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DM Motor Sports: Promo Site| How does it look?


Guardian-Mage

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One word: Decent!  I give it 3 1/2 stars (out of 5).  I would give it more, but the text in the nav bar (especially the Race Reports & News) seems to crowd the buttons.  My suggestion (though probably not needed) is to name it Reports & News, since it is mainly a race oriented site, is it not?

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Yours has a better flow to it.  One thing though is on the old site it says welcome and tells a little soething about who you are looking at in the picture.  A little loudly, though.  you may want to implement something of the like, but not so big.

 

Your paragraph text could be centered more with the picture.  The run over (their run under) makes it seem a little tacky.  Yes . . . use the head lines from the old site (a little smaller, of course) and keep your paragraph text centered with the picture.  It will look better IMHO.  Try it and see.  If it doesn't, I am sure someone will correct me.

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Let me show you what I am talking about.  The attached Pictures have red marks on them marked 1 and 2.

 

1 - This is the header I was speaking about.  As you can see, it isn't exactly on your site.

 

2 - This text should be centered with the picture.  It would give it a better flow.  Try it and see.

 

[attachment deleted by admin]

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That is looking a lot better.  One last thing on the main page though, The text is now crowding the left border.  You may want to have the same spacing on the left as you do on the right (the spacing between the text and the picture).  That will make it Excellent!

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i'm going to be frank with you - if i saw a site like this, i would IMMEDIATELY browse away from it.  the header graphic needs higher quality (it's incredibly pixelated), the buttons are old and from a crap template that was in style tenish years ago (i realize it was at the request of the company), the background is unnecessary.  i'll definitely give points for good, clean coding, but it could do with a lot of work, aesthetically speaking.

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The header is crap, I know that, and now they do to. They have given me permission to remake the header and background. Unfortunately I suck with graphics, but I will manage. The buttons are something they wish to keep. I will adjust the margins on the left though. Does anyone here have IE6 or AOL9 that they can try it on. Apparently the schedule and 3 other pages have huge gaps when viewed on those browsers. Thanks for the input.

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The buttons look a lot better.  One thing, do you know how to make them glow instead of grow?  When you move over them, they grow and it distorts the buttons.  I think a little mouse over glow would look a little better for the site.  That's just my opinion, though.

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The only way to make it glow is to use filters and that does not work with Firefox. Please let me know if there is another way, however, I will try making a new button image with glow to switch to on mouseover

 

I changed the hover over to a new image that is glowing, but I am not a Graphic Designer, so my images aren't great

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That seems to work fairly well.  It seems that the background in the information portion of you site is a little darker.  Did you change it?  It makes the links inside the paragraphs hard to read.

 

The next step will be the header and then applying what you have learned to the rest of the pages! ;)

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Nothing now.  when I checked earlier on the 'Team' page, the text was running into the picture.  You have a mighty fine site there.  Hopefully they get you that new header.

 

PS  Could you post the link on the next post so that people won't have to go to the first post to click it.  It is hard to reply when you have to chase down the link.

 

Doing Good!

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No offense, but I still think it looks awful.  But looking at your site, I can see that you don't branch out much.  It's the same uninspired design that you used on your site. 

 

1) The backgrounds are awful... it's just some grainy awfulness that looks like it came out of mid-90s web design.

2) The buttons for the menu are simple and the shadow effect is poorly done.  I like the font used for the menu but you don't use that font anywhere else in the site, so it looks bad side by side.

3) I personally don't appreciate the full-width/expanding sites.  On a monitor like the one on my laptop (1600x1050), it looks far too spread out and I have to scan a single line of text across the entire screen to read it.  I'd suggesting going to a fixed-width design.

4) I don't understand people that simply throw up an email address and a phone number and call it a contact page.  You're using php extensions on your files, but this entire site screams "static" with the exception of maybe the schedule.  Use a freaking form.  You're inviting spam otherwise when you just place an email address on the website for all the bots to see.  A form also lends itself to collecting information and storing it in a DB if you were to want to report or look at a history of comments/questions.

5) The content has a border on 3 sides.... did the 4th side do something to you or your mother?  Make it consistent!  It looks like you hacked it together in 10 minutes and forgot to add a border there.

6) Remove some of the whitespace.  Fit the header image against the top of the window and fit the content against the bottom of the header graphic.  It'll make it flow much nicer and it will look more professional.  The gaps just make it look disconnected and "random".

7) Pick a color scheme.  The header has yellow in it... the menu has brown in it... you use a lot of grey and black in the content section.  I'd play up the yellow if that header graphic is going to remain.  Right now it just looks like you designed this in sections instead of thinking about the entire look from a higher viewpoint.

 

Start with those and then we'll hit it again.

 

Again, these are all opinions, but I think they're worthwhile to consider.

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If I suggested a fixed width site and then said it had too much white space, wouldn't that be extremely hypocritical of me?  Kind of.  Maybe you shouldn't assume things about other people.

 

Fixed with sites work on all resolutions to a degree.  I'd rather cut out the 640x480 or even 800x600 people than make everyone else read across the entire screen.  Look at any news/information site on the web.  What format are they using?  Oh... fixed width.

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Go all out. Try something new, you practically did the same thing as the previous site expect fixed some stuff up. Change the background. Make it a solid color, like white or something. Add a border on the third side. Make the hover images be PRELOADED! Hoverimages create a very rectanglular feel since the corners glow over the background!! I just don't like it. I feel its very simple and looks like a 1990's website. In the world of CSS, try something new! And make sure it works well in different browsers. However, if your client wants it simple and easy like that, - then its fine. Remember, its the client you are trying to impress not me.

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