constructive criticism for my website please - Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum

rewplayff · 06-05-2006, 01:14 PM

http://www.monkey-biz.org

what do you guys think? i'm not a web designer or anything, but i'd like to be. i just wanted some constructive criticism, so i can apply it to either this website or my portfolio site i plan on making soon.

*exitspeed* · 06-05-2006, 01:31 PM

Pretty good splash page. I would work on the image quality if I were you. Looks like you enlarged them too much.

Color scheme is pretty good, though it seems a little overused in the drifting type community.

It looks like you stick with a similiar theme throughout. I like the comic. Good drawings. It's suggest making the "NEXT" button one whole button instead of each letter a seperate button.

I'm personally not crazy about the checker board watermark, but that may be me.

And I don't know what it is, i can't quit put my finger on it, but something seems to be missing on the home page. There's a flier I think for an event, but I think it should have more to do with YOUR website. Maybe sum up why someone is at this website. The splash page does a good job at it, but alotta people skip past that stuff.

Over-all I think it's pretty good job.

Anyway, I hope that help.

*ManoNegra* · 06-05-2006, 01:45 PM

+1 on the splash page, looking good; Comedy Central Combustion style flash. Not feeling the music though. Stuff like that that makes me leave a site quickly, specially if it can't be turned off easily.

Site layout seems a little bit plain (fonts, background, header, etc)
The Members page layout feels un-even, the members thumb obstructs the text on the right text box.

I do like the simple navegation style. Just flesh it out more but that will come with time.

Overall, tidy and simple. Keep it up.

rewplayff · 06-05-2006, 02:05 PM

yeah i'm not feeling my intro flash either. it was fun the first couple of times but now i try to skip intro before it loads. thanks for the feedback guys its really helpful.

TheSquidd · 06-05-2006, 02:28 PM

Take out the intro page. It doesn't really enhance the site at all, and takes forever to load. I would convert it to an animated banner that is displayed at the top of the page, and take the file size way down.

Also, for a professional page, you probably want to host your pictures on site, and not have a link to photobucket or flickr. Just feels unprofessional.

No links to www.realultimatepower.com or www.stuffonmycat.com ? FAIL

*exitspeed* · 06-05-2006, 02:32 PM

^
Has the best splash page ever...

xtheenderx · 06-05-2006, 04:03 PM

Hey! pretty good! wat programs did u use to create and code the site? it seems like you to tried to create each item seperately (ie the menu, blog, banner, etc). it mite help if you create a layout as a whole and then start coding it. i dont know if that made sense but photoshop really does the job. But overall gj!

Mr. Badlose · 06-05-2006, 05:43 PM

Looks pretty good (perhaps a bit plain, not that it's a bad thing), I'd say ditch the splash page...not sure why people have them on their sites, and they just get in the way.

Also, not a big deal...but the background seeps into the inner border of the table that has the news info on the main page, looks kind of weird.

Members page looks strange in firefox. The icons for the drivers overlap part of the information table, making scrolling neccesary to read some of the stuff. I'd say stuff the face images inside the image of the cars with an editing program. Looks bad when a small image is next to a larger one like that.

I'd say host all of your photobucket pics on your own server, integrate it to match your theme.

Oh yeah, listing oil type as a mod is kind of gay

But good job, keep at it.

mjjstang · 06-05-2006, 09:05 PM

first thing I noticed was the generic buttons on the side. and all organized like you can tell it is from a template. although like you said you are pretty new. I honestly though it was gonna look silly when you said that, but I was surprised, it did look better than I thought. as far as im concerned the KEY to web design is the blend between simple organized and jazzy. take for example, ebay homepage is quite simple but it does its thing well. as well as many other sites i cant tel labout right now. I ABSOLUTELY HATE ANYTHING TO DO WITH FLASH. intro screens and all that. I have high speed, and any website that actually has to load gets a X click by me.

TheSquidd · 06-05-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by exitspeed

^
Has the best splash page ever...

hahahhhhahhah thanks. I use it only for tracking/statistical purposes. Wow I got owned.

SimpleS14 · 06-05-2006, 09:39 PM

rewplayff - Your splash page is not that bad, but I have to agree with someone else that the music is not really good. Also at first I thought the text on the left side were actual link. You might want to make the text do some kind of animation (fade into place maybe?).

