Website Review and Suggestions

**jason_bristol** · 06:06 PM

hi everyone

I'm looking for some crits for my redesigned personal site. It's about 95% finished. I may have used a bit too much flash. But as it's a personal site, I think it's ok.

My last site was done 90% with dreamweaver and fireworks. I've since learned xhtml and css. This new site was 90% typed.

NOTE: you need flash player 8 or above to view alot of the content.

Newsite = click here (this is the site i need a crit for)

Old site Click here

thanks

**Quoteus** · 02-12-2007, 09:59 PM

Hi Jason

I love the colours and the design itself it great.
the homepage looks a bit cluttered though (down the right hand side of it under "Recent")

You have a gift. Keep it up

**RanaD** · 02-13-2007, 05:55 AM

I like it, but I have a problem with accessability. Why is your menu at the bottom right? Don't you want less experienced browsers to browse the site?

You also fail W3C validation

**aldor** · 02-13-2007, 10:44 AM

Overall a great looking site.
There is a slight problem with your menu at top left, when you mouse over an item it does a sort of jig, I take it you didn't intend this.
You need to look at the section Headed "Hello All", in this you repeat the information concerning your site about Bristol.
I agree with RanaD, and found it a strange place to put your menu.

**RanaD** · 02-13-2007, 03:09 PM

At first I thought: menu at the top left?

How did I miss it?!

Then I went to IE and saw...yes...there was a menu...which doesn't show in FF...which is only the second most used browser around...

**dna_05** · 02-13-2007, 03:56 PM

MM i use FF and i have some big accessibility problems over here..
second point: i would try to change the fonts, too grungy in my opinion!

**jason_bristol** · 02-13-2007, 06:43 PM

Thanks for the comments.

As i said it's still yet to be finished, and i'm still sorting out a few issues in IE6, As it looks Terry Ball in there.

i don't understand why you cannot view the menu in FF. I tried viewing the site again since, in FF, in both mac and windows. It works fine. Are you using an older version of FF?

I'm yet to add an accessibility page and get the code validated.
I doubled the text on the front page on purpose just using it as dummy text for now.

I wouldn't agree with the comment, with the text being grungy. The header font is washout. Quite a common style.

I'm not sure with the top nav at the moment in on the home screen. i'll probably change it.

please - anymore comments?

**jingquan** · 02-14-2007, 08:41 AM

Looks a little highlighted, I would recommend using at lease 2 main color excluding the background to show the contrast. Great artwork btw.

**RanaD** · 02-14-2007, 04:00 PM

Ah! I don't always take into consideration that I have an outdated flashplayer for FF. I use FF 2.0.0.1, but my flashplayer IS outdated. Really time to upgrade...

Speak of the devil...my computer just popped up with a flash player update...

**vn5ltr** · 02-15-2007, 12:49 AM

You wanted some crits, which is why i thought i'd add my two cents.
On first glance, it reminded me of viewing a screen on a old monochrome monitor.

Less borders would have been nicer.
Colour scheme could do with some 'life'.
What is with all that blank space between the header and the content?
It looks as though your borders and missing on the right sides.
Choice of title fonts is really bad.
Everything is just cramped. I was literally turned off reading the content.
Too many breaks "br's" in your html code. Why, when you have CSS at hand?

Other than that, its a good start making use of CSS and being mindful of compliancy. Practice makes perfect.

Cheers.

**ihaveaskateboar** · 02-15-2007, 03:32 AM

i really liked it

**jason_bristol** · 02-15-2007, 07:12 AM

Thanks for all the comments. Vn5ltr, the reason why there is a space, is because you either have flash switched off or you need to update your flash. I still need to add a warning sign for this on my site, and I will be lowering the flash player number as i've just realised it's on flash player 8.

**devinb83** · 02-15-2007, 07:35 PM

looks pretty good

**t4tom4** · 02-17-2007, 09:44 AM

Hey - Have to admit, it's very well designed. The only problem, is that there is a big white box below the header at the top... is that meant to display something?

**Slick Nick** · 02-17-2007, 02:14 PM

Its a really good design, only things id say you need to fix/improve is that there is a big empty gap between the header and the content, and also I would of chosen a different shade of orange for the borders and text, maybe somthing closer to the flower thingys that are in the corner.

**jason_bristol** · 02-17-2007, 06:04 PM

if there is a gap. That is because you only have flash player 7 or below. you need 8 or above.

I didn't realise untill the end but I used some shadow on a movie in flash. because of that i had to use flash version 8.

I need to either find a of using alternate content or remove the shadows and bring it down to flash player 6.

Thanks again for the reviews

**3rdShiftStudios** · 02-17-2007, 10:53 PM

colors are kinda drab and that shadow font for the nav is pretty nasty.