First site - Opinions.

eddiehead

Here is a link to my first site, I'm just looking for some opinions on it. It's pretty low on content right now but I'm sure I'll be adding/changing some bits over the next while.
Anyway, just let me know what you think, maybe offer some advice on improving it,
Thanks.

Random

First impression - straightforward, clean, modem, professional type thing. It's a bit bright though.

That white border thing along the bottom is just annoying and looks terrible IMO.

Other than that it doesn't give a huge amount of detail and there's little difference between the pages.

I do generally like it overall though.

Tim M-U

Random wrote: »

First impression - straightforward, clean, modem, professional type thing. It's a bit bright though

i would get rid of the dark colour backround and change it to white or grey!

excellent website overall. all html is straight forward.

eddiehead

Random wrote: »

First impression - straightforward, clean, modem, professional type thing.

I was going for that kind of look, I had very little to work with so thought it best to keep it simple & clean

Random wrote: »

That white border thing along the bottom is just annoying and looks terrible IMO.

What white border on the bottom?

Random wrote: »

Other than that it doesn't give a huge amount of detail and there's little difference between the pages.

Again I had very little to work with, so there wasn't much I could add. I don't see the problem with the pages looking similar

Random wrote: »

I do generally like it overall though.

Thanks very much for you're input

eddiehead

Tim M-U wrote: »

i would get rid of the dark colour backround and change it to white or grey!

I messed around with brighter backgrounds at the start but I didn't like the look of it tbh, maybe something slightly brighter though.

Tim M-U wrote: »

excellent website overall. all html is straight forward.

Thanks. I know feck all about it right now so I had to keep the html simple incase i messed something up:o

Random

What white border on the bottom?

I've using Firefox 3.5.2.

aidan_walsh

I don't see the problem with the pages looking similar

Until I noticed where the text was (actually took a second), I didn't know if the page had actually changed or not. Keeping the same layout would be fine, but maybe a little differentiation in even the images could help.

eddiehead

Random wrote: »

I've using Firefox 3.5.2.

I'm sure I checked it in the latest firefox and didn't notice anything wrong, must have another look when I'm back home tomorrow. I certainly didn't put that there intentionally.

eddiehead

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Until I noticed where the text was (actually took a second), I didn't know if the page had actually changed or not

I was a bit worried about that alright, I'll try think of something to make each page a bit more unique. Maybe a different footer image for each?

spartacus93

I like it. For a first attempt it's excellent.

The homepage is quite long (viewing on my laptop, resolution 1280 x 800), I'd be inclined to move the logo up the page a bit and drag the footer image up also. On my laptop the page ends half way through "welcome to Ardristan Landscapes.com" and I have to scroll down to see the bottom half of the letters and then there's a big block of whitespace. Not worth making someone scroll down for imo!

There definitely needs to be more differentiation between the pages. "about us", "services", "gallery", and "contact us" are a bit lost stuck up in the top right of the page. They should be given more space and perhaps centred more. It looks good, but it really makes it hard to read when it's huddled up in the corner.

If someone is clicking on services, then it should be very clear and big what services are offered. I would probably go with a smaller logo on each of them pages and much more focus on the copy.

Hope this helps,

and well done

EDIT: and a little contact us forum never did any harm! Quite easy to do (google it!) and will save the consumer a bit of effort.

FireballM

Its a bit big, i'm viewing it on a 15" lcd & i have to scroll horizontally as well as vertically. Also i know you are looking for a clean look on the home page, but with no content then it will stuggle to do well in the search engines, even just a few lines of introduction (make sure you include your keywords) & it will make all the difference.

I would def make the footer smaller, make your logo smaller & move the menu down so that it stands out more, its looks a bit squashed at the top. Try viewing it in different resolutions to see what it will look like on different screens. As you dont have much content then try to make it all fit into 800 x 600.... thats just my opinion... :cool:

I like the cleaness of it & I really like your logo! Good job!

hobochris

One thing I would do , is pre-load the images using JavaScript.

Not essential, but it will speed up image load times.

im...LOST

Very good for a first attempt. Much, much better than mine anyway :P

Eoin

I like it, but I'd probably swap the content and the footer image locations.

MOH

I'm getting that white border at the bottom too, on all pages except the Gallery page.

Looking at it in firebug, it looks like background colour for <html> is set to #FFFFFF on all pages except Gallery (on which it's not set), and that bar at the bottom is below <body>

eddiehead

I have the wrapper div set to a fixed height & width, this was fine on my laptop but now I'm starting to see it's not looking right in other resolutions.
Should I set the div height to 100%? I'm gona reduce the size of it over all also, how wide should I set it so that It would look decent in various resolutions?

eddiehead

I'm doing it here at the moment and I have the wrapper div set to a width of 800px, now I just need to set the body height correctly so it will stretch/shrink depending on the reslolution. How do I do this? I thought I could just set it to 100% of the screen?

