My First Website

[Northern Flame]

Hello everyone,

I barely opened my first website last night,

its just an experiment type website just to

test out what i know, dont know, and trying

to improve my skills before my next site opens.

this is a website for norteno ringtones and wallpapers,

check it out and please leave constructive feedback.

http://northernflame.com

http://northernflame.com/forums/

 

*By the way, I am not very good with designing so i created a simple template

[Northern Flame]

anyone?

Im really only looking for feedback on the design (even though i know isnt that good because it was designed by me lol) and on the "user friendlyness". Its a new website so i have no users

[calabiyau]

Just my opinion, but I would get rid of the flying bird at the top of the page entirely and make a simple header above your red content area, same width that contains your logo and perhaps a static image of the bird as your symbol.  You also need to add some padding to your columns, as the text runs right up against the edges on most of your pages.  At least 10px of padding.  Verdana font would also look more professional then the cartoony font you are using...the red is kind of a boring and bright variant...see you picture of micky mouse on ABOUT US page?  Try that color red and break up your sections in the columns with that color gray maybe...too much all one color

[Northern Flame]

thanks for your advice,

i think i will keep the bird,

but i will follow the rest

of your advice 

[Northern Flame]

alright, i have added the padding,

i am looking around for a color code of a darker red,

and i am also going to add grey dividers in the left and right columns as you suggested.

[calabiyau]

#842426 for the red is a good staring point..what about the font?  seriously, I would lose the bird, but if you are married to the idea...eh, what can I do to convince you?...maybe at least make that section of the page not as tall and bring it down closer to your content.  the content shouldn't  be so far down the page...i'm sure you could manipulate all those images to make them less tall...make the header wider to match the rest of the page and still have your bird if you must.

[techiefreak05]

That bird Is kind of hilarious looking. at first I didnt know what I watching fly across the screen, it takes away the spotlight from your content. I agree with calabiyau

BIRD=BAD.

[Northern Flame]

its just that this bird symbolizes so much for our race here in Northern California, and i have never seen this bird flying, only standing, so i tried to get creative  but if everyone agrees it should go, then ill try and think of an alternative that still keeps the bird, but not flying.

and the font

at first i didnt really want to change it because i even thought it was kind of goofy,

i thought it might keep the readers attention 

but i decided to change it right now,

for some reason verdana did not work when i tried it,

it just stayed the same font, so i tried ariel,

i like the way the h1 and h2 tags look,

but not the main text, i might change that later....

[Northern Flame]

oh and about the red,

i just tried it right now,

it looks soooo grey lol,

it makes the website look boring, faded, and old,

thanks for the help, but for now i

think im going to stay with the current red

and maybe try to add different colors inside

so that it doesnt look so bright

[Northern Flame]

alright i added a new shade of red,

its not ad bright as it was before

and not as dark as the one suggested by calabiyau,

is this a good red to go with?

[suttercain]

As I walk through the valley of gangstas...

 

Could you possibly propel anymore stereotypes through this site? You have the "Old English" gangsta font. You have the shirtless bandana tattooed clipart guy. You have the montaged photo of the lowrider bike, the guy with the white shirt over his shoulder and the pervert mustache. Why would I want a wallpaper of some guy who passed away named Speedy Loc?

 

All you need now is a picture of the virgin mary and a gun.

 

Okay... but the look of it. Not my cup of tea. I like the fact that you're using CSS to do the layout.  But I don't think there is anything else I could praise about this site. I feel like I need a bullet proof vest if I ever revisit.

[Daniel0]

Your logo is way to large. On 800x600 it's the only thing you see and you almost see nothing else in 1024x768.

[jonathanb]

- Header is WAAAY to tall - make it shorter!  There's heaps of space there... shouldn't be a problem.

- Lose the bird, it's ridiculous and makes your site look like an amateurish pet project.

- Red font on gray background / Gray font on red background are too hard to read.

- Lose the Times New Roman font - it looks cheap.  Use arial or verdana instead.

- Lose the bird... seriously.

- If you don't wanna lose the bird, then at least make it a lot smaller.

- The "Welcome" page doesn't look very welcoming... The tattooed bandana guy is revolting.  Why does he have a 14 on his stomach?

 

Other than that, looks ok I suppose if you're into that sort of thing.

 

 

[starkplastic]

The first thing that I noticed from a design point of view, is the 90's feeling.

- Whats up with the black bird against the black background?

-In your CSS file you have a variation in font face for different tags, this is not so popular.

-Why have css in your php file when you have got a stylesheet?

 

Overall the page screams a feeling of the 90's and movies such a Ken Park, 1 mile and etc. I see that you understand the tags and everything but the composition is sloppy and "so so". Give everything attention and less is more.

[redbullmarky]

in short, it's not far short of awful. huge images, marquees, etc - it looks more like a myspace page than a site. seriously dude - just because it's your first site, doesnt mean you shouldnt put some serious thought and research into your site first to find out what you like, what looks good, etc before you start.

 

if you're going to push "high quality" ringtones and wallpapers, you really need to back it up with a high quality site. strip it down to the bare basics, if anything. find some sites you like for reference purpose, and try and figure out "why" they're nice and why you like them.

 

so congrats for getting your first site out the way, and good luck for your second version, but you need to do more homework first.

[sKunKbad]

If you view the site on a 800x600 browser, it REALLY looks bad. I think you need to get rid of the rag on the top left, and get rid of the "NORTHERN FLAME" free high quality ringtones blah blah blah. Take that nf3.png out. When that lowered area is on top you will start having a decent web page. If you still like the idea of nf3.png, then at least make it wider and shorter. Make sure the site looks good for a person with a 800x600 browser too. If you track users coming to your website, you will see that a pretty good percentage still have 800x600 browers. Also, somebody with a large monitor can put their resolution on 800x600 if they have poor eyesight. My mom does it, so it does happen.

[TheFilmGod]

Site doesn't look too bad, but I would get rid of the text and header up top. It creates too much scrolling. I think that it's against google policies to tell ppl to click on google ads. You might want to check that out.