Hey there, i created my first proper website for a friend of a friend as something to do and a way to learn a bit. He had a lot of input in a long the way, colour schemes, layout, logo, basically everything was run by him as i went. Now i kinda wanna do it from scratch and present him with it, the logo and basic content has to stay, but everything else can be changed.

 

Whats good and whats down right awful, i expect there to be a lot of downright awful.

 

Thanks in advance

site here

Hiya haggisvendor,

 

Had a look at your site and, bearing in mind i generally like a minimalist approach to sites, here are my negative comments first:

 

- I dont like the green background on text "PROFESSIONAL PRIVATE INVESTIGATION SERVICES FOR THE HIGHLANDS." - perhaps it might be better to have a "Web 2.0" gradiented background image instead?

 

- I think the green/blue colour combination is really quite garish - perhaps consider a more subtle gradiented coloured chameleon? Still keep the greens but as chamelons change colour you could perhaps have a subtle mutli-coloured chameleon. That green is too bright for me.

 

- the menu bar at the top - the text is too big for the bar it is in- either add more top and bottom padding or make the text smaller - I would go towards making the text smaller - and also the font looks a bit newbie.

 

- On the same note - the font of the website looks newbie, Arial or verdana is my favourite - but this is just a personal thing.

 

- the inner scrolly content - why are you doing this? It doesn't fit into an 800 height window so results in 2 scroll bars if you are on a widescreen 15'4 laptop at height 800... i think if you want to keep the inner scrolly panel, give it a smaller height so that at 800 height, you still only have the one scroll bar (not the one on the window). Alternatively, do away with the inner scrolly panel and just have it scroll normally.

 

- DESIGN WISE - it looks like you are using frames at some stage but a quick look at your code i couldnt find it but there is definitely some framing going on somewhere - this is a big no no no for search engine optimisation. Frames are bad and they just aren't necessary any more - especially when you can overflow a div now with CSS to acheive same affect (ask if you are unsure how to do this)

 

- DESIGN point 2 - this isnt as much an issue for me but i know some people will HATE the fact you have built it soley on tables. As a believer in no right or wrong myself when it comes to structure of HTML, having no problem with the use of tables for structure, even i think that your table use is a bit excessive. ....

 

 

Now the good things:

 

- i do like your logo style- the chameleon magnifying the o in investigations

 

- i like the blue theme as blue / surveillance / security is a good colour to use i think.

First off, I like the logo, it's funky. But aren't chameleons meant to be red? Or is that just me? Not a big fan of the frame, just doesn't have much purpose on the homepage as there only is a bit more content.

 

It's certainly not the worst thing I've seen, but with a bit of work it could be very good.

Disable the style sheet in Firefox... you'll see it's not readable.

 

 

The header/logo is broken up into 5 sections... don't think it needs to be.

 

Scrap the frames and use DIV's.

thanks for the replies guys, as i said, i'm a abit of a newb and still learning. I will take all advice on board.

I agree with the comment so far. I think you should rework your content in particular - the scrolling function within the content is unnecessary and off-putting, and has no real function. I also think you should avoid centre aligning content (headers). You have two bulleted lists at the top, and then an unstyled list underneath - this is confusing to look at and lacks consistency.

 

On your services page, add more padding to your content, and some breathing space for your headers. Your conact form could do with a bit more space too - maybe narrow it down a bit.

 

It's good work for a first site, but I recommend using CSS for your layout - there's plenty of good advice on this forum and at W3C Schools.

thanks again for the replies, i'm currently brushing up on css, so hopefully i can make this look a little better.

Tables :hisssss:

In-line style :hissss:

Invalid code :hisss:

 

Double scroll is a massive no for me. As said the fonts could do with some work to make the text look a little more professional.

hehe thanks again, i know there is a lot of work to do. I was definitely expecting a lot of criticism and i'm glad i've received that, gives me something to work towards.