Striking?

[Pawn]

Considering how homogenous web-design is becoming, I wanted to create something brave without resorting to the Hollywood realms of Flash design. I wanted geeky, I wanted retro and I wanted easy to use. With this in mind, I present the rather content-sparse [a href=\"http://www.superlatenight.com\" target=\"_blank\"]superlatenight.com[/a].

Any thoughts?

[redbullmarky]

i actually like the style alot... it is a breath of fresh air when people decide to "dumb down" the technology instead of adding tonnes and tonnes of unnecessary bells and whistles like flash, etc. makes it very clear and easy to read.
if all you wanted was retro, geeky and easy to use, then youve achieved that.

my only gripes (that i saw):
1, for such a simple layout, you really should get it validating - [a href=\"http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.superlatenight.com%2Findex.htm&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline\" target=\"_blank\"]Invalid Home Page[/a]

2, i still don't have a clue what your site is about. a brief introduction on the homepage would be useful

3, would be nice to see some images throughout the content articles.

4, your links on the homepage clash far too much with the surrounding text. ideally you'll need to make these alot more contrasting so i can see them.

5, can you make the top logo a link to the homepage? whilst you have 'home' in your navigation, being able to get home by clicking the banner/logo is just kind of what people seem to expect.


i'm going to assume that you've got lots more to add to the site (as two links in the nav are dead - text & img) so i'm pretty sure that with a bit of care and attention you'll have a nice result.

cheers
Mark

[jcombs_31]

I think redbull pretty much hit the nail on the head. I think the overall look is ok, although it is a little tough to read grey on black text, you may want to consider making the site a little brighter in the content area, not just the border. It's hard to say what else would work though.

You really need something on the main page to tell the visitor what the site is for, or at least have an about page. The navigation is a little small but works on this site and is at least seperate and easy to find.

[steviewdr]

Its alright of a website.
Im generally not a fan of dark websites - but anyways.

Your <a href's in the text need to be a different colour. Its very hard to differentiate between links and text in the main body.

I know you are trying to get a specific typset across in your top logo - but Id prefer it a better font. It grows on me however.

As mark said - you need a little more graphics IMO. Perhaps for the links I mentioned to provide a -> or a globe icon, as with <a href's in the wikipedia.

Your Nav could be decorated/ differentiated a little better also.

-steve

[Pawn]

Thanks for the feedback. Very sincerely appreciated.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]for such a simple layout, you really should get it validating[/quote]
Well pointed out. Clearly something I've neglected.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]i still don't have a clue what your site is about. a brief introduction on the homepage would be useful[/quote]
I'd say that's gotta be a reflection of the haziness of my own ideas ;)

I dislike polluting the homepage with 'read once' text, but I'll get thinking about an expandable info box or 'about' page.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]would be nice to see some images throughout the content articles.[/quote]
Ah yes, pictures. The content layout is really an html mockup of what needs to be PHP, but I take your point. I'll toss in some still frames for the videos etc.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]your links on the homepage clash far too much with the surrounding text. ideally you'll need to make these alot more contrasting so i can see them.[/quote]
[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Your <a href's in the text need to be a different colour. Its very hard to differentiate between links and text in the main body.[/quote]
Another good point. I like steviewdr's idea of using Wikipedia like link icons. The only real colour is white, which might work were I to stick the body text in the colour that the links currently are.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]can you make the top logo a link to the homepage? whilst you have 'home' in your navigation, being able to get home by clicking the banner/logo is just kind of what people seem to expect.[/quote]
Of course. Stupid of me to forget.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]I know you are trying to get a specific typset across in your top logo - but Id prefer it a better font.[/quote]
There's no better font than System! ;)

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]i'm going to assume that you've got lots more to add to the site[/quote]
Hell yes! Just nice to get some feedback on the design before it becomes too permanent.

My biggest concern at the moment is finding a suitable PHP backend - allowing for interactive, client-uploadable content - that can be simply adapted for the GUI. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions there, or any more design quibbles, they'd be more than welcome.

Thanks again for the invaluable feedback.

[moberemk]

I'm surprised no one has said this before, but TABLES?!? Seriously, a site this simple doesn't need tables. You've done a lot of stuff that would be a whole lot easier with CSS.

[Pawn]

I find tables a pleasingly masochistic approach to webdesign. Besides, I was being [i]oldschool[/i].

That and I haven't the faintest grasp of CSS nor its reputedly limitless applications.

[b]Update[/b]: Tweaked the text colour scheme to allow for nice bright links and added visual accompaniment to the two existing content pages. Hope that's solved a couple of gripes. I'll be cleaning up the code and adding an 'about' document in the near future.

[Pawn]

Sorry to bump this. I'm starting to implement the PHP CMS and would appreciate hearing and bugs you can find.

Thankye.