On the home page...I don't get the white table at the very bottom with white text saying "drift, drift, drift, drift, drift" etc. You might want to add a rollover effect for the side menu as well.

These our all my suggestions and you can take it anyway you want. Overall, that is a good site since your saying your new to this. What programs are you using?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjjstang

I ABSOLUTELY HATE ANYTHING TO DO WITH FLASH. intro screens and all that. I have high speed, and any website that actually has to load gets a X click by me.

So you don't even like http://www.2advanced.com ? That site has to be one of the best flash sites EVAR and well worth a few seconds of loading.

rewplayff · 06-05-2006, 11:04 PM

that 2advanced site is nuts! i agree with all of you guys and thanks again for the help. i'm using photoshop, flash, and yahoo's sitebuilder becuase i don't know how to use dreamweaver or frontpage or any of that stuff. Also, how is the text so crisp on the 2advanced site?

ps. the hidden words down there are because we were getting monkey ads and anti monkey butt powder ads from googles adsense so i added some keywords. i think i'll go balls out for my portfolio site and try to do a full flash page like 2advance. thanks a lot

SimpleS14 · 06-06-2006, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rewplayff

Also, how is the text so crisp on the 2advanced site?

i think i'll go balls out for my portfolio site and try to do a full flash page like 2advance. thanks a lot

The text is crisp because it was done in Flash. Flash uses vector graphics instead of bitmap..so the lines are smooth and not jagged or blurry.

2Advanced has been around from the very start...which is the main reason they can bulid a site like that.

Flash is very tedious and the program is not user-friendly like Frontpage (which I hate) or Dreamweaver IMO. There is a program that is like that called SwishMax...but your still limited on what you can do.

Try something basic at first and look at tutorials to get the gist of what's involved. My personal site (link in sig) has the flash version under construction because of how tedious the work can get.

Ghost Dancer · 06-06-2006, 07:07 AM

I like what you have so far. Practice makes perfect. I've been fiddling with websites for a long time and was doing everything in flash but I got tired of it. I decided to start a website after I moved back here and initally I was going to "flash" it up but I decided to just keep it nice and simple and focus on content. If anyone is interested I have the "framework" (i.e. no linkity link) up at http://www.ghost-dancer.com/main.htm

mjjstang · 06-06-2006, 09:48 AM

ok I restate that, if your gonna use flash go balls out, and dont make it take forever to load, my beef is just that half the sites I go to have some pointless little flash page intro, that is terrible and little quality but yet it takes an hour to load, and thats if it even loads properly to begin with. although I have absolutely NO website design experiance save for a silly angelfire that I did about 8 years ago. (my god it really has been 8 years. jeebus.) So I dont want to sit back here and sound like everything is so easy and im the best. I just wanted to throw in my 2cents. actaully though im not specifically talking about you, I skipped the intro anyway. Im mostly ranting semi off topic so ill shut up now.

*exitspeed* · 06-06-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleS14

The text is crisp because it was done in Flash. Flash uses vector graphics instead of bitmap..so the lines are smooth and not jagged or blurry.

2Advanced has been around from the very start...which is the main reason they can bulid a site like that.

Flash is very tedious and the program is not user-friendly like Frontpage (which I hate) or Dreamweaver IMO. There is a program that is like that called SwishMax...but your still limited on what you can do.

Try something basic at first and look at tutorials to get the gist of what's involved. My personal site (link in sig) has the flash version under construction because of how tedious the work can get.

+1 on Dreamweaver. Just learning how to use it now.

You ever use Director for a website? I'm pretty familair with it. It makes making a more graphical site SUPER easy compared to Flash. What I'm hoping is that they combine the 2. From what I hear they are going to be getting rid or Director. If they could make Flash as easy as Director to work with, Flash would be perfect IMO. Flash's only drawback is it's degree of difficulty to use.

I'm gonna try making a site shortly using Dreamweaver. It'll be my first site too, so I'll see how that turns out. It'll be very basic though.

*exitspeed* · 06-06-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleS14

The text is crisp because it was done in Flash. Flash uses vector graphics instead of bitmap..so the lines are smooth and not jagged or blurry.

