Thoughts on this template

Nice. Simple, and visually pleasing.

Biggest issue I have with it from a design perspective is that 50% of the site's area is taken up with two meaningless images. The running track in particular serves no purpose, though it appears as if it should - "Finish" what? The finish of the website; should I stop looking at it now? The logo of the site, in balance, is tiny and hardly noticeable tucked up away in the top corner.

I would use both those graphical elements as places to emphasis text and content - put the 'Welcome' heading in the track, and the logo and tagline in the clouds.

The actual useful content is pushed right down below it to the bottom of the site, and the small, light grey text is difficult to read. I'd say focus on making the content important, not the visuals. Pretty pictures don't get customers (unless you're selling them, of course :D).

From a code perspective, there are a few things that I feel could be improved.
  • Presentational images that really should be placed in the page using CSS, and not directly in the markup (clouds/running track/spacers).
  • The inline javascript for form validation would be better loaded from an external script in the head, and cleaned up/optimised.
  • Lots of unecessary <br /> elements. Use CSS to control line-spacing, element flow, paddings and margins (same for the spacer images). <br /> elements are for forcing a line to break where it shouldn't, not for creating the visual effect of space between paragraphs and such.
  • target="_self" attributes on links? Are these really necessary when you're not using frames.
  • Divitis - overuse of <div>s. header_left and _right, clear_both, footer_left and _right aren't needed. Take a look at the basic structure:
    Code: 
    <div class="content">
 <div class="header_left">
 <div class="header_right">
 <div class="clearboth"/>
 <div class="sky_banner">
 <div class="menu_container">
 <div class="main_content">
 <div class="latest_news_container">
  <div class="headline_container">
  <div class="headline_container">
  <div class="headline_container">
  <div class="headline_container">
  <div class="newsletter_container">
 <div class="footer">
  <div class="footer_left">
  <div class="footer_right">
    For example, header_right could be an <h1> with the logo placed using Fahrner Image Replacement, and the header_left tagline as a <p> or <h2> underneath with the same technique. menu_container can be removed - use the <ul> as the menu_container.
    Code: 
    <h1 id="logo">Dimensions Fitness</h1>
<p id="tagline">Invest in your future</p>

#logo {
text-indent: -9999px;
width: 191px;
height: 65px;
background: #fff url(/images/header_left.jpg) no-repeat;}
... etc.
    With just that, those two elements have gained actual meaning when unstyled. Better for search engines, better for accessibility and cleaner markup.

:)
 
Cheers for that run down Augmented lol. All makes sense.

The running track image is just a place holder. That image will be a special announcement or special offer banner. I just havent made any yet ;)

The header_left and header_right comment looks really interesting, I was looking to do something like that, as I am aware that the search bots place more emphaisis on the content at the top of the page, I will do that tonight.

The main content color looks ok here, but I do appreciate that it might not look good on all screens, so I will use a darker colour for this to make sure its looks good on all setups.

I am going to remake the 'invest in your future' image and make it a tad bigger to try and reduce the nasty edges. Also going to make the logo larger.

The clouds image is to tie in with the rest of the gyms corporate look, and so kind of serves a purpose, even though just in terms of branding.

Thanks for all the comments guys, much appreciated

Aaron
 
imo a fitness gym is about doing things, and being dynamic, the clouds image just doesn't work .. the clouds depict to me an image of passiveness, come to our place if you want to, you will feel light and breezy ... fair enough if it's part of branding, some people obviously see it a differnet way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom