Tutorials for webdesign...Help Needed

dbnavan

If anyone saw looks at my website [link in signature] you will understand i am not a great webdesigner. I mess about abit. It's not that I dont know how, technically, I believe I can be as good as anyone, but where i fall down is i am not artisic, I think the site even though it does a job, design wise i think it's c**p.

Can anyone advise on some good online tutorials for webdesigner, i have all the tools of the trade, dreamweaver mx, adobe cs2. And do know pretty much how to use them just dont have, artisic eye.

If someone was to hand draw what they wanted on a site I would have a good bash at putting it together but i cant even start to think how to visually improve my site, drawing a blank. If i was a write would be a definate case of writers block.

Any tips or links that might help.

Seth Brundle

a good start is www.w3schools.com

kstanl

It's kind of hard to tell you where to go look to become a better designer. There are plenty of online resources to help you with the technologies you'll need to get to grips with but as far as improving creatively, the best thing you can do is actually get AWAY from your computer. Inspiration should come from all around you. If you want to find inspiration online, look at some design portals and see what the rest of the kids are doing:

http://www.cssvault.com
http://www.cssbeauty.com
http://www.websitedesignawards.com
http://www.linkdup.com

It might not be a bad idea to think about taking a visual communications course or maybe a course in Multimedia. There are a few good PLC's in Dun Laoghaire, a degree course in DCU and a Masters in Trinity depending on what level you might want to consider.

Flynn

It seems you could do with a bit off work on your graphics. The lay-out of your site is just like any other...so there's no downfall there... it's simple, easy and effective but it's not catching... I would suggest losing the times new roman. Your links as well....maybe try buttons ? Try d/loading Fireworks (macromedia) and playing around with the effects you can do with text.. you might get some really striking links then. it's a basic graphics program and works great with dreamweaver.. What i did was build my menu in fireworks and pasted the whole lot in2 dreamweaver.... turned out really striking...

Also if you pick a colour.. try using different shades of that colour more around the site to get a theme going. Or try using other complementing colors.. I would imagine cream would go down well with brown..

After that you just gotta round off the edges.. your layers just look too much like layers if u know what i mean... try making a gradient navigational bar to put on top of them or something... just something else to soften them up..

And one more thing try visualising the webpage as an image first with all the colour and sparkle a good picture would have... then build it..

Well i hope i helped somewhat.

-flynn

canker

I agree with everything flynn just said, I've never been a fan of times new roman - I always go with verdana.

Also I would try to avoid centering text, I always align left or justify.


A good photo can really make a site too, try fading some squiggles or lines across one for a webby look!

Best way to learn is find sites you like and copy them! If you're not sure how something was achieved right click >> view source. Look at the css of pages, this often has a big impact on the look of a page.