Website header - need your opinions

[Parker]

Hey there, well to start off, me and another mate off this forum (Callan) decided to start a new website dedicated to bringing users Fireworks tutorials, we couldn't think of a name at the time, and I was at my dads house which had no internet, and I knew he would make an awesome site since his 110% better then me at this shizzle. I took over only my laptop and just dedicated to go with 'Fireworks Studios', I had every page "Fireworks Studios :: Your #1 resource for Fireworks!", but then just decided to go with header.php, footer.php, subheader.php etc. I then just used a news system I created for my old site as a place holder to see how things could/would/should look like, it was shit but got the job done and so then I thought I would just make the whole site SQL just to do something different then I usually do, so the whole sites done in SQL, the only thing that doesn't come from a database is the 'Random tutorial:", the words "Search..." in the search form, and also the drop down navigation. The whole site is pure CSS, PHP and SQL, and to be specific, you probably already guessed (if your even bothering reading this) it uses a MySQL backend, enough about the history lesson, your just here for images :

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/4133/previe3wwnewsbz1.jpg

File is 1.08mb and I didn't want to change it to JPG and set the quality to less then 100% otherwise the scanlines would look shit basically.

Only need good and bad aspects on the Random tutorial section and anything above that, eg search box, navigation, banner etc.

 

[danse]

Ok so few comments.

Postive:
I really, really like the color template much, the menu ( no dropped down screen ) and the logo are clear, readable, well thought and not overdone. Search bar is pretty nice too. Links are fine.

Negative ( by this i don't mean negative what i rather mean things that means improvment imo ):
I'm against fully vertical oriented templates, you need to broke it someway else the more you look at it the more wider they get. For some reason the headers with logos on center position bothers me it looks fine but i still catching my eye and drawing it from the text. Footer, imo it should be as wide as main template or as content if you are not sure what more you could put in the footer make their an additional simple main menu. Double search in the search bar leave one search and instead of seccond one make some button.
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I know it might look that negativs are more than positive but i didn't write them all cause you know parker what's good.

 

[TheAJ]

awsomeness

 

[Parker]

Ok so few comments.

Postive:
I really, really like the color template much, the menu ( no dropped down screen ) and the logo are clear, readable, well thought and not overdone. Search bar is pretty nice too. Links are fine.

Negative ( by this i don't mean negative what i rather mean things that means improvment imo ):
I'm against fully vertical oriented templates, you need to broke it someway else the more you look at it the more wider they get. For some reason the headers with logos on center position bothers me it looks fine but i still catching my eye and drawing it from the text. Footer, imo it should be as wide as main template or as content if you are not sure what more you could put in the footer make their an additional simple main menu. Double search in the search bar leave one search and instead of seccond one make some button.
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I know it might look that negativs are more than positive but i didn't write them all cause you know parker what's good.

Thanks for the quick feedback, I thought most of the feedback would of been like one or two word answers but your post really helps alot!, The colour coordination on the site isn't much, to be honest as I said in probably all of my threads relating to websites layouts, I lack colour coordination, so basically I usually just go with black/white/shades of grey, but I'm only experimenting with just basic colours orange, white, black and I'm actually surprised you like it

I'll start off on the navigation, it uses the :hover pseudo function with CSS (the navigation was the only thing I didn't code myself, cssplay.co.uk since it was a simple concept I wasn't planning on keeping it.

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I only needed something relatively basic for the time-being and it was the same navigation system that Callan sent me along with the real pngtuts layout preview, the name is on the lower-level a rip of psdtuts (which is an awesome site for not only Photoshop users but also Fireworks users, aside from the really advanced Photo manipulation, Fireworks can do a whole lot of it), but we thought that it can give us a head start and gain alot of active users.

I kind of tried to not center the banner by keeping the text (Fireworks Studios) to the right of the site, other then that thanks for your comment, below the 'Random tutorial' bar was just a place holder, I wasn't planning on keeping that just needed something to fill space for time-being.

One negative that I've come across is that it isn't IE friendly, whilst I use Firefox for internet related stuff, I do check IE to see what my websites would look like if someone viewed it in IE, just the navigation would be the first mishap since IE (the one I use - not sure about other versions) doesn't support the :hover pseudo function, I would only be able to view the home page, tutorials page and downloads page if I was only using IE, it doesn't alway's work out and I'll have to use an alternative such as Javascript for the hover function.. Another thing is the #transparent colour that I rely on heavily.

Thanks for your post!

 

[Hammad]

You sound like you're on a high today.:scared: Nice template, although the colours could to with a bit of tweaking, some areas don't look appealing.

 

[Parker]

You sound like you're on a high today.:scared: Nice template, although the colours could to with a bit of tweaking, some areas don't look appealing.

Which bit of the header doesn't look appealing?

 

[Callan]

Wow, this is completely different to what i started making lol, although ive been sick in hospital for a few days my site hasnt really improved at all :\

 

[Parker]

Wow, this is completely different to what i started making lol, although ive been sick in hospital for a few days my site hasnt really improved at all :\

Yeah, I like yours better since mines all over the place, just wanted to see what I could do

 

[Moogly]

Its not too bad man, the only thing I can think of right now that bothers me is the navigation, its next to the banner, don't you think it would look better 'under' the banner, and the footer looks crappy being so small, even if you keep the small text it has at least make it longer it would help. I would criticize more but I'm sleepy as hell, and nice stuff, you better tell me when the sites up and you guys better put up loads of tutz, cuz I'm a FW guy ;P everyones all up photoshops ass, its annoying lol, anyways yeah nice.

 

[KikiKANNIBAL]

Someone needs to check there unread message's.
But its nice.

 

[HydroBenZ]

Lolz, 24 messages D:

On-Topic: Looks nice overall. I like the colors aswell. Looks overall great!

 

[Parker]

Its not too bad man, the only thing I can think of right now that bothers me is the navigation, its next to the banner, don't you think it would look better 'under' the banner, and the footer looks crappy being so small, even if you keep the small text it has at least make it longer it would help. I would criticize more but I'm sleepy as hell, and nice stuff, you better tell me when the sites up and you guys better put up loads of tutz, cuz I'm a FW guy ;P everyones all up photoshops ass, its annoying lol, anyways yeah nice.

Meh under the banner is too original in my opinion.
And it's only the header that I want evaluating not the footer/content box etc, I haven't even started on a decent one yet.

Lolz, 24 messages D:

On-Topic: Looks nice overall. I like the colors aswell. Looks overall great!

Thanks, I might keep the colour scheme but change the style(s).

 

[HydroBenZ]

Yea, keep the colors, they match with the name Fireworks Studios and the forum

 

[Life.Life]

Its aight, just fix those shiny lines on the top there. They don't look all that great.

 

[Parker]

Its aight, just fix those shiny lines on the top there. They don't look all that great.

hehe that was the one thing I did like :
ok I'll see what other people if they post.

Any comments on the site background, I was thinking of removing the scan lines from it?

Will upload a new screenshot of site soon, just waiting for net to reset (2 more days

 

[Callan]

(its the one on the right)

thats what its at so far (for my design anyway, just got it to work with wordpress and yeah.

Not entirely finished theres still lots to do.

 

[ChewBecca]

imo i tihnk it looks really nice. although i would make the text stand out a bit better, i cant really read it (i have eye problems sometimes lol)

apart from that its aweesoememe

 

[Parker]

Just as an update to Callans post; if you want to check out the updated version it's at pngtuts.com, could you please tell us your thoughts on the layout; would be extremely helpful to find out what you like and what you don't like about it.