First glance. Judge my site please.

SourChipmunk

SourChipmunk

SourChipmunk

Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2003
Posts
9,515
Location
The Motor City
Yes, I know we get a ton of these a month. And I think I've even asked about it before years ago.

I switched to a four-column layout and I'm not to keen about it, but I might be overly cynical. I don't think the Don's will have a problem -- this is not a plug but a call for advise, and I am on the other side of the water -- so please judge my site on appearance.

http://www.mtariders.com

edit: updated site: http://www.mtariders.com/v3

I need to learn more about CSS/PHP. The site I'm trying to mimick is http://simplyrecipes.com , but I just don't know enough yet. I love the layout of that site. I love how everything pops in your face and draws you to the bottom of the page. I love the colour scheme. I love the curves. Wow, you'd think it was a woman!

So please, be harsh. And if you care to, tell me what you would do to improve it. Be very critical and hopefully I will learn more by trying to fix it.
 
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Your site looks quite dated tbh.

1. Your background doesn't help make the content area pop out.
2. Your color scheme isn't complimentary. You'll notice that on the SR site, all the colors just go with eachother. Yours don't necessarily clash too much, but they certainly don't look great together.
3. There are nicer ways to seperate your side columns rather than HRs. SR site does this nicely.
4. As you said, you really need to spend some time learning more about proper css driven layouts. If your layout was coded properly, you could make a 10 fold improvement in only a few hours.
 
Looks very dated and there is too much going on. Try and set yourself a limited palette of colours that complement each other and make everything larger and clearer. Just keep going at it mate, this takes time but ultimately thats the best way to learn.
 
Dated and cluttered -- yup, I'd agree. I haven't done a redesign on it since 2004, my first experience with CSS. Hopefully I can spend some time today learning to do it right.

Tripnologist: I think I have everything coded properly, so you're right: it should only take a few hours. All the content is on individual pages, navigation bars are all separate. So I just have to learn to move and colour stuff to a format that works.

Fez and EvilOne: thanks! I was wondering about the colours. It worked at one time but now it just doesn't stand out. Might have to do with the different contrast on newer monitors. Thanks for the link, too!
 
I decided to go with CMS to help arrange my content a little better. So, if you can help me out by testing, I would appreciate it.

http://www.mtariders.com/v3

I still have to update to graphics and such as I am using a default template from Joomla. Wow, it has taken some time to set up, but overall I like the features and power available.

Please let me know about the content layout, if articles are easy to find, and if there are any pages that are buggy (and what browser you're using). I'd really appreciate any feedback.
 
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It certainly looks a lot better now. However, on the home page's Last Forum Activity section I can only see HTML and CSS code. Using Google Chrome.
 
Ahh, interesting. I might have a solution for that. Give me a few. Works perfect in IE7 so never noticed.

edit: ok, that's going to take some research. I have a file and am trying to link using this code:
Code: 
<!--#include virtual="http://www.mtariders.com/ib/iB_html/non-cgi/ssi/Tiker.txt" -->
Works directly, and also works as a Wrapper. Strange.

Got it to recognise the HTML. Now I have to format it. Thanks for pointing it out!

edit: fixed!
 
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In case anyone is interested, my revamp is complete and live. I have a redirector in the www root so hopefully it works properly across the board. I'm quite pleased as this is my first time using a CMS and it has REALLY helped me get everything organised. I love that all the content is searchable now.

Next phase: digital archive of 25 years worth of magazines and tech papers. :eek:
 
Your new site is very good indeed. I saw your first one but didn't take the time to to reply.

What CMS did you use out of interest?
 
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