Critique My Web Page - It all I've got for you right now

[Stewart]

Ok - very nice. What did you create it in?

Notepad for the HTML. Photoshop and FireWorks for the images.

 

[lies]

Notepad for the HTML.

You know, I could never use notepad like that. I would be stupid and not close my tags and wonder what the hell went wrong... I desperately need the colours an editor (in my case Blue Fish) provides.

 

[Stewart]

You know, I could never use notepad like that.

I used to use Frontpage and then Dreamweaver but when I moved to never using table, tr, td, b, i, i, etc. tags ever again. The support in Dreamweaver for CSS is just too clunky and so it becomes easier to hand write because all the markup is - mostly - the div tag.

I would be stupid and not close my tags and wonder what the hell went wrong.

I just indent each div and then unindent when I close. Keeps me right. Also, the easiest thing to do, if you want to check your page, is upload it and then validate it.

 

[lies]

I used to use Frontpage and then Dreamweaver but when I moved to never using table, tr, td, b, i, i, etc. tags ever again. The support in Dreamweaver for CSS is just too clunky and so it becomes easier to hand write because all the markup is - mostly - the div tag.

I started with First Page, tried Dreamweaver for about five minutes and ran and then settled on Blue Fish. You're probably right about the CSS though, but I never do anything fancy, so it's not really an issue with me.

I just indent each div and then unindent when I close. Keeps me right. Also, the easiest thing to do, if you want to check your page, is upload it and then validate it.

I've never validated a thing in my life. I read and reread until it makes sense (or maybe force my brother to read it for me, hehe). The indenting is an idea though (though it would mess up my structure pretty horribly).

 

[Kookamoor]

Stewart's page looks great. It's got nice clean lines and looks a lot more professional. You could easily pop an extra link to your merchandise too. I think the bio would also be beneficial - the picture of you racing (I assume that's you) is important to illustrate that you have indeed had experience in this field.

mehastings has some very good points. I don't think identifying personal details really gel with what you're aiming for, which is a high exposure site. I didn't notice your home address on the site, but I would definately remove that if it's there. There are some sickos in this world that you don't want to have to deal with.

 

[honeydevil]

i like stewarts idea or page, or what the heck you want to call it, but i would put a different packground color in it... nothing that makes you squirm or anything, but white looks kinda cold...

 

[mehastings]

I'm bummed that I can't check this out. Can't access talk-history from work for some reason.

 

[Ice]

Well that shows what type of site Stewart is hosting

Here you go:

 

[mehastings]

Thanks Ice for posting that. I do like it and although I did like the original site, I think something like this would be better. It has a really professional quality to it.

Well that shows what type of site Stewart is hosting

Yea. It's really bizarre, just stopped working from here one day.

 

[Ice]

Yea. It's really bizarre, just stopped working from here one day.

If you're on it a lot they may have made it a banned site

 

[mehastings]

If you're on it a lot they may have made it a banned site

No, I really wasn't. They don't really do that much unless you're on an inappropriate site and when they do, you see the websense nasty page. Instead his site just times out. It's weird, but I don't really worry about it too much.

 

[Motokid]

Thanks again. I removed the phone number (it was a cell phone number, so I wasn't so concerned about it, but if you think it looks unprofessional....it's gone)

I also removed the "buy it now" links.

Changed some more of the colored (purple and yellow) lines of text...almost all text is now white....did we decide white was a color or not?

I'm not sure about making a wholesale change to the site as Stewart suggested. Thanks for the effort Stewart. I can dream to become that good..that fast.... with page design can't I?

I envision some parents allowing the child to view the page, and to gage the reaction the child might have to the pictures.

I do want some kid friendly aspects to it.

The colors and patterns, to me, offer a very light, warm, very friendly feeling. I don't want this to be "too business like". It is a children's picture book with a fun, light sporting nature.

How many of you who have responded have children?
How many of you have been to other sites that are for children's picture books? I don't really want an Amazon.com feel to my site.

Thanks again. I will still be looking into the width issue. It does not appear to be the easiest thing to fix at the moment. Not as easy as changing font colors and sizes....

All of your opinions, and thoughts are very valuable, and appreciated tremendously. Thank you very much...I mean it.

 

[mehastings]

Thanks again. I will still be looking into the width issue. It does not appear to be the easiest thing to fix at the moment. Not as easy as changing font colors and sizes....

Actually, if you cut out the far left hand edge you could probably get it. Perhaps 1/3 of the way through the yellow bar that runs the length of the page. That wouldn't destroy much of your design as most of that region seems to be blank blue space.

 

[Stewart]

I'm not sure about making a wholesale change to the site as Stewart suggested.

Out of interest, why? The effort required or something else?

Thanks for the effort Stewart.

Not a problem. I was bored on Saturday afternoon and thought it would be fun to take the concept of selling a kids' book online and ran with the idea of using the product as the theme. It was a good little exercise for me. If you ever decide you want to do something like it then I'd be happy to help.

I can dream to become that good..that fast.... with page design can't I?

If you spend less time here...

Seriously, I think most of the effort is in the graphics and you have some great artwork there. I think you should be pushing the artwork on the site and have less of all the confusing shapes that don't mean anything.

How many of you who have responded have children?

I don't.

How many of you have been to other sites that are for children's picture books?

I didn't go to others lest I be influenced.

I will still be looking into the width issue. It does not appear to be the easiest thing to fix at the moment.

I can't get at your HTML. If I could I'd be able to see where the problem is. I really don't understand the use of frames; they are a horrible tool that had their day toward the end of the 90s.

One other thing. I opened your site up in work today and it took about 30 seconds to load due to the number of graphics on the home page. You may want to reduce the graphics (notorious for long loading times) as, long loading times can drive away potential buyers.

The page, also, does not display correctly in Opera and Netscape browsers.

What are you using to make the pages? Also, who is your host?

 

[leckert]

Motokid,

I have a 9-yo girl and a 16-yo boy.

I have been on tons of kids websites. Most seem to use bold colors, and large, free-style fonts (like Comic Sans or something?)

I just revisted your page and discovered that in the menu box at the top right, where you have the verticle list of clickable options, the last letters of the longer items seem to be cut off.

I really dig the artwork in the book, but agree that the blocks and artwork on the page itself really don't seem to be related to the product at all. Maybe something less "technical" looking, and more "fanciful"? I don't know.

You have the red and white thing going on with TeeZee (and his rider), maybe you could continue that theme on the webpage? Maybe some racing stripes, or tire tracks or something? Just throwing stuff out there.

 

[Motokid]

I am currently in the process of making a master change to the entire site....will let you all know when I've posted the changes....thanks for all the help...and hope the revision will have a better overall "feel" to it.

Thanks again.

 

[Stewart]

What are you using to make the pages? Also, who is your host?

Please answer...

 

[Motokid]

host: ixwebhosting.com

to make pages: Site Studio

 

[sirmyk]

My advice would be to make most of the pages fit onto a single screen, to help limit the amount of scrolling necessary for lazy users. Also, the menu on the top right of the homepage seems to cut off some of the text. But that's if I was giving out advice.

 

[direstraits]

Stewart - I saw the site you whipped up for moto. Nice work, maestro. Lovely codes, and lovely stylesheet. I'm heady just looking at the simplicity of it all.



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