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I think it is a nice start now you have to think about the theme for your website. There must be a theme, so that you can decide on the colors and fonts for it to make it a consistent page that gives a certain feel.

Then, post up the page again with the color theme and fonts you choose, and we can discuss more.


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

AwShum. Agree-ing with NA, a theme.
Also the color scheme of choice.
I think for those design, a repeated pattern bg would do great, just my opinion


I stole the that oinks helloly.

THanks guys, i'll work on the background! At the moment it's plain black, not sure what i'm doing with it at the moment so i'll keep it that way for now until I can find something nice like Crays said

Anyways, here's the link, what do you think so far?

[ link ]

The sliding nav bit isn't quite finished (along with everything else lol) so ignore the last few categories


~Alex

I like the sliding nav and having an image above the welcome greeting, they draw people in to look around. The boxes with thumbnails are great for visitors to see what's new. Looking good so far.

The footer duplicates the sidebar content, will they be very different later on? Otherwise in the future you could remove the sidebar, divert the archive menu to the top when you have more content you want to showcase on the front page. Cohesive and legible colour scheme overall. I'm not too sure about the black bg though, it blends in well through the page but seems to leave the footer dangling, maybe because there's a different colour at the top that separates it from the body.

Imho.

I like the sliding nav very much. It gives me a iPhone feeling .
Tho in my opinion, the menu bar at the side seem too white since you have a black bg. Perhaps changing the menu bar to a lighter color?


I stole the that oinks helloly.

I like the nav bar lol

imo, it looks a little too bland with brown and black. A little texture wouldn't hurt and I also agree with iko, with the exception of the search button, the footer is basically the same as the sidebar


I did it for the lulz

Thank you all very much for the constructive criticism, it's just what I need! It's great to have a small community like this where people have the time to take a look at your stuff

Ikomi: The footer and sidebar are still works in progress, I need to figure out exactly what I want and where, but for now they're just filler so I can see what the page will look like, so yes, it will change! Also the black background is temporary too, i'm working on something with a little more substance, i'm attempting to make either a grungey splatter effect background, or something with a bit more colour and depth. What do you think?

Crays: Yeah you're right, i've attempted to change this but the CSS is doing my head in, it's all managed through there but I can't seem to get it to work! Will work on that though

manifest3r: Yeah you're right, it is bland but I am working on a new background, it's just difficult positioning it correctly with CSS and finding the right composition and depth for this background! But the footer for now just is filler, i'll change it later, it's just so I can see what it'll look like!

Thanks all for the suggestions though


~Alex

Sure, update us


I stole the that oinks helloly.

Thanks guys! Also, just a thought, here's something I conjured up out of Potatoshop after editing a screen shot of my site...what do you think? It definitely has more personality, that I CAN say...

[ link ]

Just a quick experiment with colours really


~Alex

Not bad not bad I think you can also try other fonts as well. That will definitely give some more characters to your page the current font looks like a typical web font without serious selection


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Hey Night thanks for the ideas! I'm looking through some ones now, but i've got another issue, i've been developing the site on my laptop, things are going fairly smoothly but when I tested the site on the PC with a different screen/resolution etc the logo is appearing way off to the left, I want it over the main box It took me ages to get it where it is on my laptop with CSS but I have no idea how to get it to stay in one place no matter what resolution or screen size the user has...

[ link ]

Any ideas? I'm happy to post you my CSS/header PHP files etc if you need?


~Alex

oh wow, looks much better! however I have one small request, on the bottom search bar make the purple gradient on the bottom, and the white on top

just being a bit picky, thats all :/

I think I might have a solution for that header. You might want to constrain the body in a "wrap"

example:

what goes in CSS
#wrap {
width:766px;
margin:0px auto;
text-align:left;
}

what goes in HTML/PHP(I dont use PHP so its a guess)
<body>
<div id="wrap">
<insert website here>
</div>
</body>

This way the whole website would be constrained in a box, just take out the spaces in front of the carrots


I did it for the lulz

** Post edited on GMT 2009-07-02 09:45:48 **

I guess you have to change your title font too

And I think Mani's solution should work. Have a try!


