Critique my website layout... image,

[MikeMike]

the colors are NOT final

Read the below paragraph first.
Oh, and the top Font is screwed up because i accidently made it 780px wide, and then had to stretch it to 1000px since i didnt want to restart... lol
good critiques, actual useful comments are greatly appreciated... If anyone wants to actually work on it, I will have to trust you, as the .xfs has more content that shows the name of the site... greatly appreciate anything you offer....
crap, i forgot to type stuff here: The alignment isnt perfect, that i know. this is just setting up the actual layout... the colors are NOT final... the top ad banner is there, and i took the site logo away as well, its not a public announcement yet... I dont really want to make it a liquid layout, those have always proven very difficult for me to code... If you guys could make more suggestions for a complete color setup, i would like it, i dont have them finalized, they were just setup there...

http://i94.photobucket.com/alb...dmrolnmt1/FFLayout.jpg

New Color for header, and behind images... http://i94.photobucket.com/alb...rolnmt1/FFLayout-1.jpg

need an idea to replace the salmon with.

 

[Crono]

- Colors clash EDIT: actually its more the green, which is placeholder for ads, but orange and blue don't look that well together. Maybe replace either blue or orange with a more neutral color.
- Dividing space/line in between right panel and top menu/search would be nice.
- A lighter gray or white would be better for background (my personal preference, though).

I like the relative cleanness of the layout, though. I could suggest more if I knew specific content, target audience, etc. I'm guessing you will code the site so it scales well, because it looks small in my browser as it is (I know, it's just a JPEG template right now, but many people forget to scale site to accommodate higher resolutions).

 

[Mo0o]

1. Too many colors going on, they dont match one another
2. Why is the top banner way off to teh right
3. Some of your text has a really odd letter spacing, especially the top navigation menu buttons
4. TOooooo much orange everywhere
5. The top two boxes, the middle gap is too wide, feels unnatural
6. THe news articles are too bunched up
7. Dont haev rounded tabs on your main section when everything else has hard corners
8. Too many fonts being used
9. Why is there so much wasted space on the bottom?
10. The two feature boxes are also too close to the rest of the content just below it.
11. The full banner above the two feature boxes is misaligned
12. Why do u haev that same banner in like 3 different locations
13. This layout just has huge alignment issues where things are off by like a few mm but it's noticeable.


Whatever happened to good clean webdesign, everybody always tries to fit so much into each page now adays.

 

[MikeMike]

What texts would you suggest? Yea, i figured i should move the lower tab section, I also want to make some of the blocky stuff more rounded, but havent gotten around to it yet... The wasted space at the bottom is there because i ran out of things to put in, but if i drop the tab section it should fill up, of course it will adjust as more/less is put in...

The middle gap in the boxes i will setup better, its currently like 17px, but i didnt take all my time to get everything perfect... This is really my first time using Gimp to do something like this.

Those banners are just placeholders... They will be different ads, but those are the typical ad sizes so i used some online site that had images of the different sizes, thats all those ads are there for.

 

[narzy]

that site looks like an earth toned acid trip. I would work on the color combination. layout looks good, not a fan of the right sided navigation but that seem to be the 'thing' these days. gave yourself plenty of ad space .

 

[Farang]

The layout is nice, the most constructive thing I could say is just try over again.

 

[deftron]

It's looks bad because the banner placements looks crazy.


Just put in some random banners or make then solid or something..


So you're basic layout is orange and blue tho.


Unless its a Fighting Illini, I'd change that up..

Use softer colors and two that dont contrast so bad.

 

[alkemyst]

looks like a site for one of the islands around Haiti.

 

[MikeMike]

Ah, i love lifers who post useless drivel that give me no ideas what i could do to help my site look better....

 

[Q]

Font is not good, colors are not good. Layout is good. You need a website logo somewhere. I'd suggest above Home and Forums, create a sort of 'tab' that comes up above that in the same color and stick your logo there. Then, beside that logo, make the search bar come out to the right of it. For font, use Arial/Helvetica throughout the site. For colors, try using two colors that actually go together, not salmon and bright blue.

Hope that helps.

