Critique This One Please!

[watchdog]

This is my first attempt, so the site is EXTREMELY simple in design. Please let me know how I could change some things to make it better.

Appreciate it!

www.DMTNWatchDog.com

[MandyJay]

Hi :HI:
And welcome to our little happy, if not sometimes crazy, corner of the web! :D:

Your website ...... two things drew my attention. Firstly, I think most people still browse at 800 x 600 resolution ... your page goes over that, so I had to horizontally scroll. Your image at the top, I think is the culprit, being over 800 pixels wide. For people not to horizontally scroll at 800 resolution, I think you need a maximum width of 760 pixels.

the other thing that drew my attention, was the colour scheme. Against the black background, the yellows and blues did after a while make my eyes hurt ..... maybe that is just me ..... but I would have preferred a lighter background colour so the contrast was not so harsh.

Have a look at your page titles - the home page is called New Page 1 and the others are all called Soon ..... if you right click on each page, and select Page Properties, you can change the name (title) of each page there .... those names appear on the top of the browser when people view your page, also search engines will read them, which will help your site to be found.

Just in glancing through the pages, I noticed on your "What is an Authorisation Card" page, that a paragraph has been accidentally repeated near the bottom.

I think you have made a very good effort for your first site. It doesnt matter that it is simple .... quite often there is too much on a site, so one is distracted from the contents. Your site is there to give information - that information is clearly laid out. It is just the colour scheme that I am not altogether happy with - but that is just my personal opinion, others may think differently.

[watchdog]

Ok, I can see that. How do I set the screen size for each page & is there a way to have frontpage automatically set any new pages to this resolution?

What colors seem to work the best to hold people on a page? I have tried a few variations; however, it seems as if I was always going back to the ones that I am using.

Thanks!

[MandyJay]

Crikey, I so often get asked this question, yet always end up forgetting the answer ..... thinking cap goes on :D: You really need to use a table and have your page content inside it. You can either set it for 100%, in which case it will strrrrrrrrrrretch to fit whatever resolution people view at ....... or have a table with a width of, say 760 pixels and stuff all your content into that. I generally use the latter method as I find it easier, but others will no doubt say differently. You will have to make that image smaller though, keep it to below 760 wide.

Colours - yikes ..... I am one to speak, using bright colours myself ..... but somehow I think it was because each of your bright colours occupied such a large space. I really dont know what to suggest .... maybe just look around other peoples sites and try and find a colour combination that is a bit quieter looking..... I am not sure it is the colours that hold people onto a site .... I have been to sites where really there has been no noticeable color scheme at all .... yet it was the content that kept me there ......

No doubt others will post before long and give you more ideas etc.

[justjay]

Just a note - if I may - tables are not going to help you keep under 760px if you have a graphic that is 831px wide....shrink that graphic down to 760 or less and you will be okay...

Another thing you might want to do - is play around with your graphics and try to get ride of that white "halo" around some of your graphics...it is a bit distracting...

I agree with MJ - you did a great job of getting to the point and giving good info, but you should work on a colour scheme....or even try using a Free Template....

[watchdog]

:HI:

OK, I have made some changes to the site. I am, once again, open for your suggestions as to how to make it look better. I also (still) have a problem: when I right click on the WYSIWYG view of a page & "name" the page, when I upload the page to my site, it puts a shared border at the top of the page with links that correspond to the links down the left side of each page.....:confused: What am I doing wrong? I did not use shared borders at all on this site (don't ask me why, I still don't know why :D: ). It also puts the page title at the top (which I do not want the editor to do because the titles are at the top of the body sections of each page.

At any rate, please go to my site Web Site (http://www.dmtnwatchdog.com)

& critique it to pieces & let me know what I can do to make it even better.

Thanks!

[MandyJay]

Wow! Are you sure its the same link! :D: I love it - what a difference - colour scheme great and love the layout.
Your navigation cell, where you have used background picture for the cell, the colour goes in bands - but unevenly, I cant quite work that out.

I would like to have seen a Home link on the left, took me a little bit to realise the banner graphic was the home link.

You have your table set for 100% and the main content cell at 100% - that is fine, but your left navigation cell is set for 1% .... I would imagine that on large screen resolutions, that cell might expand and your menu graphics get distorted - try setting all the left cells for 184 pixels - the width of the images, then those cells wont expand ..... I think I am correct in that information, am sure someone will yell at me if I am not!

I assume you have solved the borders problem as your pages viewed okay with no navigation links at the top.

I quickly whizzed past your Newsletter page :D: - sorry, couldnt resist saying that .... that is the only page that made me say "ouch".

Well done, what a difference to how the site was before and you have used my two favorite colour combinations (No, not the newsletter page :p: ;): ) - I expect you are delighted with the results - it looks far more professional, very pleasing to the eye - I like it.
:F: :furball: :F:

[captain]

I agree with Mandy Jay. The site looks great. :up:
What a difference. I also agree with MJ about the newsletter page. I think the cell backgrounds on the newsletter page would look better the same as the rest of the site or maybe softer colors. That is just a suggestion.... Other than that I am very impressed with the improvement. :D: