Hey morning everyone,

 

I have been messing about creating a website for myself, please would you take a look and tell me what you think.

 

I would much appreciate it if you would give me some tips and advice on how to make it better, and anything else you think i should include.

 

Please be nice as i know most of the links do not work yet and the site is no were close to being finished.

 

The site in question >>>> www.ukpczone.co.uk

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Hi Mike, don't be alarmed when I write this review, I'm coming at it from a completely objective standpoint, and don't mean to hurt your feelings at all.

 

I really am not a fan of the website, for several reasons:

• Presumably the site is relatively new, and if so, it looks older than it actually is. You need to keep up to date with standards and practices in order for you to produce a site that will get you good business.
  
• You're using an animated GIF image as your banner, and it makes your site look unprofessional, it'd be better if you used a high quality .png image that isn't animated instead, particularly because the .gif image is on a complete loop over and over again.
  
• Throughout your code, you're using various divs and tables, you should only use DIVs because tables are for tabular data and are definitely harder to control. For example, you're using tables to contain your content, when really you just need a few floated divs, which would be really simple.
  
• In your code, you have CSS everywhere styling different elements. Why not use the "templates/Front Page Template/css/template_css.css" css file that you've got to contain all that, to clean up your markup, it'll help a lot in the future, and get you into good practice.
  
• At the bottom of your site, it says "Guaranteed!" in red letters, it might just be because I'm colour blind, but that is unbelievably difficult for me to read, and it hurts my eyes a little bit, it's as though it's trying to jump out of the page and tear at my eyes.
  
• When you navigate the website, all of the other menu items disappear, meaning you have to make a double journey to get to where you want to go, just keep all of the navigation there constantly, and add some styling to the menu item of the page you're on, it'll help a lot. I know it appears down the left-hand side in a vertical navigation area, but it's best to try and retain some of your layout, rather than a user having to jump around the pages to navigate the site. Although do keep the vertical navigation somehow, it looks very nice.
  
• With regards to your content, you're offering a lot of "unlimited" products, we all know that having something unlimited is impossible, and fair usage usually applies, so make sure you write that somewhere, otherwise you'll have a court case on your hands.
  

 

I really hope that helps

Hi Mike, don't be alarmed when I write this review, I'm coming at it from a completely objective standpoint, and don't mean to hurt your feelings at all.

 

I really am not a fan of the website, for several reasons:

• Presumably the site is relatively new, and if so, it looks older than it actually is. You need to keep up to date with standards and practices in order for you to produce a site that will get you good business.
  
• You're using an animated GIF image as your banner, and it makes your site look unprofessional, it'd be better if you used a high quality .png image that isn't animated instead, particularly because the .gif image is on a complete loop over and over again.
  
• Throughout your code, you're using various divs and tables, you should only use DIVs because tables are for tabular data and are definitely harder to control. For example, you're using tables to contain your content, when really you just need a few floated divs, which would be really simple.
  
• In your code, you have CSS everywhere styling different elements. Why not use the "templates/Front Page Template/css/template_css.css" css file that you've got to contain all that, to clean up your markup, it'll help a lot in the future, and get you into good practice.
  
• At the bottom of your site, it says "Guaranteed!" in red letters, it might just be because I'm colour blind, but that is unbelievably difficult for me to read, and it hurts my eyes a little bit, it's as though it's trying to jump out of the page and tear at my eyes.
  
• When you navigate the website, all of the other menu items disappear, meaning you have to make a double journey to get to where you want to go, just keep all of the navigation there constantly, and add some styling to the menu item of the page you're on, it'll help a lot. I know it appears down the left-hand side in a vertical navigation area, but it's best to try and retain some of your layout, rather than a user having to jump around the pages to navigate the site. Although do keep the vertical navigation somehow, it looks very nice.
  
• With regards to your content, you're offering a lot of "unlimited" products, we all know that having something unlimited is impossible, and fair usage usually applies, so make sure you write that somewhere, otherwise you'll have a court case on your hands.
  

 

I really hope that helps

 

Wow thank you very much, lol you didnt hurt my feeling haha. If i work on what you have said over the next few days, and repost will you please let me know if i have done it correctly, and tell me about anything else you might have noticed on a second look.

 

Just one question; How can i make it look newer???

 

Cheers

Mike

You are more than welcome to keep posting until you are happy

 

To get a "fresher, newer" look, I would suggest having a browse at some inspiration sites (google "inspirational websites" and the first few ought to get you going)

You are more than welcome to keep posting until you are happy

 

To get a "fresher, newer" look, I would suggest having a browse at some inspiration sites (google "inspirational websites" and the first few ought to get you going)

 

Thankyou Helen, much appreciated.

