Site design

[cooleo100d]

Hi,

I am making a website for my High School. It is coming out ok, but it looks kind of plain. I am a good programmer, but I am not a great designer. I am not sure how to make the site look cooler. Please check it out at: http://www.gamescool.com/SHS/index.html

Any tips on how I can make it look nicer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help,
~David

[ronaldb66]

If you want it to look "cooler", use less red and more blue... :D

Nah, seriously: your tables are showing in the form of those hideous borders; you could start by getting rid of those. While you're at it, look into abandoning table layouts in favour of CSS layouts, or at least lose as much of them as possible: one table with one row and two cells is all that's needed for a two column layout.
The main content area doesn't really need a background treatment; you could set apart the menu area with some separator or background; look into the Faux Columns (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fauxcolumns/) technique for inspiration. What? Check out the CSS Zen Garden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) designs for inspiration!!! All CSS, no tables!

Those two isolated images sure don't look cool; try to integrate them, see if you can turn the washed-out school image into a full width masthead; reduce the darkness in the title somewhat, and be careful with strong reds.

Also, stay away from centered alignment; left or right alignment works better in most cases, and centering is the hallmark of the unexperienced designer.

Lastly, your coding practices need work: the font element really has no place anywhere anymore; learn (http://htmldog.com/guides/cssbeginner/) CSS (http://htmldog.com/guides/cssintermediate/). Now (http://htmldog.com/guides/cssadvanced/).

[chilipie]

If you want it to look "cooler", use less red and more blue... :D
Heh... Took me a while to figure that one out :D .

[cooleo100d]

Hi,

I know CSS, but the people I am making the site for do not. I can easily create the layout with css, but they will not be able to edit it, so the site would basicaly be useless. The people maintaning the site will be using front page to edit it, and I don't believe that front page will do a good job of editing the css. But thanks for the suggestion about the borders.

~David

[Scootertaj]

Yea I have found Front Page to be very useful while coding HTML but it doesn't do anything for CSS. It allows you to link it really well and in my opinion it helps you make HTML really well. By the way did you use Fireworks to make any of the header or anything?

[cooleo100d]

Hi,

No, I actually used Adobe Photoshop.

~David

[rmedek]

I know CSS, but the people I am making the site for do not. I can easily create the layout with css, but they will not be able to edit it, so the site would basicaly be useless.
If the people who are maintaining it don't know enough to change the content in the HTML, why are they maintaining it?!

I don't understand why the Web has to be the only technology out there that caters to the least common denominator. Once more, I present "If the Web was the Auto Industry":


"Hey, new car?"

"Yeah, it's brand new! Low, sleek coupe, great paint, look at those wheels!"

"What kind of engine does it have?"

"Oh, um, it doesn't have one of those. You pedal it."

"You what?! Why?"

"Well, my neighbor wants to fix and maintain my car-- he's always wanted to be a mechanic-- but he doesn't know how to work on an engine, so I got a car that you pedal. Makes sense, right?"

"Ah, sure. You need a ride?"

[cooleo100d]

Hi,

They are maintaining it because they are in charge of the group in the school that works on the website. It is a highschool website, and I am a freshman. Maybe they'll let us maintain it, so I'll go with a CSS based layout instead of tables.

~David

[harbingerOTV]

Not to take this way off subject as it kind of is on subject...

If you build the sites layout with CSS and leave defined places where the owner can lay in thier own HTML, why does it matter if the owner knows CSS or not?

I only maintain one site that is not my own (as my own suck beyond suck). Due to the frequency that some information needs to be updated on thier site I am laying the pages in such a way that they can add text and/or tables into each page as needed. The whole site is "structured" in CSS and the main content that differs on each page is table based.

[cooleo100d]

Hi,

Well that's what I'll have to do. They'll just have sections that they can edit, which is just content, and not the actual layout.

By the way, I started the CSS version at http://gamescool.com/SHS/index_2.html

~David