TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Hi, I am hoping to start up a micro-republic named The Independent Republic of Ursum. Obviously the site is going to be making the first impression and I want it to be a good one. Don't comment on the .tk domain...I know. Only the homepage is done. I wan't to know if my layout is good before I work on the rest. Scrap it or is it good? theindependentrepublicofursum.tk Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 My apologies...http://independentrepublicofursum.tk/ Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374596 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Those diagonal stripes gave me a headache almost immediately. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374610 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Really? The background I had before just sucked to be honest. I think it makes the title stand out, and its simple. What do you suggest? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374614 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I find it makes the title harder to read, actually. I've never seen a pattern like that on any other site, and that's why. Maybe if you lightened the grey substantially to reduce the contrast, and put borders around the white text areas it would help. Another thing may be to reduce the width of the stripes so they aren't quite so "in your face". Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374615 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Well maybe your correct on a lighter color, but I was kind of going for a lighter look. Using the shadows as a type of border. I think if I added borders it would end up looking like a kids power point project from the 90s. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374616 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Its almost white now. What do you think? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374617 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 If what you're seeing is almost white, I think your monitor adjustment may be off. I'm still seeing a very distinct difference. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374620 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Well how much farther should I go? It got much lighter yes? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374621 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Background aside, acceptable, professional looking or no. If not I need to scrap it ASAP and start over. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374622 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahngiel Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I'd scrap that thing without even the slightest thought about recycling. The box shadows are terrible, the standard facebook feed is amateur, the nav hover color is so random it's not funny, links are not presented as being links, white shouldn't be used, find a shade of gray that compliments your font/link colors, your paragraphs suffer from incorrect line heights... the site is generally unappealing, and if i weren't writing this post, I would have only lasted 5 seconds on your page. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374625 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Hmm. Well the hover color is based off of the outline colors on the flag. The box shadows are 100 percent fine in my opinion. What else is there to use on a minimalist layout? I don;t even know what you mean about the line heights. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374626 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 I think you underestimate the use of empty space a little. Look at Google for instance. The links are clearly pointed out and I intended for them to melt into the text. I thought the layout was pretty good, other than suffering from a lack of content. I thought I would need a couple pictures. The facebook thing is just ridiculous. Its perfectly acceptable to put my feed into the side. Its a great way to show whats going on somewhere else without leaving the page in my opinion. The fact that you had nothing positive to say, I would almost say you were what they call a "troll". Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374627 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahngiel Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 yea, you're right. your site is uber delux. lol. have fun with it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374628 Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuickOldCar Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Mahngiel gave you some solid advice the first time. I also agree. You are here asking for advice, did you expect 100% positive replies? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1374847 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Coding is my bowl of cherries, Java, PHP, HTML, CSS, Perl, C sharp, what have you! The designing thing however, that is most definitely not. I would really like to keep this design and not have to scrap it, but where do I make improvements? Every time I go there, it screams amateur. Obviously not a good first impression. Ideas? Things to study? Anything? Thanks guys. http://independentrepublicofursum.tk/ Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382550 Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Monospaced fonts are awesome for coding, but not so much for basic aesthetics. That's the first thing I noticed. Try playing around with other serif fonts. Look into web fonts. You need some padding at the bottom of your content box. Take a look at your 'About' page - the text spills over the drop shadow. You should also not lock in the content box's height. Looking at 'About' again, it's awkward to see the overflow create a short, second column ("...international waters..."). One wider column, that can expand vertically as needed is the way to go. If you're concerned about the content box being too short due to a lack of content on other pages, there's always the min-height style. You should do something to make the 'Read More...' links look like links. Maybe make them bold? A different color? Color... I think the whole site could use more. Aside from the flag, it's black, white, and gray. And, unfortunately, the flag's secondary gold color doesn't really stand out on the white (it's essentially pale neutral on less pale neutral), so the link mouseover effect is a bit lacking. Try changing the mouseover color to the dark blue, or add some gold-on-blue somewhere else (a border or something). Anything to liven it up a little, and to reinforce the micro republic's branding. The flag and it's associated livery should be presented as being important, but not in a gaudy way. Right now, it's way too conservative. That should get you started.... Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382563 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thanks for the reply! If you go back to my site, you can see I changed the color of the titles to a dark gold, bolded all the links, changed their hover color to a dark blue, and had them underlined on hover. I also changed the format of the about, news, and donate pages so that the content was one wide column rather than 2 smaller ones and organized some content into paragraphs. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382580 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Any other ideas? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382581 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 It doesn't load at all. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382590 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 I am on it right now. Should work fine, it is an external server so me accessing it should be the same as you accessing it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382597 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Duplicate topics merged. Please refrain from double posting. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382598 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 My apologies. I would think that because of the dramatic change in content and layout, not to mention the significant change in time would define this as a new topic. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1382599 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScripter Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Come on, there can't be a lack of people with bad things to say on the internet. Haha Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1383098 Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM1 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I really don't like the pale gold headings. At the very least, put a dark stroke around the letters. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/269050-how-to-improve-my-design/#findComment-1383128 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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