Review Request: Laguna Beach Resort

Thanks for reviewing a few sites first

I had to view the site in IE as it has a few problems in mozilla, with all the top sections overlapping each other and the side images up in the top banner image (CSS issues).

In IE, the site has a look and feel of an underwater retreat, there is a slight horz scroll at 800x600 and I wont say anything about the font, but it is hard to read and numbers are confusing - 3 looks like a 5 and 5 looks like a S, "32 awe-inspiring dive sites" or "52 awe-inspiring dive sites" ?? (copy and paste shows 32)

Would be interesting to see how the rest of the layout would flow, but as you only have the one page is a little hard to tell. Not many sites make me want to see what/where/how etc, could be I like to dive or maybe you did a good job making it inviting. The top square images and side rounded images could be a picky issue but again depends how its blended with the rest of the site.

back to your CSS for a sec, you might have problems with things like font-family : "Papyrus", serif, sans-serif

It is strange, but the link seems to incorrect:
The requested URL /utila/7a/l was not found on this server.

Link should be good... server might have been down temporarily when you tried to check it.

Thanks for the replies. Very much appreciated.

I have had the hardest time coming up with an idea for the top. I had wanted a nice panoramic shot to span across the top, but the client didn't have any nor did they have any that could be altered to appear to pan. Anyway, the client wanted several pictures in the top.

I could cut off the top of the images with the wave thing like at the bottom and maybe do one for the top blue lines also... see what that looks like.

As far as the font... I've discussed several times with them that the font is very difficult to read, BUT they would like for the website to compliment their (paper) brochure which is in that print. Might try one more time.

Thanks again for taking a look... any ideas for what to do about the top part with the images??

Thanks -
Shan

I think the top part looks good. It's nice and clear and simplistic yet very effective. Just put a little more spacing after the commas in the title and try doing that in another colour (blue to blend in, or green to add some contrast and pick up the colour used further down).

The part below the photos is the problem here. I'm seeing a serif font and it looks terrible. This whole thing would look a lot better if that were fixed. Try tahoma as a default. The navigation area in general could use some work. The header font conflicts with the font you've used for the resort title at the top. Keep those the same. I'm also not keen on the star bullets. Try a simpler shape like a square or triangle/arrow. Also get rid of the red there. I really like the little wavy lines you've put along the bottom.

In opera 7, the only problem I see with the layout is the right border on the navigation area which is sticking out to the right. Otherwise it looks fine.

Thanks Megan for the ideas... greatly appreciated! Re-doing the navbar as we speak... and will definitely change the default font to tahoma...probably going to do the name of the resort in the green... thanks again.

the wavy bit is fine, the curve makes you follow the images to either end to get more images or the navigation, you got the flow going nicely, and the range of pics are good, but if you were to change them, I wouldn't put the whale one next to the beach one, could freak out the sun worshipers

Here's a couple of screen shots using mozilla firebird browser

ystoredesign - none of the links work as was noted in first post, red_headed you could make your links like instead which will go to the top of the same page rather than fill up your error log.

LOL... I use DW and anybody who's used DW for a while knows it will leave div's here and there if you delete things. So I usually wait and play code clean-up till the very end... same with my css.

I did take a look at it in mozilla and whoa. I've fixed that problem since that section of the site is pretty much "good". Really appreciate the screenshot. That was very kind of you to take the time to do that.

ystoredesign -- sorry, didn't read my link closely in your post (duh). Yes, as Busy said, none of the links are setup yet. I will take your advice Busy, and do the # thing in the future.

Thanks for the compliments and the comments. LOL @ the whale next to the beach... if you step back and look at it, it does kind of have a "jaws" effect, especially for someone not interested in diving, lol. I'm a snorkel junkie, so the whale shark is just awesome to me, but I guess I've got to remember I'm not the only one viewing the site, lol. Thanks for pointing that out... I'll leave it and see if the client mentions anything about it (haven't shown it to them yet).

I've been re-doing the navbar. Right now I've got straight edges with some kind of wave/thing going on at the top to keep the site from looking so choppy. I'll post it as soon as I get it decent and see what you guys think.

Thanks again for the comments!!

Hi red_headed !

The site has a good structure and a nice design .

However , if you want to improve the design i would suggest the following :

- Change the font for your site's content ( arial looks really unprofessional )
- Don't use green mouse-over for the menu
- Try to protect your e-mail against spam bots ( Don't use mailto:[email protected] because you'll surely be on the spammers list in a short time )

I'd love to review your site closer but the links don't work at this moment .

I think the site is really great!
I love the colors, the blue and the green mouseover!
The top part with the photos looks great with lots of vibrant color. I liek the curviness under the top photos. It makes me think of the ocean. I know it makes me want to go and visit that resort, so, it probably will with other potential customers.

As for the font, personally I kind of like it, but that could just be my artistic side coming out, since I like websites visually enticing and with a font to match. I mean it is kind of hard to read but not that hard.

One thing I would add maybe is a short description under those images to the right to give a little bit of info to the customer. Just something I would like to see.

All in all I would give your site five stars.

Great job!