Spice" from the spice girls told a tabloid paper that he wears he thongs.
My visitors would get it. I'll be changing that piece of text frequently - it will be a short comment on the weeks happenings in soccer.

Nottingham Forest is an english soccer club by the way. I kinda have to keep some red in the colour scheme because Forest's colours are red.

I can do a better design, but it also has to be an easily maintainable design. The other site I'm working on, for instance, www.trickynet.co.uk/doas is a more artsy, better designed site, but it wouldnt be a good design for a large-ish site.

I'll work on making it better.

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TRICKY
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A few minor things:

The cell on the far right for the mailing list is all messed-up-looking because its not up and connected with the above border like the menu to th far left is. It sort of throws the page off.

And the far right bottom cell is attached to the bottom border ut has a border of it's own, and it makes that look all messed also.

Another thing to do might be to space the text a little off the border in the menu. Give 'em some breathing room.

I agree with Justin and Megan, you might want to get a new color scheme, maybe one of your teams.

I also viewed the source, and you don't have ne meta tags, why not?

Hope this helps.

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-RJ D'Angelo
D'Angelo Web Design

http://www.dangelowebdesign.com

I haven't any meta tags because its just a test page.
I've decided to scrap that design as I agree with what most of what has been said so far, except for megans comment on my grammar, as far as I can see there are no blaring grammar mistakes. I threw that piece of text together in about 3 minutes just to see what the page would look like with text.

Anyway, I'll have a new design by tomorrow hopefully.

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TRICKY
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What happened to that design you posted a couple of months back... or a while back anyway??? I liked that!

Crosswire,
That design got too hard to maintain. I have an idea for a decent design now. Not too sure if it'll work, but I'll give it a try.

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TRICKY
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Ok,
I spent today getting a new test design up. Can somebody check it out, its much better than the last, in my opinion anyway. I know I have to cut the size of the graphics a bit and ajust a couple of alignments, but could someone tell me what they think before I take the design any further.

Cheers
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TRICKY
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By the way its the same url again:
http://www.trickynet.co.uk/nffc.shtml

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TRICKY
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[This message has been edited by tricky (edited 28 February 2000).]

I really like this page. It's sharp and clean.

In some of your tables you have the text right up to the edge, you need to give the text more space.

I would think about adding some kind of subtitle in the red box on the right. Giving a brief overview of the site.

The red rollovers don't look like the same color red - more marroon - but it could just be me.

I think everything else looks really great!

Brooke

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Providing quality websites for businesses and individuals!
www.cataluna.com

Better! I like your use of the football player in the logo - makes it obvious right away what the site is about. The white glow part cuts off on the left edge though - that should fade right out.

The red is a lot less glaring on this one too - maybe it's the black background. I do think, though, that it should be used more on the rest of the page. Maybe for the header backgrounds or something, or the mouseover backgrounds.

The .co.uk part under the title blends into the background too much - that should be fixed.

Much better! I like the gray, red and black colour scheme - very unique and different.

Brooke and Megan, thanks for the comments.
I was actually just making some of the changes you suggested when I was downloading my mail with the reply notification. I will be adding more red to the pages, the grey title box will be red for example.

I know the links are sort of a maroon colour but that is because red text glares too much in my opinion. Also when the red text is against a grey background it can be hard to read so #CC0000 blends better. I might change that when I launch the site which hopefully should be Sunday, March 5th.

Thanks again.

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TRICKY
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Yeah, I like it much better!

1) As Megan said, the glow of the player is cut off on the left side.

2) You need something to the right of the logo. Right now it's just "red area."

3) The text is too close to the edges on the menu. Speaking on the menu: why does that darker grey extend all the way to the top, and not stop where the horizontal cell starts? Second, I never noticed that the headings on the menu were linked.

4) One more thing about the menu: why not extend the black border all the way around, not just the top and bottom? That would look cool.

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The fireburn.com Network:

Ok, I just got back from vacation at 1:00 last night. Did I miss anything?

Here we go

You have white writing on a light gray background which is very difficult to read. Change the writing to black or change the background to a darker gray. (that is on the newsletter box thing)

On your left navigation bar the white writing sort of touches the lighter background on the way left. Make the darker background extend more to the left so it doesn't do that.

I like how you have mouseovers. Those always make a site look better. I like the logo and everything else looks good except when you link to your e-mail in the bottom in the red, center the text.

Also your sponsers when they click to refer you on GetPaid4 it makes you sound cheap.

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~Parker Trasborg~
Formerly- ParkerT and sixflags111

[This message has been edited by Parker Trasborg (edited 28 February 2000).]

Thanks guys,
I'll be taking all you said into consideration. About the getpaid4 button in sponsers - its just there temporarily to give an overall look of the site as is the banner.

I am on the lookout for a decent sponser. I might try burst media. I hope to sell my own ad space in a few months when I get some decent traffic going.

Oh, and Justin, you asked why the nav bar runs right to the top overlapping the horizontal bar (i think thats what you meant). Well I like the effect. It adds a little extra detail.