Hey guys, me again...

 

Would appreciate your feedback on this site I am designing for a relative/client, although its still work in progress (alot of content still to add) I feel the layout, colour scheme and typography is working, but wanted to get some fresh eyes on it.

 

I will be adding more images to the slider, I blurred the focus of the background photo to bring the content forward more. The transparent backgrounds and backdrop photo were requests by the client.

I will be optimizing all the images, so they will load quicker!.

 

What do you think so far guys?:

 

One Touch Football

 

tia,

 

Andy

Edited September 24, 201114 yr by AndyDesigns

My main point would be that you need to make the main content part more subtle, more focused. Nothing really has pride of place on the main page.

 

The Red and the Green can't go together like that. They are contrasting, bright colours that usually are used to grab attention. So having them next to each other just confuses the situation. I would assume the content in the red box is priority 1, so what I would do is remove the green background entirely, just have it right on the white/cream. Also, remove the to-white gradient. It's too harsh of a change and doesn't really signify anything. You aren't fading out to different content. Especially on some pages where the text starts to disappear because it too is also white.

 

Navigation : Remove the little footballs from every tab. They are redundant.

 

Lastly, is that Darren Ferguson testimonial real? If it is I would give that absolute pride of place on the main page. It's fairly obvious it is a football school. One that has the seal of approval from a proper manager is a USP.

Good job Andy, you seem to be getting into this web design thing well..

 

It might be an idea to look at the newsletter area. Tables and legends are not great - try using CSS styles

My main point would be that you need to make the main content part more subtle, more focused. Nothing really has pride of place on the main page.

 

The Red and the Green can't go together like that. They are contrasting, bright colours that usually are used to grab attention. So having them next to each other just confuses the situation. I would assume the content in the red box is priority 1, so what I would do is remove the green background entirely, just have it right on the white/cream. Also, remove the to-white gradient. It's too harsh of a change and doesn't really signify anything. You aren't fading out to different content. Especially on some pages where the text starts to disappear because it too is also white.

 

Navigation : Remove the little footballs from every tab. They are redundant.

 

Lastly, is that Darren Ferguson testimonial real? If it is I would give that absolute pride of place on the main page. It's fairly obvious it is a football school. One that has the seal of approval from a proper manager is a USP.

 

Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure I entirely agree that red and green cant go together, its meant to be colourful to appeal to a younger audience. Although I may consider toning down the green so its not so bright which would help give the red main content area more precedence.

Regarding the footballs in the navigation, I agree they dont have any functional purpose but I do feel they add to the aesthetics of the site and helps continue the football theme (also the client likes them).

I believe all the testimonials are genuine, so I will probably add the darren ferguson testimonial to one of the slider images.

 

 

Good job Andy, you seem to be getting into this web design thing well..

 

It might be an idea to look at the newsletter area. Tables and legends are not great - try using CSS styles

 

The newsletter code is the last remnants of the code previously used on the old website, I decided to leave that area for now as I dont want to 'disturb'/rewrite the javascript validation script.

 

Thanks again for the feedback, anymore would be appreciated.

Hi Andy

 

Firstly, I don't think the colours quite work. As someone has already said, using two fairly saturated opposing colours like you have with the red and green creates a strong contrast. Useful for giving emphasis to an element, but when used in large doses can make it quite awkward to look at.

 

As you say, it's for a kids site, so if the colour scheme were to stay I would suggest ditching the red on the main content area and saving the use of the colour for emphasising certain elements, like calls-to-actions, etc. I'd also use shades of the green and red for the majority of the site and reserve use of the brighter, saturated colours for areas that I'd want to draw attention to.

 

The background, although better than if it wasn't blurred, still draws too much of my intention to be honest. I think I'd prefer it if it had more of a white tint, still enough to subtly notice but not enough to draw attention in itself.

 

Also, it's immediately obvious from the site name, background image and use of footballs that the site is about football, but in my opinion further information like who you are, what you do, where you do it, etc, is not as obvious. I'm sure all of that information is there in that main content block, but just looking at it there's masses of text and it's an instant turn off. I'd cut down the text to the absolute minimum, keep it relevant and emphasise the key information your users will be looking for, don't make them look for it. If you have to keep all that information is some form, I'd at least add in the extra stuff as a 'Read More' link and keep actual home page concise, relevant and clutter free.

 

Once the information is cut down, I'd work on the actual layout of the page. Personally I'd lose the newsletter sign up form, and instead add a call-to-action to the sign up form underneath the 'News' section. To me that seems more relevant and makes the page less busy.

 

As someone else has said, the testimonial is important so keep that. If it was me, I'd be looking to change the design to make use of three content areas. The content area taking up around 2/3rds of the container width, with the Testimonial and News/Newsletter CTA along side to the right taking up the remaining 1/3rd page width.

 

Hope some of that was a help, though a lot of it is probably useless waffle

 

Tom

After taking on board peoples comments about there being too much bright colour i've made some changes.

I've softened/whitened the backdrop photo even more (the content will scroll up and down the photo on the website not like in the static image) removed the colours from the content areas and added a slightly transparent red background with a vertical line texture to add some depth.

In some ways I think it looks better but I also think it needs more colour in the content areas as it looks rather plain now, not sure how to introduce more colour without making it too strong.

I know tomsel mentioned changing the layout but I think I will be sticking with the current layout.

 

What do you think:

 

Better!

Made some further tweaks, changed nav colours and added some drop-shadows, looks better I think:

 

I have to say, I actually quite like it mate. The drop shadows definitely finish off the design. The font choice suits the page quite well too. Good job matey

I really like it because its clean and simple. The little football icons on the nav work well. The background needs to be bigger - I have 2 large white strips down either side - working off a 22inch monitor.

I like the redesign.

 

You may wish to look at this article on the colour wheel and why some colours work together or don't http://www.taunton.com/inspiredhouse/pages/ih00005_05.asp