Website Review

So, I'm just about finished reading a tech book called "The Complete Reference to Web Design", and one of the things it told me to do early in the book is to review other websites to learn from their mistakes.

Now, I'm offering to to look over a persons web design, and offer a few suggestions as to what (s)he can improve. Just leave your URL in a post, and I'll see what I can do (yes, it's summer and I'm really bored).

Ouh Ouh do me, do me! You know, you could just make me a whole new website and save a whole of critisizm :D But I can do it, I just have no idea what to do to make it look good!

Click the sig, man. I'm ALWAYS lookin' for advice...

About time that people decided to respond.

Gad: Your site layout uses only black and white colors, no graphics: this is both very good and very bad.

On the good side, everyone [including those who may have color defenscies (whetehr it be problems with hue, saturation, or brightness)] can easily read what's on the site. Also, each page loads up very quickly, which users absolutely will love about it and make it hard for you to go over your max bandwidth.

However, the colors and basicness can be a real turn off. It's too generic (read: Boring). Sit down and watch some black and white television and turn off the sound. See how boring the pictures are? That's the same effect your site is having. Also, all of your links are black.

Bad move.

Alot of people dictate what is a link, by the color. Generally, link colors are blue (some people may have the underlining text for links disabled, making identifying links even harder on your site). If you were to change this, then your problem I discussed above could be solved, also. (remember, black, white, and any other color is a good combination)

Also, each page should have a link either leading back to the main page, or a navagtion area. It's a real pain hitting the Back button, in order to see your site.

So, in general...

Pro
- Black and White - godd contrast, easy to read

Cons
- Very boring
- Lack of navagtion on all but the index page

Optional
- Have a Next/Previous buttons for your comic. People get alot less frustratred with such a systme, since its easier and faster for people to read your comic (and, they don't haev to remember the number of the last comic they read).

(BTW, I tried reading your comic about six months ago, and I stopped reading it, mostly because of the site layout. If you could improve the layout, you would probably get alot of readers)

I hope that all made sense.

Bowser, I'll look over your site in a bit (read: Before the day is over)

Now, it's your turn, Bowser:

First, on your index page, the background image is quite distracting, and it also makes some of the text on the main page hard to read (you heard this when you posted your rant on grammar). If you were to add a white background to the table (like you did in your "Welcome to" cell). I would also reccomond removing the table lines (but, I can't gurantee how that would work out, visually)

The background image works quite well with the comic pages, though.

The visual style, also, looks a bit plain. I dunno, I think you could snazz it up a bit, add a few graphics or something. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out a look for it, it is a comic about video games.

Pros
- The background image looks nice with the comic pages

Cons
- lack of "Return to Home" links on pages taht don't have comics
- lack of steady navagation tools
- background image doesn't go all that well with text

Me next! Me next!

Here. (http://www.gamerulers.com/stab)

Hey, I was just wondering if you knew of a good webpage editor that I could use to change all my links to blue. I'm too lazy to do it in notepad. As for the comic next and prev buttons I've been working on a flash interface with little success. The guy who originally made all the code is impossible to reach and I have no ability to get it made on my own. But if you could suggest a good editor that'd be awesome. If you'd like to take a look at the interface just click this link.

http://www.megspace.com/entertainment/gad77/Anime/comics/swf/comics.html

Splash Khat makes the FFF( http://fff.wangclip.net/FFF.html ) site. A most skillful flash site, but he has little time for silly comic things like this.

If no color is specified for the links, they'll be right, Gad.

A few graphics, eh? No problem! Does that include the main page? I'm thinking of putting the speaking character on their page. The one that's supposedly telling you the stuff...

Rid of the table lines... I don't know HTML & there's no option for that in the program I use. If there were, I'd try it out.

Home links on all pages, will do!

What does: "steady navigation tools" mean?

Incomplete, but still: http://dnd.basicplus.net/

ooo! ooo! i'm after xelopheris! please, i mean.

oh, and gad- *coughstealdreamweavercoughcough!*

or go here. last i checked, its free. http://www.coffeecup.com/

I'll give you this right here: Your comic navigation buttons are too big for simple text. Not to mention, 99.999999% of webcomics have it FIRST PREV NEXT LATEST, whereas for you you have PREV FIRST LATEST NEXT. Lots of people will be navigating to your latest all the time when they want to go to your next, or your first when they want to go to your previous, or vice versa.

