Website crit

Stupot_

Stupot_

Stupot_

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2009
Posts
2,921
Location
Portsmouth
This is my second website! The first one is here and was built in iweb. Whilst it's a nice tool to use, I felt it was pretty limiting and I didn't have much control over output if I wanted to do anything other than drag and drop.

So... I've created my personal website.

I used a template called indexhibit which gives you a really simple web interface for adding content. There are then templates you can use to style it.

This is my first introduction to CSS so I've tweaked a few things like fonts, colours, margins etc, pretty basic stuff but I think if anyone else out there is looking for an introduction to building a website this is a pretty neat tool.

Anyway, enough rambling!

Website is here: www.stuartcuss.co.uk

Let me know what you think, I've still got a bunch more things to put on it and I'm not totally convinced by the layout yet.
 
A few things that I think would improve it:

  • In the header, I think you should make the margin underneath all the links the same height as the one at the top, or remove the larger margin at the top.
  • On the image on the front page, there's a title on the image which is just a space. When you hover over the image it just makes a small box for no reason.
  • In all the links it goes something like /index.php?/something/ I think you should get rid of the whole index.php? part, or at least the question mark.
  • I don't really like the horizontal scrolling on the image pages, I think it would be better to use something like lightbox.
 
Thanks yhack. Yep that margin was bugging me, ill try and figure out how to increase it, would be good if it lined up with the bottom of 'FOLIO'.

There's a tutorial somewhere for simplifying URLs, i'll look it up.

I kinda like the horizontal scrolling so will keep it:D I'm not a fan of lightbox, just find it takes too long to load.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated:)
 
Stupot_ said:
Thanks yhack. Yep that margin was bugging me, ill try and figure out how to increase it, would be good if it lined up with the bottom of 'FOLIO'.
Click to expand...
If you add this to #menu in your CSS it should work:

Code: 
padding-bottom:20px;

Stupot_ said:
There's a tutorial somewhere for simplifying URLs, i'll look it up.
Click to expand...

Open your .htaccess file and post the url rewrite code here, I'll try to fix it for you. It should look something like this:

Code: 
RewriteEngine On 
RewriteRule ^index.php?/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ index.php?page=$1
 
Cheers, I've made those changes:)

This is what's in .htaccess

Code: 
RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^(.+) - [PT,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+) index.php
 
After a search it seems that the 'clean' urls needs to be turned on and it will look nicer.

How to Enable Clean URL's

- rename htaccess to .htaccess (with the dot)
- in the /ndxz-studio/defaults.php file change:

define('MODREWRITE', false);
To:

define('MODREWRITE', true);
Then click around on your site and see if it works. If it does not work simply undo the previous instructions.
Click to expand...

There's a tutorial here: http://www.indexhibit.org/tutorial/how-to-get-clean-urls/

I think the change to grey you've done on the website is an improvement also :)
 
Thanks a lot, that worked:)

I've also tried the menu back in white, with a red line at the bottom (really like how css works, and how easy it is to find a solution to something. i.e. just google 'css horizontal line' and you get what you need...) Take a look!

I'm totally over iweb!
 
I really like that Stupot, the index page text could be text and not an image however.

Also maybe try your logo bar on the right in red to match your link hovers? Just an idea.

But I'm a fan of clean and simple and that looks great. :)
 
Thanks pieplough. Yeah I'm currently experimenting with different colours, that bar has been red before!

As for the text on the main page... That's something I have a question about.

How would I go about getting it in a specific font? It would have to be embedded right? Or would I just have to use a web safe one. This is something I know nothing about...!
 
Stupot_ said:
How would I go about getting it in a specific font? It would have to be embedded right? Or would I just have to use a web safe one. This is something I know nothing about...!
Click to expand...

Its now fairly simple to embed a font. The rule is @font-face.

In your css define the following

Code: 
@font-face {
	font-family: Chunkfive;
	src: url('Chunkfive.otf');
}

Here you have defined that the font family is called "Chunkfive" and the path to the file.

Next is a simple matter of applying that family to a text element. As your index text is a greeting I would suggest h1

Code: 
h1 {
      font-family: Chunkfive;
}

And that (at its most simple) is that.

Not all fonts are allowed for embedding so check before you do. Also all browsers dont use the same font file types (older IE mainly).

I recommend Fontsquirrel as the have some awesome fonts in ready made kits.

Hope this helps mate :)
 
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