[steviewdr]

The font size on your various pages differs. On some pages (index) its very small. On others (video) its too big. A happy medium is needed - and dont have the text size too small please.

With your large file size downloads - I hope you dont run into problems with DOSS and people using up your bandwidth allowance. I had this done to me - had to put image verification downloads.

I have just got Mysql errors:
Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/db.php on line 14
Couldn't connect to server.

You should have a nice graphic screen or a nice message saying - please check back.
The mysql error was maybe a once off - back working now. Get a nice gui error message & ask them to refresh.

The registration gave me:
[code]Warning: main(http://www.superlatenight.com/includes/menu.htm): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/reg.php on line 50

Warning: main(http://www.superlatenight.com/includes/menu.htm): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/reg.php on line 50

Warning: main(): Failed opening 'http://www.superlatenight.com/includes/menu.htm' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/reg.php on line 50[/code]
It also just sent an email to "asd" without checking proper email address also. You need to beware of spammers also.

As for testing your CMS etc. if you setup a test account - I'll go through it.

-steve

[Pawn]

Thanks stevie...

[!--quoteo(post=370518:date=May 2 2006, 12:26 PM:name=steviewdr)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(steviewdr @ May 2 2006, 12:26 PM) [snapback]370518[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
The font size on your various pages differs. On some pages (index) its very small. On others (video) its too big. A happy medium is needed - and dont have the text size too small please.[/quote]

For some reason unknown to me Dreamweaver's default column tagging (<th scope=col>) seems to be emboldening the text. Hence the normal text on the homepage, where I've manually replaced the th's with td's, and the bold on /video/ and /w3/. Any other difference in textsize is new to me: a screenshot would be nice.

[!--quoteo(post=370518:date=May 2 2006, 12:26 PM:name=steviewdr)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(steviewdr @ May 2 2006, 12:26 PM) [snapback]370518[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/db.php on line 14
Couldn't connect to server.[/quote]

Not sure how you managed to get that ;).

[!--quoteo(post=370518:date=May 2 2006, 12:26 PM:name=steviewdr)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(steviewdr @ May 2 2006, 12:26 PM) [snapback]370518[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]The registration gave me:
[code]Warning: main(http://www.superlatenight.com/includes/menu.htm): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/reg.php on line 50[/quote]

Teach me to change my include path ;).

You can login using diagnostic/diagnostic if you like, but it would be nice to know the registration system was working properly.

Thanks for your time!

[steviewdr]

Well when trying to login with a bad pass brings me to a white page with "not today". I think at least you can do is to direct them back to the main login page etc.

I registered - and recieved the email ok. When I login - I have to go clicking again to go to the home page. Why cant you do a headers: location="home.php" etc.?? (dont know exact code off hand)

3 Screen grabs of font size differences:
[a href=\"http://kartbuilding.net/misc/latenite/\" target=\"_blank\"]http://kartbuilding.net/misc/latenite/[/a]

Are the forums totally seperate? If so - thats not great. I dont want to remember 2 passwords!
Also when registering - why not let the person choose their own password?

I also got:
[code]Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/superl00/domains/superlatenight.com/public_html/index.php on line 89[/code]
on the main home page. I included a sceen grab.
It seems a little buuggggggyyy ;-)

later.
-steve

[Pawn]

Your MySQL error was me playing while you were browsing. ;)

All the aesthetic errors you pointed out come from running the page in IE. The pleasure of designing a site for oneself is that you can treat yourself as your target audience. As such, you'll notice on the left of the page, prominently displayed under the menu, the words 'SLN 0.5b for FireFox'.

[ober]

Then don't expect to get a very positive response from this group. Most of the people that critique here are looking for extremely cross-browser compatible websites. And to be honest, designing otherwise is rather asanine.

[Pawn]

Why anyone would use IE, without being physically strapped into a chair and forced under pain of death to do so, I know not. Fortunately I am blessed by a clientelle under no such restraints. That said, some bored afternoon I may just sit down and pander to IE's illiteracy.

Fixed the 'extra click' when logging on, by the way.

[ober]

Umm... what about Opera? Or Netscape? Or Safari? Or Konqueror?

IE is far from the only other browser to check.

[redbullmarky]

[!--quoteo(post=370973:date=May 3 2006, 06:56 PM:name=Pawn)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Pawn @ May 3 2006, 06:56 PM) [snapback]370973[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
That said, some bored afternoon I may just sit down and pander to IE's illiteracy.
[/quote]

no offence, but it's not exactly an overly complex site, so for it not to work in IE would be your fault and not IE's. Agreed, IE is rubbish in comparison to the rest but you can't discount the fact that it's still the worldwide browser of choice for most. If it was a complex site, then maybe - but it's simple enough not to require those features that struggle across browsers.

When someone views your site and it's all over the place, people actually blame you and your coding, not Internet Explorer.