A niche hobby Website - professional or not?

J.D.R

Hello all,

About a year and a half ago I set up my own website, IrishAirsoftSites.com. I have recently overhauled the deign of it to be crisp, clear, and simple. I am just a bit worried it's too basic, so much so that it may look amateurish.

Any opinions, good and bad, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help,
Jack

EDIT - I have changed around the font and added a background colour just to make it less white and empty. I will hoprfully be adding more features, and possibly a banner, to take up more space

Test homepage

p

It is a bit plain. I'd suggest getting a free or cheap template and customising it. Right now it's very white and plain and just looks like a personal blog.

J.D.R

p wrote: »

It is a bit. I'd suggest getting a free or cheap template and customising it. Right now it's very white and plain and just looks like a personal blog.

See, I personally like the minimalist colour scheme.

I don't want to have the design too busy, especially with limited features on the site.

montreal2011

It is too basic I think. I agree that keeping it minimalist is good, but a little more style is needed.

Bugs:

Clicking on the header link "IrishAirsoftSites.com" opens up a new tab. It should just return you to the homepage. You should probably have a home page, other than the maps page. I expect the map is crucial and you want it to be the first thing seen. You could have it in a smaller size on the homepage, along with some images and text about AirSoft and your site. A couple of images and a few lines of text would do. It could even be the start of the "What is airsoft" article, and the user can finish reading on that page. I would also add this as the second item in your list. 1st Home, 2nd What is, 3rd Maps, 4th Links, 5th Contact. Use css for some simple styles for text and links.

The header link "IrishAirsoftSites.com" does not work on the contact page.

p

J.D.R wrote: »

See, I personally like the minimalist colour scheme.
I don't want to have the design too busy, especially with limited features on the site.

That's a good idea generally, always keep things clean and simple.

I'd consider that site to have no colour scheme, rather than a minimal one. There's a big difference, and that's what makes it look less amateur.

Take a look at this gallery for an example of minimalist, but professional looking designs.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/clean-simple-minimalist-website-design/

J.D.R

montreal2011 wrote: »

It is too basic I think. I agree that keeping it minimalist is good, but a little more style is needed.

Bugs:

Clicking on the header link "IrishAirsoftSites.com" opens up a new tab. It should just return you to the homepage. You should probably have a home page, other than the maps page. I expect the map is crucial and you want it to be the first thing seen. You could have it in a smaller size on the homepage, along with some images and text about AirSoft and your site. A couple of images and a few lines of text would do. It could even be the start of the "What is airsoft" article, and the user can finish reading on that page. I would also add this as the second item in your list. 1st Home, 2nd What is, 3rd Maps, 4th Links, 5th Contact. Use css for some simple styles for text and links.

The header link "IrishAirsoftSites.com" does not work on the contact page.

I have the redirection to the map page sorted now, and have it fixed on the contact page too. Thanks for the heads up.

As far as home page goes, I'll try get one together in the next few days. It shouldn't be too hard. I'll probably have some information about sites in Ireland, playing airsoft, and proper rules/regulations and such.

In terms of the menu positioning, I have it layed out how it is at the moment because it's listed in importance of page. The website is more targeted about those who know about the sport already. They wouldn't really use the "What is airsoft?", and would use the contact page last. I suppose I could try and make it more helpful to newcomers into the sport there, and try portray more so as to what airsoft is about.

p wrote: »

That's a good idea generally, always keep things clean and simple.

I'd consider that site to have no colour scheme, rather than a minimal one. There's a big difference, and that's what makes it look less amateur.

Take a look at this gallery for an example of minimalist, but professional looking designs.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/clean-simple-minimalist-website-design/

Thanks for the link. I can see by comparison that minimalist and clean does not have to mean empty. I will try get some simple style into the site, whether its some background shading and fonts to the writing to try and make it less white.

Thanks for all the help lads. Any more suggestions, just keep them coming

J.D.R

I've added a background colour to remove all the white, and changed the font to make it a little bit more attractive to the eyes.

I hope to add a special features section to the site by using a system similar to Classifieds, where airsoft retailers and site owners can post any special promotions they may have. Not exactly sure how to do this, but hopefully I'll find a way

p

Hate to be a critic, but it's hard to tell the difference. I'll give you two tips that will help.

1. Choose 2 different fonts, not 1. One you use for headings which can be bold and a bit more elaborate, and the second, should be plain (consider Arial/Helvetica) and be used for all the main text.
2. Make the header of the site a different colour. The header should not be the same colour as all your links & headings, there's no contrast.

Though I seriously think you'd be better served by just starting with a good minimalist wordpress theme and going from there:
http://basicmaths.subtraction.com/

{^Syntax^}

Definitely keep it simple but lose the tables. They look very dated. Someone suggested getting a modern template and customising it.. I'd go with that plan!

J.D.R

Trying to find a way of incorporating a classifieds system into the site, and I'm then gonna look into getting a template into the site, or designing some sort of look/style myself.

With it being a non revenue generating site, it takes me a bit longer to implement new ideas, but I have taken on everything that has been said and hopefully, in a months time, the site will look completely different

J.D.R

Just wondering if it's any better now? Color will be coming in the next few weeks when I decide on a suitable scheme

tadcan

The elements in the main body don't seem well balanced. Took me a few seconds to get that the top ribbon is intended that way. Maybe place the banner and links in the middle. I would put the map on another page, it dominates to much.

J.D.R

tadcan wrote: »

The elements in the main body don't seem well balanced. Took me a few seconds to get that the top ribbon is intended that way. Maybe place the banner and links in the middle. I would put the map on another page, it dominates to much.

Never saw your point about the banner being imbalanced before, yet when you say it it does seem to be a bit. I'll look into changing that.

In terms of moving the map, the whole site is actually based around the map and the information it gives. The map is the USP of the site in a way, hence why I tried to make as dominant as possible

tadcan

As someone who has played airsoft, I don't find the map that important. I would prefer to have maybe a picture and a short blurb about what the site offers. At least take away the more info since below that is dead space and fill in the other half of the body.

For the links separate the shops from the sites. Why not have the banner on the map page as well.

J.D.R

tadcan wrote: »

As someone who has played airsoft, I don't find the map that important. I would prefer to have maybe a picture and a short blurb about what the site offers. At least take away the more info since below that is dead space and fill in the other half of the body.

For the links separate the shops from the sites. Why not have the banner on the map page as well.

Duely noted. I had thought about working out a small blurb section where every site/shop would have their own information page, so that when you clicked on the name in the links section (or in a search bar which I plan to add in the future) then you would be taken to a page with their location, contact info, banner/logo, times prices etc and a small blurb. I wasn't sure if this feature would be widely used, but now I realise it will be. Thank you

I will separate the shops and site this weekend. But, when you say banner, do you mean the affiliates banners? As, on the map page, I have that at the footer section.

tricky D

The design needs sprucing up. Currently it's too bland and a bit boring as opposed to minimalist. All the same font, same colour, no non-ad graphics, no logo, low value news content.

You could have stuff like photos with some action, featured sites, reviews, community, social media and more like that.

Some of the affiliate graphics are being resized using img height and width which is a bad idea and makes them look crap. Eg. http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2585/miavinyl2.jpg is 1383x517 pixels which is a mad size to begin with, but is also displayed at 335x95 pixels. If you are displaying at that size make the image that size. The images are also being hosted on PhotoBucket which isn't a great idea.

The Links page list again needs something to lift it and the grid layout dimensions are inconsistent.

Make your email a mailto on the contact page.

tadcan

Yes I meant the affiliate links. Not everybody is going to scroll down. If I was an advertiser I'd want it seen by everybody who visits the first page.