Website Review and Suggestions

**yuechen** · 01-04-2009, 03:54 PM

Hi everyone, please help to review and comment on this new website I built:

http://www.thewriterscoop.org

I encourage all comments and criticism! This is my first site, so I desperately need help and I know it cannot compare with many others, so there's definitely a lot of room for improvement!

**stevej** · 01-04-2009, 06:37 PM

I like the color scheme that you chose. I'm sorry if I sound overly negative, but that's what this thread is about, right?

Some problems:

1) The tables. I am not overtly opposed to this, seeing that tables are widely accepted, and seeing that this is your first site. But I implore you, as soon as you can, learn CSS and try to figure out how to replace tables using it. Perhaps LadynRed could get on and give some choice comments about tables.

2) The borders. Oftentimes borders can be used effectively, but not on this site. Especially if they're black and more that 1px wide.

3) The padding. You aren't really using enough padding in between cells. Consistent padding is crucial for a clean-looking website.

4) The font. Times usually looks good for the small text, but for headers and larger text I wouldn't recommend it. It sort of looks like a cheap flyer.

5) The links. I actually like your choice of colors for the sidebar, but for ordinary on-the-page links I would not recommend a background color on the rollover.

6) The color. Since this is a reading site, an important thing you need to keep in mind is that it is technically easier to read white-on-black instead of black-on-white. Since it's a bit of an eye strain to read black on that dark brown, perhaps you would want to make the background darker and make the text white. (NOTE: I don't actually recommend the colors pure white and pure black. I really think you should use dark grays and light grays.)

Sorry if that ramble was a bit long. I can't think of anything new at the moment, but if you want to apply the changes that I recommended, I'll probably see some more things that don't match.

- Steve

**yuechen** · 01-04-2009, 08:54 PM

1) I don't think I have any other choice at the moment, so I'll have to use tables for now.

2) Well, for one, the big border around the content helps to keep it away from the sides. And then, without borders, my text on the homepage just looks very bad. Do you have some specific suggestions?

3) Added more padding as need.

Thanks

4) You're exactly right. I don't know why I never thought of that.

5) I've tried around, but there just doesn't seem to be another option that I like.

6) For the actual reading pages, the background is different. This is an example: Replanting the Seed - Chapter 1. What do you think of this?

Thank you so much Steve!

**stevej** · 01-04-2009, 09:11 PM

Okay, I can see why you wouldn't want to take away the borders... however, if you used something like this, I think it would improve the look of the page.

HTML Code:

<TABLE cellpadding="10" cellspacing="20">
<TR>
    <TD bgcolor="#D1D1D1" height="100" width="150" valign="top">test1</TD>
    <TD bgcolor="#D1D1D1" height="100" width="150" valign="top">test2</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
    <TD bgcolor="#D1D1D1" height="100" width="150" valign="top">test3</TD>
    <TD bgcolor="#D1D1D1" height="100" width="150" valign="top">test4</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

However, could you explain with a little more detail why you are unable to take away the border around the whole content body?

As for the actual writing page, I suppose that will look fine. However, the background seems a little... bright. Try a color more like #E4E0D3.

And, I found another thing... the page's background should probably be a lighter color that the background color of the content.

Hope it helps!
- Steve

**gofetch** · 01-05-2009, 10:11 PM

I'm not big on the brown. I would say you could keep the same color but take it down a few shades lighter.

Looks like you still need more table padding...some of the text is too close to the borders.

Also, when you get into the reading pages, you should make line breaks in between the paragraphs. That would make it easier to read, less daunting looking.

**kingofsanda** · 01-07-2009, 08:47 PM

Aside from what has already been stated I think the site would look better if you got a professional logo and add some graphics to the page.