I still have yet to fix the background, but for now, the rest of that stuff looks much better.

ok, hell. do mine. www.sci-fi-espresso.com

a few quick notes: It's a pretty old layout that i'm planning on revamping soon, and none of the links work yet (I tore down the cgi and put up some php, baby)

[QUOTE=Bowser]
Rid of the table lines... I don't know HTML & there's no option for that in the program I use. If there were, I'd try it out.

QUOTE]


USE NOTEPAD.

[QUOTE=Bowser]
Rid of the table lines... I don't know HTML & there's no option for that in the program I use. If there were, I'd try it out.

QUOTE]


USE NOTEPAD.
To further what he said, if you can't learn HTML, open the file up in notepad and find BORDER, then delete that (and ="1" after it if that appears too)

http://www.gamecheetz.com/index2.html
http://www.GameCheetz.com

In the 1st of those 2 links, I did what Xelo said in "View Source" mode & while I was in there I also deleted "Cell Padding=2" or something like that...
Compare.

Wow... 24 hours ago, no one even bothered to post (even after this thread being up for a previous 24 hours). Now... wow.

Gad: Open up notepad. Now, get notepad to find " <BODY ". Now, look for the following text " vlink="#000000" link="#000000" ". Now, replace the numbers after vlink with 800080 and after the link, replace the numbers with 0000FF. That will give you a blue link for anything that the user has not yet visited and a dark rose color for any pages that the user has visited.

Bowser: I like the second link, more then the first, but, I have a personal pet peeve about the transprency around the cell lines. I would personally put a bgcolor=white in the <TABLE> element.

Now, time for you, Michelle:

I like it. You managed to use colors that look good with one another. I had a very strong, good first impression from the site.

On the index page, on the bottom of your rants you have "email AIM". For a second, I confused it for "E-mail Aim". I would reccomond just spacing them out, or inserting the <BR> element after "email" or just do something to sperate them a bit more..

Every page has the navagtion links (except the comic pages, which have the return to Home link, which is very good). The navagtion links are in the same place, which is good, since the user doesn't have to go searching for the links on every page.

On the note of the navagtion links: I'm just a little worried about new people to the internet, may have a problem finding it. It almost looks like it's part of the picture, rather then as a link. But, once people find out that they're links, there should be no problems.

Oh, and you also have a incomplete page (About).

Pros
- Has a very strong, first impression
- Consistent Navagtion location and look
- Uses different colors then the norm

Cons
- Navagtion link location might confuse new internet users
- One page is now complete

*makes a mental note to sit down and read "::stabby:: ::STAB:: ::stab::*

http://www.geocities.com/kornflabby/

I suck at webdesign.

And I forgot the password.

What the heck - http://www.zxipi.com/

Hehe... You could turn this into a site feature, aparently...

Xelopheris:

Not much to say about your site (mostly because it's under construction).

The layout and graphic design are quite nice. It creates that wooden tavern look and feel to it (whicj, is what I'm guessing you were aiming for)

It lacks much of a navagtion area (mostly because it's under construction). It also lacks ways to get back to the home page (just setting up the title graphic as a link home would suffice)

Pros
- Nice layout
- Nice atmosphere

Cons
- Lack of ways to get back to the main page

samfish:

First, your navagtion frame. I like the colors you used and the little design on it. However, if a person using an 800x600 resoultion were to look at your site, it would see as far the upper half of e-mail, which means adding new buttons wouldn't be a good idea, without first modifying the existing ones.

Your main frame, it's nice and organize. But, after seeing the navagtion frame, it looks a tad boring. It would look nice if you were to incorperate the colors from the navagtion bar to the main content (same green-colored text, dark blue table background, and a ligth blue page bg) (I gave it a try in PSP and it look quite nice)

Also, since your using frames, you forgot to include the code for removing the frame, when somone leaves the site (which is very evident in your links section).

Pros
- Nice colors in the navagtion bar

Cons
- ... content frame needs a bit of color, though
- site is not made for 800x600 users (they make up, like 30% of users or something)
- Removal frame code is not present

Oh, and I want to remind everyone that these are my suggetsions. If I make any changes to your site you don't like, then just ignore it - what's important is what you think of your site.

links - frame

no one's gonna do mine??

I'm sure he'll get to you. He can only do one at a time.

