web design

[mar1300]

hey

I'm working on a web design layout for a friend....he's a producer/DJ/......
any advice would be great thanks.

this is what i got so far

http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmer4copy2er.jpg

[ecsyle]

I think it needs more action shots. Nice pics of him playing out at clubs or whatever. It just seems a bit bland right now. What kind of music does he spin/produce?

[typographics]

hey mar1300,

i guess dj merciless doesnt have a logo?

the menu on the left is too wide. you dont need that much room for those short menu options. if you squeeze that down, it will help a lot.

im not a fan of ghosted images in the background. i think they are distracting and kinda cheesy. sometimes they can work, but not here. i would give that image its walking papers.

when youre listing items, like on your track list, you should keep everything aligned. notice once you pass number 9, the column shifts right because of the extra digits in 10 and up? thats a problem, but it can be easily fixed. just scoot the numbers 1-9 over to the right until all the periods line up perfectly. or you can simply put zeros in front of them, so all the numbers are two digits. does that make sense?

if dj merciless is a female, then i like the colors you chose. they work well together. maybe bump the purple down a tint or two.

matthew~

[mar1300]

sorry about the delay in my response.....anyways i came up with something a little bit different.......he plays and produces a lot of underground stuff....so i wanted give it a "i choose a different path than others" that kind of feel.

http://img420.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb7wr.jpg

[typographics]

mar1300,

this is a lot better than your first post! a much better concept.

a couple of things i see:

first, the box containing 'track list' should be the same vertical height as 'about'. this will help the overall look of the design by keeping everything on a strong horizontal grid. plus, its just wasted empty space.

second, id like to see some more breathing room on the sides. the 'about' and 'track list' butt up right to the edge of the page. either make the background image bigger to give those sections some room, or continue to take them all the way to the edge, but lose the thin white line as a border.

third, its hard to critique a webpage without being able to navigate it. im wondering, when the user clicks on 'photos', where will the photos show up? will they appear in the green area, or will they be in a pop up, or will it take the viewer to a completely different page?

lastly, the colors seem off to me. i really like the orange and the green! but the dark red is to similar to the orange. maybe that is all white, or light gray? i think three colors might be to much, and take away from that awesome black and white photo in the background. the strongest part of this design is the photo, so try to exploit that.

overall, with some minor changes, really nice. i like it.

matthew~

[mar1300]

ok thanks for the feed back.....i'll work on that and post the new one.......for the photos i was thinking of having it in a seperate pop up window with navigation.

[Epectasis]

how "simple" do you want to keep it? cuz a few flash ideas went accross my mind as im looking at this. I think you may also want to consider adding a lil more transparency to the boxes. Just a lil more, not too much so that you cant read the text though.

Perhaps also consider tightening up the leading in the text and reducing the font size one point?

You could split the two boxes up a lil more that way, and place pics that fade in/fade out of each other in between. like two or three pics.

[mar1300]

how "simple" do you want to keep it? cuz a few flash ideas went accross my mind as im looking at this. I think you may also want to consider adding a lil more transparency to the boxes. Just a lil more, not too much so that you cant read the text though.


ok i dropped the transparency 5% ....i'm goin to keep it pretty simple, i'm just a basic flash user.... fade in fade out that's about it....wish i could do more

http://img445.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb13nm.jpg

[ecsyle]

I dig the colors :)

[mar1300]

I dig the colors :)


thanks

[typographics]

well mar1300, what do you think about it? are you happy with how it looks? or do you think that it still has further to go? id like to know your thoughts :)

matthew~

[Epectasis]

ok i dropped the transparency 5% ....i'm goin to keep it pretty simple, i'm just a basic flash user.... fade in fade out that's about it....wish i could do more

http://img445.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb13nm.jpg

oh MUCH better already! the slight increase in transparency made a huge difference. I see you also adjusted your leading. I like!

The only thing id adjust if i was you would be to add a strip of photos under the text. Like what you could do is make a rectangle that would be, say 200 pixels in length and 50 in height. Then divide that rectangle by placing 4 50x50 pictures all side by side. Cuz you need to fill in that space at the bottom, but not clutter it. and i think 4 pics would be ideal.

