Website Review and Suggestions

**1nteresting** · 05:34 PM

I created a website for my sister's clay art making side-job/hobby. I was wondering how people like the design and overall usability. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

It would be helpful if you rated her website using the Rating Sytem - Guide topic, and posted a short paragraph of any suggestions. Thanks!

Note: I do noticed that the pictures on the gallery have a less then perfect white balance... so please forgo reviewing and rating regarding that.

**RoyDixon** · 04-24-2009, 12:32 PM

I think the navigation and usability is good, but the colors are very difficult to take. The text is too light and the whole color scheme kind of give me a headache. I like pastel colors, but this is just too much.

Overall, I think if you change the scheme, the site would be much improved.
Don't worry about the white balance in the gallery so much. Actually, they are the easiest thing to look at for any extended length of time.

I hope you don't think I'm being negative, because I don't mean to be. Design aspects like color are always subjective. Just because I don't like them doesn't mean they are bad. Lots of people will probably love the colors...

As it is now, I would rate it at 5.5

**LadynRed** · 04-24-2009, 01:07 PM

I don't mind the pastels so much, but then, I'm a female

However, I think the contrast of the text on your menu is not enough, making the gray difficult to read. Remember, not everyone has good eyesight, and people with certain types of color blindness may not be able to read your navigation.

I DO dislike it when people mess with my cursor. I would just put it back to the default and forego the crosshair thing, it's annoying.

The pale violet text is also too light, darken it up for better readability.

I also think your logo could use some darkening up or a contrasting outline or something, it just sort of disappears into the pastel background.

As for the code - ugh.. everything is position:absolute - not a good way to do things, IE has some ugly bugs with it. You're also using tables for layout, which isn't necessary and sooooo 1997. If you're going to use CSS and divs for your layout, then dump the tables.

In IE6, your transparent PNG's are not working because IE6 doesn't support transparent PNGs without being forced with some javascript... so your logo shows a big ugly gray box and your tabs are a mess. A large percentage of people ARE still using IE6, so you might want to look up IE PNG Fix to resolve that issue.

Overall I'd have to give it a 5.

**1nteresting** · 04-24-2009, 01:54 PM

Both great reviews, I'll have to implement them asap. Thanks!

@LadynRed I noticed your signature displays a few things that you said in your review. :P I can't even beta test my site in IE 6 because it's so old, I don't have it around anymore!
Regarding the position:absolute: That's just the way I learned it, I didn't know there could be bugs with it. What is the other way of positioning divs so that IE won't have those bugs?