Yowza. Well when you get through that huge list, do me next! me me me! It's the only way I'll ever learn.

http://btc.bolloxcomics.co.uk

no one's gonna do mine??

Xoom, have you ever heard of a little thing called "patience"? You were next in line, after samfish. And, you'll be done after I have my shower (hey, I need to be mostly awake to do these, you know?)

Considering who i learned "patience" from (my mom) it's not a key factor in my life.

Now, time fr you, Xoom:

First, the splash page. It looks quite nice, in my opinion: nice little graphic and nice color scheme. Unfortunately, it doesn't go well with the site. It gives a bit of a dark, sci-fi feeling, and, then we enter a white-based layout. The splash page should be used to set up the atmosphere of the site and what the site is used for, not to just look pretty (it's a key thing, but not the most important thing)

The layout of the site looks nice. I like the light blue tint you gave the title, makes it look a bit more futureistic.

One problem I've encountered with your site, is that it's made for users with a resoultion of 1024x768 and above. And, it's mostly because of the banner (actually, even at 1024x768, the banner creates a small scroll). You could just craft the banner as a background image for the cell, so that it looks good on all sets of resoultions (I wish I knew the statistic of users of 800 x 600 and below resoultion, but I don't :(, but I do think it's like 10% or 33% or somethign like that)

Now, I relized you have navagtion problems when it comes to browsers other then IE. You took an obvious step to tell people upfront. Unfortunately, honesty is not the best policy. According to the stats over at Browser News (http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/), only 85.437% (average of the stats that were there) of people use some version of IE. Your negclecting about 14.5% of people (plus, do you even know if your site supports IE 5 and 4?). A better step would of been to create a second site, for those who could not use the navagtion links (where the links would be located the banner), so all could enjoy the site, without anyone beign alienated.

But, luckily for you, I know how you can fix this (not the code, but where you can find examples of it). Ever been to gamix.net? Blizzard.com? Well, those two sites have codes setted up like the one you have, except, you just hover your mouse over it. This code is compatable with Netscape Navagator (and, it should be compatable with other browsers, as well)

Pros
- Nice splash page
- Nice layout

Cons
- Splash page doesn't set up the user for the site
- Not made for users under 1024x768 res.
- Only IE users can actually use the site (and, maybe not even all IE users)

What the heck - http://www.zxipi.com/

The best fucking site EVER, and my featured comic.

Hmm... may as well...

http://shadowwarriorluke.tripod.com

Marine: I'm going to be quick with this one, since your site is under construction.

First, having that lime green table, in the middle of nowhere is not a good idea. It looks out of place, and is defintely not goign to be noticed easily by the users. Might I reccomond that you craft up something a bit like clanbob's site, only no right tool bar?

Also, remember: make your images backgrounds match. Earlier, you had a green background, but the images you were using were incased by a white box. Makes the site look very poorly made.

Now, for you, Zxipi:

I like the usage of the iframe. It just looks great where you placed it.

The garphics and colors all blend well with one another, making sure each aspect of the site is readable and pleasing to the eye.

In all honesty, the only complaint I would have to make, is that your lates comic button seems a bit small, compared to some of the other buttons around it.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that your site does not work in Mozzila (nor, as I checked, in Netscape). You use CSS, a language of internet programming I'm not familliar with, and, therefore, can not give any real advice with CSS (other then convert everything to html)
Pros
- Good use of the iFrame (look at me, I'm a Mac boy!)
- Colors look good and don't create any reading problems

Cons
- Works only in IE (and, I'm thinking it will work only in the latest version, but I can't be sure of this, so between 55% to 85% of possible readers are being neglected)

I'm just curious if you designed the site yourself, or did you get a friend to do it for you?

KoS, you obviously use IE. Zxipi has used IE only ways of using CSS Classes, which results in the news posts being UNREADABLE on Mozilla.

May as well throw my hat into the ring as well. The link is in my sig.

And I know that the Cast page doesn't work, so just pretend that the link isn't even there eh? ;)

did a complete re-design. Check it out, thoughts needed.

goonigoogoo:

The background images you use for your site looks quite nice. They add flavor to the page, without adding distraction.

However, the placement of your navagtion area is really awkward. It's placed right at the bottom of the page, where very few people are going to actually see it. Generally, people only place text links at the bottom, while text navagtion would be placed at the top..