2Advanced has been around from the very start...which is the main reason they can bulid a site like that.

Flash is very tedious and the program is not user-friendly like Frontpage (which I hate) or Dreamweaver IMO. There is a program that is like that called SwishMax...but your still limited on what you can do.

Try something basic at first and look at tutorials to get the gist of what's involved. My personal site (link in sig) has the flash version under construction because of how tedious the work can get.

+1 on Dreamweaver. Just learning how to use it now.

You ever use Director for a website? I'm pretty familair with it. It makes making a more graphical site SUPER easy compared to Flash. What I'm hoping is that they combine the 2. From what I hear they are going to be getting rid or Director. If they could make Flash as easy as Director to work with, Flash would be perfect IMO. Flash's only drawback is it's degree of difficulty to use.

I'm gonna try making a site shortly using Dreamweaver. It'll be my first site too, so I'll see how that turns out. It'll be very basic though.

TheSquidd · 06-06-2006, 11:23 AM

I think the name Flash, says it all. It's just some shiny gimmick that really doesnt make a site. Content makes the site. Hell, Zilvia aint pretty (ewwy blues) but its the content that brings us back time and time again. I think the focus should be put on the actual site (which is decent, has good design sense), not the flash intro etc.

rewplayff · 06-08-2006, 01:06 AM

so i changed the site up a little bit, still need to clean up the top banner,menu, and host my own pics.

can anyone run me through making a site with photoshop?

HyperTek · 06-08-2006, 02:10 AM

looks cool. Not feeling the color scheme grid background but its alright. Did you use a template? Check out mine http://tunerbase.com , yah its not hard, its just hard makign a site that everyone agrees on that is nice quality.

Too much google adscence crap or wahtever makes it look cheap, but whatever.. My friend made like $600 from that somehow *i think he spammed his link in some sort of html script code all over myspace*.

A Spec Products · 06-08-2006, 02:57 AM

i think you should photoshop my mom's minivan out of the splash page image

get rid of the google stuff

and lower the price of the vinyl sticker, if you were in socal id tell you to go to my boys at www.euphoric-designs.com for the stickers

and maybe try another color than black background...also i think sharp edges work better, the tool bars and stuff dont line up

less is more

Mr. Badlose · 06-08-2006, 06:34 PM

Come on guys, it's all about notepad...the best html editor!

Arsenal of Glory · 06-08-2006, 07:53 PM

heres a crazy online portfolio, one of the best i have seen.

http://www.okaydave.com/

you can build an entire site in flash pretty easily too if your comfortable "navigating buttons"

rewplayff · 06-10-2006, 06:26 AM

that online portfolio is crazy. makes me want to hide in corner.

by the way, check out the site now. i still need to redo the members page and other stuff, but as far as overall look, is it looking a little better?

thank you people for helping me out

06-05-2006, 01:14 PM	#1
rewplayff Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: San Jose Age: 40 Posts: 317 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	constructive criticism for my website please http://www.monkey-biz.org what do you guys think? i'm not a web designer or anything, but i'd like to be. i just wanted some constructive criticism, so i can apply it to either this website or my portfolio site i plan on making soon.

06-05-2006, 01:31 PM	#2
exitspeed aWingThing.com Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Milwaukee, WI Age: 45 Posts: 20,900 Trader Rating: (1) Feedback Score: 1 reviews	Pretty good splash page. I would work on the image quality if I were you. Looks like you enlarged them too much. Color scheme is pretty good, though it seems a little overused in the drifting type community. It looks like you stick with a similiar theme throughout. I like the comic. Good drawings. It's suggest making the "NEXT" button one whole button instead of each letter a seperate button. I'm personally not crazy about the checker board watermark, but that may be me. And I don't know what it is, i can't quit put my finger on it, but something seems to be missing on the home page. There's a flier I think for an event, but I think it should have more to do with YOUR website. Maybe sum up why someone is at this website. The splash page does a good job at it, but alotta people skip past that stuff. Over-all I think it's pretty good job. Anyway, I hope that help. __________________ What I do for a living...www.mhrussell.com

