REVIEW REQUEST: bowhuntingsupplies.com

It would be much easier to critique if it were a working page rather than one image! As it is now there is a horizontal scrollbar at 800*600. It looks ok but your graphics are very jaggedy, expecially the man which looks quite awful really. The logo I would suggest doing in a different colour, maybe an orange, to make it stand out as right now everything blends in too much being all the same colour. Can't really add much more as you can't see it working.

Nothing wrong with posting a graphic mockup - this way you can fix problems before spending all that time coding the site.

My first impression is that this looks really dark. Even though you do have a white background, the header and navbar areas are much too dark. You really need to find a way to bring those two sections together. ONe option would be to reverse that gradient in the background so the light part is at the top. Either that or chuck the gradient and make it all solid in the lighter shade. Also remove that guy with the bow and try a full colour picture or at least something that isn't so dark.

The logo is also a big problem because it blends in too much with the top bar, so it doesn't stand out much. It would also be good to have a more interesting font, and maybe a litlte symbol or something to make it a real logo rather than a hunk of text.

Otherwise this isnt' bad. I think the colours you've chosen are really appropriate for your subject matter, and I like the technique of overlapping nav elements between the dark sidebar and white content area. The navbar looks good.

I like your shared border but not the drab green , greens okay but maybe try a texture instead of a solid. just my thoughts. And id like to see a wildlife pic somewhere. agian my thoughts but other then that its coming along very nice
good luck:)

Assuming that the text will be text rather than all one graphic. I think it looks pretty good. I agree that the picture of the bow hunter himself should be a little cleaner and brighter as well. Looks like a good template setup. I like the menu system.

Overall thumbs up. Clean, easy to navigate. Nice navigation. Uncluttered. Looks good.

But I'll reiterate what was already said: Hunter needs to be redone cleaner, Title graphic needs a color that pops out more, and I get a scroll bar at 800*600.

About your concerns, what I think you mean by the white space on the right margin (to the right of the specials boxes?) is fine. And don't center your navigation either, justify left looks good.

Good job. Your on the right track.

i like the site, would be interesting to see how it turns out what with the buttons if they rollover or whatever, all in all looks generally clean, tidy, easy to navigate, reasonable choice of colours and content is well presented,.

well done

Hey all,

Despite my belated reply I appreciate the feedback. I've addressed many of you points.

The Webmistress said:

-didnt like graphic mocup - fixed
-jagged graphics - fixed
-can't read logo - fixed

Megan said:
-too dark - fixed
-replace silhouette with photo - the client likes the silhouette, although i darkened it a bit.
-reverse gradient - tried it but it looked bad, darkened the page even more
-logo is crap - fixed

AMD_PoWeR_tOwEr said:
-solid green is drab - fixed, added some highlighted lines to give it a bit of texture
-wildlife pics - client doesn't want em, not sure how i'd work them in anyway

ched said:
-clean up graphics - done

fifeclub said:
-thumbs up besides logo and bowyer (fixed)

liam_tmt7 said:
-thumbs up

Again thank you, i've considered all your opinions. The new, fairly functional design is here:
http://bowhuntingsupplies.com/working

I'm pretty happy with what i've got so far. It should display fine in IE 5+, Moz .9+, NS 6+ - havn't tried Opera yet.

That is soooooo much better

Hello very nice, i would definately have the target in red white and blue though:)and maybe an arrow graphic strike through the sites name.
good luck with the site.

Looks really nice ROB.

I have Opera 6 something and it looks good there too.

One thing I would suggest is.... make the font a wee bit bigger. Doesn't look bad as it is but if you aren't going to have a lot of text content, that would help to fill the page.

Looks loads better!
Are you using a content management system?

Looks great. However, the links on the right with the dark green background on hover doesn't look too good.

Quote: Originally posted by JeevesBond
Looks loads better!
Are you using a content management system?

yup, one i wrote myself for my own projects

Renegade, good catch, i'll fix that

The site looks very good. In addition to the other great comments everyone has given you, I would also recommend making the logo at the top link to the homepage.

And when you are done, if you still are concerned about the white space on the right, a "Top Selling Items" list would go very well there.

Let me know when you have the site done, I am an avid hunter and it looks like you will have some great toys!

goog layout, but the links don't work.

for the people who requested it, http://bowhuntingsupplies.com and http://gilbertsguns.com are live