My second project (and a couple of questions)

[Perry Mason]

http://soft-tissue.com

 

At the moment I'm still working on design so the site doesn't have any data AND it's not optimized for IE earlier than 8 (yet).

 

Would appreciate any comments. I'm kinda not sure about the whole color scheme but can't pin what exactly I don't like about it.

 

Also - how do I get rid of the horizontal scroll bar? (the html background is a 20px wide image that repeats horizontally).

 

Thanks

[xcandiottix]

The problem with critiquing your site is that it's not quite done enough yet. I really don't know what your site does, who its for, and why it needs to exist. If you're asking from a template point of view then I would say that the color scheme is a little too busy. Most corporate color schemes don't surpass 4 or 5 colors. And at that many it is recommend to use no more then 3 or 4 on a website. The lay out is straight forward but hard to comment since it's not fully functional. You formatted something wrong because you have a horizontal scrollbar for some reason. I suggest you work it out further and then repost.

[lqdmindz]

First issue.  Steer clear of gradient.  And if it is nessesary to use, uses variations of the same colour.  Like Grey and slightly darker grey.  Firefox has no issue with your site horizontally.  Like mentioned before i would finish the template then repost.  That way we know what is not being worked on.

[Perry Mason]

Thanks for the critique guys. I initially made the site in the shades of gray and pastel blue but it looked kinda dull to me that's why I decided to add a splash of color with that orange-pink background. I do agree though that it's a bit over the top.

 

Any technical reason to steer clear of gradients or is it a pure design issue? I think they add depth and three-dimensionality.

 

I've sorted out the horizontal scroll bar issue and fixed the dropdown box.

 

I'll repost once it's completed.

[lqdmindz]

Any technical reason to steer clear of gradients or is it a pure design issue? I think they add depth and three-dimensionality.

 

With gradient it make matching images quite hard.  If you for instance have a header that has your logo on top of a gradient...changing the logo requites you to make sure you match the previous gradient.  Gradient is ok with your approach of putting it behind tables.  Though rounding corners and putting them ontop of gradient always makes it look unprofessional due to the fact that the gif pixels are either completely transparent or a colour. 

 

I would never cast aside a good grey template.  They look professional and are easy on the eye

[shortysbest]

I do not recommend using gradients of that wide range, like others have stated above, I would stay with near same colors. such as dark blue to lighter blue (but not a big difference in blue). As far as depth being added by gradients, that is definitely true, however not with the way you are using the gradients, You have to know how to use the gradients to make it look 3dish. Your site actually gives me a headache, given it is 3AM.

 

I would suggest to keep it rather simple and keep the colors good matching colors, your site doesn't really match. You have bright yellow here, then darkish purple there, and blue there, pink there, it's just a mess in my opinion, sorry, only trying to help you.

 

capitalize all navigation first letters (of course there are some exceptions such as if that is a part of your design and what not)

[gwolgamott]

I don't think it's too bad looking. Although the colors do make it too busy, but hey I do that initially all the time and find myself toning it down the longer I look at something I've created. Although at times I have to remember that simple is sometimes more appeasing then color. With that said I'd only suggest one thing as already really stated but my opinion is that try changing the background from the bright gradient to a solid light gray or just white or if you really want to use gradient do something that changed from say a light business money green to a light gray. Hard to say what will look good until you just spend a few changing the colors... change it up a bit with some not so bright colors. Otherwise nice setup.

[Perry Mason]

Yeah it was giving me a headache too. So I restyled it trying to tone down the color scheme while avoiding the corporate look. Any suggestions/comments?

[rickzwebz]

- It be nice to have your menu buttons turn a different colour when you have entered a page to show some kind of I'm Here.

 

- the buttons look to have more height then then filler beside them

 

- most screen size in use today is 1024x768 or larger so why design for 800x600. And  if you are designing for 800x600 the window is too large and the user will have to scroll horizontally.

 

-did you design small to show a gradient background? If so its better to have content then a gradient background. Forget a background that most won't see anyway.

 

- look into creating a favicon

 

- nice to see the site validates  through W3C

 

 

[Perry Mason]

Thanks for the critique.

 

- It be nice to have your menu buttons turn a different colour when you have entered a page to show some kind of I'm Here.

I had a go at it and the navigation looked kinda clumsy. I'm planning to add dropdown submenus soon so then the whole "I'm here" thing would be pointless since "here" can be in the dropdown part of the navigations.

 

- the buttons look to have more height then then filler beside them

I fixed that, thanks

 

- most screen size in use today is 1024x768 or larger so why design for 800x600. And  if you are designing for 800x600 the window is too large and the user will have to scroll horizontally.

 

-did you design small to show a gradient background? If so its better to have content then a gradient background. Forget a background that most won't see anyway.

To both points, I am not planning on having much content. Basically, at any given time there will be one question with it's corresponding answer displayed. I'm not planning on having any ads either, and therefore didn't want a lot of empty space.

I had the background solid blue initially but then decided to add a little gradient.

 

- look into creating a favicon

Will do

 

- nice to see the site validates  through W3C

Thanks. I can't get the CSS to validate though. The error comes from the hosting company page. I've checked and double checked the code, and there's no links to the host website. Don't know how it still managed to sneak in.

[rickzwebz]

It looks like you have 2 ##

 

.text a{

color:##7F70FF;

text-decoration:none;}

on line 125, see if that fixes the problem

[Perry Mason]

Thanks,

 

I fixed that but it didn't solve the problem. The problem was in the print style sheet. I had a link to it but the style sheet itself wasn't there, so my host's error page loaded every time and it invalidated the CSS. Got it sorted now.