How can i make this better?

[CTtactical]

Hi I am in high school and i am making this site for a buisness my friends and i made.

The page somewhat reflects the fact that the only experience i have is 1 semester of web design I took last year, and whatever i have taught myself.

Any constructive criticism and ideas are appreciated. Thanks!

http://www.cttactical.com

[rbqx5]

The font/background color could use more contrast -- Lighten up the background. Pick a font that has a little more spacing between the letters. It's easy to navigate and free of clutter.

[webopius]

I personally found the font quite difficult to read and as rbqx5 says, you should have more contrast between the background and font colors.

Not that bad though for just 1 semester of design.

[CTtactical]

Thanks for the input! just curious, what font is it displaying in? Agency FB (slimmer more tactical look) of copperplate gothic (more of a medieval look)

[webopius]

I'm viewing on Mac OS X in Firefox and my guess is I'm looking at Copperplate Gothic.

[infinityspiral]

Here's a few areas you could experiment on that will push your design skills to the next level:

Fonts
Right now you've got a font that appears bold for the paragraph which makes it appear very heavy. It's the typographical equivalent to using exclamation points at the end of every sentence :) I think it's fine for use in headings though, so good job with that.

With the right setting you can actually make paragraphs of text less work to read. Arial/Verdana is really easy to read on the screen, try setting the font size to 11px or 12px. A general rule for good line heights is to set it to (1.5 x font size) and make slight adjustments up or down. Looked like you did that with the 150% but it might need to be adjusted again with the Arial/Verdana switchout.

Colors
The gray contrast is minimal between the background and the text so it's a little hard to read like mentioned above. A darker gray for the background with lighter text or vice versa might do the trick for readability, but doesn't add much to the excitement factor. Adding some orange, red and brown might highlight the temperature concept a little better, adding some variety to the page.

Scale
The logo is a little big for my tastes. It's a little bland, and at its current size it seems like it gets more real-estate than it deserves. Scaling back a little bit might be just the thing to pull things into proportion.

Style
I wasn't really sure about the black lines that segment the content. Normally you'd put a line in to divide complex content, but the navigation already has it's own box around it and the header and footer are simple so the lines seem unnecessary unless you're going to add additional elements into those specific areas.

[Ness_du_Frat]

First reaction is : where is the color ? Is my screen suddenly gone to black and white ? You might want to add a contrast color, it would be a nice touch. But maybe you really don't want to use color, then, lighten the background, it's really too dark.

Also, the font used is really massive. The fact that everything is written in capital letters doesn't help. And black, black, black, that's makes everything too heavy on the page.

The header, all gray, big, and with the logo on the top left corner... is it really necessary to take up all that space for just a plain gray background ?

Suggestions :
change the font. Arial would be good. Verdana is a nice one, as well.
don't put everything in capital letters.
reduce the size of your header / logo, or at least, make a place for the logo on the top left corner and get rid of the big blank gray header. (you can use it to put the title of each page)
lighten the background
the menu on the left side is really old fashioned and the background doesn't help. Try something lighter, try also to have the current page highlighted when you are browing that page.

I am going to make you a confidence : your website has exactly the same color scheme and the same font type as my first website. Really, when I looked at it, I was like "wwoooo, it feels like I am going back in time". This is no critic, it's just that it screams a bit "beginner website", which is, I guess, normal for a first website.

With the product you're trying to advertise, you need "cutting-edge" design (I know, it was easy ^^). Something that would appeal to the potential customers. You can keep a little dark and old-fashioned look, it would be coherent, but I certainly wouldn't go for this gray background.
My suggestion : white background, dark grey text (#333333), maybe a dark orange color for contrast on titles or links, a simple menu with no background behind it, more pictures of the knives.

Good luck !

[WoD]

You've got amazingly crisp, sharp, clean and decidedly impressive photography of knives yet you haven't placed so much as a thumbnail on the front page...? You've basically thrown your best tool for immediately captivating potential customers away, so everything else is irrelevant.

If you want to ship any knives to the UK to review then let me know :) I may not be a red-blooded all-American male, but I still get a boner for sharp and pointy things.

[CTtactical]

Thanks everyone for the advice, i think i fixed the crappy text problem, now i am working on livening up the layout and color scheme a bit.

[ahk2chan]

Totally agree with WoD, remember a picture is worth a thousand words!

[CTtactical]

Do you guys still think i should get rid of the digi-camo background on the navigation bar section?

I made png 's of the font that we (my partners and I) wanted for the navigation buttons, and got rid of that hideous table layout, I think it looks a lot better, but what does everyone else think?

PS: I am trying to figure out how to make like a slide show or something on the homepage that shows the knives, but i am having trouble. Any suggestions?

[ahk2chan]

I made png 's of the font that we (my partners and I) wanted for the navigation buttons, and got rid of that hideous table layout, I think it looks a lot better, but what does everyone else think?

The problem with that is once you change the text into images, Google will not be able to read it... => not good for SEO.

You can leverage it by putting the text into the alt attribute of the IMG tags, but it is not as good as real text (in SEO)

[benevolent001]

Hi , please see the images on Knife page , the color or images and background seems issue to me

[Kryptonian]

Hi CTtactical,

I think it's a good effort. I concur that you need more contrast on the front page. A large color picture of your best seller worked into the header might take you in the right direction.

More than how you feel a page looks, it's important to ask yourself how it effects/guides the viewer and is that the effect you're aiming for.

I have a critique about your "knives" page. Your thumbnails look really good, but I think you're defeating yourself to obscure the initial view of them. Also your "Add to Cart" and "View Cart" buttons are hard to read. You might consider using light color text for them.

Your rectangular buttons need more padding to the left of the text.

After looking over the site I'd say you definitely need more contrast between your black text and the dark-grey backdrop.

Knives Page Typo:
Using only the toughest, strongest, and most durable materials, this and every that each and every knife is unique, even within model lines.

All the best with your business!

[swati dora]

i also agree wid wod.........