two caveats - one, I know the logo graphic in the top right corner is a disaster. it’s a scan from a business card - they will send me a proper vector logo and it will replace the pixelly gray horror currently displayed.
two - as you can see, most of the content is still missing, the thing is full of lorem ipsum and it really only has textual content - images, maps etc will come later. this is just the skeleton… also, I know it’s all in Foreign… sorry 'bout that…
what I’m most interested in is how quickly it loads - so anyone out there with dial-up or any sort of slow connection, tell me if the banners are too heavy? I’m loath to push their quality down further because they’re already on the edge, but if they take forever to load I’ll have to do something…
of course any other comments are welcome! aesthetic, coding, anything - this one is a labor of love, I’m doing it for free for the Botanical Garden of the city I live in, as it hasn’t got a site and desperately needs one… so I want it to be really nice for them. I’ll take any suggestions
oh and no I didn’t do any cross-browser checking yet, so any news on weird reactions in different browsers more than welcome…
I don’t think the logo at the top right really fits there. It sort of needs to be the same height as the header and subtitle on the left to keep with your sites sort of square/module design.
I think you should have thge flower headers load randomly for each page just for a bit of variation. And if you were really good you could match the colours in the page to the current header. I think that would look really cool.
And if you were really good you could match the colours in the page to the current header. I think that would look really cool.
oooh yes it would! but I’m nowhere near that good
I’m not asking you to teach me - but give me a few hints in terms of what direction I’m looking in? Javascript? PHP?
probably out of my league for now at any rate, but I can introduce it for them in a year when I do a site overhaul
EDIT: okay, either I’ve done something really good or something really bad… or it’s just so transparent no one can think of anything to say… ah
I like it, the top logo thing is a bit anoying how its just there. Maybe make it stand out a bit or something, other than that it looks pretty clean and well done
[ot]
also what tools do you use to efficiantly low image’s file size
[/ot]
ha ha ha you only gave me a review cuz you felt sorry for me heh fair enough, take what i can get…
yeah the logo is going to change, first they need to send me a vector version (they said they had one) and then I’ll see how to fit it in - make it smaller, move it from there, make it connect to the rest somehow…
file sizes - I simply optimize them in photoshop’s ‘save for web and devices’ - see which type of file works best (jpeg for photos, gif for clean lines etc) and then push down the quality as far as it can go without the picture blurring or splotching or breaking in any other way… works pretty well. I know there are other methods to reduce file size but frankly I’ve never found a need for them…
I *really *like it, actually. I think the pictures are nice and sharp, and the whole site looks mighty professional. The colors might be a little off (pink is pretty unusual for me…), but the design is very solid and fitting for a botanical garden. I don’t think your banner’s file sizes can be improved without jeopardizing their striking clarity.
Regarding the randomly-generating header, you’d want to use PHP for that. Basically, you could make a header file in the html format which would contain all the stuff that repeats across the top of all the pages (head section, banner, title text, logo, etc.), then use the php include function to pull the header into the top of all the pages. It’s astonishingly simple to do, and it’ll save you tons of work down the road. Depending on how much experience you have with programming languages, the random pictures could be easy as well; just add the pictures’ urls to an array (in the header file), then use a random number generator to pick which picture will be in the banner. It may sound complicated, but it’s really insanely simple; if you would like to put it in your site, just PM me.
I like your site, and I think it’ll really help your botanical garden!
wow that is by far the nicest, friendliest reaction I’ve gotten at this site so far!! (no offense meant towards the jaded in-crowd, but it just is )
yeah I also figured I pushed the pictures as far as they can safely go… it loads ok though. if I really needed to bring them down I might actually cut their size (as opposed to weight)… but I’m hoping they can stay as they are.
pink is a bit of a far-left-field choice here, but it worked with the teal for me and I figured a lot of the pictures will feature a lot of green (foliage and whatnot) so pink would be a good sharp contrast…
the whole site looks mighty professional
heh heh don’t really know about that… (blushes) but heck I’m doing it for them for free so they can’t complain very much plus you should see the one they had… 1995 html horror…
The random banners would be fantastic, and I’ve been meaning to start learning PHP anyways… I guess it’s as good a time as any.
Thanks once again!! (basks in warm fuzzy feeling…)
[QUOTE=celandine;2358567]okay I’ll take this deafening silence to mean that it’s so perfect no one could find a comment that would improve it… yes, that must be it…
(walks off into the distance sniffing quietly)[/QUOTE]
Hey you little jerk! I didn’t notice this until now. :fight:
ON TO THE CRITIQUING!
The random image loader is a great idea. Hopefully people don’t clear there cache over there in Slownet, Serbia. Otherwise you’ll have a lot of angry botany-enthusiasts (they’re worse than PETA :stare:)…
Regardless, here is a thread talking/providing code for a random image loader in PHP. http://www.v7n.com/forums/coding-forum/5074-random-image-loader.html
If you’re jumping into PHP, why not try to make that “Novi Salt Botan Basket” quote thing rotate with different text. Maybe facts about plants? (You need to make the site interesting without the glam remember)
I disagree with your justification for the pink, but only cause I’m a guy and pink is girly. I think blue would contrast just as well with green and maybe it would remind people of water or [whisper]some other good excuse not to use pink[/whisper].
Don’t sacrifice any more quality of those images. You done good.
The site “bounces” when it gets a vertical scrollbar. You may want to do something about that. Maybe a fixed size or a min-height (for constant scrollbar action).
When you get that logo, it should be centered in the content section of the main page only. It’s pretty ugly (not just quality wise). Either there, or shrank and put under your nav on the left.
Overall, I love it. It’s great you’re stepping up for your community regardless of whether they truly appreciate it. I like the fact you care about a lot of people seeing it so you design to your audience (not graphic heavy) and yet you still convey “flowers are pretty” with every new page.
2 musts: Kill the pink and depreciate the logo (even when you get the vector).
Not crazy about the menu color however, it’s somewhat distracting. You’re viewing a garden page and there’s turquoise/pink in your face? Use more earthy colors.
[QUOTE=sekasi;2359051]Think this is simple and to the point. I like it.[/QUOTE]
Oh, big fancy Mr. Simplicity with your big fancy simple critique.
Well, celandine knows I love him/her more because I spent 3 hours studying Serbia to understand the mindset of your average Serb florist. Then I translated the site (twice) to make sure I was delivering advice based on content exploration.
I mean, you can’t just come in here with your [SIZE=“2”]big[/SIZE] [SIZE=“3”]fancy[/SIZE] [SIZE=“4”]simplicity[/SIZE] and expect to give a better review than mine just like that.
[QUOTE=sekasi;2359051]Not crazy about the menu color however, it’s somewhat distracting. You’re viewing a garden page and there’s turquoise/pink in your face? Use more earthy colors.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you missed the pink in most of the flowers pictured.
I’m too lazy to look at your css but are you using Futura as body text? I appreciate the attempt to use a non-standard typeface for your content but I feel like you’ve chosen incorrectly. I can’t pinpoint why I don’t like it, I think it’s too light and spread apart coupled with the wide line-width. Just not super easy for me to read.
My other gripe is that I feel like I’m looking at 3 distinct sections on the site. A header that’s boxed in, a sidebar that’s boxed in with a thick curved line, and content that just floats about. Nothing really ties them together. Also the teal on the purple in the top navigation bar is a bit painful to look at.
I don’t think it’s bad by any means, I just think a couple more hours of thought should be applied. :beam:
