web template

[elli]

twicebakedfx.com/test

Those of you that get web design, how are the graphics? Those that understand markup, how's the coding?

Thanks. (: I appreciate both critique and comments.

[gfx25]

I really like this design though not that big on the orange hyperlink color. Maybe make it 12px.

[elli]

Thanks. (:

What orange color though?

[gfx25]

I mean the more hyper link guess its more of a gold tho

[Tumbleweed]

Very well done on most all counts that I have knowlege about. The only little quibbles I have are your stike-through links (not very professional IMO) and I think the positon of the body needs to be maybe 10-15pixels closer to menu bar so I know the whole page in showing in my screen. As it is, I keep tugging at my scroll bar to get the whole thing in because it appears to almost be cut off on the bottom so I keep thinking there is more to the page. Just need a little space at the bottom.

And one other little thing, I think the semitry/balance is off a bit. Little too heavy on the right. My eye is not led to the body of your site but rather off the page toward your banner in the top right. I think what does that is the "What" being right aligned (although I really like that). If it were left aligned I think my eye would be drawn to the page itself.

Your graphics are very appealing, the site colors very nice and personally I think the link color and size are fine. I like how you faded the menu bar. I like the shadow line under the menu and how you have the grain lines carrying all the way through. All in all it is really nicely done. Sorry if I"m not the top notch expert your were hoping to hear from.

[elli]

No, yours is exactly the kind of opinion I like to hear. Constructive. (: I made the changes you pointed out, and fixed a few other things about the page. The only part I didn't touch was the image in the larger table, mainly because it's not permanent. Just kidding. That should even it out a little more, yes?

Thank you. (:

[xcessive]

Its OK. The markup is a bit messy. Its better to put images in a span or div as a background and make the block element the right size. Also you havn't put in any meta tags outside of the bare basics. Also you used a table, in normal HTML thats fine but id encourage you NOT to use them as it ruins all your search rankings etc and DIV tags are better. Tables were used to design in the 90s, use block span/div tags instead, they are better.

Graphically its a similar story. Its good. But I can barely read the green links. The text is too light for my liking too. Thats all an easy fix however. DONT just turn the contrast up. What I want you to do is go into photoshop and flatten the image. Now copy and paste a new layer and go to filter>other>high pass and have it on a fairly low setting. Put that layer on overlay.

See what I mean? Its more defined.

Hope this helps

[elli]

Jan 25, 2010 16:48:51 GMT -8 xcessive said:

Its OK. The markup is a bit messy. Its better to put images in a span or div as a background and make the block element the right size. Also you havn't put in any meta tags outside of the bare basics. Also you used a table, in normal HTML thats fine but id encourage you NOT to use them as it ruins all your search rankings etc and DIV tags are better. Tables were used to design in the 90s, use block span/div tags instead, they are better.

Graphically its a similar story. Its good. But I can barely read the green links. The text is too light for my liking too. Thats all an easy fix however. DONT just turn the contrast up. What I want you to do is go into photoshop and flatten the image. Now copy and paste a new layer and go to filter>other>high pass and have it on a fairly low setting. Put that layer on overlay.

See what I mean? Its more defined.

Hope this helps

I couldn't find a way around tables, since I do prefer div boxes. The positioning of it was all screwed up with just divs, so I had to figure out how to keep those two boxes the same length no matter the amount of content in them. This was the best workaround I could figure out since I'm not that great with markup. The meta tags are the last thing I do, since I'm never sure if I'll actually publish the page or not.

You're right about the links, they'll definitely be changed. Maybe the text, though it's almost too dark on my monitor.

What image do you mean? The banner, the whole thing?

[xcessive]

The whole design.

Try using span tags, since div tags have an automatic break after that can ruin alignment sometimes.

[elli]

i46.tinypic.com/2h5pd3b.png

How's that?

[xcessive]

Betterm green links are still a tad unreadable

[Graham]

Jan 25, 2010 16:48:51 GMT -8 xcessive said:

Also you used a table, in normal HTML thats fine but id encourage you NOT to use them as it ruins all your search rankings etc

I've asked our SEO guy at work, and that's the first he's heard of that

[dude]

Feb 5, 2010 17:42:07 GMT -8 Graham said:

Jan 25, 2010 16:48:51 GMT -8 xcessive said:

Also you used a table, in normal HTML thats fine but id encourage you NOT to use them as it ruins all your search rankings etc

I've asked our SEO guy at work, and that's the first he's heard of that

That's probably because it isn't entirely true. There is some truth there however, because if you use css you have complete control over the order of the markup in the html source meaning you can make sure page content comes before menus and sidebars which is good for seo purposes. The real issues though are accessibility for those who use screenreaders, the ability to use alternative stylesheets for different mediums e.g. mobile phones and actually ease of use for yourself as it's much easier to see the organisation of tableless markup.

[smiln32]

Why do tables ruin search engine rankings?

[elli]

Feb 9, 2010 10:55:57 GMT -8 smiln32 said:

Why do tables ruin search engine rankings?

Well, they are a bit outdated since CSS is so versatile these days, but I still don't see how they would affect search engine rankings. Though I do know that Google "ranks" web pages, what that system is based on I'm not sure. I doubt it involves the markup used on the page, however... Probably as long as it's valid HTML/CSS (which my page is) it wouldn't be a problem.

Also, doesn't anyone know why IE is removing my footer's margins and a fix for it?