REVIEW REQUEST: youwantittryhere.com

Before posting a site for critique we do ask that you help out others and post your thoughts on their sites in some of the other threads in this forum. This will also help you by giving you ideas for your site.

I'll take a look at you site later and post my review then.

Um, okay... First of all you really ought to work on your graphics skills. More colour is needed, more design elements, some sort of sense of style. Look around at other pages and see what they're doing. YOu'll usually see a clean, elegant, attention-getting logo with a coordinating colour scheme used throughout the site. You will see some sort of a navigation menu. All of these elements will be consistently used on every page.

Your other major problem that I see is alignment. You're centering everything, which gives a really scattered and disorganized look to the design. Think about creating a few strong lines on the page and use them to divide up your layout. Everything should fit cleanly within those lines.

Well, I think Megan covered a lot of the important issues already.

There definately needs to be a sense of organization!

You might want to look at other portal sites to get a feel for good layouts. There are some "standard practices" that you will see the better portal sites using.
(You'll notice that centering everything is not something they do... for a reason)

I would also suggest you might want to figure out what your most important content is and make that the main focus of your home page.
At the moment there are a number of links right at the top of your page that takes visitors off your site.

One other comment I want to make...
There is no consistancy between pages. Every single page has a completely different color scheme and layout (there are even some pages that are in frames while others aren't)
This is beyond confusing, because without SOME consistancy I felt like every page was on a different site.

The best thing to do is develop a "Template" with your logo, navigation and a "blank" spot for the content of each page. Once you have Your template made, you can fill in the content by adding the html, calling it in with SSI, or calling up a new frame (if you want to do this in a frame set).
If you do this you can be sure your pages will be consistant and visitors won't get lost when they click on your first link.

Sorry to be so tough, but I'm sure you will be able to do a little work and have something you will really love.

Hmmm...

I've got to agree with the above points...

There seems to be a serious lack of control given to the viewer. The whole site seems fairly bland and disorganised, the result of about an hours work. I can see what you are trying to achieve but you will have an uphill stuggle the way you are going about it at the mo...

For example, I submitted my site but was presented with no way to return to the index page so what incentive is there to stay?

One other thing Lose the framed hosting. Its very annoying seeing your site thrust down to second place by some advert captured in a frame. Find a chepa paid host or at least a free one without the banner ads...

that floating american flag doesnt work in Opera and is really annoying in the other browsers.
and since the image doesnt float the link on it is on the last 1/3 of the image.

those pop ups and the page refreshing all the time is another pain in the butt, as flipper mentioned, find another host.

Thanks for your comments and I will have a go at improving the website.

By the way, it's a BRITISH, not american flag.

Thanks all

I think the most important thing is to get it onto your own space with no banner ads - other than ones you want to put into your pages - and with no pop ups. No one is going to a take a portal site seriously unless it looks prefessional in all aspects. You need a better stronger logo and pick a definite colour scheme. Red, white & clue is ok but hard to pull off well. You need to have a consistant navigation system (to the main pages/sections) which is on each page.

Get rid of that first page. The flag is annoying and you could quite easily have links to other languages within the next page. People want to get right into the content.

I actually found it hard to work out exactly what contant you had as everything seemed to go to others pages. If this is what it is then make that clear or get your own content.

I too added one of my own sites and it doesn't tell me how long it'll be until it appears, whether it will be vetted first, if you are going to confirm by email, where it will appear????? I did a search for shopping and it does now appear but can I edit my listing? What order are the results listed in?

It is a very hard area to get into as there are so many portals/search engines out there so you need to have a good design, plain is good but it has to look professional. How are you planning to get found yourself? If you are serious about the site then this has to be next on your list of concerns.

I've made a few changes to the first two pages you would come across (index.htm and main.htm) and the search engine.

I have got rid of most of the banners apart from one, but even yahoo has a banner pop up.

I have put a return home link on the search engine and also put the banner.gif thing on the top as well.

I have got rid of the floating flag. The link to get to the other languages is now on the main.htm page.

Regarding the search engine I am thinking about making a little help thing on how to use it.

Your site is automatically added to the database as soon as it is submitted.

The search engine checks frequency of words and prioratises between title, description and keywords. It is also somewhat alphebetical if results are simalar it will rank results alphabetically.

I am currently working on the autoresponse when your search engine is listed thing.

I have also got rid of some of the centers and put the table in a clearer format.

The rest of the site hasn't been changed yet.