[mar1300]

well mar1300, what do you think about it? are you happy with how it looks? or do you think that it still has further to go? id like to know your thoughts :)

matthew~


i like it a lot better...but seems un finish to me.....everytime i take break and come back to it looks incomplete.



The only thing id adjust if i was you would be to add a strip of photos under the text. Like what you could do is make a rectangle that would be, say 200 pixels in length and 50 in height. Then divide that rectangle by placing 4 50x50 pictures all side by side. Cuz you need to fill in that space at the bottom, but not clutter it. and i think 4 pics would be ideal.

yea i'll give it a shot. thanks

[mar1300]

i'm not sure......i'm thinkin about scrapin the whole idea....and trying somethin new


http://img454.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb38ka.jpg

[EC]

the only problem I have with this last version, while it's visually appealing, is that it's extremely hard to pull your eyes away from the middle/garage focal point.

[mar1300]

the only problem I have with this last version, while it's visually appealing, is that it's extremely hard to pull your eyes away from the middle/garage focal point.



i guess the only way to fix that is to cover it up. right?

[mar1300]

one more shot at the idea....i think i got the solution

http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb57gh.jpg

[EC]

I like it mar1300. Are you feelin' it?

[mar1300]

i think it's my best stab at it so far

[typographics]

mar1300,

i like the blue and how you have chosen to highlight his music. after all, it is a dj site, so his music should take a top visual standing.

i wouldnt put a links section on the home page. the fear is that people will click on a link and forget to come back. you want your visitors to fully expierence the site and its content, and you dont want to entice them to go somewhere else right off the bat. links should almost always be on a seperate page.

id suggest taking the links section off, and moving everything down. there is a great deal of empty space below 'track list' and 'about'. i like the navigation bar small, as opposed to it being a long band stretching across the whole viewing area. that is a nice change as well. good luck with it!

matthew~

[mar1300]

id suggest taking the links section off, and moving everything down. there is a great deal of empty space below 'track list' and 'about'. i like the navigation bar small, as opposed to it being a long band stretching across the whole viewing area. that is a nice change as well. good luck with it!

matthew~


thanks i wasn't really thinking about the "links" section i guess it is a bad idea havin it on the home page. well i took ur advice and moved everything down a bit i think it looks better......

http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb57px.jpg

[Epectasis]

thanks i wasn't really thinking about the "links" section i guess it is a bad idea havin it on the home page. well i took ur advice and moved everything down a bit i think it looks better......

http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb57px.jpg

hmm spot like colors on a site (like this) im not too fond of. I still think you should add transparency into the "boxes" and perhaps change the black to a gray? what you might consider as well that is very simple but adds another element of design that i like is simply add borders to the boxes. I like the picture in the bg so i think you should try to work something that works with that along with it. Not hide it.

I dont know if you're aware of this site, but if you need some Flash pointers (and no one here can help you) you can check it out: www.flashkit.com

[mar1300]

hmm spot like colors on a site (like this) im not too fond of. I still think you should add transparency into the "boxes" and perhaps change the black to a gray? what you might consider as well that is very simple but adds another element of design that i like is simply add borders to the boxes. I like the picture in the bg so i think you should try to work something that works with that along with it. Not hide it.[/url]

i added some transparency in the boxes.......i tried the boarder, but i didn't really like it to much......

what do you think?

http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb58zc.jpg

[EC]

I like. I want to sckootch your links over to align left like the news column, though. Or is that just me?

[EC]

actually, nevermind. I like. :)

[Epectasis]

i added some transparency in the boxes.......i tried the boarder, but i didn't really like it to much......

what do you think?

http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=djmaercilessweb58zc.jpg

the power of transparency!!!


when i speak of border, i speak something like 1 pixel. and usually white. You can also make it transparent by turning it into a graphic.

but it's good like that though.

[mar1300]

thanks Epectasis, typographics, EC.....you guys really helped me through this project...thank you for the learning experince.

[EC]

You're very welcome, great job and thanks for sharing the process with us! :)