Been working on a website, constructive criticism?

[ussfletcher]

I've been working on a site for a small business, and I was wondering what you guys think of it.

Thanks


www.nationalrestoration.net

 

[flexy]

pretty good, but that header is too big IMHO.

 

[dfuze]

Link doesn't load for me, goes to http://forums.anandtech.com/www.nationalrestoration.net

Tried removing the anandtech part and still doesn't load.

 

[dfuze]

Nevermind, removed the "www" and it loaded.

Looks pretty good.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Yeah your link is broken. I agree with flexy about the header image. Maybe you should add a small margin to the left of the Main Menu text. Otherwise it looks good in IE 7.

 

[D1gger]

Nice simple site, but I agree that the header is way too big.

 

[ussfletcher]

link fixed

 

[ussfletcher]

I agree that the header is too big, I was trying to appease the owner though that wanted a large header like that.. but I think I'm going to take it down a bit.

 

[Scouzer]

Looks good, but 3 big beefs:

1) Header should be 50% that size. 75% maximum.
2) Images rotate too fast
3) Dislike the "Contact us" in the top nav tabs, then again in the bottom, and again in the sidebar. Also the Contact Us riding solo in the bottom tab looks awkward. I'd keep it only on the top tab.

 

[bigrash]

Nice site. Very simple. 2 questions though...

1. Why do you have both a horizontal and vertical navigation? I think you should only have one. Top navigation looks better imo.

2. The pics from the gallery don't load on my side. Might be my work computer though.

 

[Ausm]

Looks good to me.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Also agree about the image rotation delay.

I just noticed that the shamrock in the small text in the header (top left logo) is cut off on the bottom. You also have a lot of random &quot tags in your keywords metatag. It might be the way you entered them in your cms.

 

[gorcorps]

The header is a little big, but if that's what the customer wants then that's what he wants. It's his site so if he really won't budge on it then don't push it. I think the image change time is perfect... I don't think it's too fast at all and actually would say it takes a little too LONG if anything.

I do agree that the top navigation with the side is redundant. Top navigation looks good enough to have just that IMO.

It'd also be cool, but not necessary, to maybe use frames or w/e it's called to keep the header rotating by itself as you navigate. That way people are seeing the flow of the pictures changing at all times, and it doesn't reset every time you click a link.

 

[MJinZ]

The image transitions are 1 or 2 seconds too fast.

Also, there is no need for duplicate links right next to each other. Contact us at the bottom also unneeded. that area instead should have your address and phone number.

 

[ussfletcher]

Thanks for your replies guys, I'm going to take it down for a bit to do some work on it.

 

[capntrader]

a couple of bits of help on this:

first, you have to consider that many have a smaller resolution, so bringing down the size of the header (maybe down to 900X240?) should bring it up a bit.

im big on joomla, and one of the things that i think is necessary to keep yourself looking professional is to hide traces of the template youre using. just changing the values of the xml files should be enough. this could also help on search engines - as ive experienced jumps just by making it unique.

use your module positions wisely. if you're bringing up another menu on the left hand side, it should be different than the top menu - especially with the lack of content. my opinion is to eliminate the menu altogether and use a small banner or unique content on the left. name the images and descriptions to the keywords you have for the site as well. that'll help later on.

the only other thing is to change up the buttons for the image gallery - you can usually find that in the components folder. i'd personally try to keep it in the same theme color as the rest of the site.

otherwise, its a clean looking site. i like.