Critique my site--please....

[akadis]

hi i have a request, as a begining programer i want to learn how to make not only working and valid code but also a site that looks good etc.....

so please critique my site to your hearts content, (PLEASE note that i do know i need to add pages and make the site have more content in and of itself.... but im not so sure u guys care about that anyway....)


....thanks in advance for any help!

http://www.literside.net

[Jona]

Hello akadis,

For web site design, content is secondary; although content is important, we're only focusing on making the site clean, valid, and accessible so that any content added to it will be easy to find for anyone who visits your site. It is essential, therefore, to design in CSS code, rather than using tables to layout the page. I am suggesting, then, that you create a testing sub directory on your site to create a new layout. Then remove your tables and use DIV tags with CSS markup to layout the web page. You also need to include a doctype , and validate your HTML and CSS code, once you have written it. If you are unclear as to where to begin, feel free to ask any questions you might have.

[J]ona

[akadis]

hmm maybe im confused but i think that this means im using valid css and this valid html


ps: im not trying to be rude im just curious if im wrong

[Jona]

Yep, looks like your XHTML and CSS is valid - good job, so far. I also noticed that you're using CSS for your layout thus far. So you're technically correct on everything, although I don't think tables is the best way to format your paragraphs and timestamps (I'd use P tags). Other than that, you need to do a little study on how to make the site more aesthetically pleasing. I'd check out a few CSS-designed sites and see what you like best and then learn from some of the code to learn how to put the site together. A few good sites that come to mind are: Ryan Brill, ALA, and MezzoBlue.

[iniquity101]

have you designed your website to fit a specific screen resolution?

[runprn]

Nice job. Looks like you've coded for a fixed width? You might experiment with variable widths, which are becoming more of a standard.

There are just a couple points I would make:

1. I'd recommend using a sans serif font family such as Arial, Hevetica, Verdana. They are usually easier to read on an electronic medium.

2. Try a lighter color and a bold font-weight for the left nav link labels -- they are a bit hard to read against the black bkg.

Otherwise, looks good! Do you plan to skin your forum to look like the rest of the site?

Cheers.