Also, your layout does not work well with those on 800x600 resoultions, mostly because of "Feature Comic". You may want to shrink down the News cell, or, you could just shrink that feature comic to a small graphic, with the link "Review..." that will show the little blurb about the comic.

Pros
- Nice background image; not sitracting; add flavors

Cons
- Horizontal Scroll Bar present
- Navagtion links placed awkwardly

I'm starting to get tired of catering for the 800x600ers...it's 2003 already! DAAAMN YOOUUU.

Anyway, thanks for the review. I'll work on shrinking the news cell or something. I want to keep that featured comic box visible, not hidden behind a link....and I'm not sure where I'm gonna put those nav buttons, since it leaves a big blank space under the newspost. Ah well

Actually, I find the sites that cater to the really old comps (800x600) to be kinda annoying. It's not like anyone stays at that size if they don't have to... Or unless they're old & going blind... As a matter of fact, if one sets my laptop's screen to 800x600, it just uses less of the screen...

goonigoogoo, about one out of every four visitors to your site, uses 800 x 600 screen resoultion. This is not some random statistic - this came from your eXtreme Tracking

Yeah yeah. But it doesn't mean I still can't curse them.

www.comdis.net (http://www.comdis.net)
if you have time,

ssf.comdis.net (http://ssf.comdis.net)

Uh Wow, hey, comic Artist, you do know about the <A> tag, right?

ShadowWarriorLuke

I see that you used one of the templates from tripod. Nothign bad about it, but nothing good about it. It generally makes the site seem a tad more... generic.

A few areas that I found problems with the site are (sounds like a topic sentence for essay, huh?) the title text. It doesn't standout from the rest of the page and you would be better off if you put the little banner beneath it to replace it. Also, your navagation links also don't standout, and are really small (which contributes to the stadning out problem). I would enlarge the text a bit or set up graphic buttons.

Pros
- none

Cons
- Not too interesting to look at
- Small links
- Title of the site doesn't stand out

Phil

Your site layouts all right. It's quick to load, which is always a good thing. Your navagating links are on top, which is always a plus.

Your news box, however, initially gave me a burning sensation in my eyes (but, it went away after a few seconds of staring away and staring back at it, with renewed vigor).

Also, you do one thing that annoys me: You hot link linking images. This is a bad idea, since it annoys the man running the site (using up his bandwidth and screwing up his stats), but also makes your site look less preofesional, when the site goes down for any length of time. I highly reccomond saving the links to your server adn linkign to them there.

Pros
- quick to load

Cons
- The pink could burn some people's eyes (it did it to me, and I have a high tolerance for this type of thing)
- hot linking

Well I have just completely redesigned my website, wouldn't hurt to have an opinion on it all.

http://www.ffmilitia.com/damien

Much appreciated.

- The pink could burn some people's eyes (it did it to me, and I have a high tolerance for this type of thing)


See on my computer, it doesn't really look pink, it looks like more of a light, dull red. It certainly doesn't hurt my eyes. Probably just because I have a shitty video card and monitor. Oh well, I'll take it into consideration. Thanks.

I just want to add a comment to KOS's review of Phil's site...

The order of the navigation buttons bothered me to no end. Your order is: Previous, First, Latest, Next. ARARAGH!!! Most other comics have: First, Previous, Next, Latest. So, as a result, I kept trying to go to the "next" comic and ended up hitting the current comic. A lot. :p

I actually have an explaination for that one. That's the way it was set up by default in the script I'm using, and since I know precious little about PHP I decided not to screw with it :p

I'm tempted to say, "send me the file(s) in question and I'll fix it!"

Well I fixed the site and it should hopefully display properly for 800x600. There'll be the occasional widened page, because the log humour runs a bit long sometimes

Marine:

The change when you mouse over the text, really hurts my eyes. Plus, you don't really know what's clickable and what's not, sicne the mouse is always a hand over the .swf.

Also, anything in the flash file, looks empty. I would make the .swf more sized like the average browser window, and make is stretchable, and give the document a bg color.

