Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

New Web Designer Looking for pointers


  • Please log in to reply

#1
LazyStudent

LazyStudent

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 21 posts
Hey,

Here is a link to a website I built:

http://www.bonfire-music.com/

I did this site for a local band. I would like to hear your opinions on the design and what I could do to make it better.

Good or bad I would like to hear your comments.
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
freek

freek

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 167 posts
Hmm, try getting more excelled in Graphic skills. And try using IFrames instead of Tables :tazz:.
  • 0

#3
mpfeif101

mpfeif101

    Member 1K

  • Retired Staff
  • 1,411 posts
I agree with Freek that graphics could be better. But I disagree with iFrames, frames = bad. Stay with tables :tazz:
  • 0

#4
LazyStudent

LazyStudent

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 21 posts
Cheers for the responce. I'll stick with tables anyway because the search algorithm for google and yahoo and the rest of them doesnt work properly with frames.

What sort of graphics do you think I could add. Maybe some flash or something?
  • 0

#5
freek

freek

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 167 posts
Try using Photoshop and making graphics with brushes (aka Abstract/Grunge), Flash is overrated and can lag many older systems.
  • 0

#6
sunny441

sunny441

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 258 posts
LazyStudent:

Good job there!!! Nice site.. easy to navigate. ;) thats what the people want after all and has reasonably good load time. Colours can be improved , and i would suggest using something brigher and better - as it is a music site yu need to show that vibrant mood and what not.

The use of frames over tables and vice versa is very debateable... while in fact no one uses either any more!!! :tazz: CSS is the way to go.. The graphics are a bit out of fashion and you learn a few things here --> http://www.good-tutorials.com . Also if you want more help and other templates go here - http://www.r7designer.com ;)

Hope that helps, and keep those websites coming along!!!
  • 0

#7
LazyStudent

LazyStudent

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 21 posts
Cheers for the response sunny441,

You are right in saying CSS is the way to go and for my next project I'll take that on board. The graphics are poor on the band site so I guess I'll have to put more effort into that. Although I might have a better looking site by using free templates I prefer to do all the design myself. Unfortunetly I won't be able to do any major updates on the band site for a while because I have college exams coming up. Once I finish my exams I will do some javascript functions to make the band site more interactive with the users.
  • 0

#8
lt b0ngo

lt b0ngo

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 161 posts
I would get rid of the click here to enter thing when u first get onto the site. Making the users click more is going to make them get bored quicker and doesn't help you on search engines.
  • 0

#9
LazyStudent

LazyStudent

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 21 posts
Yea I think your right about the enter page. I only put that there because I didn't have the homepage saved as the index file and rather than go back and change all the links to the homepage I threw together that enter page. I was going to rename the homepage as the index afterwards but I never got around to it. Cheers for saying it because I forgot all about changing it. As for your point about users getting bored, your point is noted but I would have to redesign the whole site to fix that problem which is something I dont have time for at the moment.
  • 0

#10
sunny441

sunny441

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 258 posts
here are a few pointers regarding search engine placements and other stuff

Search engines look for meta tags - quite important but also very debateable as to if they help or not in search engine placement..

Build your own meta tags, and paste these into your website using the link shown below

http://vancouver-web...A/mk-metas.html

also do not excpect over night results when yu submit your site to google, it will be a while before the google "bot" visits your site and makes an evaluation. so it could be anything - even might take up to a month at times. But keep checking regularly to see what the results are.

Also remember that your site MUST be complete - no dead links and other stuff. Also try to have the main keywords,that one might enter into search engines" repeated in your home page so that it is picked up by the bot - and watch out for putting too much of this as it might weigh against you later

hope these tips help
:tazz:
  • 0

Advertisements


#11
splintax

splintax

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 54 posts
The site is OK I think considering that you built it yourself - I like it better than those sites which just have stolen templates.

What I don't like are the buttons at the top and the banner - that looks quite ugly. Also you should make the rollovers more natural, or ditch them entirely, and DEFINITELY remove that rollover on the top banner!
  • 0

#12
J4K3

J4K3

    New Member

  • Member
  • Pip
  • 5 posts

Hmm, try getting more excelled in Graphic skills.  And try using IFrames instead of Tables :tazz:.

View Post


Hmm, yes, my thoughts exactly, "if" you need some pointers on gfx, then you could add me on msn BUT im not on much since i started a new college and im a lil busy with keeping out of trouble. I made my sig and avatar so thats the level i myself am at, i could help you learn basic abstract in photoshop if you want.

My msn is [email protected].
  • 0

#13
splintax

splintax

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 54 posts
That reminds me. Don't use iframes unless you absolutely have to.

Please.
  • 0

#14
LazyStudent

LazyStudent

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 21 posts
Cheers for the replies,

It seems that the graphics on the site are a major problem that need sorting. At the moment I am focused on my college exams so I dont have the time to improve the graphics right now but as soon as my exams are over I'll turn my attention to sorting out some good graphics.

I will not be incorporating frames anywhere on this site because;
A) I simply dont like using them,
B) They cause all sorts of problems when search engines crawl your site and
C) They cause problems when somebody wants to bookmark a page.

One thing that I need to do ASAP is get that guestbook up. Do any of you guys know any decent links for open source guestbook code. I really dont have the time to write the code myself. I looked around and the source code I found so far wasnt what I was looking for. I just need simply code that will allow the user to enter there name, email and a message that will display on the same page when submitted. If anybody could help on this I would be very grateful.

Regards,
Steveo.
  • 0

#15
sunny441

sunny441

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 258 posts
ellow

Its very easy to build a guest book by yourself - and is lot easier than getting the code from some other place and trying to play around with it. There is a program called InPHormer ver 1.3 , which will let yu point to the HTML file and then build the PHP file!!! ;) . Its the best way to go for people not comfy working with PHP.

All you got to do is build your HTML page with the form fields and the required buttons in there, and be sure to name your fields right. THen start up InPHormer and do the rest (which is quite self-explanatory & easy for Comp Sci majors like yourself ;)).

Be warned that this software is quite old and has not been updated in a while.. so you WILL have to make changes to the code manually. But once you have gotten InPHormer and have gotten the basic PHP file setup - drop us a line here, and we will help you out with the rest.

Cheers
:tazz:
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP