Website Review and Suggestions

**mntbikeracer1** · 02-18-2008, 11:46 PM

I am getting close to the official launch of the site I am currently building. It is a Digg style collaborative online magazine for men. Any comments on the site are welcome and appreciated.

Ziprage

Thanks.

**Arenlor** · 02-25-2008, 01:23 PM

Too many colors, seriously. Not enough differences in the color, don't really like the background. It's also got too many things on it, make it simpler. Maybe add a border around each item, they bunch together as it is and just make it really hard to pay attention. The huge banner ads are annoying too. If I stumbled onto it I would be out of there in a second.

**aldor** · 02-25-2008, 02:28 PM

Couldn't agree more with Arenlor above about the excess use of colour.
Also, what's the site about. From your home page all I see is a hodge-podge of icons and colours.
The first thing people need to see when they enter a web site is something to make them want to stay and explore what you have to offer.
I don't see this here.
On looking further down I see a statement:-

What is Ziprage?
ZipRage is the collaborative internet magazine for men.

This needs to be far more prominent.
Remember that I was looking at your site in order to comment on it, most visitors will stumble on your site and if it doesn't grab them straight away they will leave.
Sorry to be so negative, but this is how your site strikes me.

**LogicWeb** · 02-25-2008, 10:47 PM

Make the body area white instead of grey. Also, make the header fluid. The current cut-off-on-sides looks unfinished.

**dragon_master_m** · 02-26-2008, 12:13 AM

as its been said before, too much color. i would lose the green altogether. and move the main content box up about 1/2inch so there isnt any space between the header and the body. and there isnt any description of the site that really stands out. altogether, it looks to "in-your-face" and most people tend to leave those types of sites rather quickly. thats my 2cents

**mntbikeracer1** · 03-02-2008, 07:34 PM

Well I've done pretty much a complete rebuild of the site graphically and I would like your input as to whether I have solved some of the issues you guys pointed out or not. I decided to go with a cleaner, white background and less colors.

**Arenlor** · 03-04-2008, 10:36 PM

It looks better, though the gray text needs to be a touch darker. I noticed a little oddity in the first entry that you might want to look at, I'm not even sure what may be causing it.

The white text on the blue is a little hard to read too. I must insist that you Validate your HTML though. Other than that looking good.

**VN-Ken** · 03-05-2008, 12:50 AM

Nice design!

**gridsix** · 03-05-2008, 11:39 AM

Seems a little cluttered, making it hard to find information. What are you using to run it? It it's wordpress, you might look into a template similar to this one.

**mntbikeracer1** · 03-06-2008, 08:17 PM

Sorry for not replying sooner. Your comments have been super helpful and I think I have implemented several of your ideas already. I have been super busy with school but making the XHTML and CSS valid are on the list as the next steps in this project. And I am working out the bugs with the IE7 template. IE6 is on the back-burner for now but I certainly intend on fixing those png's as soon as possible. Thank you all for your comments.

**mntbikeracer1** · 03-06-2008, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gridsix

Seems a little cluttered, making it hard to find information. What are you using to run it? It it's wordpress, you might look into a template similar to this one.

I'm using a highly modified installation of pligg, and I don't really have any intention of changing the template entirely. But thank you for the comment. I hope I can find a good way to un-clutter the current template.