Review Request: AMD'S DESIGN STUDIO

Quite Frankly AMD, the black background stuff is getting pretty cliche and boring, but besides that, it's too dark

The "Welcome and thanks for visiting us . We are committed to providing..." text should be left aligned or better still justified, a whole paragraph centred is too hard to read.

As for the ads and the flash animation(s) on your site, I think you don't need them, remember a rule of thumb, if what you put on your page is beficial to your viewer then put it on, if not then leave it out.

Try making a nav button for the "CONTACT US" us at the bottom.

I'm sorry to sound so blunt but I was expecting something quite stunning from a design studio! I know designers aren't necessarily great website builders but still this to me doesn't have a design, it's just a bunch of stuff thrown on the page and the black background isn't good. You say you are committed to providing high quality graphics but your first page should be showing that off! You need a good logo which is what people will generally look at first and that should make them go "wow that's great, what's his other stuff like?"

Nice, but it was very slow loading for me even with dsl. I didn't check traffic, but either TN or SD should offer better speed normally. I didn't check where the server was (I'm in Pittsburgh PA, USA if that means anything)

It is very dark, but some folks like that.

Jeez, give the guy a break already! I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with using a black background - it can provide a really nice setting for a display type site, but it needs to be balanced with some ligheter elements. part of the problem with the front page here is that the lighter elements are positioned to draw the eye down and to the right side - away from the important elements (logo, navbar, intro text).

One thing I'd like to point is the navbar here. I think this is the best part of the design. It's got a good concept and interesting design. It does a good job of showcaseing the itneresting colour scheme you've chosen, and I like the sidelight effect on mouseover. One thing you should do, though, is make it wider so all the words can fit across teh buttons without overlapping anything. Then move it up some so it's got a more prominent position on the page. It cuts off halfway down the page and that really diminishes its importance. It might also be good to provide more of a lighter backdrop for it.

Once that's done, create a new logo/header in the same design style. That will do a lot to provide some punch to your design.

Another thing to pay attention to is your fonts. Times New Roman doesn't look too good on a screen. You should really replace that with a nice sans-serif. I think that would be the best option for your site. Oh, I see, you're trying to use a font called GrantsHand here. I don't have that font installed on my machine, so I just see the default font. What you should do is define a string of fonts so that if the user doesn't have the first font you want, it'll look for the second one instead, and so on. Dreamweaver's font selection drop-down has some good options pre-defined for you to choose from.

Keep up the good work

p.s. sorry for all the typ-o's! FIngers feeling a little stiff today

Not enough contrast of blue text on black background.

IMO, Sans-Serif fonts like Verdana and Arial would look better. Also smaller and not bold. If everything is bold (or flashing) then everything gets lost and you've accomplished the opposite of what you were going for. Draw special attention to only one or two items max.

Menu is okay but why is it so far off the left edge? Also, navigation is more importnat then your paypal link so the paypal should go underneath. And why is the text Home floating above your navigation? I thought it was a link, which you already have a link in your nav bar. Axe the blue Home text.

Counter should go to the bottom or removed altogether. It's okay to have a counter but none of your visitors care enough for it to be so prominently displayed on top, above your main content.

Flashing graphics hurt my eyes! Especially the animations page. You can't tell your work from other flashing stuff around your site. You need to clearly define visually where your main content is and where ads are. Honostly, much of the site flow is confusing. It needs to be simple and intuitive.

Okay guys & gals Ive really payed attention in class
Ive learned alot and the site is totaly new and ive went in a different direction. Tell me what you think now:)

First up you need to make your buttons with a transparent background.
Maybe rethink using the striped background strip, as the banner page overlaps it and makes it look strange. (or at least add 0 margins).
Also don't center your text, very hard to read when you have 3 colums of centered text (some pages are left aligned) .
Add some text links at the bottom of the page, at 800x600 with that font the pages are quite long.
Add a set of links or at least a 'home' link from your contact page

Everything Busy said plus...

You may want to rethink your use of "Bradley Hand ITC" as a text font or at least provide some alternatives. I don't think that it is a terribly common one.

On the home page, your navigation bar wraps at 800x600 likely due to the hit counter. Lose the hit counter - no one but you cares and you can track this sort of thing behind the scenes.

I'd rethink the whole flash nav - really unnecessary here.

Watch your spelling: "COMMING SOON" "powerd by" and so on.

Coding: You really should update this. The font tag is a thing of the past. Do a little reading on CSS - once you make that step you'll never turn back.

okay ive made some of those changes, how is it now ?

I am viewing your site on 800 X 600 and the contact button at the top is right under the banner design button.

I think the text is spread out too much vertically and there are too many images on the front page that (in my opinion) don't really carry any meaning.

Think about it like this. If I wanted to read your whole page, I would have to read the first column. Scroll back to the top and read the second column. Scroll back up again and read the third. I think your main body part would look much better if you had:

Tennessee based Web Design company
Need a Web Site?
Do you need a Logo

Instead of Tennessee based Web Design company, Need a Web Site?, Do you need a Logo

A good example of not knowing where to start on your pages is the "To Begin Start Here!" blurb that you have on the logos page. Try and think of a logical way to layout your site. I really think a two column layout would work better for you than a three column.

If you are going to keep that left sidebar, you might consider making your margins 0.

At the bottom where you have those link buttons, I would change those to just plain text.

On the banners page, the main content table is covering up the red bar to the left.

Keep working. You have a good start.

okay guys Im really trying, Ive tried the 0 margin in the body tag and in the head but it always acts the same {words cutting into sidebar}. Anybody tell me why ?
Thanks

You've got nothing in your body tags - where are you setting margins to 0?

Also, VendomeT is even more obscure than Bradly Hand. I've got thousands of fonts here and Vendome isn't one of them - I'm just seeing default TNR now.

also, you've got some of your metatags sitting outside of your header. half are in, half are out

HeHeHe
Okay thanks for pointing out my errors, I know this isnt the help forum.
Anyway Ive changed over to a css stylesheet and Ive just learned it, so Im sure Im not using it to its full advantage. But I do like what I know so far. I also changed the layout a bit, & I think its better.
Thanks Everyone for taking time to view my site
& I know theres that dead space to the lower left (I hope to add a couple of partner sites and maybe a ad or two)

Nice looking site now, but the horizontal scrollbar is still there when viewed at 800x 600 so unless i scroll i dont see the right hand side of your site with links on.(i see upto the monitor graphic only)

good luck with the site.

Okay I think ive fixed it now look agian if you dont mind
& a very BIG Thanks to all

What did this look like before? Do you still have the old site at all? I don't remember entyirely what it looked like before, but this is much better! Nice light look and feel. I really like the logo and navbar there. However, I do think that the animation should either slow down or stop for longer, or maybe jsut run once and stop. It's rather distracting up there.

Also, while the content area looks nice, it seems too busy and heavy for the header part and I'm sure it doesn't fit very well at smaller screen resolutions. Definitely get rid of that torn paper sidebar - it doesn't go with the look and feel of the rest of the site. Your banners page also has a big horiztonal scrollbar even at 1152 x 768. Be careful about screen resolution.

I would actually consider getting rid of those columns and doing plain white background in the content area. I think a simpler content area would do a better job of emphasizing the header and at the same time allowing people to focus on content. Your headers there are attractive, and you've used screen shots a lot to break up the text.

Speak of text, some of these pages have a heck of a lot of it. I think you should be able to explain yourself in one or two short paragraphs and then let your work speak for itself. Nobody is going to read a lot of this, and they may have a hard time finding the information they're looking for. For example, everything under "To begin, start here" on the logos page could really be explained after someone has contacted you. They don't need to know that up front.

On the "web design" page, those quotes are really small and hard to read. Check your CSS on that. On the "web hosting" page, those side graphics really look like they've been pullled from another site. Redo them to suit your new style. Or is that the deal? Right, I understand now. Do they have to be there? I would just get rid of those, they don't look right at all. Maybe a small logo towards the bottom would be okay.

One more thing - make sure all your shades of blue are the same. The navbar buttons look a little bit more greenish and saturated than the body columns.

Keep up the good work!