Website Design

[Davide]

Hello guys,

it's been one year since i made my first website, and still, the design still sucks. It's not that i don't know Photoshop or Illustrator, because i know them both but i just can't arange everything good enought to make it look as a proffessional website, for example, this is my website:

http://davidevitelaru.com/index.php

Looking at it, you can see that it is really un-proffessional. It just doesn't look like a website, more like a presentation or something like that.

What i ask for are some tips on how i can make my site look proffesional, i can do the graphics myself (i am good at hand-drawing but i suck in photoshop, i simply have no talent), but the page layout that i hate the most.

Some CSS code would help me a lot too thank you!

[aj_nsc]

i simply have no talent

I think this kind of talent can be learned....it just takes time. Your first website you made only a year ago, that's nothing. I've been making websites since the dawn of geocities and I'd say I've only garnered an eye for design (arguably) within the past year....maybe two

What you need is some inspiration:

http://www.webcreme.com

EDIT: This is the one I really meant to post, although the other one is good to:
http://www.cssmania.com

You're already ahead of the game, at least you realize your design isn't appealing (not to put you down at all, I think you've got a good first website there).

The more you stay in the game and the harder you work at it (learning new skills, reading articles about web standards, reading and posting to this forum) you'll also realize the engineering behind good websites (e.g. - nav menus don't use images as links...well, at least don't solely rely on images as links) and that will also help you become a better designer and developer.

Stick with it!

[Davide]

I think this kind of talent can be learned....it just takes time.

Yeah, thanks! Of course it takes time, i knew that myself it's just that i never made a site that looks different that this one, just that the header and footer are changed.

[HelpmeInew]

Go look for free templates download the ones you like and dive into the code find out whats what look and examine the css thats how i started i felt it realy helped me

b

[Davide]

Go look for free templates download the ones you like and dive into the code find out whats what look and examine the css thats how i started i felt it realy helped me

b

Very good idea, it's just that i usually hate to read others' code cause it's annoying but i did, and i will do that cause it's a very good way to learn CSS.

After all, i need to start by following others...

[aj_nsc]

i usually hate to read others' code cause it's annoying but i did,

just make sure the code you read is good quality....usually found from sites featured on css galleries, but not all of them are good quality and, of course there are good quality ones elsewhere.

[Letmein]

I think the site looks great, lol... For a first time site its really good... Im quite good at hand drawing too but I cant do computer graphics, I can manipulate an image if needed but have no imagination to make something from scratch, lol... however I do like the site :)

I have a friend who is a Computer Science graduate, her designs are terrible and yet she apparently does them professionally, lol... The first site she ever made had silly flying rhinos, yes flying rhinos and lots of silly sparkly mouse follow effects, lol...

Just seperate the "Home Software Tutorials Resources" a little or make them a little more like buttons, because I thought it was just a single page site at first, I didnt know where to click :)

[aj_nsc]

If you put a nice looking background color/texture/design on that page, then I think you've got yourself a good looking site.

[Asterik Media]

I think one of the biggest things to think about relating to website design is your target audience and what it is that THEY want. You may think that your site doesn't look good but if you are getting hits then why change it completely. However, if you are more concerned with generating more hits on your site and improving your Google ranking then optimize your content before your layout. Once that is done then you can improve the look.

By the way, if you are looking for some useful CSS information and coding check out this article

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/12/most-essential-best-practices-to-improve-and-optimize-your-markup-and-css.html/comment-page-1#comment-7437

Good luck


Edit by admin: no contact info permitted on the forum, thank you
http://www.webdevelopmentcompany.com

[iRedMedia]

Your layout is nice. Keep an eye on text - border distance. Should have equal distance from top and left, and a few pixels could help in the yellow boxes.
Experiment. Start from scratch, and experiment some more. You have a page, make a new one, with a whole new outlook on things. Go for edgy? The only way to learn, is to try EVERYTHING.

[TexDesignStudio]

I'm with the others, nothing is actually wrong with the site, its just the talent. it will come over time after building many sites, you will know what does and does not look good and then how to make a great layout. One thing that helped me was building websites by sections rather than by page. if you do this, you can make the overall picture look much better.for example, build the header first and then the body, then the sidebar, then the footer.

Dallas Web Design (http://www.texdesignstudio.com)

[johnalex]

Hi

You need to see some of the templates for example you can check templatemonstor.com, buytemplates.net and so many. Just google with keyword "website templates" and you will see a lot of website offering website templates. You can view templates from these websites and get an idea of how your website should look like. You can then get it designed in photoshop. To convert the photoshop website design into html simply use slice tool of photoshop.

Hope this will help you modify your site to a better design.

[warrenize]

The design is simple and clean, but maybe a bit too clean. Your product detail page http://davidevitelaru.com/software/digital-janitor/ looks better because it has more graphics and information. How about making the home page more vibrant like this?

[JohnTriger]

your site looks awesome to me, i am really inspired

[joomlads07]

I think you are right.The design of the site is not really good.Ypi first have to design alogo & put it at the top , after this you should try to design a CSS menu that looks more catchy than your present one.

[franklinn]

hi i wish to add my experience here .i brought the web site fully designed for my business from here xnynz.com (http://www.xnynz.com/) here they design the web site based on our needs
this mainly saves our time and money a lot .
here the process is as follows
1.tell your dream to them
2.they work for you
3.finally our dream comes to live
they provide us with:
* Your own Web site consultant to guide you through every step of the process
* Your own personalized dream Web site design
* Monthly updates to keep your site and content fresh and up-to-date
* Hosting--With 99.9% guaranteed uptime and 24/7 support, your site is always up and running
i felt happy with their service.

[bulbul_2005@hot]

Your website looks greate, its inspired me for my next website. You can consider changing the header as it doesnt look right, and consider the spaces between the lines it should be the same.

[allensweart]

Hi
buddy
from my own point of view i wanna suggest u that if u r facing such type of problems then pls refer amical soft its very helpful in all these ways.
Amical softs use our unsurpassed industry knowledge, superior development processes, and intense focus on quality to serve premium companies worldwide.
For more information visit:www.amicalsofts.com :rolleyes:

[TexDesignStudio]

you'll get the hang of it once you build more websites

[adumpaul]

Nice design and also well structure.Thank you for sharing.

[donatello]

see below (Sorry for the double-post, no way to delete that I can find... :P )

[donatello]

I don't think it's that bad...

You need to work on your meta tags though... you don't have any... the one you have is not working!

<meta name="description" content="'.$description.'" />

Use my meta tag generator linked below (in my signature).

:)



Also, perhaps you would prefer to work with a CMS (Content Management System) such as Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal... then you need only find a layout you like, modify the theme and you have your own theme.

A Good CMS speeds the process and makes updates a snap. Also, many functions are already coded as plugins.

Since you are a developer, you can also write/modify plugins and then even gain backlinks to your site by embedding them in your plugins.