06-05-2006, 02:28 PM	#5
TheSquidd Post Whore! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Where dirt goes to die. Posts: 3,165 Trader Rating: (7) Rides Gallery: TheSquidd Feedback Score: 7 reviews	Take out the intro page. It doesn't really enhance the site at all, and takes forever to load. I would convert it to an animated banner that is displayed at the top of the page, and take the file size way down. Also, for a professional page, you probably want to host your pictures on site, and not have a link to photobucket or flickr. Just feels unprofessional. No links to www.realultimatepower.com or www.stuffonmycat.com ? FAIL __________________ www.squidd.org www.violent-running.org

06-05-2006, 02:32 PM	#6
exitspeed aWingThing.com Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Milwaukee, WI Age: 45 Posts: 20,900 Trader Rating: (1) Feedback Score: 1 reviews	^ Has the best splash page ever... __________________ What I do for a living...www.mhrussell.com

06-05-2006, 04:03 PM	#7
xtheenderx Zilvia Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Winnetka, CA Posts: 185 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Hey! pretty good! wat programs did u use to create and code the site? it seems like you to tried to create each item seperately (ie the menu, blog, banner, etc). it mite help if you create a layout as a whole and then start coding it. i dont know if that made sense but photoshop really does the job. But overall gj! __________________ crap

06-05-2006, 01:45 PM	#3
ManoNegra Guild of Skullduggerous Intent Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Socal Posts: 7,841 Trader Rating: (48) Feedback Score: 48 reviews	+1 on the splash page, looking good; Comedy Central Combustion style flash. Not feeling the music though. Stuff like that that makes me leave a site quickly, specially if it can't be turned off easily. Site layout seems a little bit plain (fonts, background, header, etc) The Members page layout feels un-even, the members thumb obstructs the text on the right text box. I do like the simple navegation style. Just flesh it out more but that will come with time. Overall, tidy and simple. Keep it up.

06-05-2006, 02:05 PM	#4
rewplayff Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: San Jose Age: 40 Posts: 317 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	yeah i'm not feeling my intro flash either. it was fun the first couple of times but now i try to skip intro before it loads. thanks for the feedback guys its really helpful.

06-05-2006, 05:43 PM	#8
Mr. Badlose Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: CA Posts: 327 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Looks pretty good (perhaps a bit plain, not that it's a bad thing), I'd say ditch the splash page...not sure why people have them on their sites, and they just get in the way. Also, not a big deal...but the background seeps into the inner border of the table that has the news info on the main page, looks kind of weird. Members page looks strange in firefox. The icons for the drivers overlap part of the information table, making scrolling neccesary to read some of the stuff. I'd say stuff the face images inside the image of the cars with an editing program. Looks bad when a small image is next to a larger one like that. I'd say host all of your photobucket pics on your own server, integrate it to match your theme. Oh yeah, listing oil type as a mod is kind of gay But good job, keep at it.

06-05-2006, 09:05 PM	#9
mjjstang Post Whore! Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Michigan Posts: 2,654 Trader Rating: (5) Feedback Score: 5 reviews	first thing I noticed was the generic buttons on the side. and all organized like you can tell it is from a template. although like you said you are pretty new. I honestly though it was gonna look silly when you said that, but I was surprised, it did look better than I thought. as far as im concerned the KEY to web design is the blend between simple organized and jazzy. take for example, ebay homepage is quite simple but it does its thing well. as well as many other sites i cant tel labout right now. I ABSOLUTELY HATE ANYTHING TO DO WITH FLASH. intro screens and all that. I have high speed, and any website that actually has to load gets a X click by me. __________________ I was going to, but I can not think of a sig less than 75 characters.

