Topic: Website opinions

[UnitedWeFall]

Hey guys,

i'm just after some opinions on my website.. just the layout etc. I'm not a pro or anything so i've just used a WYSIWYG editor. Any comments/suggestions appreciated.

www.otbcomputers.co.nz

Thanks in advance

[ILMV]

I know you said opinions about the layout, but I am wondering about this: "I have had a lot of experience with [...] web development (HTML, PHP and SQL)"... you clearly don't, you even admitted "I'm not a pro or anything so i've just used a WYSIWYG editor".

The general layout (with the correct design) would be ok I guess, but your design doesn't do it any favours.

Other things I have noticed:

- Don't bother telling the user what browser / screen resolution to use, they won't change because you say so.
- The image on the homepage is way too cheesy, it doesn't portray a professional image.
- I cannot click the links in the footer on your homepage... ironic as I am using Chrome


I guess how much effort you put into this should be proportional to the seriousness of your business, if it is a hobby to earn a couple $$$ then fine, if this is your main income you should probably hire someone to do it for you.

ILMV

[Dorky]

it may just be "my lack of exp with php" but you sir did not hit my site with chrome, i dont have a footer. and no i dont use any sql, i prefer to use flatfiles.  im curious exactly what site wer you looking at becuse it wasnt mine. the only hit ive had from this site was ubntu intrepid and firefox at the time of this reply.

I know you said opinions about the layout, but I am wondering about this: "I have had a lot of experience with [...] web development (HTML, PHP and SQL)"... you clearly don't, you even admitted "I'm not a pro or anything so i've just used a WYSIWYG editor".

The general layout (with the correct design) would be ok I guess, but your design doesn't do it any favours.

Other things I have noticed:

- Don't bother telling the user what browser / screen resolution to use, they won't change because you say so.
- The image on the homepage is way too cheesy, it doesn't portray a professional image.
- I cannot click the links in the footer on your homepage... ironic as I am using Chrome


I guess how much effort you put into this should be proportional to the seriousness of your business, if it is a hobby to earn a couple $$$ then fine, if this is your main income you should probably hire someone to do it for you.

ILMV

[Dorky]

lol. oops. i clicked the rong thread lmao. im sooooo sorry.

[Dorky]

using <style> twice in the head is going to cause problems in rendering. the main content area cuts off. i also cannot click the links at bottom. i have seen this type of thing before caused by things learned in design classes. sometimes what works in the book doesnt work in practice.

[UnitedWeFall]

I know you said opinions about the layout, but I am wondering about this: "I have had a lot of experience with [...] web development (HTML, PHP and SQL)"... you clearly don't, you even admitted "I'm not a pro or anything so i've just used a WYSIWYG editor".

I have had a lot of experience with the above but i'm absolutely useless at design so I just use a WYSIWYG editor for any kind of front end work.

Thanks for the comments.

[ILMV]

@Dorky: Nice work
@UnitedWeFall: Fair comment, my apologies

[UnitedWeFall]

No worries. I know a lot of other people have the same problem. Writing code is one thing but designing decent graphics and a nice layout is another thing all together 

Dorky - thanks for the comment. As I said, I used a WYSIWYG editor so the extra style tag was created by the editor itself. Do you think it'd be a good idea to manually take it out?

[Dorky]

i would put it all in the one style tag and move all the inline styles to the style tag in the head. i also see a lot of code that doesnt need to be there. you can control almost anything by giving it a class. for ex <p class='  and that would cut down on all the extra html. and just put the class control in the style tag in the head as well.

[kakashun_ashun]

Your CSS and JavaScript should be in external files anyways.

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

Use that code to reference a .css document you place in a folder called CSS. Switch over to code view and copy all your CSS tags into a single external one. Its going to help with loading times and prevent any weird problems that might come up with multiple <style>s.


The JavaScript should be separate too probably. Same thing as before, place all the code inside the <script language="JavaScript1.4" type="text/javascript"> into an external .js file. Then make sure you reference it in your code.

    <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/ca_signup.js"></script>


Having external files for JavaScript and CSS will prevent the browser from having to download EVERYTHING each time a user views a page.

Hope this all makes sense.

[UnitedWeFall]

Yep makes sense. Thanks for the tips

[merylvingien]

I will give my opinion for what its worth, please dont take it personal, but to me first impressions are that it is just another website, nothing more, nothing less!
"They" say (whoever they are) that you have approx 7 seconds to get a users attention to make them stick on your site, well it took longer than 7 seconds for the images to download!
Maybe your server is under load at the moment or somthing, but i wouldnt be happy with that preformance.
Apart from that, yep its an ok site.

[UnitedWeFall]

Your CSS and JavaScript should be in external files anyways.

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

Use that code to reference a .css document you place in a folder called CSS. Switch over to code view and copy all your CSS tags into a single external one. Its going to help with loading times and prevent any weird problems that might come up with multiple <style>s.


The JavaScript should be separate too probably. Same thing as before, place all the code inside the <script language="JavaScript1.4" type="text/javascript"> into an external .js file. Then make sure you reference it in your code.

    <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/ca_signup.js"></script>


Having external files for JavaScript and CSS will prevent the browser from having to download EVERYTHING each time a user views a page.

Hope this all makes sense.

So I did all that. It all works fine when I view the website on my local computer.. but as soon as I upload it to my host, the CSS isn't loading properly and the fonts/sizes etc are all wrong.

Do I need to reference the CSS and javascript files in a different way? At the moment I have them in CSS and scripts folders like you said.

[UnitedWeFall]

Never mind... figured it out..