ChiliPie.co.uk

[chilipie]

Chili Pie (http://www.chilipie.co.uk/)

Been playing around in PS today, and came up with this. I think the footer looks a bit weak, but I don't really know why. I'm going to have a go setting this up as a template in WP later, so I'm gonna be up way past my bedtime :p .

Any suggestions or design faults?

WP Users - You know on the template file where you have the include at the top? If I include that file into index.php (in the root directory which is above WP), can I then use the calendar, archives, categories and links functions? If I didn't explain that well enough, just ask :).

[tsguitar2004]

A quick glance and...

I don't like the font for the top navigation. It doesn't seem to fit with the other fonts on the page. Maybe make it the same serif font (just plain, old times) as your H3 links on the side.

I like the header image, but maybe bring down the opacity on it a little. See how that looks.

In the footer, can you bring back some elements of the header image there? Just fade it like you do in the left sidebar.

That's all for now! The rest is pretty standard!
-ts

[mindlessLemming]

WP Users - You know on the template file where you have the include at the top? If I include that file into index.php (in the root directory which is above WP), can I then use the calendar, archives, categories and links functions? If I didn't explain that well enough, just ask :).

Yes, you can. Sorry I don't have time to review your design/code atm; hopefully later :)

[gsnedders]

You've got some nice links there :)

Page looks a bit empty on this large screen, I'd extend the content/nav divs and move the footer down to the bottom...

[Graft-Creative]

13??????// :eek:

[ronaldb66]

Ollie,

Even if I ignore your age, I can only say: impressive job.
I'm not much of a graphic designer myself, so you're already way past me there; coding-wise, there's not much to add, either.

On the design side, there may be room for some refinements; the basic design is solid, I like the polarised crystal effect in the masthead; maybe you can try some shimmering effect, or subtle striations in different directions to emphasize that.
Furthermore, you might want to consider a border effect on either side of the page itself to separate it a bit more from the background, and maybe some adornments on the various headers.

Oh well, just my 2 cents...

[chilipie]

ts - Changed the nav font, toned down the header a wee bit and changed the footer image so it's like the sidebar background.

mindless - Ta :) .

Error - Bribery :p (Did you know your site hasn't been working for at least a week? :eek: ). Hopefully it'll reach the bottom of your oversized screen when I add some content ;) .

G-C - :D .

ronald - Way too kind :cool: . I've added a border to the body (you can see it down the sides of the wrapper.

I've also lightened the body slightly, and lightened the mouseover background colour for the nav (#bbb down to #ccc), as well as making the nav text colour #444 normally and #000 on hover.

Thanks for the tips everyone :thumbsup: .

[gsnedders]

Error - Bribery :p (Did you know your site hasn't been working for at least a week? :eek: ). Hopefully it'll reach the bottom of your oversized screen when I add some content ;) .

Now I'm just waiting for the new DNS to change...

[chilipie]

From what I've seen on iCapture (http://www.danvine.com/icapture/) the site's gone crazy. The links on the left are massive, and the text doesn't seem to want to appear. Can any Mac users confirm this for me?

Thanks,
Ollie.

[rmedek]

Here's a screenshot of FF 1.0 on os x...

The only suggestion I can make is (and bear with me, this is a purely personal rant ;)) is that it's kind of the same site as every other site I see. It's got a header, it's a fixed width layout spanning from top to bottom, content and links in a multi-column format, and a footer with the requisite xhtml/css links.

Of course, I design sites like this, too :D but I am antsy to see some cool, fresh design somewhere... especially for the usual blog/web designer/portfolio sites I see here all the time.

Other than that, it's a good start.

[gsnedders]

From what I've seen on iCapture (http://www.danvine.com/icapture/) the site's gone crazy. The links on the left are massive, and the text doesn't seem to want to appear. Can any Mac users confirm this for me?

Thanks,
Ollie.

Links huge, text at bottom.

[chilipie]

Mama mia!

How come it looks Ok for Richard but not for you Error?

I've got a feeling it's got something to do with the lists down the side - I think there's something wrong with that and the CSS. Does anyone know what the actual problem is?

[mindlessLemming]

Accesskeys can be more trouble than they're worth. Have a gander at this, it's well worthwhile :cool: http://wats.ca/articles/accesskeyconflicts/37
... but it's not all bad news, one day we'll be doing this instead: http://wats.ca/articles/thefutureofaccesskeys/66

[gsnedders]

How come it looks Ok for Richard but not for you Error?

He was using Firefox, and I am using Safari :)

[chilipie]

Andrew - Good articles :) *throws accesskeys into bin*.

Geoffrey - Never occured to me you might be using different browsers :p .

Just had a look in IE, and the last two links are tiny. This is definately something to do with my XHTML, not WP's.

[chilipie]

The XHTML is fixed - at least it validates now. Just had another look with iCapture, and the links are still massive; it's got to be my CSS which is causing the problem (http://chilipie.co.uk/style.css).

Ollie.

[chilipie]

iCapture seems to be broken now :( , so I can't tell if my changes to the CSS make any difference. Also, I just validated my CSS, and it doesn't seem to like it. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it though. StyleSheet (http://www.chilipie.co.uk/style.css)

[gsnedders]

Safari still has the same problem...

[Jalenack]

hey! i believe i've spotted your safari problem:

its all within these two blocks...you've got an error thats killing u..check the validator:



#side ul li {
list-style-type: none;
padding: 0.5em 0.5em 1.3em 0.5em;
margin: 0 10px;
text-align: center;
color: #666;
font: 1em Georgia, Times, sans-serif;
}

#side ul li ul li {
list-style-type: none;
padding: 0;
margin: 0 15px;
text-align: left;
color: #333;
font: 0.7em/1.3em Helvetica, Arial, verdana, sans-serif;
}

ol#commentlist {
list-style-type: none;
}



I messed with your font size ems alittle...see ems are a percentage of the their container...so you had everything become oversized then become small...i think safari just saw your brackets error and exploded it...try fiddling with your ems so they aren't so dramatic and you still get the same font size...any idea what i'm talking about?

[chilipie]

Hey thanks Jalenack :thumbsup: !

That also explains why my #commentlist stylings weren't working. Honestly, I'm such a muppet sometimes... :rolleyes:

[Graft-Creative]

Just a thought Ollie,

But why not have the left-sidbar links as a definition list?

The link text and URL could be the dt with the dd being a wee bit of text about the site you're linking to?

It would just make more sense to me by giving some context to the links.

[chilipie]

Mainly because the links code is generated by WordPress - and to be honest, I've got no idea how to change it :o .

[Itchybug]

(Constructive Criticism, Not Meant To Sound Harsh):

I would left-align the list headers on the left just like the links are. The way it is now it looks misaligned.

The buttons in the top navigation bar misalign on rollover, they stick out below the bar and they also look flat.

The background at the top looks like you just installed Photoshop for the first time and you've discovered the filter menu. Any serious designers would shrink away from such a blah background.

Overall, a boring site design, it looks very amateurish even if it is up to code.

Itchy