tibberous Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 My site is TrentTompkins.com. I want to freshen it up and replace the Joomla backend with something custom - or maybe just get rid of the backend and create the pages as needed. Does it look nice, or should I think about changing it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masna Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Visually, while it's clean, the header has a lot of space on the right-hand side that could probably use something...(today's date for something..) Just feels very empty.. Perhaps moving the 'Trent Tompinks logotype to being beside the question mark logo to reduce that header's thickness? Your markup doesn't validate, nor does your css. I think the two columns within the main area are too close together..(speaking of the column 'FLV Player PHP Add-On Pack! ' vs 'Flash Tutorial Added'... I would consider spacing those apart more to make those sections more separate and distinct. If you need more space, don't be afraid to expand the entire width of your site a bit.. seems like you have some breathing room to play with in that regard. As for SEO, I noticed you made use of h3 heading tags.. why not add an h1 tag and some h2 tags? Also on that note, your meta description tag is empty (not exactly SEO friendly).. and you can ditch the keywords meta tag (despite it too being empty...even if it wasn't, it's not useful anymore). I would consider using css for layouts instead of tables. Overall, it is nice and light weight. Just seems like it needs some tweaks here and there IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 What about switching to something like this? http://www.trenttompkins.com/concept.jpg Just a real standard Web 2.0 look - 4 sections with the nav part of each section and a nice homepage? I'm a programmer, not a designer -- maybe this is all I need? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masna Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 What about switching to something like this? http://www.trenttompkins.com/concept.jpg Just a real standard Web 2.0 look - 4 sections with the nav part of each section and a nice homepage? I'm a programmer, not a designer -- maybe this is all I need? Much, much, much better! But it still needs some graphics. Come up with some personal logo that would fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Personally, I like the current version more than that concept. I would first focus on hashing out the complete concept layout first, as it is hard to judge from a screen shot showing just the top half.. it has potential. What I do like more about the concept however is the much more compact header and the light grey rounded cornered body. Perhaps if it was polished a bit more (for example, look at your logotype / logo in the current version... in the concept, this is replaced with a plain font.. so while the layout and use of header space is better in the concept, it lacks some visual interest). Additionally, for the main body content, there are free icon resources out there. Perhaps placing some well chosen small icons / bullet point graphics can go a long way (don't over do it though if you do go that route). If you are stuck with layout / graphic ideas, one thing you can do to get the creative juices going is have a look at some templates (like say templatemonster.com) to see what they are doing. I'm sure you can find some great layout and graphic elements that would kick start some ideas. Those kind of sites are great for inspiration IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Your website looks tiny on my 22 inch monitor! You should consider moving up to a 1024 resolution. Around 900px wide. I feel the website is "bland." Spice it up with some graphics/icons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 Your website looks tiny on my 22 inch monitor! You should consider moving up to a 1024 resolution. Around 900px wide. I feel the website is "bland." Spice it up with some graphics/icons. Yeah, that's another reason I want to update it - I was going to do 950px. I'll sit down, figure out the content I want in it, and then try to match the graphics accordingly. Does the color scheme look good? I was thinking about doing a baige/gold or maybe even green, but thought the blue would be easier to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 You could consider doing a liquid design . Although you seem to be artistically talented (assuming the images used/concept are your work) and artistically talented people seem to dislike designs not allowing total control. Current site is confusing with the blue/white btw, the home link is blue, but the other blue parts are headers.. with white links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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