Topic: Toxicopoeia - My not so new site

[horsebox]

http://www.toxicopoeia.com
I'm far from a professional webmaster but can anyone recommend some things I can modify to make the site look better. The site has some serious content and I've done heavy PHP programming but the design is pretty much the same as when someone on this site made a CSS document for me years ago.

[oni-kun]

http://www.toxicopoeia.com
I'm far from a professional webmaster but can anyone recommend some things I can modify to make the site look better. The site has some serious content and I've done heavy PHP programming but the design is pretty much the same as when someone on this site made a CSS document for me years ago.

Reminds me of erowid. Not a bad design that it isn't.

[horsebox]

Yeah erowids the one site I've been trying to catch up with since I started the site. The only other good site like it I know it lycaeum.org but they don't even update that site anymore.

[thewooleymammoth]

the banner could use some help

[RussellReal]

It LOOKS okay, the hover overs on the content areas are pretty much overpowering the content, try changing to a lighter shade of green.. almost white, so it is JUST BARELY noticeable.. but gives a feeling of interactivity.

The left hand side menu is pretty long, I think having them expand and collapse them and starting by default having the first one expanded might be a little more interactive aswell as not requiring your users to have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read all the options

or maybe a hover-over expand like most sites have these days where it opens and closes when ou hover over it, expanding to the right of the left menu.. would actually be better.

Sorry for all this Critique

goodluck

[chrisdburns]

onMouseOver is a bit overused here.  It makes no sense that when you hover the news that the text/background pretty much switch colors.  Too many elements on the sidebars have an ugly green background when you hover over them, it looks better as is without the hover.

The login form is downright ugly. 

Other than that the content seems pretty well done.  There's plenty of it and it seems pretty well laid out. 

You have a couple missing thumbnails on the home page.

[zobadof]

Good. You might want to center your banner at the top with the rest of the layout. There is not a great amount of text, so maybe have writing on homepage.

I think there is a lot of room for improvement, but it's ok!

[horsebox]

It LOOKS okay, the hover overs on the content areas are pretty much overpowering the content, try changing to a lighter shade of green.. almost white, so it is JUST BARELY noticeable.. but gives a feeling of interactivity.

The left hand side menu is pretty long, I think having them expand and collapse them and starting by default having the first one expanded might be a little more interactive aswell as not requiring your users to have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read all the options

or maybe a hover-over expand like most sites have these days where it opens and closes when ou hover over it, expanding to the right of the left menu.. would actually be better.

Sorry for all this Critique

goodluck

Yeah I'm trying to figure out how to make the link turn bright green while the text turns white when the TD changes on rollover. I never thought about expanding and collapsing the side menus. Thats exactly what I'm gonna do thanks.

onMouseOver is a bit overused here.  It makes no sense that when you hover the news that the text/background pretty much switch colors.  Too many elements on the sidebars have an ugly green background when you hover over them, it looks better as is without the hover.

The login form is downright ugly. 

I always thought the bright green rollovers looked good but its about time I made a new menu anyway. I'm thinking of making an interactive menu with pictures that expands on rollover like someone above suggested. I have serious trouble making nice looking forms. If you register an account you'll see plenty more input forms but none of them look any better than the registration form.

Good. You might want to center your banner at the top with the rest of the layout. There is not a great amount of text, so maybe have writing on homepage.

I think there is a lot of room for improvement, but it's ok!

Thanks. I'm a beginner when it comes to making banners so I've been putting it off for a long time. The name in the banner is the old name of the site so I'd say its about time I made a new one. Do you know any simple methods of making nice looking banners? Took me ages to make that one with photoshop.

[greenbizkit33]

not sure if anyone mention this, but the home page is getting a little long. i wish clicking on the banner would send me to the homepage instead of going through the bread crumb

[corrupshun]

yeah, i'm using ie8.
it looks FUCKED UP
all the information for users to read is after the end of the page, which is probably not what it looks like on other browsers
Float it.
It should also be centered, that'd make me happy

[FaT3oYCG]

yeah, i'm using ie8.
it looks FUCKED UP
all the information for users to read is after the end of the page, which is probably not what it looks like on other browsers
Float it.
It should also be centered, that'd make me happy

Confirmed and agreed, I tested it in IE8 (messed up) and firefox (appears as you want it to).

I would do some revamping on the colours etc. for example:
- The videos on the right hand side would benefit from some padding at the top and bottom.
- The links on the right hand side have too much padding.
- The links on the left and right would benefit by a "collapse / expand" feature that would allow you to hide or show each of the main items sub items
- Seems a bit thin width wise to me, this is because of the sidebars.
- There might be too much content for the main page but this may become less of a problem with a wider width (or removing the right sidebar).
- Adding a footer may be a good idea to place some of the content in (right sidebar items possibly)

Other than that the thing that you do have right that is good is content and plenty of it, you just need to manage it better.

[horsebox]

yeah, i'm using ie8.
it looks FUCKED UP
all the information for users to read is after the end of the page, which is probably not what it looks like on other browsers
Float it.
It should also be centered, that'd make me happy

Holy shit yeah I just looked at it with epiphany. The problem was the <hr>'s. Its fixed now.