Software Webdesign

Update: Site has been long finished and handed off.
See final version here: http://slots-bowl.dk/

 

I spot a lot of spelling mistakes!


I do believe the header of the page (the wooden part) should be smaller. It seems a bit too dominating at the moment.

Other than that i like it

 

Looks good!

 

That's because you guys never learned how to spell correctly. Unfortunately we did a half-ass job at schooling you when we occupied you

I'll keep the size thing in mind.

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Thank you shadow12

 

I agree with Smilodon about the header part (im not getting involved in national relations ) I would either reduce it in length slightly, or you could increase the size of the photostrip to compensate (if you do not want to have to move/resize the logo). I hope that helps! It is really nice though, clean and simple.

 

Thanks I'm glad you say it's clean and simple because I had a feeling that the graphic language was cluttered. Phew!
I don't think I'll increase the size of the photostrip as I really don't like the look of it
The main part (the big yellow area with just text atm) is variable in size so it will eventually grow bigger if they put in a lot of text and pictures.

I'm still contemplating on the thought of the top being too big. Thanks for the C&C

 

That is fair enough, also, just another thing to bear in mind... is that i am currently viewing on my laptop which is 1400x900 (yep, that is only 900) so I may be a little biased! Giving it another look over, I might be inclined to try out the toolbar with a slightly larger/bolder font, just to make it more obvious (i am assuming it is going to be the main form of navigation).

 

Something doesn't quite sit right with me with those tabs. Can't say quite what... maybe the angles? I don't really care for the bottom "plain text" area either... just not enough going on with all of that in the header. Easy to read for sure, but it doesn't have enough to draw your eyes to that area even when looking for that info.

And how will this go in terms of fixed/fluid width? If it's fixed, what are you planning to do outside of what's visible, and if it's fluid then how do you plan to deal with the non-repeatable line of images in the second "row"?

I really like the concept, but agree that there are a couple things that keep it from being 100% of what it could be.

(as an aside, what do you charge?)

 

Good C&C there. thanks. You hit a couple of the things that I was aware of somewhere in the back of my mind but still looking for
I'm not 100% on the tabs either but don't know where to take them...
The bottom I'm considering a texture or something as background. The bottom black has already got a slight overhaul but I'll probably redo it in order to make it "finish off" what was started in the top part.

Width is completely fixed. There will be a black/grey background of sorts that is yet to be figured out
Height is variable in the yellow "main" content part.
The "line of images" is going to be flash where the pictures will scroll calmly by.

Oh yeah and the "plain text" part is going to be pictures and headlines and stuff. I've only just copy/pasted text from the webpage to have something there
The site is built around a CMS and I have to make it completely simple for the owner to edit content.

(I have to ask what your interest is since you ask?) (and perhaps keep something like that in PMs?)

 

Yeah for widescreen laptops there is not much space left for actual content. The only thing that bothers me just a little is already mentioned dominance of the header. Besides previous suggestions to make it a bit smaller I would also like to see a bit more pizazz in the content area. Now the highly decorative top area seems too different and disconnected with the actual content. Maybe a gradient or some kind of transition after the image strip, or a very very light texture as a background for the content.

 

Thanks for the feedback Cheap. Pizazz? I'm considering sizing the whole thing down to 80% or something as most would then see it like I've designed it on the mac with the higher dpi. On the PC I think it's looking okay but could be sized down without loss.
The gradient (Or something) to tie the areas together is a great idea. I'll see what I can come up with otherwise it'll probably be a light or very uniform texture. But I definitely feel they need to be tied together closer.
Next step will probably be putting it into a screenshot of a browser so I can make background etc. Then I'll be looking at tying the parts together and perhaps see if I can't improve header and the tabs.

Thanks!

 

If those tabs were bigger, and the bottom area with the hours seems empty, but I really do love the "Slots Bowl" part, very nicely done. The pictures do add a nice touch. The hardwood background looks mint.

 

I'd make the header a bit smaller, loose a lot of those shadows (especially on the images in that banner, they look all dark and depressing.)
Perhaps make the text on those tabs a darker shade of the tab colour. Also make em a little bit smaller (and again, loose a bit of the drop shadow). Perhaps put a slight gradient on the tab. Lighter at the top, darker near the bottom.

The navigation strip below the tabs doesn't look that nice. It's quite small compared to the tabs. I'd make it a bit taller and make the gradient less extreme and give it a bit of shine. Knock back the font colour to a light grey too. It's a bit too in-your-face bright at the moment. (same with the footer)

The content though looks like a side thought. Stick some columns in there and put some info on the left and on the right. Give the opening times a nice background and a good big header. These are probably the most important bit of information on the site, so make it obvious.

Finally, your going to have to think about what to do on bigger screens. As it is there is going to be a lot of pale yellow which isn't too attractive. It seems quite bare. I'm not a bowler but when I think about it I think of the shoes, the balls the pins and the wooden lanes with black arrows. Go get some stock photography of some shoes for example. Isolate them, and hang them by their laces over the right hand side of the navigation. Put some balls resting on the footer. Use a wooden texture closer to what a bowling alley looks like. I'd even drop the tabs and use those black arrows from the lanes to point to some simple buttons.

Hope that helps.

 

I dont know if this is what you need OleJ, (or you may already know about it!) but it made my life a hell of a lot easier.... http://browsershots.org/ allows you to automatically test/preview your webdesign (providing you have live code/site) in pretty much all the browsers out there.

 

Sorry for the long pause before I replied. I've been busy with the studies and haven't had time to get back to it.

Thank you for all your c&c. I've tried to listen and see how to best get around some of the suggestions.
To give you a better idea of how it will look I've created an html-page with the image.

See updated version here: http://slots-bowl.dk/uploads/test.html

What has changed:
- Removed and minimized a lot of drop shadows.
- Downsized header and logo
- Changed color of tricolore menu text to a (much) darker of the button color
- Added gradient in tricolore buttons
- Resized the two black bars
- Changed text color to light in the two black bars
- Redone shine/gradient in the two black bars
- Removed shadows around pictures and changed height of the pic bar
- Changed bg bar on logo due to resize

I've tried at least 100 different gradients and backgrounds for the content area and just can't get it to work so any (visual) suggestions are very highly appreciated.

Again I'd like to point out: CONTENT AREA STYLING AND LAYOUT WILL NOT LOOK LIKE IT DOES IN THE PREVIEW.
I don't know how to program it into columns for the CMS they use and there is no chance of educating them into knowing how to set things up pretty on the content side... How to get around this I don't know so any tips n tricks are very welcomed.

I will need to add some borders or something to it now that I see it in the browser.

Any further feedback is still very welcomed. My friend has already accepted the design so now it just a matter of the last tweaks to it.

Thank you

 

Looks good.
I did like the pictures better when they were a bit darker. I guess that is just a matter of taste, though.

 

I think the header takes too much space. if you view it on a laptop and have some things installed in the browser toolbar you can hardly see much from the website content.

 

Hi kesa. Thanks for the feedback but the site was handed off a while back. You may visit http://www.slots-bowl.dk if you wish to see what it ended up looking like. Mind you I have no influence on contents

 

iconography! i think you need a captivating logo or something!

 

Very much agreed. I've been trying to explain the owner of the place that he needs a good logo but as with everything else it takes time to get there. We've discussed the lack of a graphic profile and I will probably get the honor of creating it in due time
Usually I like to have a meaningful logo and have that be the starting point of the entire profile but this time I think I'm working backwards I'm a bit afraid of how it will all turn out *fingers crossed*