AZN Site review

[aznchong91]

Can you guys review my first "hard-core" website? It's just a personal website by the way. I am VERY new to web-design so could everyone just give me a few tips on how to improve it, what's good about it and so on? Thanks!

My Site (http://amo.cheesy.ca/Chong)

[aznchong91]

WOW!!! No replies? Does my site really suck that much?

[Ness_du_Frat]

Hi !!!!
Your site is not bad, but...
The colors just don't fit. That's only my opinion, and I don't like blue or cold colors ( still, there are some exceptions ).
The font also looks weird.
Drop tables for design. I see you used divs. Try to make it div-only.
If you need any advice, don't hesitate to PM me. I might not be the div master, but I've some experience. And since you helped me soooo much on my php script, I'd like to help you too !!!

[aznchong91]

Hmmm...what exactly do you mean? What colors would you suggest then? The font looks weird probably because I used a special font called CurlzMT for the title. Could you kind of give me a screenshot of what you see?

[KDLA]

Hi aznchong91 -

At first I was a little reluctant to review your site - the description of "hard-core" made me immediately think this was a porn site. (We've had a few risque ones posted here before!)

I'm glad to notice that it isn't something that will make either my computer or eyeballs explode.

One thing you might do, before working on any of the HTML/CSS stuff that is recommended here, is to come up with an actual design, one that is consistent and provides a "look" for your site. Right now, your page is a crazy quilt of ideas that have no "thread" holding them together.

I suggest you select two or three colors you want to use for everything: background, accents, fonts, links, etc. Next, decide on the type of font to use for everything: navigation and content. You can have a different font for the banner, but really everything else should tie in together to create one unified presentation. Lastly, figure out how you want the user to perceive your site: do you want something professional, casual, etc.? How you layout the site will be dependent upon that.

It's these little decision-making things that make a huge difference between good sites and bad sites.

Good Luck!
KDLA

[aznchong91]

Well, then what would you suggest? Could you give me an example?

[KDLA]

Look through some of the website reviews in this forum's archives or do a Google search for "web portfolio" or "design portfolio." You're bound to come up with all sorts of ideas.

Good Luck!
KDLA

[dera]

the colours fonts dont match up or sizes

[aznchong91]

How about now?

[sajjad27s]

What are you up 2 ?

[aznchong91]

It's just a personal website. I just wanted some feedback on the design and how to improve it, that's all.

[vicpal25]

no comment.

[spufi]

Drop tables for design. I see you used divs. Try to make it div-only.

Please do not sub one bad practice for another. A div only work around is not the solution. Using semantic code is the ideal thing to use.

[aznchong91]

no comment.
What do you mean? My site is too bad or too good or what?

Please do not sub one bad practice for another. A div only work around is not the solution. Using semantic code is the ideal thing to use.
What's semantic code? CSS?

[nawoc]

Hi, I haven't been doing this long either so I'm not to confident about reviewing and criticising comeone else's work but here goes. The main page is good although the coding is maybe more work than it should be (theres a lot of  's in there) but generally good. My only criticism is the sudden changes (sort of what KDLA was saying). When you click on a link e.g. the Oil Companies Online one you suddenly have a whole new colour scheme and it is completly different.

Also, all the links change. If you've gone quite deeply into one of these areas (e.g you've made or read lots of posts in the forum) you either have to go back a long way or type or find a bookmark or whatever for the site again. You could maybe use a frame as in the Test Yourself link to point to a page with the original navigation menu and add this to all/some of the pages. Not sure. Most of this stuff is probably useless but I hope something here helps.

Good luck

[aznchong91]

The links aren't part of the page. They are examples of some of my and my friend's other works. THAT's why they all look different...cuz they ARE different!

[Ness_du_Frat]

Please do not sub one bad practice for another. A div only work around is not the solution. Using semantic code is the ideal thing to use.
Can you develop ? When I mean div only, it's more a concept... Of course, he can use li, of course, he can use h1 and h2 and so on. And I certainly expect him to use a body tag and p tag as well... lol !!

But I'd like to know what you mean exactly. Maybe I can learn seomthing from that, too.

[aznchong91]

Anybody else with constructive comments?

[bathurst_guy]

I especially love the "Fatal Error" pages and the "Not found" pages

[aznchong91]

Sorry, they are not finished. :D

[hansons]

not bad..........it looks simple.....u didn't use contents in the site

[aznchong91]

All i asked for were comments on the DESIGN, not the content, other pages, etc.

[aznchong91]

Anybody else with comments on the design?

[spufi]

Can you develop ? When I mean div only, it's more a concept... Of course, he can use li, of course, he can use h1 and h2 and so on. And I certainly expect him to use a body tag and p tag as well... lol !!

But I'd like to know what you mean exactly. Maybe I can learn seomthing from that, too.

Basically that the person should use things like list(ordered, or not), <p>, header tags and whatever else to make mark up the page with as meaningful code as possible. Using just a bunch of <div> tags does little to improve the quality of the code versus using a table based layout.

[Ness_du_Frat]

Basically that the person should use things like list(ordered, or not), <p>, header tags and whatever else to make mark up the page with as meaningful code as possible. Using just a bunch of <div> tags does little to improve the quality of the code versus using a table based layout.
lol !!! That's what I meant, actually... But I admit I explain myself quite laimly most of the time...
I mean, he could have a central div, with the content. And the content, of course, can consist of lists ( for the menu, for example ), title, p element, everything...
When I mean all div, I mean a css garden-like design.
I guess I have to improve my way of explaining things... :p

[aznchong91]

So....overall my site's ok?

[spufi]

So....overall my site's ok?

Well, I'm not fond of the shade of blue. The font for your logo should be reworked. You could style the menu in a way so when people do a hover on a link it shows more of a change then just the icon."Welcome to AZN Site!" is way too huge. Table based layout. All of your CSS is written inside of the page instead of being in a external style sheet.

[aznchong91]

What's the difference between internal or external CSS?

[KDLA]

Internal CSS is put in the documents <HEAD> area, or within the tag itself: <p style="line-height: 1.5em; color: white;">

External CSS is put into a stylesheet (*.CSS file), then linked to in the <HEAD> section of the document:
<LINK REL=stylesheet HREF="CSS/kdla_homepagebanner.css" TYPE="text/css">

If you've got a lot of styles set up, putting them in an external file is best - lessens the amount of coding within your document, making it load faster.

[aznchong91]

Ah, i see. But wouldn't the external CSS still take time to be implemented?

[KDLA]

About as long as it would take you to cut and paste your <HEAD> css and save it as filename.css.

It's all relative. If you've put all the CSS into each tag within your HTML coding, it'll take a while to strip it out. However, it'll save you a ton of time in the long run when you're adding things to your website. You'll be able to apply an "id" or "class" assignation without havng to consult all the specific style coding.

It's up to you. I've become addicted to CSS. It facilitates much faster page production - especially if done well. It's just that initial setting up stage can be a little harrowing.

Take a look at the csszengarden (http://www.csszengarden.com/). All of those designs are achieved solely with CSS. The HTML is the same, only the stylesheets have changed.

Good Luck -
KDLA