PS> yes I see OP that says color is not final, but when asking for suggestions, color is a HUGE aspect of a website that makes it look completely different even if everything else is the same. Imagine going to Facebook right now, and the colors changed to yellow background and purple font. Even though everything else is the same, the site would look terrible, even to the point of making the actual design look like it needs some changing.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
Ah, i love lifers who post useless drivel that give me no ideas what i could do to help my site look better....

They're making legitimate comments though. Seems like everyone is in agreement that your color scheme is too saturated w/ color

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: Quintox
Font is not good, colors are not good. Layout is good. You need a website logo somewhere. I'd suggest above Home and Forums, create a sort of 'tab' that comes up above that in the same color and stick your logo there. Then, beside that logo, make the search bar come out to the right of it. For font, use Arial/Helvetica throughout the site. For colors, try using two colors that actually go together, not salmon and bright blue.

Hope that helps.

The logo isnt there, as i dont really want to advertise a site that has only been registered and has nothing there yet...

I will probably switch to Arial and Helvetica... I do need to figure out more colors for the fonts... I like your suggestion for the tab coming up... The actual colors will be changed, they are currently something i randomly made in order to show distinct districts...

and Mo0o i was referring to alkemyst.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: Quintox
Font is not good, colors are not good. Layout is good. You need a website logo somewhere. I'd suggest above Home and Forums, create a sort of 'tab' that comes up above that in the same color and stick your logo there. Then, beside that logo, make the search bar come out to the right of it. For font, use Arial/Helvetica throughout the site. For colors, try using two colors that actually go together, not salmon and bright blue.

Hope that helps.

The logo isnt there, as i dont really want to advertise a site that has only been registered and has nothing there yet...

I will probably switch to Arial and Helvetica... I do need to figure out more colors for the fonts... I like your suggestion for the tab coming up... The actual colors will be changed, they are currently something i randomly made in order to show distinct districts...

and Mo0o i was referring to alkemyst.

Arial/Helvetica is the same font, (Arial in Word, Helvetica for Apple). As for the search bar, after re-reading my suggestion that sounds stupid, and I didn't mean it to literally come out of the logo --- it's hard to explain what I meant so scratch that idea.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
Ah, i love lifers who post useless drivel that give me no ideas what i could do to help my site look better....

I would suggest redoing the layout step by step with the input of us and your potential users.

What category, if not specific type, is your site? How many sections will the main page need (nav panel, search, ad space, etc)? Borders for these sections (size, style)? Then, what color scheme (no more than 2 or 3 colors that work well together, not counting white or gray space) would fit your theme? Particular font for consistent site usage?

Details would help us and help you Even if you want details to be secret, you can leak out some false info close to what you're looking for.

 

[MikeMike]

Need there to be those sections, the sections are all there that are necessary... Site is an automotive fan site... I do need to get some borders, but I would like to setup the site to look more fluid and less blocky, I have never really used GIMP like this to design a website layout... I should probably go and change some colors around and come back.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
Need there to be those sections, the sections are all there that are necessary... Site is an automotive fan site... I do need to get some borders, but I would like to setup the site to look more fluid and less blocky, I have never really used GIMP like this to design a website layout... I should probably go and change some colors around and come back.

It's not a bad layout, especially if you aren't a graphics expert (I'm certainly not). Using gradients and subtle borders might give your site a smoother appearance. As it is, it looks more "kiddy" because of the color choices and solid block design. Which isn't a bad look per se, but automotive fan sites are more geared toward sleek and elegant. You could probably get someone to do a mockup on this site of what you need or other forums, and you could take that and use it or use it for inspiration. There's no shame in having someone else do it for you (particularly if you aren't skilled with GIMP or Photoshop).

 

[MikeMike]

anyone have an idea to replace my salmon color with? i added a new image w/ a different header color.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

If it's an automotive site, why the CNN feed?

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
If it's an automotive site, why the CNN feed?

That feed will be customizable by registered users, can pull/will pull from autoblog, cnn, fox, etc, ill hopefully have 10 or so choices, and registered users can change... I will say this site is specific manufacturer based, so the main news will only be about the single manuf...