Website Review and Suggestions

**bakerc** · 03-25-2008, 08:12 AM

new design at (I re-did it after comments on my previous test page colour scheme)

http://www.bakerfinancial.co.uk/test.html

current one at

http://www.bakerfinancial.co.uk

Anyy comments, good or bad would be welcome (need as much input as poss)

p.s.

off topic but how the heck do you get forms to submit using DW???

**MattCoops** · 03-25-2008, 05:12 PM

Its not a bank contract, so why the text so small?

**joder** · 03-25-2008, 07:35 PM

Listing each area of the UK is too wordy.

**ihsaan** · 03-26-2008, 12:15 AM

Yea the new layout is definitely better.

**HL-James** · 03-26-2008, 12:32 AM

I like the new one, I just think it would look better if "The Adverse Credit Mortgage Centre" was removed from the top left corner.

**GeekGal** · 03-26-2008, 12:56 AM

The new one is much better. The only criticism that I have is that I would like to see the "Baker Financial" part of the top header be bigger. Other than that, it looks great.

**VirtuosiMedia** · 03-26-2008, 01:01 AM

Kudos on learning the CSS. Just a few things: I might reconsider the gradients on your menus and headers. IMO, it looked more professional without them. With CSS, you can still accomplish a bit more than what you're doing. You could replace your tables with divs and cut down on a lot of your code and you could also set background images for your current pictures, but have the text actually on the page instead of on the pictures. Your header text up top might need a little work. Currently it's left aligned in Firefox while the rest of the page is centered. I know that this is just a draft, but again, I'd recommend a copy editor.

Regarding your question on forms (at least, what I think your question is), you won't be able to get the information from your form unless you have some server-side code like PHP, ASP, etc.

**Susanwang** · 03-26-2008, 02:10 AM

Too little space for the main content.

**bakerc** · 04:29 AM

Cheers for the comments guys there appreciated, the look isn't exactly how I want it, still learning how not to crash a browser!!

is it just me or with CSS - the look and layout has something to do with whether the browser got out of the right side of the bed!!

...looks ok in IE then looks wrong in FF, I alter it, looks ok in FF but naff in IE...

Whats going on with this stuff, I thought CSS was supposed to make life easier...in my humble I reacon we should all stay away from this vodo malarky until ALL browsers read CSS the same way , its like having a beta microssoft product - works when it feels like it, if its not to busy, if theres nothing else on and if, ONLY if you can fit all the hacks on the page.

**timothynblake** · 03-26-2008, 04:29 AM

i prefer your current site personally

**bakerc** · 03-26-2008, 04:32 AM

I think the currect site looks home made, thats what I am trying to get away from, the form is also naff which is why I get spammed by soft lads every now and again (which is partly why I am re-doing everything) with index pages and .htaccess and everything... (got that out of a book, no idea what I'm talking about)

**Pozitiv** · 03-26-2008, 05:19 AM

Too much text at the bottom makes it look like there r many outbound links there, cos links are often added there and the font size is too small for people to read it. IMHO it could look better if u made 2 or 3 blocks of text.

**joder** · 03-26-2008, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bakerc

...looks ok in IE then looks wrong in FF, I alter it, looks ok in FF but naff in IE...

Whats going on with this stuff, I thought CSS was supposed to make life easier...in my humble I reacon we should all stay away from this vodo malarky until ALL browsers read CSS the same way , its like having a beta microssoft product - works when it feels like it, if its not to busy, if theres nothing else on and if, ONLY if you can fit all the hacks on the page.

All browsers will not treat CSS the same way. Some comply with the standards, some do not (especially IE 6, I hear IE 7 may be better). CSS works, but you have to learn how to program with it. Just trying it out and giving up is not a reason to complain.

**bakerc** · 03-26-2008, 01:31 PM

Not giving up Joder - far from it, the previuos comment was a little dry humour

Quote:

from this vodo malarky

etc etc

sat in front of laptop at the moment plugging away, building a 3 column with header and footer - got the hacks for IE down I think (I may put another header in for nav bar as I am struggling getting nav bar to app position within the header which is relative) floating a ul with links but they dont want to 'stay', they keep colapsing.

Currently have 3 very large books & 4 vid tutorials so should be up in no time, going to do my form in CSS as well.

**webomaniahars** · 03-26-2008, 01:35 PM

The current layout is very pleasing and also try to minimize links in the page. It distracts a lot...

**sneakytim** · 03:52 PM

I like the use of more color in the new design. Makes it easier to look at and less bland/boring.

As far as the CSS goes, like others said you'll sometimes have to use the IE conditional statements. Just google it and you'll find a lot of info on it. IE7 is better than IE6 for following web standards from what I've seen. Firefox and Safari tend to display things generally the same for me.

Another thing that I do a lot is set the padding and margins to 0 at the begging of every css document and then I can change them individually if I want. Some browsers add extra padding and margins automatically so things will be different in one browser versus another for that reason.

One of the most important things to know and often the source of a lot of CSS problems is the box model. Here's a good source: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/box.html
Things such as borders, padding, and margins will change a layout quite a bit.

I realize a lot of this is probably a review, but many people have problems with designs and layout because of simple things like these.

**bakerc** · 04-02-2008, 10:37 PM

Thanks,

I zero'd everything at the begining of the site after learning that one a couple of weeks ago - same with the box model, spend a while making sure I knew what was going on with that, the main proble I had was specificity (I can't even pronounce it!) but I have sorted this i think.

**smpinfo** · 04-03-2008, 01:47 AM

Just took a quick look at your site.
I like the concept of black on white.
It's simple and easy on the eyes

Good luck

**bakerc** · 04-03-2008, 02:18 AM

Sorry Stefan, black on white?? I dont get it.

Did you look at the test page (which is the one I am working on) or the link in the signature?