Cons
- Hurts the users eyes
- The white looks out of place

*third revision should go up soon*

well if yer bored, lemme know what my site says to ya

few cons i already know of are

A: smaller than 1024 x 768 are going to get a messed up site... for now
B: it's black and white.. but I'm trying to go with a theme there
C: the 3 panel comics explode out of the screen annoyingly.. trying to finger out how to fix that

Damien:

Quite nice new design. I like it. I also like you used an iFrame, rather than the javascript for your main window (I hate that javascript. Holding my mouse over the arrows annoys the hell out of me :flaming: )

Now, the main frame of innterest, is a bit on the small side. It almost seems to me that you didn't want anyone to find it. You have all this space to the right, and your not using it to add dominance to the most important frame on your site.

Your navagtion bar seems be in the center of the site (for us 1024x768 users). It seems a bit odd and out of place, in my opinion. Normally, it would be better to place it either on top (if room is available, without screwing up the design, which, in this case, is not possible) or place it to the left side the page.

And, the empty space to the left of the site: I would probably add a little background, simillar to the ones your using right now, but something a little less noticable and memory saving, just to make the site look a little less empty.

Pros
- iFrame! No Javascript-frame! Halijua!(+999999 points)
- Nice design. Nice and creative
- Colors are nice (white, red, yellow, and orange [the last three fit the color theory of three consecutive clors. Good job!])

Cons
- navagtion seems to be placed a bit awkwardly
- main frame of interest is easily "lost"
- emptiness seems to be consume the entire right side.

How concient, I was hoping someone would lookat my site.
Thanks in advance King.

Joypad Comics (http://www.joypadcomics.com)

Well, Da Doc, since no oen barely reads this thread anymore, I'll skip ahead one guy and review your site.

First, the main image on your index page. I would gte rid of it and replace it with the latest comic or allow your news post there and pace a small banner for your comic on top of the page. Also, undo the vertical center you have for the table on the far left and just let it hang out on thw top - it'll be more steadily placed and gives each page a more stable feel.

The text on the left side is a tad big, probably to take up more space (needed by the large image on the . I would shrink it down a bit.

On your Bios, Comix, and Links pages, under the Navagtion links are spaces. Take them out, so it looks less empty.

In your Archive page, you have a calender for the months Jan 2003 up to December 2003, while you only have comic for June, July, and June. Take those extra tables out - they make it more like a search for the comics in the archives.

Improvements
- Removal of Large Image on index page
- uncentered left table
- space below the navagtion button
- Archive pages dates

Thanks for the advice, but no pros?

Pros are usually given to people who do something exceptional with their site (ie. I don't give out pros now for just being able to use a table correctly, like I did earlier on. I wouldn't give MT any Pros at all).

So, just because I don't give you a pro, doesn't mean anything is wrong with your site. (also, I changed it to "improvements" rather then cons).

Besides, I'm a tad rusty since the last review I had to give.

look at http://comdis.net again.

I'm not going to review sites that are not completed.

LOOK AT DESIGN. not content -_.

Fine, it's a nice design.

But, if you look back at some of the reviews I gave, alot of the comments were about pages within the site, and not the design itself.

But, *sigh*, fine.

First, the buttons to the right. The rollover is a nice effect, however, with darker buttons (like your own over there), it becomes hard for individuals to see. You should diable the rollover on that picture.

Second, why do you have a links section on your index page, and a links page? Are the individuals on the index page affiliates or something? If they are not affiliates, then I would remove those buttons, and, if need be, find something else to place there.

Thirdly, the worst thing you can do, is launch an unfinished site. People who come across the site, will think it has been abondened. Add some dates, and a date of when the site will be finished. Remember, there are other sites on the net, and no one is going to be checking your site daily to see if it's finally opened.

And, if you want to protect your site from being copied and want legal evidence, then print off your site, put it in an evnelope and send it to yourself. If you find a user that is copying your site (maybe even a corporation), then you have legal proof it's your site, since the date will be on the envelope, and, if you kepe it sealed until court, then you have it in the bag. A bit extreme, but it's otherwise hard to prove digital content is your own handiwork.

http://slackerz.org/
Just completed it. The webcam page is still in development to be PHP Powered, but otherwise...

I like the layout. Nice deisgn to it. Colors go well with one another.

One problem I do see, however, is that after the poll, there's some empty space and then the copyright and hosting info, I would remove said space.

Also, the guy in the bottom left doesn't seem to work for me there. For some reaosn, I don't care for it that much.

No I don't like Slackers, theres just something, I can't quite tell what it is, but I don't like it.

Oh good. This is Slackerz. With a Z.

