# website...



## BrianMalcolm (May 15, 2002)

hey... just a couple websites i did for a couple friends' bands...just wanted some feedback on 'em...

http://www.entertheaunt.com

http://www.loveseatband.com


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## isaac_ho (May 16, 2002)

2 different style websites, both with good look and feel. I like the color scheme. 

I have some suggestions on them:

*http://www.entertheaunt.com* 

Try to remove the cover page(I didn't know how to name this page, so I call it cover page because it looks like a book's cover), it is not useful for the website and visitors because it lacks useful information.
A good tagline can sum up the whole site and bring out what the site is doing and thinking. Try to creat one for the site.
add more graphics or photos on the home page to make it looks different from the content pages.
on the home page, you underline "AUNT MARTHA RESOURCES", be careful to use underline, especially with words in blue color, it looks like a link.
add a little bit more graphics on the content pages, it's too plain now. bio section of http://www.loveseatband.com looks better.
I guess you are target 800x600 screen. However, if people are using 640x480, 832x624, 1024x768, 1056x792, 1280x1024, 1600x1200... screen can view a similar layout will be better. Try to use % to config the table, it will let your layout more flexiable on different screens. CSS is a very modern tool for web designer to control layout and style of the whole web site. It is more powerful than what you think. At this moment, it's no need to stick with the ancient browsers (version 4 browsers), I mean all information can be displayed on them is enough.
It's no need to use background image, just use background color.
[/list=1]

*http://www.loveseatband.com* 
Try to remove the cover page
Try to add more information in the home page, something like http://www.entertheaunt.com
Set the "New" page be the default page of section "PHOTOS", visitors didn't like to enter a infoness page.
[/list=1].


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## Nummi_G4 (May 16, 2002)

loveseatband:

  I like this site better... but I am not too sure about your color combo.  I do not think that blue goes with the orange.  maybe a gray?

BTW... your avatar kicks ass


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## BrianMalcolm (May 16, 2002)

thanks to both of you, and the main thing i have been debating is getting rid of the splash pages for both... as far as the percentage goes for the tables, my limited technical knowledge (when it comes to web, since i'm primarily a print designer) is keepin' me from doing so... but the more i find out, the more i can impliment into my designs...

once again, thanks a ton...

(oh, and the avatar is simple, to get this look, just take pictures of something, go to brightness/contrast in PS, and crank the contrast all the way, and adjust the brightness 'til it looks how you want it... just make sure you are working at least twice the resolution you want your final output, or it will look weird...)


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## anrkngl (May 24, 2002)

I like the loveseat one better, and I happen to think that blue goes great with orange. 

My website used to use yellow/orange then blue/orange, and now it's just blue for now. There was a terra-cotta phase as well.

Actually the current look is default for greymatter. I'm too lazy to change a website I have to take down in a few weeks.


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## rinse (May 24, 2002)

i recommend against using % for your tables.... and so do most webistes out htere.... look around.

using an absoulte pixel width for your table (i recommend 730 -it can fit in 800x600 windows users screens even if they have the taskbar on the side) is the only way to really control your positiationing AND text flow without using relative positionioning and DIV tags from CSS2....

CSS2, while it has great potential, is not implemented uniformly across the majors browsers, and so the actual output to the screen can vary dramatically from user to user.


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## Wilsonium (May 24, 2002)

It's a great start with lots of great feedback. About the only thing I can add would be to optimize the graphics to the smallest possible size by minimizing the color palet and saving it out at 100% of the size you'll use in your browser. For example... on Aunt Martha's site, the picture of the band on your first content page is 192kb. By tossing out all the unused color bits in the palet, you can get it down to 56kb... see attached file. This will greatly speed up the site performance... just $.02 from my webmaster files.

cheers
don


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## TommyWillB (May 27, 2002)

> _Originally posted by BrianMalcolm _
> *...http://www.entertheaunt.com...*



1) On the splash page (home page) make the image a link in addition to the little "ENTER THE AUNT" link.

2) Make the splash screen auto-redirect to the main page after 5 seconds... Use a "meta refresh" to do this. (lots of info on Google)

3) On all of the pages besides the home page make the main "wings" logo a link back to the home page. Having the "home" link is goog, but you should do both...

4) I think I've become conditioned to think that stuff over on the left is navigational... so I ignore it. I'd reccomend doing somethign to make that look less like a nav-bar... otherwise folks will ignore it.


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## TommyWillB (May 27, 2002)

> _Originally posted by BrianMalcolm _
> *...http://www.loveseatband.com...*



1) Same comments about the splash screen

2) Stupid question... why would anyone care about "old news"... Maybe you should call this the news "archive" instead.

3) This page is serving no useful purpose (http://www.loveseatband.com/photos.html). You can simply remove it.

4) I'm not in love with the secondary (i.e. News --> New) navigation especially on the sections that don't have anything there... I can't really articulate what I'd do different...

5) Generally these pages are too skinny and too tall... They don't even come close to taking advantage of high screen resolutions. (Mine is at 1280x1024, which is excessive, but consider filling 800x600.)


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