HandWS LTD

get rid of the text colour.....we can hardly see it. Have your text darker.

your text and images from the gallery etc, should NOT be based up at the top.

My first time on your website, i couldn't find where the images or text were. What will others users like me do? more likely to be the same....then what? they are more likely to leave the site and find another one.

Not enough info on your website. You are trying to sell yourself....try and explain to your users more about what your website is about and does

eddiehead

HandWS LTD wrote: »

get rid of the text colour.....we can hardly see it. Have your text darker.

Havn't heard that one yet, I won't be changing the colour but I will be moving any text more to the center so it becomes more apparrent. At the same time I'll be making the logo's smaller.

HandWS LTD wrote: »

your text and images from the gallery etc, should NOT be based up at the top.

Again, thats a first, whats wrong with having them at the top?

HandWS LTD wrote: »

My first time on your website, i couldn't find where the images or text were. What will others users like me do? more likely to be the same....then what? they are more likely to leave the site and find another one.

Do you mean you could't find them from the homepage via the links at the top or you couldn't see them when you were viewing the content pages?

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Not enough info on your website. You are trying to sell yourself....try and explain to your users more about what your website is about and does

This is something I will address in time, however, right now I just wanted to get a basic functional site up and running. The owner didn't pay me or anything, I just suggested I'd do it to see if I could, just for the experience.

eddiehead

eddiehead wrote: »

I'm doing it here at the moment and I have the wrapper div set to a width of 800px, now I just need to set the body height correctly so it will stretch/shrink depending on the reslolution. How do I do this? I thought I could just set it to 100% of the screen?

Can anybody help me with this? There must be something simple that I'm doing wrong. Anybody?

HandWS LTD

Your home page is not too bad. Don't worry. i'm guessing your using a 19" monitor if not just less or bigger. For smaller monitors like laptops or computers.....we are not going to see what you are trying to show to your customers. I mean you, we will have to scroll down to see everything.

Havn't heard that one yet, I won't be changing the colour but I will be moving any text more to the center so it becomes more apparrent. At the same time I'll be making the logo's smaller.

Your using a light text colour with a white background. People will have to lean closer to the screen to view this. Nobody wants that. This is why i recommended a darker colour for your text.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HandWS LTD
your text and images from the gallery etc, should NOT be based up at the top.

Again, thats a first, whats wrong with having them at the top?

Your images and text are way too high up for each page with a big white space between them and the 3 garden images at the footer.

Do you mean you could't find them from the homepage via the links at the top or you couldn't see them when you were viewing the content pages?

What i was trying to say is that i could see them after looking around your content pages for a few seconds. I first looked at your page and scrolled down and back up again. After i scrolled back up i realised where you have your information. Thats not good. You need your information to be seen straight away. I'd recommend pushing them down to the centre. Other people may have better ideas.

Originally Posted by eddiehead
I'm doing it here at the moment and I have the wrapper div set to a width of 800px, now I just need to set the body height correctly so it will stretch/shrink depending on the reslolution. How do I do this? I thought I could just set it to 100% of the screen?

I would not recommend stretching or shrinking your body height. Do not set the body height. If you use the same body code for every page then you will have mistakes on your other pages depending on the amount of information you are displaying on that page for your customers.

eddiehead

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Your home page is not too bad. Don't worry. i'm guessing your using a 19" monitor if not just less or bigger. For smaller monitors like laptops or computers.....we are not going to see what you are trying to show to your customers. I mean you, we will have to scroll down to see everything.

Yep, spot on about the monitor, a noob oversight on my part:o. The size is the first thing I'm fixing.

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Your using a light text colour with a white background. People will have to lean closer to the screen to view this. Nobody wants that. This is why i recommended a darker colour for your text.

Unless a few more people say this I wont be changing it, tbf you genuinely are the only one so far who has had a problem with it.

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Your images and text are way too high up for each page with a big white space between them and the 3 garden images at the footer.

This will all be more central in the finished article, hopefully this will make the content more apparrent too.

HandWS LTD wrote: »

What i was trying to say is that i could see them after looking around your content pages for a few seconds. I first looked at your page and scrolled down and back up again. After i scrolled back up i realised where you have your information. Thats not good. You need your information to be seen straight away. I'd recommend pushing them down to the centre. Other people may have better ideas.

See above^^

HandWS LTD wrote: »

I would not recommend stretching or shrinking your body height. Do not set the body height. If you use the same body code for every page then you will have mistakes on your other pages depending on the amount of information you are displaying on that page for your customers.