If you didnt allready notice i built using the Joomla CMS. Within Joomla how would i add some styling to the menu item of the page you're on?????

 

Cheers

Mike

Hi, I feel you wanted a simple but professional site but some how ended up with alot going on. Your front page is far too busy and it is distracting from the content and putting me off reading it.

 

I actually really like your logo with the tilted 'e' if you like the sky idea I would remove the cloud effect from the main background and just have it in the header, it will be more effective without begin over board.

 

I'm not keen on your font used throughout the site.

 

 

Anyways, I am quite interested in the price of your web hosting so I may be in contact

 

char

 

Thank you, I like the "e" too

 

Your correct i wanted a simple site and ended up with what you see today lol, i think i got a little caried away.

 

I was thinking the same thing about the BG, do you think i should just use a color, like light blue or something??

 

I hope to hear from you regarding the hosting.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Hi Mike, don't be alarmed when I write this review, I'm coming at it from a completely objective standpoint, and don't mean to hurt your feelings at all.

 

I really am not a fan of the website, for several reasons:

• Presumably the site is relatively new, and if so, it looks older than it actually is. You need to keep up to date with standards and practices in order for you to produce a site that will get you good business.
  
• You're using an animated GIF image as your banner, and it makes your site look unprofessional, it'd be better if you used a high quality .png image that isn't animated instead, particularly because the .gif image is on a complete loop over and over again.
  
• Throughout your code, you're using various divs and tables, you should only use DIVs because tables are for tabular data and are definitely harder to control. For example, you're using tables to contain your content, when really you just need a few floated divs, which would be really simple.
  
• In your code, you have CSS everywhere styling different elements. Why not use the "templates/Front Page Template/css/template_css.css" css file that you've got to contain all that, to clean up your markup, it'll help a lot in the future, and get you into good practice.
  
• At the bottom of your site, it says "Guaranteed!" in red letters, it might just be because I'm colour blind, but that is unbelievably difficult for me to read, and it hurts my eyes a little bit, it's as though it's trying to jump out of the page and tear at my eyes.
  
• When you navigate the website, all of the other menu items disappear, meaning you have to make a double journey to get to where you want to go, just keep all of the navigation there constantly, and add some styling to the menu item of the page you're on, it'll help a lot. I know it appears down the left-hand side in a vertical navigation area, but it's best to try and retain some of your layout, rather than a user having to jump around the pages to navigate the site. Although do keep the vertical navigation somehow, it looks very nice.
  
• With regards to your content, you're offering a lot of "unlimited" products, we all know that having something unlimited is impossible, and fair usage usually applies, so make sure you write that somewhere, otherwise you'll have a court case on your hands.
  

 

I really hope that helps

 

Thanks to Traxor, i have now completed the following;

 

[*]You're using an animated GIF image as your banner, and it makes your site look unprofessional, it'd be better if you used a high quality .png image that isn't animated instead, particularly because the .gif image is on a complete loop over and over again.

 

[*]At the bottom of your site, it says "Guaranteed!" in red letters, it might just be because I'm colour blind, but that is unbelievably difficult for me to read, and it hurts my eyes a little bit, it's as though it's trying to jump out of the page and tear at my eyes.

 

Does it now look better??

 

 

Mike

That's a vast improvement on both of those points that I made, although there's one thing I didn't point out before, there is a lot of use of rounded corners.

That's a vast improvement on both of those points that I made, although there's one thing I didn't point out before, there is a lot of use of rounded corners.

 

Thankyou

 

Were would my site benifit from not using rounded corners? Which images would you recommend me to loose the rounded corners on?

 

 

Thankyou for you help.

 

Cheers Mike

I have now removed the image tile from my BG, does the blue color i am using now look ok???? Or can you suggest a better color?

 

Cheers

I have made some more improvements and also added a Directory, Just working on a portfolio now.

 

Has anyone got any suggestions on how to lay out my portfolio? Im really struggling again

 

Also Traxor suggested using less rounded corners, were should i not use them on my Index page??

 

Cheers Mike

 

The site >>>>> www.ukpczone.co.uk

The directory >>>>>Visit My Directory

Dude, if i worked with you i would buy you a pint, thats awesome, Oh wait a minute i do work with you

Dude, if i worked with you i would buy you a pint, thats awesome, Oh wait a minute i do work with you

 

 

YAY Whoop Whoop drink time