Andy-H Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 I am creating a website for my Dad/Dad's friends decorating business and have slowed to a snails pace on the development due to issues with design. The website is hosted locally on my machine so this link may not be active when you click but I'll try and leave wamp on-line as long as possible. http://80.7.240.202/index.html I am happy with the look of the header image and navigation. However, I can't seem to get the page to look good when I add text (don't wanna use images for SEO) and was wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom that could help me see the path to enlightenment and get this design finished. Thanks for any help! P.S. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Not sure if I like the black and crimson look. It's not a friendly, inviting motif, which runs counter to what a decorator's persona should be. The navigation is cute, but not precise. Lots of sliding going on if the mouse isn't positioned just so. It has the potential to be annoying. You can use a text/image combo. Look into (google) image replacement CSS techniques. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 Thanks, that was an interesting read, I'm by no means a designer and always seem to use dark, black-ish backgrounds for some reason unbeknown to me. So basically, I should scrap the current design, and start from scratch with a white background and more inviting feel. Can you give me any tips or resources that can help me get the feel of web design for attempt #2? Thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 What kind of decorating do they do? Interior? Exterior? Something specific? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bford21 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 The only two things I would change in the current design is your navigation and that image of the paint brush. The paint brush was poorly cut out in Photoshop and those white pixels around the edges really stick out against the black background. Other than that though I think you have a good start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 @Nightslyr They do painting & decorating, interior, exterior, fitting laminate flooring, any plumbing that doesn't require a gas safe registered engineer, they take most jobs really, unless they don't have/can subcontract to someone who is legally qualified to do the work. But the main target audience is company's/individuals that require interior/exterior painting/decorating. @bford21 Thank you, I said the same thing to my Dad about the paintbrush but he disagreed and said he liked it there. He loves the navigation but I know what you mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Okay, so black for a background color is definitely out. Use white for the body. Red is a good secondary color, but you should use a slightly lighter shade. Use it appropriately, as it's a bold color. You may or may not want a 3rd color. Black is a good choice for things like borders. A 4th color could also work. Light tan/beige is a natural fit. One hypothetical layout would be to have that light tan/beige as the body's background color. The width of the site's container would be a bit narrower, and the container would be white. This would allow the beige to show without it being the background color of your text. Red for the header, footer, and any title bars (look at how this forum does post titles with the gradient blue bars), and black for borders. Also, never rely on family members/friends to gauge your work. For one, they won't be critical out of fear for hurting your feelings. Second, unless they're designers, they won't know what to look for anyway. Finally, some clients (not just family) don't really get what a site is supposed to do for them. They think that so long as something, anything is online with their name attached, it will generate more business for them. It could be a .png of a leper in clown makeup, but, hey, they have a 'site'. These people are less interested in actually seeing their own site than the mere fact that it's online at all. Instead, post here or on other design forums. The responses you get have the potential of being harsh, but for the most part they'll be accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 It looks very old school. And I wouldn't recommend you make the navigation links run away from the pointer. My best advice is that you buy a pre-made website template and code it to your needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 It looks very old school. And I wouldn't recommend you make the navigation links run away from the pointer. My best advice is that you buy a pre-made website template and code it to your needs. A lot of templates suck. They use deprecated HTML and often use tables for layout. Also, why pay for something he can do for free and a little effort? To say nothing about him not learning anything about design if he buys his way out of the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcandiottix Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 The paintbrush gif looks really bad because it was created with a white background and youre placing it on a black background so the dithering is fading to white. So defineatly do something about that. Those scrolling button things are annoying. Look... you're not designing a portfolio to impress your friends with.. you're trying to make a site that someone is going to come to looking for a company that can decorate. You need a simple, clean design... white or light colored background... easy to read text and LOTS of pictures of the work that this company does. Scrap your current idea and start over ... don't put what you want to see... put what a 30 - 60 year old person would want to see if they were looking for a great decorating company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 It looks very old school. And I wouldn't recommend you make the navigation links run away from the pointer. My best advice is that you buy a pre-made website template and code it to your needs. A lot of templates suck. They use deprecated HTML and often use tables for layout. Also, why pay for something he can do for free and a little effort? To say nothing about him not learning anything about design if he buys his way out of the problem. True. I'm all for creating an original template from scratch but from the message I assumed that he's in a hurry and get the site done. From experience, learning to design nice templates takes a while. If it's a one-time website, the fastest route I think would be to buy a stock template and if he wishes to pursue graphic design later he has time to learn. Templatemonster.com has some pretty nice designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 Thanks for the advice guys, I definitely won't be using a pre-made template as I'd rather code the site myself, I hate editing templates to fit someone's needs when I can put in a little (or lot) of work and get a better result with cleaner code and know how everything works for future updates/maintenance. I am already familiarising with most of what you have said, about being rushed, just wanting a website online, and liking the crap design because of lack of knowledge. Particularly, thanks to Nightslyr for even going into detail about which colours go well together and how to piece it together. One last question, does anyone know a place that does free, quality, tutorials that can help me learn web design and (web design) image manipulation/creation techniques? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aschulz90 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I second that question actually. I love php development and making websites functional but I haven't the faintest idea about how to make a site look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Some sites that may help you out: Tutorials on just about everything: http://tutsplus.com/ Design specific tutorials and articles: http://960.gs/ http://www.colourlovers.com/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/25/designing-user-interfaces-for-business-web-applications/ http://net.tutsplus.com/site-builds/from-psd-to-html-building-a-set-of-website-designs-step-by-step/ http://www.tutorial9.net/ http://justcreativedesign.com/2009/05/19/web-design-polishing-tutorial/ I'm a bit of a bookmark nut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 Thanks, I'll have a read, do these teach the actual process and concept of designing good websites or simply get across a single implementation of designing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Thanks, I'll have a read, do these teach the actual process and concept of designing good websites or simply get across a single implementation of designing? A bit of both, really. I try to find (and keep links to) tutorials that explain both how and why to do things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted July 23, 2010 Author Share Posted July 23, 2010 Yeh I've read a few and realised. Thanks for all the help!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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