I'm kind of confused here, you seem to be telling me not to stretch, shrink or fix the height, surely it has to be one?. In any case, what would you (or anybody else for that matter) suggest I do to achieve a height that would work well in all/most resolutions?

S.M.B.

eddiehead wrote: »

Unless a few more people say this I wont be changing it, tbf you genuinely are the only one so far who has had a problem with it.

I agree, and you are even using <strong> to force it to stand out more which you also shouldn't be doing.

eddiehead

S.M.B. wrote: »

I agree, and you are even using <strong> to force it to stand out more which you also shouldn't be doing.

Do you mean Bold? Whats <strong>? Sorry, I just set the font in dreamweaver, didn't hand code it.
Also, why shouldn't I be doing it?

Axwell

You have it laid out differently on different pages of the site, some include the bottom div some dont.

Why not standardise it across all pages.

I would tend to change the layou so there is more space at the top..then your logo across a header div.Underneath this your navigation.
Then a main content div with your content for that particular page.
Under that your footer (bottom as you call it) and put the 3 images you have on the pages in here if you wish or put in contact details etc along the bottom.

I dont like the way the logo is huge on the homepage then different on the other pages, it would be better in a header on each page.

<header div> - logo in here
<nav div> - navigation
<main div> - main content
<footer div> - whatever you have a bottom or footer for..doesnt seem used now. For example put the 3 images you have on the bottom of the pages in this div if you want.

eddiehead

Axwell wrote: »

You have it laid out differently on different pages of the site, some include the bottom div some dont.

Why not standardise it across all pages.

One of the main problems so far is that all the pages look too similar, I don't think standardising the homepage is such a good idea, I would see that as a step in the wrong direction given some of the feedback in this thread. The bottom div is actually just a container for the footer image, thats why it's only in 4/5 pages.

Axwell wrote: »

I would tend to change the layou so there is more space at the top..then your logo across a header div.Underneath this your navigation.
Then a main content div with your content for that particular page.
Under that your footer (bottom as you call it) and put the 3 images you have on the pages in here if you wish or put in contact details etc along the bottom.

I dont like the way the logo is huge on the homepage then different on the other pages, it would be better in a header on each page.

I see where you're coming from, but if I were to go with that layout then I would find it even harder to fill any content section. The reason I left it so small is because lack of details is a bit of an issue right now, it's a very small company so there isn't much I can put in there now. Also, I don't think anybody else has criticised the actual layout of the site, the biggest issue seems to be the size, which forces content off to the right.

Axwell

eddiehead wrote: »

One of the main problems so far is that all the pages look too similar, I don't think standardising the homepage is such a good idea, I would see that as a step in the wrong direction given some of the feedback in this thread. The bottom div is actually just a container for the footer image, thats why it's only in 4/5 pages..
....
but if I were to go with that layout then I would find it even harder to fill any content section. The reason I left it so small is because lack of details is a bit of an issue right now, it's a very small company so there isn't much I can put in there now.

By bottom div im referring to the white space floating at the bottom of the page which seems to be because you have set the main content div height perhaps?

As it is you have a big logo on the homepage and throughout the site its slightly smaller. You main aim on every page seems to be put things as big as possible to take up as much of the screen as possible and not leave empty space which is a bad idea. It makes the site look cluttered at the top and makes the blank space underneath really stand out.

By putting some more space at the top..then a header with a logo and the navigation underneath you can easily take up the same space you have if not more without needing to put in a huge logo and oversized headings and fonts. For instance on your gallery page because you have chosen to put the logo on the left and content on the right you have loads of empty space underneath. With a logo along the top of the screen then the navigation underneath you could easily have that much going the same distance down the screen the same distance as all your content on that page does. It would shift your actual images and content down to the current white space with nothing in it.

IMO you are cramming things up at the top of the page and not making best use of the screen but actually think that you are placing it correctly as you dont have more content. Your navigation is right up at the top of the screen, why not drop it down a few pixels? As i said put your logo up there along the top with a slogan making a header, all this will take up more of the screen and your content can site in the middle with your images in the footer. Text can be filled out and extra stuff added so I wouldnt worry about that but as it is you. Decrease the width of the main div if you need to this will make text and images take up more space. When it comes to content it can be filled out and explanations of services added etc but right now I dont tihnk your layout is making the best possible use of the screen.

HandWS LTD

I'm kind of confused here, you seem to be telling me not to stretch, shrink or fix the height, surely it has to be one?. In any case, what would you (or anybody else for that matter) suggest I do to achieve a height that would work well in all/most resolutions?

From my point of view. The only thing people stretch or shrink is the width (because of all the different screen resolutions). Shrinking or stretching the width will auto expand your body's height. Looking at your website, you do not need to set a height for your body. All the other div's like content will set the heights so for this reason - NOT setting the body height will auto set it itself. Make sense?