Lets not start that again.
Heeey, nice sig you've got there Xelo. :D

Like the layout. Simple, compact, to the point.
Also like the melding of the title image with the table.
The obsessive-compulsive side of me questions why there is that extra spacer under the right hand table, but maybe there's some reason for that, and maybe it's not too important anyhow.

One thing which is confusing is the way the menu switches to the right hand side when reading the comic. You could just have two rows instead of moving it completely.
Gallery for guest comics page doesn't currently have the menu at all and stuff. That's about my opinion.

Fixed the space problem. Was a typo. I intended to give it a little space so that the entire bottom wasn't squished to the table, but I hit the 0 accidently in the <TABLE HEIGHT=""> tag, thus making it 10x the size.

And Monkey: I know, it rocks.

Well, Da Doc, since no oen barely reads this thread anymore, I'll skip ahead one guy and review your site.



bah robbed

heh

bah robbed

heh

Well, if you want me to, I can do one up for you tomorrow...

But not now. Sleep is summoning me soon.

go ahead a do me at your leasure. (dang that sounds wrong)

Well, if you want me to, I can do one up for you tomorrow...

But not now. Sleep is summoning me soon.


only if ya got the time ;)

I tend to thrive on feedback, and as of yet the only bit i've gotten is A: from friends.. so probably not too reliable.. and from people who only reas the first 3 comics (which were back in the days of paint)

nothing at all on my site setup as of yet

Do me! www.rather-random.tk

All right, David:

First issue to adress: the image in the top-left corner of the page. it should link to index page (just out of availbility and that most sites do the same). Also, it's aliased (ie. surronded by white specks). It should be an easy problem to fix.

Second thing that is a problem, is the image on the left. It should be done as a background image, rather than an actual image, since you can shrink down the file size and you can get it to adjust to the size of the page, rather than the other way around.

Also, you should give the border=0 command for the "Next", Previous, First and Latest links.

koo that all makes sense... for some reason i thought that image WAS a background image.. stooped me.. heh heh

thanx!

Hey, no problem

If you have time, please do mine, thanks.
www.rather-random.tk

Sorry for not doing more reviews: I've been tired... and bored... and stuff.

Clay:

I like it - simple, quick to load, and nice colors (even though the links to Previous and First comic on top is a bit hard to read, mostly due to the contrast with the comic). I like it when comics do that - it's easier for me to go back to find a certain comic.

However, the rest of your pages really need to be updated. Your using an older navagtion bar, which doesn't go well with the front page. You may want to update those pages (except for your comic pages, of course).

Also, your links page looks disorganized. You may want to organize them a bit (like, have two or three columns, with headings)

Lastly, you do one thing that's a little pit peeve of mine (actually, two of them)
1) In your news page, you have the links in your news setted up so that they use the same that I'm lookign at. In my opinion, it should pop up in a new window, so I can see what your talkign about, read the article, whatever, and close the window and finsih reading your post.

2) Links in your links section pop-up a new window. Most people looking in your links section are looking to get AWAY from your page; not to stay there.

Cool thread!. Could you do mine? =)

Overcaffeinated.net (http://overcaffeinated.net)

Sure, no problem, OC. I'll just skip right over Random, since he hasn't posted in a week or so... (if he still wants one done, then all he has to do is just post another reply).

First, I have to congratulaute you. Upon first looking over your site, it looks professional. The colors go well with one another, and the graphics compliment the background.

However, the navagtion changes it's location when your reading the comic, a review, or a rant. The change in navagtion for the comic is justified, since some comics (or all) probably won't fit on a 800x600 resoultion screen, without some scroll.

Praise for having everything n the site you could possibly want in less than three clicks. It makes it easier to find what your going through.

However, for the rants and review pages, the navagtion system should remain stable, since there is no excuse for why it should really have to move. Also, people will be using the navagation bar to go back to the rants/reviews, and probably will use the navagation bar.

For your cast page, you may want to change the cast member's profile picture. They're drawn in a different style (a more serious style), and some readers may confuse them (when I looked at it, I thought the comic I had read was just done in a different style than it normally is done in).

And, your links, you may want to re-arrange the order. I would reccomond the order Webcomics, COmmunities, and then Resources.

Also, your vote buttons don't stand out at all. They blend WAY too well into the site. I would increase their height by 2, and pick a darker color.

Hi, I still want one done. Thanks in advance.

