Site Check Please!

[red_A]

Hey all, I'm doing this site for a political party of gypsies :moustache hehe
and i need some advice on how i could possibly improve it, i'm having some truble with tables (obviously, didn't take the time to learn CSS positioning) anyways, any and all suggestion are very welcome thanks.

Here's the link : www.rad-office.org


Cheers :)

[red_A]

come on, anyone at all??

[3d Nirvana]

shouldn't this be in "site check"?

[Sushisource]

and it's REALLY generic. Like, what's cool about it? I could do the same think in under 5 minutes.

[.soulty]

moved..

It does look really generic, maybe use the colour scheme within the text, so you can break it up a little, say make those headings that brown colour and introduce another tint of that brown for things like important comments.

Includes some images?
maybe a better header?
some mouseovers for the nav?
maybe a graphical nav?
maybe a footer?
maybe a different color element on that right bar to make it noticable. (tints of brown or a complementry colour of brown)
maybe a two colour table (for the tabled information)


so basically it needs more work.
;)

[Sushisource]

More work is right. This is pretty much a text book "HTML for noobs" example.

[red_A]

can anyone give me any examples. i mean it supposed to be basic and more about useability!

[red_A]

The site has been updated...Please give me ur opinion!!!

[harm]

It looks better than before but I think you should play around with new colors for the header, or maybe a new design for the header.

[red_A]

*pulls hair out* no sleep = no creativity :(

All i was provided was 6 word documents to have put up on a site, and that's it! The client has NO LOGO, No pictures, No slogan, and no intrest in making the site stand out with any of these elements, he is mostly looking to have his documents publish online, period! of course i wana do a nice job on it! of course i can't think of any other designs, he also insisted on the olive and greyish colours! so i'm not left to work with much! Any help at all! is very, VERY appriciated, im not asking to have my site rebuild by you, just that some tips on improving the overall site design, and i do agree the most of you that the colours SUCK~!

THanks for the help all :)

[DDD]

*pulls hair out* no sleep = no creativity :(

All i was provided was 6 word documents to have put up on a site, and that's it! The client has NO LOGO, No pictures, No slogan, and no intrest in making the site stand out with any of these elements, he is mostly looking to have his documents publish online, period! of course i wana do a nice job on it! of course i can't think of any other designs, he also insisted on the olive and greyish colours! so i'm not left to work with much! Any help at all! is very, VERY appriciated, im not asking to have my site rebuild by you, just that some tips on improving the overall site design, and i do agree the most of you that the colours SUCK~!

THanks for the help all :)

Actually these are the best projects when you can get a clean slate and go from there. And actually Olive-Grey can be a rather cool color. Also because the subject matter is plain does not mean the layout has to be. I would start with your color scheme first. Then think of some adjectives that describe the company/organization. Then start drawing on paper the base layout then add to that. Also there is nothing wrong with looking for inspiration from places like netdiver.net and coolhomepages.com. Look and see what others are doing then look to do it better.

You have a pretty good base for a start. Now just add some colors and interactions and some graphical content. Gradients, dropshadows or glows. Think how to make things pop off the page. Also search the board for color scheme tools there are some free ones. I think right now that is your biggest hurdle the colors dont flow well.

[jonesin]

my suggestion to you is basically what DDD said, and also you may want to consider asking your client in more detail what he wants to see in a sites design. The more he tells you, the better. Otherwise I would go with minimalistic design (the simplest, if done properly) and bold bright colors.... Nobody really likes looking at "doodoo" brown.

But the most important thing is that you get more info from your client.

[red_A]

THANK YOU GUYS!! re-loading brain to work! :) I'll let you know what turns out!

[red_A]

Ok now' it's updated, tell me what you think! I like it alot now! not alot alot, but it's much more improved from the first design :)

[Sushisource]

Why the fat lady?
The search Box doesnt work.

[3d Nirvana]

getting better. change the picutre on the top, make the links just change color on hover (making them get bigger looks un-pro) Otherwise, it looks like a nice html site.

Cheers!
3dnirvana

[red_A]

The fat lady ? well . guess that should be changing now...and what about everything else, oh yea, the search doesnt work cause i accidently deleted an important part of the code on the search page, and i can't find it, i'll have to get in touch with my provided for that and should be fixed soon enugh, also does the scroller match nicely??

[CanadianGuy]

I agree with DDD. You should be happy they gave you nothing but text. A couple of days ago I followed up on a guy I'm doing a site for asking him when he wanted to get together to discuss the direction he wanted to go with the site. He replied "well I've been busy this week and I havent' had time to do the layouts." *O brother* I'm thinking that this is going to be a crappy project if he keeps me on a tight leash.

Take control of the yoke and you'll be fine.

[.soulty]

ah much better.

image is a little morbid though, need to change those mouse overs for your nav, like 3d N. said making them larger in size especially with a off set over state makes it look a little unproffessional, also found some strange markings on your site, check the link, ive circled that areas im talking about.

[note: i ve compressed the image]
www.soultydesign.com/kf/ss_roma.gif

[red_A]

it's been RE-updated! I know ur all tired just hang in there! ur opinion counts!

[DDD]

for me it is still to uniform. Also it lacks consistancy. Nothing grabs me.

I think you may find inspiration here. I think you are after that clean corporate feel. Take a look around and see how some nice designs flow. And maybe that will help you.
http://www.coolhomepages.com/cool-pages/web-design-pages/Corporate/1.html

[red_A]

Well it's meant to be an informatin gathering kind of site, where you can get informed about the lates "stuff" regarding their office of operation, and most of the site i check out in your link, where marketing related, which is completely different as to what the message is supposed to be with this site, which is getting information easily and quickly.

Would you mind/care to maybe give me a pointer or two where i could possibly or how i could change the layout/design of the site to make it more, corporate but also easy to find what your looking for?

Thank you!

[DDD]

the big thing is the idea that corporate has to be boring is kinda back in 1988. Honestly it would be really hard for me to give you pointers at this point without doing it for you. Because it could get deep. For one there are no offsetting or complimenting colors so everything has the same emphahsis (not cool). I am sure you want things like the headings or links to jump out. Informative sites often use colors as markers to say hey click me or "this is more interesting than that". Or "this is what you are here for click this then maybe this". So work on the colors I would say first. Olive and garnett are good colors together. And if you soften the Olive a bit and nice North Carolina or semi electric blue would be cool as well. Then work on your structure. Some of those sites on that link have good structure and delivery. Look beyond the design elements and see how things are structured. The use of boxes around content, buttons and column spacing are important. That should give you enough homework to work on. It is a nice start but I am being extra critical because it seems you want to get better.

[simplistik]

I haven't followed this so I don't what kind of progression you've made on it at all. But looking at the site I really don't see anything, I dunno... nothin really sticks out at all. I see the bold headers and all but they are just sorta there. You also need some kind of accent color that will work w/ it. Also think outside of text only. Like simple jpgs for headers and all that jazz. Not really an image just text layed out differently than you couldn't do w/ just HTML.

EDIT:
I normally don't do this but I did this in like 10-15ish. I wanted to show you how to keep simplicity and a still design it as well. While I didn't put extreme amounts of thought into it you get the picture:

http://www.beyondthepixel.com/images/roma_con.jpg

I accented it w/ a garnet but I believe a light blue like #33ccff would also work too.

Sorry about picture size, it's just a screen shot

[DDD]

next time just do what he said /\/\ ......

[simplistik]

next time just do what he said /\/\ ......

LMAO... now that's funny stuff. I'll make you a promise you read my posts I'll read yours... LoL. Wait we are the same ppl right :huh:

[DDD]

I think people really think that I have 2 computers here and basically talk to myself on kirupa and try to play it off like I am 2 people ....lol. It is getting eery that we say the same thing ALWAYS.

[CanadianGuy]

you two should get a room or somfin' :lol:

[MrMass]

da ali gdje je srpska verzija sajta :) veoma dobar pocetak!

Yeah but it says serb language but everything is in english....its a good start!

I think on the drop menu should say english first...and then if user changes to serb for example text on the site changes to that language you choose!

[.soulty]

I think people really think that I have 2 computers here and basically talk to myself on kirupa and try to play it off like I am 2 people ....lol. It is getting eery that we say the same thing ALWAYS.lol. too funny it's... spooky!.

I like the update simplistik, although i think that white is a little hard to see on the screen shot, i would use a darker tint of that olive for the mouse up states, well you can get away with the white.. might look just as good both ways.

[red_A]

DDD I agree with you, i am trying to push myself beyond just ordinary, although the client is beyond belive happy with the current design, I AM NOT! and want to change things around, just cause i can and want to :)

hahah :) nice design Simplistik! changes here and there, and it looks nice :)

Thank you all :)

Albert *heart* kirupa forums!

[red_A]

***UPDATED***

Check it out!

[Sushisource]

much better! But the fat lady sill has to go, you streched it and now she looks SUPER fat.

[MrMass]

peace :P

[red_A]

peace :P


Sushisource: hahaah that's funny! Blah i had the work split up and the guy who is supposed to make a logo for the client hasen't done it yet, and im stuck with that, but does the design look, feel perhaps a little bit on the corporate side of things, the most important thing is being able to find the information and having a nice and easy to use navigation system, which is think has been achived and with CSS the stress on loading the page has been reduced quite a bit :)

Mr.Mass thanks! i need to fix those! :)

[red_A]

Sushisource: hahaah that's funny! Blah i had the work split up and the guy who is supposed to make a logo for the client hasen't done it yet, and im stuck with that, but does the design look, feel perhaps a little bit on the corporate side of things, the most important thing is being able to find the information and having a nice and easy to use navigation system, which is think has been achived and with CSS the stress on loading the page has been reduced quite a bit :)

Mr.Mass thanks! i need to fix those! :)

Ps. Can anyone recommend a bG color?

[MrMass]

here :)

6F6F3D

[red_A]

thanks, seems abit dark.. i donno! ill see how i like it! Thanks anyways, if you have any other suggestions to improve it please do so! :)

[Sushisource]

I'ts looking good now. You need to make button rollovers for all the sections and not just NGO info, Reports, and Donor Info. Get rid of the fat lady. And fix these missing immages (see attached)

[dreeft]

Agree with everything said before, fix the top image, the missing images and give it a nice background colour. I'd also fix that "new" button, very geocities.

Other than that it's nice.

[red_A]

changed the bg color to plain ol' white, i think this gives it a more corporate feel and also steers the away from the color and more onto the content? any other suggestion?

Sushisource, thanks for spotting those oops! they have been fixed now, check out the front page now and tell me what you think of it now, with t he new plain old white background. :)

Thanks!

[orijinale]

The colors are not the problem. You need to put some action somewhere in your page.

[red_A]

Action? Like what?