calabiyau Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I have been hired by someone very passionate about religion to make the back end for his website, content management system, design an interactive application, etc...but he doesn't really have access to a designer...so I told him, I'm much more a programmer than a designer, but I will give it a shot. This site is supposed to be a place for people who are uncertain of their beliefs to come and learn about Christianity. He has said he wants something clear and uncluttered but something that would appeal to a modern person. do you think this comes close to achieving that? Like I said i'm not much of a designer, although I know CSS quite well. Is there too much whitespace? Any suggestions on how to make the header and the content area more interesting? Just any critique or advice would be appreciated. http://chooseyourexistence.awardspace.com Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
john010117 Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Pfft... Awardspace... Anyways, the design is pretty sleek. I suggest you size down the top part of the page to make the main content stick out more. Also, "chooseyourexistance.com" doesn't exist, yet it says that in the logo. I am glad that you've chosen CSS over HTML tables. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255005 Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 looks good i like it a lot. you should throw your css in an external file. under "INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES" I would change that green fade to a blue. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255012 Share on other sites More sharing options...
calabiyau Posted May 17, 2007 Author Share Posted May 17, 2007 yeah i'll put the css external once I finalize the design...and I think you're right about the green fade. it hasn't been sitting right with me either. and john...LMAO...pfft...awardspace. i hooked up with them last year when i was first getting started and they had free php mysql and i've been stuck with them ever since. I just create little subdomains for clients to see what i'm doing. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255021 Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviewdr Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Its not too bad. Has potential. The top logo/banner - "Choose your own...." and the cross on top. I think this needs to be redone. The reflection of the text seems out of place IMO. Also - it'd be nice to choose a better font IMO - something from Rome and religious. The italics text in the 3 transparent boxes. If that text isn't going to be changing, I would put nice anti-aliased text as part of the image itself. Its just that on my browser the bold italics text looks very aliased/jagged. I would also like if the top part of the layout (banner, dark blue bar, light blue nav bar) was not as tall. The content is very far down on the page. I know its a new design etc. having a very tall top part of the website, but I think yours is a little too tall. I think you need a few more icons/images. The clouds and teh cross are all you currently have. TBH - it was only the cross and teh cloud image that hinted to me that this is to be a religious website. That capitalised text - Choose your own... set a completely wrong theme IMO. Also - you need a footer, something to match the horizontal bars you are currently using. Anyways, good luck with it. -steve Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255233 Share on other sites More sharing options...
calabiyau Posted May 17, 2007 Author Share Posted May 17, 2007 yeah, he wanted a more modern look for younger people which is why I chose a sans serif font. Man that's too people that say the top is too big. I hate to have to go in and redo those hover boxes but I guess I may have to. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255332 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Overall, I think it is a good start. I'd work to improve the cross in the logo area. The italic text doesn't look that good. The three sections don't look aligned correctly, need to fix that. I'd also make them a light shade of blue, the green color doesn't look that good. The menu is a little too tall. The quotes section has the same problem with the text and the color should be changed up to a shade of blue. Not sure you need the reflection in the logo either. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255366 Share on other sites More sharing options...
calabiyau Posted May 17, 2007 Author Share Posted May 17, 2007 Okay if you look now, i've scrapped all the italics text. I dont' want to make pictures of text since the hover effect is used with background images and that would leave nothing there. But yeah the italics looked bad. i've also added a simple footer and client wanted the clouds effect in the background to extend all the way across. not sure what to do about the title at the top, I can't design a logo for the life of me. oh yeah, changed the INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES to a blue color to. And I resized the clouds section by 20px. I still want to keep the tall top of page look, but maybe 20px will make things a little more reasonable. And thanks everyone...this sort of thing is exactly what i needed and was looking for. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-255382 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 I think you're moving in the right direction. I don't like how the footer just drops off. The footer should end the page, which it doesn't in my opinion. There is still too much white space under it. I say use a thin seperator or try filling in the space down with the blue shade. I would try some rounded corners for insipirational quotes to match the rounded corners in the top. The search button should be to the right of the text field, not under it. Search alone would work better to trim it down in size. Looks like you stretched the logo which made it very fuzzy. Drop "home/contact me" to the main menu, doesn't make sense to have two menus. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-256228 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumio Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 Yeah! Great layout! Only problem is the "INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES"-section. It's in Times new roman and not vertical centered. But all in one... great job! Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/51733-any-advice-on-how-to-improve-this-homepage-layout/#findComment-257060 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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