How is this site?

[Ryltar]

Hi, working on another site and wanted to get some intelligent opinions of it.
www.ravenengineering.net (http://www.ravenengineering.net)
Comment on anything, because any input would be great.

Thanks,
Ryltar :thumbsup:

[chilipie]

You've definately got something there - I like the layout, but it could do with a bit more colour to spice it up. The main graphic is extremely dodgy; looks kinda like something done in MS Paint. Try recreating the logo in a program that can use vector shapes, just to cut down on some of the fuzziness/pixelation.

The "keep-up" menu is extremely annoying, and unaccessible. It would be OK(ish) if it moved faster, but it moves extremely slowly, so if I scroll to the bottom of the page, and then zoom back to the top, the menu is no longer there. The coding isn't exactly brilliant, and you have several critical errors, including the fact that there is no DOCTYPE, and no character encoding (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.ravenengineering.net/main.html).

I think it's pretty good if it's one of the first sites you've done - it's a lot better than some of the sites I started out doing :o . Browse the net to look for ideas - steal bits and pieces - a colour scheme from one place, layout from the next, type-setting from the next. Remember: Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/copy-great-designers-steal).

[Ryltar]

Thanks chilipie, I just started really getting into this so you help is greatly appricated. I really never did like the floating menu either, but the teachers do. And I will get that main logo better. What program do you recommend for logo creation?

[chilipie]

You could try any number of programs: Illustrator, PhotoShop, PaintShopPro, GIMP (GIMP is the only free one, but you can get trial versions of the others).

[Ryltar]

I used GIMP before. I think that is what i will use. Cool, thanks again!

[Graft-Creative]

The circle logo and the NW in the header look great - I'd really try and focus on that, make that part of it prominent in the header, make it look more like a sketchy engineering diagram and make the other text less prominent, and I think it would be a winner.

Also, I like the drop shadows in the right column, been done before, but still a nice touch.

As for the html: it's very dated for a *new* site.

Kindest Regards,

Gary

[Ryltar]

Graft-Creative - Dated html? What do you mean? I new to this HTML, so...

chilipie - I now have it down to 3 errors

[chilipie]

Graft-Creative - Dated html? What do you mean? I new to this HTML, so...

He means that there are newer ways to acheive the same thing (with less code).


chilipie - I now have it down to 3 errors
Well done :thumbsup: . However, you still need a DTD, and character encoding - those are very important. To see some DOCTYPES, have a look at http://snippets.geoffers.uni.cc/, or Google(R) for DOCTYPES.

[JamieR]

I don't see a Document Type Definition (DTD) in your html. Also you need character encoding (as Ollie said).....Add these then you can get on to cleaning up your html (hopefully xhtml when you're done) :thumbsup:

[Ryltar]

Thanks for all you help. Yah, definately will add that DTD soon and work on XHTML conversion.

[JamieR]

ok, glad we have been help to you.