Thanks a lot for the review. I have been mulling over those same things myself, the navigation change being the most important one. I do that to accomodate more content (text+image ends up being too wide for the 3 column layout, and I want to respect the 800x600 crowd). I figure since those are "end documents" it may not be too annoying (hopefully). I'll look into working around that.

The images for the cast page were made by Skoolmunkee of the Repository of Dangerous Things. I put a notice at the top of the cast page to clarify that. Maybe I should make it more noticeable.

Links order: Point taken. I'll change that.

I don't mind the vote buttons. I wanted them unobtrusive, since the main page is more about the other resources than the comic. I put them there for people who hang out at the main page when there's no new comic, so they could vote without going to the comic page (the bigass vote buttons are below the comic, with the navigation). Not really meant to draw much attention to themselves (same thing with the Rant archives, which are the smallish squares below the vote buttons -- not an overly important resource, so let's just put it there for those who really want it).

Thanks =)

Well, that post woke me up...

First, .tk. Personally, I'm not a fan of these free URLs, they always spawn a pop up, and everyone on the net hates pop ups with a passion.

And, I'm confused about something: did you buy server space, or did you manage to get some free space on a friends server or something? If it's the first, then you may want to look into getting a .com, .net, or something.

Now, onto the design.

Perosnally, I would center the design on the page. Right now, it shows way too much empty space on the right side, with people using 1024 res. or higher.

Also, I would bring down the navagation links a bit, like, below the site banner. Right now, it's placed where most would call "The Ad Banner Blinspot" - the place where no one ever looks, because of what's normally there - a banner ad. People know they're at Rather Random, so why not place that banner there, and lower the navagation?

I would remove the entire "Flash" thing and replace it with a html (or CSS, or XML) layout. It'll load much faster and it give alot less avagration. As is, no one can post your comic at another forum, where more readers could come from. Also, you could redusce the load time by setting up an iFrame in the main cell of interest (the center one).

And, one last thing, learn to reduce the height of your layout. If the content ends well before the bottom of the layout, then reduce the layout so that it's only one screen length, and not one and a half, with alot of useless space.

Thanks, yeah I've been thinking about changing the site from flash to html or some other kid of thing, I just think flash is a lot easier than other things. Thanks for the review.

First, .tk. Personally, I'm not a fan of these free URLs, they always spawn a pop up, and everyone on the net hates pop ups with a passion.

No, you can disable the popup in the control panel thing.

:jester: do my site if you have time =P :jester:

ty

Anarcadium:

Your layout looks really... compact. It looks like you tried to use as much space as possible, in as small of an area possible...

And, this is generally a turn off.

If there's not enough empty space on a page, people feel so overwhelmed by the amount of information, that they usually end up leaving (let me put it this way; have you ever seen a report that hasn't been divided into paragraphs? It looks like there's a lot to read). Luckily, it isn't THAT bad, but, it could be a problem for some users...

It also looks a bit cluttered, as is.

I don't know what to reccomond, really. You could try shrinking the links to the comic area and rants area. Remove the "What's New?" area, and enlarge the "Updates" cell. And, maybe, remove the Comic/Rants staus, and give the resopsebilities to the Updates and Comic status.

Also, unde ryour sketch book area, the banners you have made for the picture sets, you may want them setted up to the gallery. I couldn't figure out hwo to get to the pictures last night, and just figured it out.

Anarcadium:

Your layout looks really... compact. It looks like you tried to use as much space as possible, in as small of an area possible...

And, this is generally a turn off.

If there's not enough empty space on a page, people feel so overwhelmed by the amount of information, that they usually end up leaving (let me put it this way; have you ever seen a report that hasn't been divided into paragraphs? It looks like there's a lot to read). Luckily, it isn't THAT bad, but, it could be a problem for some users...

It also looks a bit cluttered, as is.

I don't know what to reccomond, really. You could try shrinking the links to the comic area and rants area. Remove the "What's New?" area, and enlarge the "Updates" cell. And, maybe, remove the Comic/Rants staus, and give the resopsebilities to the Updates and Comic status.

Also, unde ryour sketch book area, the banners you have made for the picture sets, you may want them setted up to the gallery. I couldn't figure out hwo to get to the pictures last night, and just figured it out.


WOW thanks a lot for the input :) this will defintaly help me out. ;)

Hey, no problem. I'm just glad that I could hand out some useful advice.