06-05-2006, 11:04 PM	#12
rewplayff Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: San Jose Age: 40 Posts: 317 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	that 2advanced site is nuts! i agree with all of you guys and thanks again for the help. i'm using photoshop, flash, and yahoo's sitebuilder becuase i don't know how to use dreamweaver or frontpage or any of that stuff. Also, how is the text so crisp on the 2advanced site? ps. the hidden words down there are because we were getting monkey ads and anti monkey butt powder ads from googles adsense so i added some keywords. i think i'll go balls out for my portfolio site and try to do a full flash page like 2advance. thanks a lot

06-06-2006, 07:07 AM	#14
Ghost Dancer Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Japanland Posts: 314 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	hmmm I like what you have so far. Practice makes perfect. I've been fiddling with websites for a long time and was doing everything in flash but I got tired of it. I decided to start a website after I moved back here and initally I was going to "flash" it up but I decided to just keep it nice and simple and focus on content. If anyone is interested I have the "framework" (i.e. no linkity link) up at http://www.ghost-dancer.com/main.htm

06-06-2006, 09:48 AM	#15
mjjstang Post Whore! Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Michigan Posts: 2,654 Trader Rating: (5) Feedback Score: 5 reviews	ok I restate that, if your gonna use flash go balls out, and dont make it take forever to load, my beef is just that half the sites I go to have some pointless little flash page intro, that is terrible and little quality but yet it takes an hour to load, and thats if it even loads properly to begin with. although I have absolutely NO website design experiance save for a silly angelfire that I did about 8 years ago. (my god it really has been 8 years. jeebus.) So I dont want to sit back here and sound like everything is so easy and im the best. I just wanted to throw in my 2cents. actaully though im not specifically talking about you, I skipped the intro anyway. Im mostly ranting semi off topic so ill shut up now. __________________ I was going to, but I can not think of a sig less than 75 characters.

06-06-2006, 11:23 AM	#18
TheSquidd Post Whore! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Where dirt goes to die. Posts: 3,165 Trader Rating: (7) Rides Gallery: TheSquidd Feedback Score: 7 reviews	I think the name Flash, says it all. It's just some shiny gimmick that really doesnt make a site. Content makes the site. Hell, Zilvia aint pretty (ewwy blues) but its the content that brings us back time and time again. I think the focus should be put on the actual site (which is decent, has good design sense), not the flash intro etc. __________________ www.squidd.org www.violent-running.org

06-08-2006, 01:06 AM	#19
rewplayff Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: San Jose Age: 40 Posts: 317 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	so i changed the site up a little bit, still need to clean up the top banner,menu, and host my own pics. can anyone run me through making a site with photoshop?

06-08-2006, 02:10 AM	#20
HyperTek Post Whore! Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Cali Posts: 13,224 Trader Rating: (3) Feedback Score: 3 reviews	looks cool. Not feeling the color scheme grid background but its alright. Did you use a template? Check out mine http://tunerbase.com , yah its not hard, its just hard makign a site that everyone agrees on that is nice quality. Too much google adscence crap or wahtever makes it look cheap, but whatever.. My friend made like $600 from that somehow i think he spammed his link in some sort of html script code all over myspace. __________________ Keep it Classy

06-08-2006, 02:57 AM	#21
A Spec Products Post Whore! Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Socal! Off 60/605 Posts: 7,256 Trader Rating: (27) Feedback Score: 27 reviews	i think you should photoshop my mom's minivan out of the splash page image get rid of the google stuff and lower the price of the vinyl sticker, if you were in socal id tell you to go to my boys at www.euphoric-designs.com for the stickers and maybe try another color than black background...also i think sharp edges work better, the tool bars and stuff dont line up less is more __________________ A SPEC PRODUCTS CORP AME Wheels, Advan, ARC, Gram Lights, Nardi, Personal, Recaro, Works Bell, Work Wheels, Volk Racing, 5Zigen, & more! 626.618.1100 x 103 / aim: aspectuan Advertiser's Specials! Read / Give Feedback! Please Rate Us!

06-08-2006, 06:34 PM	#22
Mr. Badlose Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: CA Posts: 327 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Come on guys, it's all about notepad...the best html editor!

06-08-2006, 07:53 PM	#23
Arsenal of Glory Zilvia Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Petoria Posts: 177 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	heres a crazy online portfolio, one of the best i have seen. http://www.okaydave.com/ you can build an entire site in flash pretty easily too if your comfortable "navigating buttons"

06-10-2006, 06:26 AM	#24
rewplayff Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: San Jose Age: 40 Posts: 317 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	that online portfolio is crazy. makes me want to hide in corner. by the way, check out the site now. i still need to redo the members page and other stuff, but as far as overall look, is it looking a little better? thank you people for helping me out