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

It seem okay to me, i mean the header. How bout the side menu? The green seem abit dull and dark to me =/ just my opinion.


I stole the that oinks helloly.

I don't agree that the title is fine. Look at other websites. They pay much attention to the title and choose a special font for it. It gives a character to the site and adds a symbolic meaning too.

[ link ] see?


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Actually i'm wondering, if its possible to install a new set of fonts not in the server itself? I mean like if i wanna use papyrus or something.

About the title, i'm sorry, i thought it was a picture. Yeah, there's more you can do to it, i think perhaps decreasing the gap between the words? Vertical gaps.


I stole the that oinks helloly.

No. You cannot use font files for any website.

However, there is a new standard coming out that allows webmasters to use customized fonts. Right now, only Safari can do this. (More info: [ link ] the last item in that section)

I took a screenshot and changed the title font. Now it would be much more appealing, and even that it was not the perfect font, it already had a kind of character. Don't you think so?


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

It looks more suiting. Without the flowery stuff. Tho, just a suggestion, perhaps make the border (above the picture) To give it a glow or something?


I stole the that oinks helloly.

A faint white glow would be perfect


I did it for the lulz

Oooh thanks everyone, you've all been very helpful I like that font Night, i'll try experimenting with textures for the background and fonts for the title, seems like I completely need to rework the header here! I'm still experimenting with CSS, so this is good for learning

What do you think of a drop shadow on the main stories?
As far as the nav is concerned it's proving to be extremely difficult to position, I think it's how the theme and header is coded. When I attempt to budge it along to the left to align it with the right side-bar, I can only go so far until it seems to hit a wall and it gets budged up towards the top of the page instead of to the left...anyone know why this might be?


~Alex

Also does anyone know of any good websites that have an extensive range of free fonts?


~Alex

dafont.com is the best imo


I did it for the lulz

Yupe, and Font101.com too


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

dafont has alot of free font. But you've gotta search awhile for suitable ones.


I stole the that oinks helloly.

This will be useful too: Free Typographic XHTML/CSS Layouts for your designs

Very good and inspiring examples too!


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

** Post edited on GMT 2009-07-09 08:45:46 **

Woah thanks. I can use that link too !


I stole the that oinks helloly.

What do youthink now?

[ link ]


~Alex

Now that is MUCH better!!! I really like it and it is simple and elegant now!

You have to change some details at the bottom so that they look more consistent with the nice title at the top!


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Simple and clean. Way better than the old one! Sweet!


I stole the that oinks helloly.

omg super more sexy!

the only thing I would have to gripe about is that big black bar on top :/ but that's me


I did it for the lulz

I personally think that there is no problem with the black bar as it plays like a nice graphical element. However, if you can use the same concept with your other elements like other thumbnails and stuff, then it will be great and that also gives some more meanings to this black bar like making it a feature!


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Maybe put a timer ? I mean a clock or smthg.


I stole the that oinks helloly.

For what? This is not really like those trailer sites...


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Countdown to.....!

Alex's Birthday? Upcoming Big Super Cool Project?


I did it for the lulz

Well true. Maybe adding that was unnecessary, i tend to add dumb things when i find my site too plain


I stole the that oinks helloly.

When you are designing, don't do that never add something that is unnecessary. Big taboo.

Design should always be simple and clean and to the point, otherwise it is a bad design.


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Yeah... totally defeat the simple and clean purpose that i am trying to achieve. After i've done it, i felt like it shouldn't be that empty and i start adding things and it seem damn complicated ._.


I stole the that oinks helloly.

Now you should give up such habits


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Or you will get a goood spanking :/


Speaking of spanking, does anyone here go, or used to go, to a school where the teachers hit the kids??


I did it for the lulz

I didn't, definitely not, but I have seen many cases where teachers were attacked by students. Those are really bad schools and no good kids would like that...

I think attacking the teachers is a bit too much...


Vincent, the Angelworld Webmaster

Well that is like normal here for primary schools.
While for secondary schools, its usually the idiot/bad students that get the punishments. They're just sometimes a bit rebellious and need some punishment to make sure they don't. While some are bad students that don't give a damn even after punishments.


I stole the that oinks helloly.