My first website

loloray

Hi, so I have just made my first website from scratch. I used html and css, and as far as I could, I tried to obey the W3C guidelines.

I had issues with IE not aligning divs the same as Firefox or Google Chrome, so I used what I think is a hack (used # in my stylesheet to make IE do things). I guess this is not recommended, but it's what is working for me at the moment.

I'd appreciate all critique, I'm sure you can find lots of issues.

My biggest issue at the moment is the way the menu images (the text is saved images, as it was required to use the same font as in the logo, which is not one recognised by browsers) jump around when hovered over/clicked upon. I had some issues figuring out how to align the menu elements and I don't really know how to fix that - but maybe it's because the menu element images are all different widths. I will try to figure this out in the future.

Thanks to anyone who take the time to look.
www.coloursofdreams.com

m1racle

Hey site looks great good job.

I think the problem with the buttons is caused by the border appearing, maybe give that area a border thats grey(same colour as background) and then on hover the border will just change to your blue border. The border attribute adds 2 new pixels which is most likely causing the jump.

Also your background image is too short if you made the site using a small monitor you might have missed this it's fine on width but not height causes the text on the about page to disappear near the bottom.

Site looks great otherwise

loloray

Hi m1racle, thanks a million for taking the time to check it out and reply.

m1racle wrote: »

Also your background image is too short if you made the site using a small monitor you might have missed this it's fine on width but not height causes the text on the about page to disappear near the bottom.

I have not noticed this text-disappearing issue at all, (I am viewing on IE and FF on a monitor that I think is 15"), so this is very interesting what you are saying.
What I *tried* to do with the background is use a background image, with the default colour of the background being what would match the bottom colour of the image. However I have the background image fixed so that it does not change while the vertical scroll bar is used - I wonder is this causing the problem that you mention. I will investigate. Edit: Will look at this again in the morning, can't figure it out right now.

Re the menu option, I will look at that in the morning when I get some sleep.
Thanks again.

m1racle

No problem some people on boards are giving me feedback about my site so I just wanted to help someone out.

In your CSS change your spelling of 'colour' to 'color' and it should sort out the background, CSS works in US english.

CSS was probably invented by someone who likes giving people headaches it can be impossible sometimes, anyway good luck with the site!

loloray

m1racle wrote: »

In your CSS change your spelling of 'colour' to 'color' and it should sort out the background

Thanks a million, missed that completely!

p

It's pretty good for a first website, so well done on that.

However, you've made a few beginner mistakes. The main thing is that the entire focus osthe site is you, when it should be your visitor. As someone who just visited the site, I'm left very confused by what it is that you do. Are you a professional photographer, do yuo just sell prints or your work. Why would I hire you, or can I? I think you need to consider that your audience may not know anything about you.

With that in mind, I think you should rethink some of your text and key areas.
Take a look at these sites, it's very clear what the person does, and what servcies they offer. These are different to yours, but the point is to show how clear it is what they do.
http://www.31three.com/
http://www.johnnymcmillan.com/
http://www.chrisjudge.com/

Also, these two tutorials are very good:
http://www.andyrutledge.com/eye-paths.php
http://carsonified.com/blog/design/turning-visitors-into-users/

Good luck!

loloray

p wrote: »

The main thing is that the entire focus osthe site is you, when it should be your visitor. As someone who just visited the site, I'm left very confused by what it is that you do.

Thanks. I agree with you. I will work on that. Thanks also for the links, the tutorials are great actually.

Naikon

Nice site mate.

loloray

m1racle wrote: »

I think the problem with the buttons is caused by the border appearing, maybe give that area a border thats grey(same colour as background) and then on hover the border will just change to your blue border. The border attribute adds 2 new pixels which is most likely causing the jump.

You are a genius. Thx so much.

techguy

Hey loloray,

Great first site, well done!

I wouldn't be too gone on the font used in the nav bar tbh. I can't remember ever seeing any other sites that use a fancy font when it comes to navigation. There may be issues with the whole user experience and ease of navigation. At a glance I couldn't see the different pages that were on offer. I had to pause to decode the font.

I can see that the font goes with the rest of the fonts used in the design so it may stand out if it was plain.

It was the first thing I noticed when I looked at the page.

Great design apart from that though..Keep it up

loloray

techguy wrote: »

I wouldn't be too gone on the font used in the nav bar tbh.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to look at the site.
I hear you about that font, a few people have complained about the font and said the same thing as you. The photographer/artist who the site is about, and who designed the logo, wanted the font like that in the menu . . . . but maybe we should rethink that and see can we come up with something fancy.

Atlas_IRL

I would really change this page.

http://www.coloursofdreams.com/contact.html

Instead of having Bebo and Myspace you should change it too facbook and twitter or use them at the very least, web 2.0 is constantly evolving you have to move to the site of the moment.

sticker

loloray wrote: »

Hi, thanks for taking the time to look at the site.
I hear you about that font, a few people have complained about the font and said the same thing as you. The photographer/artist who the site is about, and who designed the logo, wanted the font like that in the menu . . . . but maybe we should rethink that and see can we come up with something fancy.

This is an easy trap to fall into - the photographer who the site is focused on needs to target his potential clients - not his own personal taste. In this case, the naviagtion font is very unsuitable in terms of legibility.

The grey links on the main page would need to change also - legibility is hard against the background colour.

The site logo itself is quite poor also - It's hard to read and the text is far too small to instantly tell visitors it's name.

Just my 2 cents - I wish you the best with it....