site design/layout opinion

[sknyppy]

I would like to have some opinions on what could be improved on this site. Is the navigation easy to use, are the colors easy on the eyes, page load time, etc.

Thanks in advance for all comments and suggestions.

http://www.myrtlebeachdesigns.com

 

[cian]

Hi!
in IE6, 1024*

1. Personal preference, i'd center the page
2. Instead of having the title graphic in a white box within a light brows box i'd just make the white box the full size.
3. Personal preference, i don't like scrollers so much, sometimes they are ok but...
I'd prefer to see a few static links instead of the scroller.
4. The gold coloured text on the left: i'd prefer a darker colour.
5. Even with 20/20 eyesight I find the text a little difficult to read, might make it a little big bigger.
6. The small boxes at th very bottom, might be interesting if you turn them into links?
7. Images are a bit slow to load, you'll need to optimise them a bit more.

Apart from that, it's pretty cool.
Just going to try the Starfighter game now...





- É -

http://www.ssi-developer.net

 

[BHaines]

IE5.5 at 800x600

I quite like the light brown boxing beneath the white, it lends something to the page rather than have it dully floating in a sea of white.

I also like the scroller as it's tastefully done and non-obnoxious for a scroller. However, I'd change the text color. You don't use blue anywhere else, so it seems out of place.

I agree with Cian that the beach graphic extending past all the borders looks odd. You should confine it to the borders of the white inner box I think, and maintain the brown border outside of it.

I'd also change the tinting of the image to match one of the browns already on the page, this one is a bit pinkish and it seems out of place because if that. Either the olive tint of the logo or the greyer shade of the table under the white would be better and make it seem more cohesive.

I'm not keen on the gold shade of the mouseovers as it seems to argue with the color scheme. I'd suggest either using the red you're using for section titles, or make the olive the mousover and the base color black. I'd suggest making the Dreamweaver tip text beneath the title black instead of red, since it takes away emphasis from the section headers.

Lastly, on 800 x 600 I have to scroll to the right about an inch to see the right side of the pages and down about 2 inches. Scrolling BAD. And contrary to popular belief, many people use 800 x 600 resolution, especially during the work day, as it reduces eye strain, and a lot of companies will not purchase pricier 17"+ monitors for their employees. I'd suggest confining the page to no more than a width of 775 pixels or so. I typically do 750 and center the page. The down scrolling is really only an issue on the front page, where I want a snapshot of your site without having to scroll. You can help this by reducing the height of your beach image.

All in all its a good looking site

 

[MadMango]

IE6.0 1280x1024

I like all the color selections and layout. I like subdued colors for sites, rather than bright, garish sites. The only complaint I have it that it looks like you make great effort to keep the "length" of your pages consistant, except you Links page is really long.

 

[Kjonnnn]

What is that a picture of at the top. The sepia tint really makes that landscape look very inviting, unless thats what you were tryin to do. Puts me to mind of a pollution filled lake.

 

[GUJUm0deL]

sknyppy, I like it. I viewed it in IE6 on a 1024*768 resolution, All i'd want chancged is mabe center align the site, the left align gives off a lot white space to the right side.

Also, for the date portion of the site is in a small rectange box, take out the box, it would look better if the date was in the space as the logo.

Good job.

I have this little thing, Advanced Delusionary Schizophrenia with Involuntary Narcissistic Rage.
It's no big deal, really...

 

[grtfercho]

IE 6.0 LAN Connection and 1024*768.

The site looks fine to me with a few things that I personally would change.

1. Date/Time Obviously is not the same if I'm looking at your site from a different time zone. I never like places where they tell you the time. It looks like because of the lack of content they are trying to fill some space with anything.
This is not your case so I would take date/time out.

2. Even though I'm in a fast connection the page loaded pretty slow for me.You may want to check some optimization settings for your graphics.

3. I entered to different parts but when I wanted to go back to the Home page I couldn't find a link. I assume that normally the top left graphic has a link to take me back in your case I had to go to the bottom horizontal small bar of links and select the last from the list to go back to home page.

4. If you are trying to show a service or a company like "myrtle beach Designs" I suggest you take out your photo and your data. It makes your whole service/company look as a "one man show" even if that's the way it is I don't agree with the idea of letting every body else know. You are advertising/showcasing a company not you.

5. I got a Javascript error when entering the contact Us page."Contact.Name is null or not an object"

6. If I need to contact the company via regular mail where Do I do it? If I have an error on your form where do I send an email? is that your picture??

7. If I click a link and I get a surprising new window I think I got one of those ad sites. Normally (instict I guess) I would close the window. Have a small graphic right next to each link that opens a new window and leaves your site. That way the user knows is going to get a new window.


Now the things I did like.
The colors are fine on the eyes.
The font size and colors even though a little bit small seem fine to me.
The scroller looks good even with the blue color.


grtfercho çB^]\..
"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" A. Einstein

 

[blueark]

Overall, it's pretty consistant, and other than what's been mentioned before, I'll throw in a few comments.

1. Who is the site aimed at? I found it a bit confusing. Parts of it look like a local community board (the weather, pool leagues, etc.), the title makes it look like you develop web pages, while a lot of the content seems like it is providing information to other web developers. It also comes across as being a Macromedia advertisment at times. The home page should clarify what the site is actually about.

2. If it's not aimed at a community level, then it would help if the site didn't come across that way. The date/time issue has been mentioned - certainly you should get rid of the time element. The contact form is also aimed at US users only, which might limit the responses you get.

 

[ChrisHunt]

I'd agree with the last two posters about the uncertain focus of this site - is it a design firm or a community site? If the former, I disagree with grtfercho's point 4 - If your company's a one-man band, be honest about it. Make the most of your personality and skills, rather than trying to appear like a big design firm.

Still, you asked about the design more than the content. All-in-all it's pretty good looking. The scroller wasn't working when I visited (on IE6), but that suits me 'cos I don't like them!.

The only point I'd make that hasn't been made already is about the links that run across the top of your picture. There's noticable JPEG noise around many of the letters which make them look sightly blurry. Since the photo is carved up into several image files, I suggest you use GIFs for the link images and JPEG for the rest. No doubt you could get a similar functionality using one JPEG image and CSS formatted and positioned text links, but I'll leave that to you!

-- Chris Hunt
Extra Connections Ltd

http://www.extracon.com

The real world's OK for a visit, but you wouldn't want to LIVE there!

 

[NigeW]

Just a thought re the banner image - have you tried colouring the water a light shade of blue or the bank and grass the original colour - might spice it up a bit.

Nice site

Ciao

Nige