www.myfilmvalet.com

[JazzcatCB]

www.myfilmvalet.com (http://www.myfilmvalet.com)

Hi, I'm a new developer, and this is my first website. It's purpose is to allow users to rate movies they've seen, and then get recommendations for movies they haven't seen but might like. I know there are planty of sites that do this already, but I've always wanted create my own site.

If you don't want to register, you don't have to. To tour the site as a guest, first click on the "Ratings" tab, then click on the "enter as a guest" link. You will then be able to view the Ratings and Recommendations pages.

When I first designed this site, I knew it wasn't up to the best standards of the net, because I'm fairly new and I'm also not too proficient with graphics tools (I use Paint Shop Pro, and it has proven to be very difficult to use). Even so, I thought it looked better than average, and I expected a more positive response to my site than I've received, leading me to believe that it's probably not as impressive as I'd hoped. I would appreciate some positive and constructive criticism on the site. Please don't slam my site. If it needs work, just telll me where.

Also, I haven't implemented all of the features yet. What primarily works is the home page, the ratings page, the recommendations page, and the registration page. I'm aware that certain features don't work, and I plan to get to them when I have the time. The site isn't listed on any search engines, so I don't really have a userbase to worry about.

Thanks for taking the time to review my site.

[Aronya1]

One suggestion I'd make is to change the blue of the login row to the same blue you have as background for your navigation. Also, the My Account, Contact, and Register links at the top are hard to spot.

[KDLA]

Hmmm... one of the reasons it might not be too popular is that it's just not quite professional looking. The varied "styles" within the pages keep the design in the "homemade" category, rather than "legitimate" - for lack of a better word.

It might be a good idea to go through and strip all the colors/styles, then add them back, making sure that everything is one cohesive thought-design. Try using an online color schemer. Here are a few:
http://www.hitmill.com/html/rgbcolorvalues.html
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
http://colormixers.com/mixers/cmr/
http://infohound.net/colour/
http://slayeroffice.com/tools/color_palette/

Another reason your page might not be getting the amount of hits you want is your (lack of) metatags and metadata:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></meta>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"></meta>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="DHE Editor v.2.3.33 - http://www.hexagora.com"></meta>
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="Rate movies to get your scientifically-accurate movie recommendations!"></meta>
<meta name="AUTHOR" content="Chris Barnhill"></meta>
<meta name="COPYRIGHT" content="2005, 2006, 2007"></meta>
You need to include metatags for KEYWORDS and a TITLE. I noticed that a title does appear in the browser title bar, but it's not in the page's metadata. (Guessing it's a server or php related thing...) Really, it needs to be in the page's HTML for search engine indexing.

Lastly, I noticed a lot of script coding: javascript and CSS. Is all of this being placed in the page by php, or can some of it be moved to an external file? When you have tons of coding in your page, it keeps search engines from correctly indexing your page. (Some search engines only go so far into the page's HTML looking for content; they don't scan the whole page.)

Just a few ideas to help you -
KDLA

[ray326]

It looks fine but there are a couple of text contrast problems. Black on dark blue is never a good idea and the light green on tan is a little tough.

[JazzcatCB]

KDLA, thanks for taking the time to review my site.
Hmmm... one of the reasons it might not be too popular is that it's just not quite professional looking. The varied "styles" within the pages keep the design in the "homemade" category, rather than "legitimate" - for lack of a better word.
Thank you for your input. I'm not clear on what you mean by 'varied styles.' Could you cite a specific example please? I would appreciate it.

It might be a good idea to go through and strip all the colors/styles, then add them back, making sure that everything is one cohesive thought-design. Try using an online color schemer. Here are a few:
I would like to do that, but unfortunately, I don't see the conflict in the styles. I do realize that there are some high contrast colors in use: dark blue for the banner and sidebar, and light tan for the main content. Is that one of the problems you are referring to?

http://www.hitmill.com/html/rgbcolorvalues.html
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
http://colormixers.com/mixers/cmr/
http://infohound.net/colour/
http://slayeroffice.com/tools/color_palette/
Thanks for these links. I will definitely check them out.
Another reason your page might not be getting the amount of hits you want is your (lack of) metatags and metadata:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></meta>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"></meta>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="DHE Editor v.2.3.33 - http://www.hexagora.com"></meta>
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="Rate movies to get your scientifically-accurate movie recommendations!"></meta>
<meta name="AUTHOR" content="Chris Barnhill"></meta>
<meta name="COPYRIGHT" content="2005, 2006, 2007"></meta>
You need to include metatags for KEYWORDS and a TITLE. I noticed that a title does appear in the browser title bar, but it's not in the page's metadata. (Guessing it's a server or php related thing...) Really, it needs to be in the page's HTML for search engine indexing.

Lastly, I noticed a lot of script coding: javascript and CSS. Is all of this being placed in the page by php, or can some of it be moved to an external file? When you have tons of coding in your page, it keeps search engines from correctly indexing your page. (Some search engines only go so far into the page's HTML looking for content; they don't scan the whole page.)

Just a few ideas to help you -
KDLA
Thanks for pointing these oversights out. I will definitely correct them.

Thanks,
Chris

[JazzcatCB]

It looks fine but there are a couple of text contrast problems. Black on dark blue is never a good idea and the light green on tan is a little tough.

Ray, thanks for taking the time to review my site. I will look for those text contrast issues. Can you please tell me where you saw the black text on dark blue? I'm not aware of where that is. I will try to darken the green text on tan.

Thanks,
Chris

[KDLA]

By varied styles, I mean the stylistic differences among certain components of the page.

The Registration page, for example: The left-hand background is very film-oriented and geometric. The banner looks sci-fi with the purple & blue swirls, sort of ethereal. The website's logo is has a "personal" look, in that you've selected a handwriting font. You're using yellow, green, white and tan font colors. The registration heading is a sky blue gradient. The box is tan with a brown inset, with a gray button. The page background is navy blue.

Normally a clean design wouldn't have that many components. There'd be two or three colors: a main color and two accents. The colors would harmonize: either being cool tones or warm tones. The images would have a theme related to the "mission" of the website. There'd be two font colors, at most.

In other words, there are too many things going on: choose a color scheme, & select one or two font colors.

I don't mean to rag on you -- it's just a little hard to explain without stating all those details.

KDLA

[ray326]

Can you please tell me where you saw the black text on dark blue?
It's in the bar across the top under the banner that starts with "Welcome guest. Please sign-in or". Oh, I see it's green in IE. Must be a bit of CSS wierdness.

[JazzcatCB]

By varied styles, I mean the stylistic differences among certain components of the page.

The Registration page, for example: The left-hand background is very film-oriented and geometric. The banner looks sci-fi with the purple & blue swirls, sort of ethereal. The website's logo is has a "personal" look, in that you've selected a handwriting font. You're using yellow, green, white and tan font colors. The registration heading is a sky blue gradient. The box is tan with a brown inset, with a gray button. The page background is navy blue.

Normally a clean design wouldn't have that many components. There'd be two or three colors: a main color and two accents. The colors would harmonize: either being cool tones or warm tones. The images would have a theme related to the "mission" of the website. There'd be two font colors, at most.

In other words, there are too many things going on: choose a color scheme, & select one or two font colors.

I don't mean to rag on you -- it's just a little hard to explain without stating all those details.

KDLA
I appreciate your going into such depth to explain this. I do realize that my page is colorful, but I hadn't thought of that as a negative before now. I do understand your point, and I will give it a great deal of thought. Thanks for pointing this out to me.