What is the opinion of these two pages now.

Well in caveman speak "color bad".
Just because there are bright colors out there doesn't mean that you have to use them on a website.
You do need some better graphics. Even the Ask Geeves graphic needs a little work. Clipart type graphics work fine on cards maybe, on a website no way.
You need to have a more consistent look to your pages. The pages should look mostly the same except for the content. You should have navs (Home,etc) on all of your pages.
The site needs major work on graphics, logo, page layout and a consistant look throughout.

Thank you for your comment, but people have already mentioned the different navs for different pages.

I would like your comments to stick just to the index.htm, main.htm and search engine bit for now, as I will suit the rest of the site to fit these pages eventually.

A lot of you have said, poor colours or clipart, but what do you suggest instead.

You need to come up with a colour scheme - white background & then 2 or 3 colours that will form the basis of the design. Have a look around at some of the directories/search engines to get some inspiration. As for the images, if you aren't very good at graphics then a good place to start is by using dingbats for images http://www.dingbatpages.com

Quote: Originally posted by ywith
Thank you for your comment, but people have already mentioned the different navs for different pages.

A lot of you have said, poor colours or clipart, but what do you suggest instead.

Yes I suppose people have already mentioned that but I try to review a site without reading anyone elses review to keep a better focus.

As far as what the site needs, consistency and content. There should be one set of navs. If you have headers like you do, don't make some of them hyperlinks and some not. Change the color of the the headers also to something less bright. Don't have an image associated with your links for some links like mp3 but not others. Group your links vertically. Add more content to the page that tells what the site is about. Quit looking at Yahoo for inspiration. Create a better logo. Lose the clipart. That should get you started.

I have made some upgrades to the website, not every page has been upgraded. Only about half of them. Such as most of the internet category, the search engine and the health category.

Does the standard navigation look better on the pages that have been changed.

I have also made a how to submit your site to the search engine link, so please check that out as well.

Tell me your response, and thanks for the feedback.

I do like the fact that you are "standardizing" your navigation. It really makes it sooooo much easier to get around a site.

I also like the text being on a white background. Maybe because I'm used to reading books so much, but I find it easier to read black text on a white background when there is a lot of text on a site's page . (This might just be me though)

I would suggest putting your text in a table and padding the cell to bring it in from the edges. You also might want to limit the width of your table so visitors with large resolution screens won't have to go back and forth so much to read it.

Someone told me once that 600-650 pixels was a comfortable width for viewing large blocks of text on the web. I'm not sure if they were right, but I generally try to keep my paragraphs no wider than that.

Your site is starting to come together now.
Keep it up. Your definately getting there.

Quote: You also might want to limit the width of your table so visitors with large resolution screens won't have to go back and forth so much to read it.

Someone told me once that 600-650 pixels was a comfortable width for viewing large blocks of text on the web. I'm not sure if they were right, but I generally try to keep my paragraphs no wider than that.

Quote: You also might want to limit the width of your table so visitors with large resolution screens won't have to go back and forth so much to read it.

Someone told me once that 600-650 pixels was a comfortable width for viewing large blocks of text on the web. I'm not sure if they were right, but I generally try to keep my paragraphs no wider than that.

Which pages are you refering to in particular?

I saw the "unbounded" text on the "HTML Guide", "Job Search" and "Weight loss tips" pages.
I didn't have time to check every page of your site, but this would refer to any page with large blocks of text that fill the width of the screen.

To bring your text in from the edges you could put it all in a blockquote, although that won't prevent it from running the full width of the browser window your visitors may be using.

You could also put your text in a table with a cellpadding of about 10 (I like the look of 10 on cellpadding). A table will also let you controll how wide your text will be displayed.

Well, that's the oppinion of someone who really loves tables at least.

sorry, if I seem somewhat ignorant to this, but what is blockquote. I'm self taught, and that bit of text alignment must have bi-passed me.

Does it make it so that it will just fill the screenm but no further, so no scrolling?

If it is that then how would you make it so it is in block quote in microsoft frontpage or dreamweaver 3.

If I'm wrong, could you explain this more.

I have shrunk the first page's tables to 650 pixels. Is it any better on that page...?

Thanks for the help

makes any text surrounded by it look like this:

     Text text text text text text
     Text text text text text text
     Text text text text text text

That is, it indents the text. It's not advisable to use as it's being phased out.
And no, it doesn't prevent text from running beyond the screen width. Tables are probably the better way to go. Or even CSS with the margin- properties.

