what does everyone think of my new site?

Your site's pretty nice but I don't really like the colors that much. They don't really match. I like the rollovers though. The layout is pretty ok too. Just work some more on your colors.

Thanks for your input, webkid, do you have any suggestions for where changes in colour could be made? Also, did u have a look at any of the articles? I need to know if people like the contect, thanks again,

I'm not sure on what colors would go good, that's your judgement. What I would do is look at site that I really like and checkout which colors they used that go really good together. Like grey and navy blue maybe? Blue and White is nice too but you'll need more than just 2 colors. Just look around, it helps a lot.

Eek! Yeah, those colours are definitely a problem - that's the first thing I notice. The other thing is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of real content on there.

We usually ask that people review at least 3 other sites before asking for a critique, so if you go ahead and do that I'm sure everyone will be happy to give you a more detailed review.

hi IT,

not bad, the layout is good. but, i think the colors simply need a little consistency. i take it you dived straight into the colors without much design thought behind it? only too often do people not plan out design before actually implementing it.
here are a few pointers:

• before you go around coloring everything, work out a suitable range of colors. i.e. blues, grays, greens etc.
• after sorting out what colors you want, check if they go together (as long as they are not repulsive, they can pass ). try not to use bright colors, i find they are harder to work with.
• now note all the places where you want a little contrast. i.e. column headers, titles body areas, backgrounds etc.
• unless you get creative and use really skilful design, always avoid dark colors for backgrounds.
• if you have dark backgrounds, use light text, usually white (try to keep text to white and black, maybe gray).
• try not to use color to differentiate links from ordinary text. use the underline, and a slight difference in color.
• try to keep some uniformity. eg: keep the backgrounds to all the boxes on the left column to one color. if you want one box to stand out because it is something important, then vary the background (only darken or lighten a little).
• finally, put it together and see how it looks. remember to try and maintain it throughout the page/site (content matters, the colors/design should never overrule)

also, keep font alignment, size, color and type consistent:
if you use serif fonts in one part, keep serif fonts for the rest, and vice versa. notice how some words in your top navigation row, are black and others are white....it ends up looking messy. also, the headings on the boxes in the middle column are uneven. the fact that the column is in the middle and that the area is bigger is enought to make it significant. don't overdo the fonts. :D

remember these are not compulsory rules. after you've re-arranged any colors, begin to work on them to give your page a little individuality, and get creative.

good luck

hi again,

i forgot to go throught the content.
anyway i just did. it's really good. i think the site has (more than just) great potential. keep it up.

i had a look at the page about the text size etc. the steps you've shown are not the same for all IE versions, i suppose. eg: i have to go to the view menu > text size > small/large etc. i think you should include at least 2 other ways to do it.

once again, i like your site

I agree that the colours don't work particularly well at all. Choose a colour scheme & stick to just those colours.

The last box at the bottom, not all the text fits in - "[click here ] to view the first article to feature this" is half in half out. With a site like this you should use tables rather than layers (makes it easier for browser compatibility as well).

Asking your users to modify their browser settings to accomodate your site? Bad plan - compatability is your job.

I didn't take a deep enough plunge into the code to see why the overlap occurs, but you should come up with a fix.

Have you tested in Netscape? Things do not work well at all for me in v4.72

thanks for replying everyone, it is very much appreciated. I will try to sort out the colour scheme as soon as possible, but the layer thing I'm afraid will ahve to stay. I just don't have enought time to change to whole site to tables. Also, thankyou Abhishek Reddy for going through the content, it's been a big help, thanks again

You have text overlap on IE on some pages. Meaning you have compatibility problems with the browser 80 percent of your audience (i guess) will use. Tables stink but layers are worse. Your code may be "cutting edge" with layers, but no one will take your page seriously if the layout falls apart.

The text overlapped on you "staff" page.
http://itinsite.8m.com/ourstaff.htm

And on the "bad computer page".
http://itinsite.8m.com/whengobad.htm

There were a few other instances.
Use tables.

The ITinsite logo on the mp3 page looked "unclean" Try making a new image with more contrast.

Overall I think you guys did a good job on the site and I really like the "when computers go bad" page.

FYI I viewed the page on ie 5.5 Jap Lang Ver at 1024 res

Andrew

Just to let evr1 know, ITinsite has been slighly re-designed thanks to your input, so if u could have a look and tell me what u think, that would be great (no more overlapping!!)

Looks better. An improvement.

You still get ovelap on the "when computers go bad page" when i looked in IE though.

Netscape 4.7 looked alright.

Much better

thanks, unfortunately, I did not have time to update all the pages to table format (only the 6 main pages) but all new articles will be in table format, thanks