Well, I have a free week, so I decided to do something that might be useful (for once!) and started learning how to make websites. I found in a webpage a beautiful tutorial step by step on HTML-KIT and it helped me a lot. I'm around the half of the course by now, but I felt like doing something of my own to absorb better the knowledge. So I started my own project, got free Hosting and a free domain and designed a very simple webste. I had a lot of trouble in the middle (my website looked/or still looks different on many browsers) and some other stuff. But I think I managed to sort it out, and to be honest, I'm very impressed to be able to use Java (even if it's not hard, Informatics was kinda a no-go for me) and well...this is too much of an itroduction...

 

Okay here it goes: http://www.i-kiwi.com.ar

My main interest on posting is to know how do you see it on different browsers, and if you think the design is simple enough (and loads fast enough) to be a "starting" website (I mean a website that loads as soon as you open your browser.)

 

I know it's in spanish, it's not finished yet, I was thinking (whenever my knowledge in the area allow me to) to add a Login to Facebook and Twitter, also a Youtube search bar, oh! and a Login to msn/hotmail, oh! and different flags to go to different languages, with links according to the language, or maybe, in a future, a customizable website with the same function!

 

I think Google Chrome already's got some functions that work like this website, but, if Google, as simple as it is is one of the most used (if not the most) starting webpages I don't think how this could go wrong. *innocent look*

 

Anyway, this is my first website and I have too many ideas but not I'm not very skilled yet, so what'cha think?

I see you are using DIVs and CSS. Keep on playing with the CSS attributes to change how the page looks. This will be a good thing to work on next. If you can control the CSS more, it will help to build your visual design style.

Thanks! I'll probably try different combination of clours next, something simple, easy on the eyes maybe. I started with white as background colour because the page was thought to be simple and kinda like Google. Thanks for your input!

I'll be completely honest here; design wise, it's dreadful. Here is what I base my claims on:

 

• The logo looks like clip art, and it looks like it's been stretched to hell and back and has become really pixelated.
  
• The search bar is really thin, has an out of place blue background with uneven black strokes across the top and bottom (bottom one is thicker).
  
• There is zero consistency in the type; meaning the fonts and colours constantly change and there is no theme.
  
• The 'mac dock' effect on the icons at the bottom doesn't work from an aesthetic view. All the icons become blurry and they magnify far too much.
  

 

For a first site, it could be worse; believe me, and your idea for a website is an interesting one. You'll undoubtedly improve it yourself as you learn more about web design. Remember also, that my views are purely from a visual point of view; I'm not commenting on the functionality of the site, or any of that.

I'll be completely honest here; design wise, it's dreadful. Here is what I base my claims on:

 

• The logo looks like clip art, and it looks like it's been stretched to hell and back and has become really pixelated.
  
• The search bar is really thin, has an out of place blue background with uneven black strokes across the top and bottom (bottom one is thicker).
  
• There is zero consistency in the type; meaning the fonts and colours constantly change and there is no theme.
  
• The 'mac dock' effect on the icons at the bottom doesn't work from an aesthetic view. All the icons become blurry and they magnify far too much.
  

 

For a first site, it could be worse; believe me, and your idea for a website is an interesting one. You'll undoubtedly improve it yourself as you learn more about web design. Remember also, that my views are purely from a visual point of view; I'm not commenting on the functionality of the site, or any of that.

 

Oki, I'll put that on my to-do list.

1)I'll try to re-make the logo for the exact size so it doesn't get pixelated.

2) I'll erase that double-black border asap. About the search bar, I'll see what I can do, I still don´t know much about it, I kinda took it from other site, and for some reason it was border-less, so I included the light-blue to enphasize where the search bar had it's borders.

3)I was trying to stay in a greenish, blueish, blackish kind of style, but yea, I'll try to change the fonts so it's the same in the whole website.

4) I'll test with different ranges of growth for the images, I was also told I could change them to png so they'd look better when magnifying.

 

Anyhow, thanks for your input, I'll be working on the website as soon as I have some more free time!

Whenever I improve this website with all these new ideas/corrections you'll hear from me.

 

Kiwi =)

ya its good kiwi., just do some improvement that enough...

Oki, I'll put that on my to-do list.

1)I'll try to re-make the logo for the exact size so it doesn't get pixelated.

2) I'll erase that double-black border asap. About the search bar, I'll see what I can do, I still don´t know much about it, I kinda took it from other site, and for some reason it was border-less, so I included the light-blue to enphasize where the search bar had it's borders.

3)I was trying to stay in a greenish, blueish, blackish kind of style, but yea, I'll try to change the fonts so it's the same in the whole website.

4) I'll test with different ranges of growth for the images, I was also told I could change them to png so they'd look better when magnifying.

 

Anyhow, thanks for your input, I'll be working on the website as soon as I have some more free time!

Whenever I improve this website with all these new ideas/corrections you'll hear from me.

 

Kiwi =)

Sounds good, should make a big difference. I look forward to seeing the revised version .