REQUEST REVIEW: stouffa.co.uk

This is okay but I really feel that a lot of things need to be refined. The front page layout is rather disorganized and scattered looking, especially towards the bottom. Don't center things, it just doesn't look good on screen. Also try to create a stronger sense of alignment or something to bring this all together.

The navbar here is okay. I quite like the font you've used there, but I do think the colours could stand out from the background a little more. The navigation menus on the other pages are much less interesting - something more interesting definitely needs to be done with that.

ACK! Lose the rainbow text! That is really tacky looking.

Hi Steve,

The first thing that I noticed is you are using the font tag to change the size of the text in your navigation. I think using graphics here would look much better. I believe that I know the effect that you are shooting for here but the bullet just didn't get all the way out of the barrel. I'd probably not use the swf for the image of the group either. I think a static image would be better and put each members photo along with the little saying that you have in the swf file on the page where you have the band members listed.

The other images on the home page could be of better quality. The text at the bottom, "A monkey a madman and an idealist and a drummer shouldn't....", is hard to read. I'd move that up (after you loose the swf file) and somehow incorporate it into a static image of the group or maybe just below it.

The multicolored text on some of the pages clashes with everything.

At the top in your navigation you have [Home]---[Gig Guide], etc.I would take out the --- and just use the [ ].

You should make the background color a little darker to match to color of the background image. There is too much of a difference in the color change before the image loads.

Your links page should have the same colors and logo so that it is consistent with the rest of the site.

I like how you have the news page...with the title of the site at the top and the title of the page just under it. Maybe do something like that throughout the site. The archive section...ARG!!...that colored text again.

cheers,

having a good think about all the points raised above.

thanks!

Steve

Hi,

I have changed a few things on the site.

All pages now have heading images.

None of the pages have any multicoloured text on them either!

What would you do with the navigation bar on my site?

Any tips for further improvments?

Steve

http://www.stouffa.co.uk

I'm not sure if i'm viewing the same site, i see a dark blue background with black text and some white text (i think it is) that I cant read or make out what it says.
the links in light blue go down the side of the flash box but i dont see any [ ]'s
the bgprop body tag is an IE toy, doesnt work on opera or NS.

I clicked on the band page (i see the [ ] link things now) but still way to dark to read and is to early in the morning to be strainging my eyes. the black things at the side, do they have text on them?

you also have two lots of style sheets within your coding, you only need one in your head section, the links in NS are green and yellow btw, not white with white background when moused over.

gig guide, a page i can read white text (and greys and blues)

I would say that on the inner pages the band name/logo should be much smaller and in the top left hand corner with the links running adjacent to that, without the dark blue background to them. The page headers need to be smaller as well because you are taking up most of the page with it, you should have the important information above the fold and at smaller resolutions you'll be causing too much scrolling to get to it.

In general I would say your text is too small and black on the blue makes it even harder to read it.

On the band page I really would expect to see pictures of them next to the text about them instead of that roll of film! In general the site is ok but you still need to address some things. At larger resolutions the background image looks bad because you see the hard edge along the right and it spoils the effect as it sites more into the middle of the page.

some good points raised there.

the background image is creating a bit of a problem with my web site - would you scrap it and go with just a plain colour?

navigation - maybe use a javascript do you think?

more help and ideas pleaseeeee, i wanna make this look as good as possible.

Steve

http://www.stouffa.co.uk

keep the swf file on the front page or lose it?

keep the background image on the pages or lose it?

http://www.stouffa.co.uk

Cheers,

Steve

I think you should be looking at learning CSS and use an external stylesheet, that way you can have more control over elements and you wont need to change things on each page, much easier and quicker in the long run.

I wouldn't use javascript for the navigation as you may run into more problems and you don't really have a complicated navigations sytem/large site that would warrant that type of menu. I would either stick woth the text links but loose the coloured background and have the text change colour on hover or create a graphic for each link using a different font.

As for the background, I would loose it as you can't see what it is and it makes it harder to read the text over it.

Quote: more help and ideas pleaseeeee, i wanna make this look as good as possible

Just remember good as possible doesnt always mean the use of all the toys in the world, sometimes simple is better.
In this case, you probably could get away with flash, displaying concert clips, interview clips ... but try keep away from using it for everything.
find a theme and follow it thru, you say its a rock band, do they play rock, metal, punk, covers or something? if it was metal you can use "the dark side" theme, whats the band made up of? dummer, lead, base, keyboard ? (sorry didnt look at site for info), maybe use the instruments as a theme, I remember slayer had a awesome skull fading into a guiater (this was back many years lol).
whats on the drum kit? most bands have a logo, work it around that.
just an idea or two.

Thank You

Hiya,

I was given some great advice on here a few weeks back.

Just wondering what people think of the following

http://www.stouffa.co.uk/Test2.htm compared to the index.htm page.

It's only a front page but some help would be great.

Steve

I liked the old one better. The white background in this one is a disappointment to me - you always did interesting things with backgrounds before. I also feel that there are too many decorative fonts on here. It's just kind of overwhelming. I would probably change some of those things to a plainer font.

I did agree with Julia that the old background was a problem because you couldn't see what was on it. That could have been sharpened up or something - consider using something from a dingbat font enlarged really big, in a colour slightly lighter or darker than the background. Something like what was done with the background on this site (here's the background file on it's own). I also really liked the bricks you had in the previous design.

The navigation looks much better but I still think that the flash thingy on there has got to go, or at least be simplified. A simple slideshow without cheesy swish effects would be a better idea IMO. And have it end after playing over, say twice. Then include a "play" button so the user can see it again if they want to.

Far too much going on here for my liking! I'm not overly keen on the blue buttons but that's just probably me! There are too many fonts going on here and everything kind of looks like it was thrown at the page rather than placed and the flash in the middle looks out of place to me. I prefer the lighter look but it just feels too jumbled.

Personally, I like the blue background better. I was unique and fit the feel of the site better. It took this new page almost 5 minutes to fully load on my dial up. You have way too many animations going on with this one page.

Looks like you have resize the image at the bottom (Test10.jpg) to 270 X 91 and it is actually 260 X 132. You should resize your graphics manually and not by using the image height and width tags.

May I ask what font that is you are using for the title and link names?

ummm more work needed here.

the site is going to stay the same for now until I get something new sorted. The other pages that I havent shown you are too boring - too much white so yes a background is needed. Just getting a good colour scheme going and sticking to say two fonts.

The font used in the title and for the buttons is - Adler

I like the flash but thats probably because I am not experience with it at all. Slide show could be done using what method?

Cheers,
Steve

I think I like the new version better than the original.

The background does need work as the original had a background I liked, even though it was hard to read the text!

Loading time has plunged. Even on Cable the siite takes way too long too load what with the animated gifs AND SWF file. I would personally lose the animation and keep the SWF file, I like the effects you got going there...

The top nav looks alot better now and if you spread that theme through the site, I think it would work quite nicely...

Its definately getting there!!

Quote: Originally posted by webmastersteve
I like the flash but thats probably because I am not experience with it at all. Slide show could be done using what method?

Flash still. Just take out some of those cheesy effects and make it stop after playing twice. Leave it on a still picture of the band with a "play again" button or something like that. Losing the effects would probably trim down the file size quite a bit, and make sure those photos aren't larger than they need to be in there. Just my opinion... flipper seems to like it.