Eye gouging 101

People have said for a long time that my site design is bad. FINALLY, someone said what they thing is probably wrong with it. They said that:
The brightness of it is bad. (I thought bright was cheery & would attact people) Edit: Turns out that it hurts people's eyes, then they go away.
Having such a basic design also isn't good. (I figured that it'd be easier to navigate like that.)

That was all my site design knowledge except one thing. Image backgrounds are, of course, better than plain single colored ones, right?

(They also said IMO, can someone define IMO?) Edit: Defined: In my opinion.

Since the whole site was based upon these principles, I'm gonna need advice. And lot's of it.

I posted this in the other topic, but here you go:

Quote:
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Originally Posted by Bowser
Or anyone at the top of the TWC list.

Geocities '95? I never saw Geocities in '95... And bright is bad? I thought bright was cheery & would attact people... Having a basic design also isn't good? I figured that it'd be easier to navigate like that. That was all my site design knowledge... Oh, except one thing. Image backgrounds are, of course, better than plain single colored ones, right? BTW, what's IMO?
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Bright hurts peoples eyes. Then they go away.
Basic designs are great... if you can design it properly. Take http://www.enjoyaaron.com/ - That site is basic but very nicely done and nice implementation of photography. My site (sig) is a bit more complex, yet I keep with simple rules (4 colours etc) and I tried to make sure before I made the site that I wrote down everything and every link I need.

Of course I am a web designer and this is easy for me to do. Just search for some web design tips on Google, it might help.
As for background pictures, they almost always are not better but it depends. Sites like http://www.pixelranger.com/ use backgrounds nicely to set their site ontop, whereas your site kinda just has them and they stick out badly.
Don't worry though, web design takes time, and with time, you will learn what people like and do not.

IMO - In My Opinion.

Good luck man.

OK, I tried executing one of these alterations. How is it? Did I overdo it? The 2nd link is the newer version.
http://www.gamecheetz.com/
http://www.gamecheetz.com/index0.html

EDIT: Black BG is no good... I'd have to change the text color on nearly 100 files. Perhaps as a comic upgrade. That way, new stuff gets the black BG, but I don't have to edit the old stuff.

your site looks like bad wallpaper in a grandma's house
that is to say that it has bunches of goof images floating around.
It also uses too much white
I also think you should change the look of the links. Perhaps replace them with graphics. Or read my page's code to see how I do an alternative to the underlined blue thing.
Now go to the general discussion thread and post on the gameboy music thing like a good boy.

i would beg to differ on the enjoy arron link. its a straight text site (from what i've thus far seen), but yet it uses 80 % gray and black arial text. its not impossible to read, but it is jarring. heh- bright is bad, but so is black! i know i always say its bad, but if you're doing a straight text site, use a serif font. makes it eaiser to read. IMO, the site over all has a very washed out feel. i agree on the photography implementation, though.

...ok, went on waaaay to long on that one.

bowser- for your site, yeah, its bright. but i think things that are really hurting it are the lined tables, the BG image/wall paper and your font choice. i WOULD use arial for you. or a sans serif font of some sort. arial being the default. i'd make graphic links, rather than hyper text links, too.
you might hate me for saying it, but while we're at it...uh...that logo needs to go. WAAAAY to bright, and even bigger then that. and it looks all pixely. in a bad way, i mean.
you can have bright and cheery. just make it, like, work for you, rather then against you!

i would beg to differ on the enjoy arron link. its a straight text site (from what i've thus far seen), but yet it uses 80 % gray and black arial text. its not impossible to read, but it is jarring. heh- bright is bad, but so is black! i know i always say its bad, but if you're doing a straight text site, use a serif font. makes it eaiser to read. IMO, the site over all has a very washed out feel. i agree on the photography implementation, though.


That's the point. That was his intention. He does simple sites with good photography and a simple colour scheme (charcoals). A personal opinion on his site is fine but a lot of people think it works for him and I say it does. The photography is implemented as a main focus into a simple site.
I'd say it works.

Sam, the logo is a transparent gif. Does it also seem too bright on the black version? Cause that's the same gif. Just to make sure... I can always change the colors 'cause I still have the Extreme 3D file. I can even make them made of metal or pizza if I wanted to.

Arial... Will do!

Graphic links - Initially I was gonna, but then I forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

The BG image - This has always been a problem for me... I obviously don't want a plain color, but I don't want it to be too many either (now that I know that's bad) Attached are 2 possible alternate ones I made recently.

Lined Tables - Are there any other kind? (Doesn't actually know HTML)

And what about other pages on the site? Not just the main one, but the comics, the archives page, the vote page, the software page, (I know the history page's BG is horrid), Links & Fan Art.

