Looking for feedback on my personal website

fergie666

fergie666

fergie666

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Joined
28 Dec 2004
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1,350
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Northern Ireland
Hi all,

I have had a website set up for a couple of years now and i have just done a substantial overhaul on it.

It is my personal site about my console collection and games etc

I would appreciate some feedback from you guys about the general feel, layout and ease of navigation.

The site has many hi-rez pictures of my collection, so i would like to know how quickly the images are loading for other people. (on 6MB BB here, so it's not an issue for me). Also any comments on the quality of the pictures.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to have a browse and answer some of my questions. :)

Later

Visit my website
 
ok posting this as i notice it so order and flow of post may be rubbish but you will hopefully get the jist of what i mean
  1. first thing i notcie is the font used in the header, extremely hard to read and really strains my eyes, perhaps at the minimum an increase in the size but even better is to use a nicer font, but then maybe that font goes with the stlye you want.
  2. all the txt is centered, imo left aligned text is nicer and easier to read, making it look much better (just did a quick edit in firefox and imo looks better for the main text at least)
  3. the right side naivgation is very plain and boring with a big gap at the top some reason
  4. the middle sections text has no padding meaning it can and is right against the borders of the table making it look messy
  5. pages like this there is no link to homepage so meaning you have to use the back button on the browser which is horrible
  6. the site is designed using tables, if you are serious about web designing and not just got this site as a hobby you should learn css, from sites like this
  7. other then a gallery of the games you have waht is the purpose of the site? is it just for you or for actual people to come and use? if just you then fine but if you want people to come back there is no obvious reason to.
  8. glad you chose light grey rather then white text on the black background
  9. the images load fine for me,
  10. viewingin in firefox 2 and ie7 gives different borders, ie7 has purple borders around the main area but big grey around the header, where as ff2 has grey around everything
thats it for the moment, sorry if those comments are a bit harsh but they are all easily fixable atleast, any where we can view the older design to compare, maybe just a screenshot?

edit more...
  1. the theme i am not oto keen on, this is just opinion though as a load of people some reason like dark designs :confused: but imo i would add more colour and brighten it up a bit, even just a dark grey background for the navigation bar, or something but more the better.
  2. the counter at the bottom is tacky imo, if you want to see information about who has visisted your site try out google analytics, provides a lot of really useful information, like time spent on the site, location of the user etc, and is hidden from the users
  3. why is there a link to a lawyers website at the bottom?, ahh is it because you are using free hosting and subdomain name? if so there is better places offering free to use hosting without advertising and better domain names, can't remember any but others will know
 
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Sweet, thanks for your input man !

I don't have any real experience in HTML or CSS, so i just build the site in dreamweaver using the design view.

The site is just a catalogue for my collection, so i can show it off and also check what games i have when browsing ebay for more.

I will go down your list and try and correct things as i go.

Really appreciate you taking the time to look over it and i didn't find your comments harsh at all.

Feel free to suggest anything else :)

cheers
 
think the content will be fine but needs to presented in a more accesible way. The Site seems to be quite difficult to navigate around especially with no back buttons.
 
To be quite honest, and I doubt this was done intentionally, but from the starry background to the borders on the tables to the flame-ish header image to the counter on the bottom, it just screams 1997 and I absolutely love it!

Most of your consoles could be considered retro now so I think the layout works with it. That being said, it doesn't have any whitespace, reflections or badges so some people won't like it as web2.0 styling seems to be all the rage these days.

I do think you need to add some padding and a better navigation. If you want to stick with the extreme retro theme, you could just put 'back' on the bottom of the inner pages. However, I'd probably be more inclined to just ensure that the full main navigation appears on every page. The subnav should also appear on each and every subpage. It'll make it considerably easier to get around.
 
Hey guys, thanks for your tips and advice ! will start adding a navigation system tonight.

I don't want the site to be too fancy tbh, just fun and funtional.

I was just going to use the layout from the main page and apply it to all sub pages, to keep the theme flowing and improve the abbility to get about.

Will try my best then post back to get opinions :)

Thanks again
 
How does this look for a general layout ?

I was planning on using that one page as a template for every page then using the grey column on the right for navigation when in each section.

How does that sound ? Is the general feel of it now more pleasing ?

thanks

http://dark-matter.110mb.com/
 
hmm, it's differnt, not sure if better as you have lost the old style theme that matched the content of the site, it's a little too light now.

the text is much better, left aligned to me is much easier to read.

I worry that the small size of the grey nav bar will be a problem as you won't be able to fit a long word as a link. The site doesn't have to be the same layout throughout, just an easy similiar way to get back pages, to homepage etc which it didn't have before.

just out of interest what screen are you using? i am guessing a 15" screen?
 
Mammalian said:
hmm, it's differnt, not sure if better as you have lost the old style theme that matched the content of the site, it's a little too light now.

the text is much better, left aligned to me is much easier to read.

I worry that the small size of the grey nav bar will be a problem as you won't be able to fit a long word as a link. The site doesn't have to be the same layout throughout, just an easy similiar way to get back pages, to homepage etc which it didn't have before.

just out of interest what screen are you using? i am guessing a 15" screen?
Click to expand...

Hi again,

not 100% sure on it myself lol. I think i liked the darker colours too. anyhoo, i am using a laptop with 15" @ 1280 x 768
 


^ go for something like that! You can have that template, btw :)

It's really cool to go for some 1997-esque design if you ask me - and the hit counter in the footer is a must! :D It completes the 1997-ness!
 
furnace said:


^ go for something like that! You can have that template, btw :)

It's really cool to go for some 1997-esque design if you ask me - and the hit counter in the footer is a must! :D It completes the 1997-ness!
Click to expand...

Oooh ! I love it :D

I would like the template please if you don't mind

I have had some advice from a few people that light text on a black background is harder to read, but to be honest i prefer it.

Also i was going to add a navigation section down the right hand side, so it was easier to move around, once in the sub sections. Hopefully i can add that myself if you donate that template.

Thanks :)
 
A bit tired tonight - I'll chop it + HTML/CSS it tomorrow after work for you, if thats OK :) Depending on how I'm feeling I might have a bash at some sort of sub-navigation for you, too ... :p
 
imo you should have a go at making that layout yourself, it's a simple layout so hopefully won't cause too much troulbe and if you ever come to a point where you get really stuck you can ask here and pretty quickly someone will be answering your question with really helpful advice. that way you can call the whole site your own and will no everything about it so can easily change it in the future.
 
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