Topic: Need an honest opinion!

[smonkcaptain]

Hello all,
 
I'm undertaking a big project for such an Amateur coder like myself, however thing's are coming on really well behind the scene in the foundation structure of the site.
 
I bet your wondering what sort of site I'm trying to produce, but I'm making an aviation photograph database where registered users (free to all) can upload their photographs of aviation taken all over the world.
 
There are a few sites of this nature that exist, such as Airliners.net and Jetphotos.net and i wish to follow on in the steps of these sites who have been extremely successful.
As a Training Pilot, and keen photographer, many may understand that you can never be bored of this sort of site, and that's why I'm putting this idea into action.
 
I've been trying to learn PHP, along with advanced HTML and CSS for a few months now, and i personally think I've made some good progress, however i want you guys to be the judge of that.
 
Please have a look at my site:
 
www.Aviation-Photographs.net
 
Please feel free to login as:
 
User: Guest
Pass: phpfreaks
 
and have a short browse to see the general style of the site.
 
Alot more has been done that what you will see, but i don't want to publish it until everything is in Place.
 
Please don't feel hesitant to criticise as that's the way i learn!
 

I am aware of some CSS problems in IE and for some reason, monitors less than 17''. I'm confused to the reason of this happening and this is something i wont be very well educated at sorting!

[pioneerx01]

I like the compartmentalized design. If you keep is neat and organized it should make navigation a snap. I am missing a link (anywhere) which takes me back to home page. I got lost in guest members area and could not get out by clicking on anything. Try making the header image a link to home page.

Also the four sample images are not clickable (I am not sure if it is due to construction) and nothing shows up.

[smonkcaptain]

Thankyou very much for the reply.

First of all, yes i need to make the navigation bar, and the header image a link to the hompage throughout the site.
The Photographs on the right are not static, they are displaying the last 4 photos that have been uploaded to this site, and change when another photo is accepted into the database (Obviously, at this present time they are only by me as im still tweaking the upload form and pages. I will, probably tonight, be designing the 'Viewphoto.php' page so that once clicked it will show you the photo in full size with the url 'viewphoto.php?id=xxxx'.

Whats your views on the font's, sizes and colours?

[xcandiottix]

As a flight sim enthusiast I can appreciate what you are trying to accomplish with your site. One criticism is that when I think aviation I think of the big blue open sky .. something inviting. Your dark gray color scheme promotes an opposite feeling tho. Although the gray pallet is clean I think it need to be varied with some sky blues, white, etc. Other then that the site is simple and to the point. I would work hard on keywording images that get uploaded so that pictures are veryyyy easy to find. 1 or 2 missed search results can lead to a lot of people just going to google images. Nice effort so far.

[fortnox007]

I case your still reading this ( just got a warning no one has responed in a while)
I quickly changed some settings, (see link): http://i35.tinypic.com/5u0q5s.png
I removed the dots around borders, white background. Besides that i would lower everything a bit so there is a bit of white at the top.
changed the grey of the top nav, to the color of the boxes. (you should make a nav bar to let buttons pop out
besides that i would use a blue sky as a header. Its all pretty greyish at the moment. and aviation is al about the sky is the limit, flying like a bird, and not some nuclear aftermath
cheers!
nice job though