That's the point. That was his intention. He does simple sites with good photography and a simple colour scheme (charcoals). A personal opinion on his site is fine but a lot of people think it works for him and I say it does. The photography is implemented as a main focus into a simple site.
I'd say it works.
well, thats the problem- it comes down to a form over function thing. it looks good, but when you try to "use" the site, you see it has deep flaws and it ultimatly works against it.
heh- kinda like that south park episode where mr. garrison created the "It" :D



Sam, the logo is a transparent gif. Does it also seem too bright on the black version? Cause that's the same gif. Just to make sure... I can always change the colors 'cause I still have the Extreme 3D file. I can even make them made of metal or pizza if I wanted to.


Well, its not the actualy brightness of the logo- its the over all brightness of the site. generally in web design, you wanna stay away from black as a BG color. stay with white is my advice there.
i'd say your logo's biggest flaw is that its just really innapropriate and BIG!
its more sesame street than video games. it also doesn't work within itself to make it visually interesting. you can still have a friendly logo, but make it relate to your comic.

Arial... Will do!


like i said, it doesn't HAVE to be arial. thats just a default font everyone has that looks pretty good.


Graphic links - Initially I was gonna, but then I forgot. Thanks for the reminder.


yeah, you can definatly get away with useing hyper text links, but i think graphics links would in general be more appropriate.


The BG image - This has always been a problem for me... I obviously don't want a plain color, but I don't want it to be too many either (now that I know that's bad) Attached are 2 possible alternate ones I made recently.


I would go with a plain color. the thing you've got going now is really distracting. heh- think aboot it- 97% of websites have just a color as a BG...


Lined Tables - Are there any other kind? (Doesn't actually know HTML)


I think you can just specify the link width as 0, or not even have it in the HTML code. look at my comics page on my site. i've got that set up in tables. the comic, the nav buttons and then the vote buttons/e-mail link.
like i said, i'm fairly certian you just have to not specify the line width or something. can't really recall off the top of my head.


And what about other pages on the site? Not just the main one, but the comics, the archives page, the vote page, the software page, (I know the history page's BG is horrid), Links & Fan Art.
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well, there isn't really anything wrong w/ the archives page. just the font choice again. maybe think about putting a table in the page and left aligning everything inside the table.

actually, looking at the rest of the pages, they all have a theme. which ins't a bad thing, per se, because the themes work for the respected characters.
i like that, though. it makes the site more enjoyable.

however-
the best advice i can give you, if you want to use BG images, its that you organize everything into a table or style sheet, and just have the BG image behind the table. that way it wouldn't be as distracting. and on the comics page, DON'T use the BG you're using now. thats the absoultly most distracting thing about the site.
i'd have to see it, but i'm guessing that if you did that, the theme thing would be able to stay and not hurt the site.

also, on the forum page, the pic of protoman was the only one where he wasn't in the top left hand corner. its a small thing, but i'd fix it.

I'm gonna center more of the characters... like Tails, so Proto will look just fine where he is. Game & Watch's BG is too hard to maintain & I'm sure it looks like crap on anything other than 1024x768... So I'm gonna try to use someone else...

Plain BG? Hmm... Obviously not white, or black... But what color to choose? Perhaps 3 colors... One for the correct time, 1 for the future (there currently) & one for the past(yet to come)... I'll go with Red, Green & Blue, but customized shades of these colors that I like... I already know what Blue I'm gonna use.

By Arial I know you just mean a common sans serif font like Arial... I'll look at a few, but Arial seems likely.

People have complained about the History & Links pages... I've figured out what I'll do for History. An easy fix that'll look great. Link's links, however... That's the 4th crappy BG I made for that page! It was lost hills... It was a dungeon room... A cave... All crap. I'm sure it'll come to me eventually... Then he can get out of the lost woods(current).

Hows that now? A few pages need to be updated yet, but I mean the first comic, latest, Archives, index & History for now...

It's wrong. Quite wrong.

For color theory, read this document (http://www.webwhirlers.com/colors/combining.asp) and take it to heart. After that, use this excellent tool (http://www.pixy.cz/apps/barvy/index-en.html) to generate a color scheme and use that.

I'd highly recommend moving your layout to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). It'll simplify the layout and make it extremely easy to make changes sitewide (after you've migrated everything you have to a centralized style file). There's a shitload of tutorials on the web to see for this. A good starting point for *any* web design enterprise is Zeldman.com (http://zeldman.com) and most importantly, A list Apart (http://www.alistapart.com/index.html).