Business Website.....

[markwales]

Feedback

Good
Size of the website title on the page
slogan 'set yourself free'
Links don't change colour after you've clicked on them

Things I would consider changing
The main page is a different colour to the rest of the site
The pictures need condensing and sharpened
There is a need to scroll right to reach the far right of the page, I would try to make it all fit on one page.
I personally would go for a plain white background in the main info area of the pages for a business site.
缯DIV> showing under the title

Other
Some text missing from the 'In one year our volunteers have....' section....it seems to move around a bit
An inch gap of light blue between the links and the main info area.

A VERY good start for a novice Merl....it took me 2 months to get a homepage online!!

If you need any ideas or info, just yell as there's a chunk of web coding ability on the forum.

Cracking start, work to do, but we all know you're more than capable !! :wink

[GlosRFC]

A good start there Merlin.

First snag I saw is that the navigation buttons across the top don't line up correctly on my 19" monitor. I suspect this might be something to do with BORDER-RIGHT: style tag you've used. They're fine up until Group Travel (although that one does bleed out of the available browser space but then the next five don't align properly underneath. Why Volunteer is lined up on the next row directly underneath Adventure Travel followed by Brazil Info and then Brazil Forum is off the screen. Contact Us and Travel Shop are then aligned to the left on the third row.

The Foundation button is also vertically bigger than the other buttons.

As Mark says, the jpgs need a bit of work. I suspect that they're been enlarged to fit either the dimensions you've expressed in your HTML code, or you've enlarged smaller pictures. I'd either consider alternative photo's of the size/dimensions you require or else use the original smaller ones.

The vertical yellow bar on the right is off-putting. Ideally your navigation bar should butt up against the right margin. I tend to agree with Mark's view about the colour scheme although I understand why you've chosen those colours. Unfortunately, the national colours of Brazil are probably the worse two you could've chosen to use from an aesthetic viewpoint. Blue text on yellow is probably the second most contrasting colour combo's after black on yellow. The human eye also finds it more difficult to distinguish between blue shades than any other with the exception of red. For some reason you've gone for a more orangey-yellow colour as your background. I'd suggest changing it to standard yellow FFFF00 or perhaps a more subtle shade like FFFF66. The later option will also allow you to mute the blue text slightly from Royal Blue 0000FF to Light Blue 3399FF or Light Bright Blue 0066FF.

On the subject of a navigation bar, a casual user would automatically assume that the text in the right-hand blue block is for navigating. Especially as it's underlined. The same goes for the underlined text in the main body of the page. Users will expect any underlined text to be a link.

Seriously, do reconsider the font you've used. Comic Sans is fine for printing but, on the web, its use singles a site out as "amateur" no matter how professional the design behind it. Also remember that most Mac users (and quite a few Windows users) probably won't have that font installed so it'll default to their standard font anyway. The easiest way around this is to stick to the standard fonts for your text and embed unusual fonts into your graphics.
If you do want to consider different fonts for your buttons then check out www.fontsnthings.com or www.acidfonts.com

You might want to think about putting the contact footer into the blue area at the bottom of the page rather than having it in a stand-alone blue box. That way, you can utilise all of the yellow area as an inline frame should you wish. And slap a date and a copyright symbol © (can usually be produced by holding the ALT key and tapping 0169 on your number keypad). By doing so you're stating that the information is yours in the event of a dispute.

Is there a reason why the remaining pages have got a completely different colour scheme from the main page? Ideally you should be looking to create a complete "look and feel" that extends across the entire site which would further enhance the professionalism.

The rollover buttons on the remaining pages are much better the text-based ones on the main page so I'd consider using them there too, although all of them resize automatically whenever the browser window is resized. That throws out the layout if you're not careful. My advice would be to use two graphics that swap when the user rolls over them. Dreamweaver (and most reasonable WYSIWYG editors) are able to add the javascript to your HTML page automatically if you go down this road.

As Mark says though it's a great start so I hope all this feedback isn't seen as negative. I'm sure if you ask nicely there are lots of people here that can rustle up some good graphics for you to use too such as navigation buttons and a logo. Keep plugging away at it.

[Merlin]

Mark and Glos,

Thank you very much for the feedback....I really apreciate it - thank you.....

As you know (and can see too).....I am a complete beginner at this......but I will see how far I can get with it.......

Part of my problem is I keep changing things.....then cant figure out what I did....and you know what happens from there....You end up with something far removed from what you started with.....

Colours are my main problem at the mo I think(in terms of deciding what to run with).....and you have both pointed that out...............

Cheers, Merl.

[Win2Win]

You've just discovered the basic rule in coding web pages; "It's a pain in the "

If you go here http://scriptlance.com/webmasters/

You can actually get people to do you top class banners/logos for around $10. In fact they will even code a whole site for around $100. You put up the basic version as you have done, and tell them you just want it similar, but more professional. They all bid against each other. Obviously Asian programmers are much cheaper to use than Western, and you can see by the bids the way the rip-off West works.

Good first go though, you've already taken 99.9% of my customers away to work on a local cross border opium trail

[sparkyminer]

Part of my problem is I keep changing things.....then cant figure out what I did....and you know what happens from there....You end up with something far removed from what you started with.....

Cheers, Merl.

Merl, I know absolutely nuffink about this web designing malarkey, I do, however, know that after years of setting machinery, switchgear and PLC programs up, before you change owt, write the original settings down, it seems an obvious statement but it don't half help when you try and change something back to the original a day later. It can be a pain in the to do, but it's woth it. Cut and paste works well if it pastes ok into some sort of understandable text. (Is understandable a word? ) Anyway I hope I'm not telling my granny how to suck eggs. Best of luck.
P.S. The site looked ok to me!

[Merlin]

Thanks Boss........fancy the Sea Horse Project............

Your right of course Spark........Wish I had done IT now......and not Philosophy.....

Thanks guys...

[Merlin]

You can actually get people to do you top class banners/logos for around $10. In fact they will even code a whole site for around $100. You put up the basic version as you have done, and tell them you just want it similar, but more professional. They all bid against each other. Obviously Asian programmers are much cheaper to use than Western, and you can see by the bids the way the rip-off West works.

you've already taken 99.9% of my customers away to work on a local cross border opium trail

Decided to go this route Keith - thanks.......will get the general layout prepared..........add my content.........then will almost certainly need to ¨professionalise¨ it with finishing touches......

Work on a local cross border opium trail.........Gives a new meaning to the ¨The Poppy Appeal¨

[Win2Win]

I used to help with the poppy appeal. Half for them, half me for me!! They're dead, I'm still a living war pensioner, whats the problem?

[samantha1303]

Hi Merl hows this going, I just tried clicking on a couple of the links but nothing happened, are you still working at it?

[Merlin]

Hi Sam,

I wouldnt say working on it.... struggling with it is more like it....

I am at present looking for a suitable template which I can use for the whole site.....Only thing is I keep changing my mind..........I have 3 weeks left of my stated 1 month target to get something workable and acceptable up and running.......not panicking yet.........I am trying to fit this project around everything else - where sods law has ensured that I am busier than usual.......

As a note I have several pages completed , however, I havent linked them yet to the Main Page.......

Merl.