CSS isnt widely supported in the margins area, stick with tables

The trouble (apart from graphics & colours) on the first page is that the top section down to the search box is centered and the rest is left aligned, then the bottom section from the click here...... is back to being centered and this at larger resolutions looks odd.

How can I view what the site will look like in different screen reseloutions?

try this

Thanks. I have tried the site in a larger resolution and I get what your talking about. I have made the table on the main page look better I think.

What is your opinion????

That's better for the alignment

O.K. I'll go and make the improvements to all the pages.

Well, I've made the standard navigation, and better position on the page (for different screen reseloutions / sizes), (not lanuched them yet), but where else do you recon I could improve???

As we have already said the main things that need looking at to improve the overall look to the site would be:

It's own space so you don't have the ........./ywith/
A better logo
Better graphics
A style sheet to control fonts, etc
Make the font slightly bigger and veranda (plus I don't like comic sans)
Make the flags on the right all the same size
Either use little images for all the topics or none

Thanks for all your posts, you have all been very helpful.

By the way, the higherengineranking.com is my webspace.

I am a joint owner of it.

Thank you all

Hi, Its been a few weeks now. A lot of you have commented on the crappy pictures I made. So I have had a go at a new navigation. Does it look any better?

http://www.higherengineranking.com/ywith/template2.htm

looks ok, a few picky things:
the money image is a graph? doesnt relate to the topic like the other ones do, maybe use a dollar, Yen and pound sign.
the search box (far right) is mising a section of its box.

I think the email one is the best out of all, then the game one, maybe loose the box around them and make them grey/black as normal and color on mouseover. and like the chat one, the icons dont have to be maximum size.

I think it is a good improvement over the old layout still needs some work - maybe add some more color.

Thanks, I was hoping you would say it is an improvement as I missed the best part of buffy the vampire slayer to make it.

In answer to the money thing, it is really the stockmarket stuff and to my knowledge most sites use this sort of repusentation for the image. I can see what you are getting at. I will probably add a dollar or pound, (don't know the yen one on my site.)

The missing section of the box is because the magnifying glass is supposed to be poking through. I have thought of how I can get round that though.

Better, but still the graphics need work. They are too big IMO and the colouring isn't working well, either have them black/white & colour on mouseover or always coloured, the square is just annoying. The graph doesn't look like a graph as the line on it is too short. Also try not to get the images jumping on mouseover as some do and some don't and it just looks bad if they do. The text underneath them all needs to be the same and I would say to have that as html text under the images rather than part of the images.

Yes, those are much better but I think your site needs to have color so add a little more to the images. I agree that the text doesn't need to be a part of the images. Do it like Julia said. I also think the boxes around the circles looks too chunky.

I'm at school now and I am typing this message.

Last night the thing started going glitchy. There were supposed to be animations, but for some reason they have stopped working. I'll have a go at correcting it tonight.

I might not use flash as it seems to be currently unreliable for me. I will try and just use a picture change on mouseover from black & white to colour.

The change will be up soon

I have changed the banner and made a sample frontpage. Tell me what the general opinion is.

Oh yes, you the guy with goguide. I decided to do the same as you and get a news thing from tucows.

Hope you guys like the look.

I have made some alterations to http://www.higherengineranking.com/ywith/template2.htm and would like your opinion. I am considering having this as my frontpage.

The images at the top look better without the square around them but there is still something that doesn't look quiet right about those. I think maybe they are too big and believe that had been mentioned yesterday.

One thing that is really noticable is the news column on the right. It looks too much like Yahoo (not saying that it is) but that section just doesnt match the rest of the page. Maybe make each section a different color or get rid of the background color of that table.???

I still think the images at the top are a bit too big but they are better. The thing with the column down the right hand side is that there isn't the same spacing between it and the middle one as there is between the left & middle ones. Also where the headings don't line up with those on the other two it throws the eye right off.

I have made the changes to the news bar, but not the pictures. As on 1000 x 800 screen res, but on a small monitor you cannot see the words beneath the pictures.

I have made it the homepage now. Please look.

youwantittryhere.com

Better now it lines up & is evenly spaced but it now looks odd having the same colours as the middle column for the first three sections.

Yes, I know about it being weird with the same colours. Its because I'm starting to run out of them. Could you suggest some colours to me that I should use.

If you gave me the hexdecimal e.g. #fff000 sort of format I would be most appreciative.

Tell me what sort of colours you would like to see on the site.