Seeking site reviews, please!

[sheila]

OK, I've hit that point that comes once or so a year, when I feel I must re-design parts of my site. Especially since FQ is now listing my domain on their "About/Links" page, I felt I had to clean things up.

Here is the old look:
http://www.thinkspot.net/

Here is my new look:
http://www.thinkspot.net/index2.html

I'd like comments, suggestions, critiques. Please?

Thanks! :D

[ubu]

I like the new look much better. It's very easy on the eyes and stands out better that the older look.

Jamie

[Mandi]

Looks very nice. I had a nice surf through your pages the other day, enjoyed reading more about you and your background :)!

[Tatu]

Comments: New look wins!! Much more snappy. ;)

Suggestions:
#1. Keep /mygraphics/bluestripe.gif as the background image and in the body tag. Then either center a small white box with your site in it (surrounded by background image).

or

#2. Keep /mygraphics/bluestripe.gif as the background image and topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" in the body tag. Then center a 600-pixel-wide white table with front page in it (making sure there is no space at the top or bottom of the table/page). The latter way it looks as though you have a great site (bordered by two columns) in the center of the screen at any monitor or resolution size.

Note: Suggestions above made assuming you are changing the front page's look and not the rest of the pages. Disregard if otherwise. I personally like the look of your personal page.

HTH

Tatu

[Tatu]

LOL... did you know ThinkPot.net was registered? I accidently typed that in.

[sheila]

Thanks to everyone for the comments, and especially thanks to Tatu for the suggestions. I'm playing around with the page a bit, and trying to put together a few different things. *&^$%#&@ tables!!!! :* Time for a break! ~#

Later I'll post a few things. The thing is, I wanted a place to add small banners, so...well that's making it interesting to position.

Time to go do housechores... :\

P.S. Oh, and Tatu, no I did not know thinkpot.net was registered. Hmm. Thinkspot.com is also registered. Last I looked it was an Asian site that I couldn't read.

[Tatu]

I whipped this up in three minutes:
http://www.berakainternational.org/thinkspot.html

It still leaves room for banners, but the background gets a little blinding.

Just remember the URL when you're going through your referral logs. :)

EDIT: ...because I was callling the images off of your domain name.

[sheila]

Originally posted by Tatu:
I whipped this up in three minutes:
http://www.berakainternational.org/thinkspot.html

It still leaves room for banners, but the background gets a little blinding.
Yes, I really want white all the way down the page. The "little box" of white doesn't look right to me.

Here are the other ones I've got so far...but they still need work:
http://www.thinkspot.net/index2ads.html
http://www.thinkspot.net/index4.html
http://www.thinkspot.net/index5.html
http://www.thinkspot.net/index6.html


Just remember the URL when you're going through your referral logs. :)
I don't see how I will ever notice that in my referrer logs. The links are all relative URLs. They all point back to your own site!


Oh! I see what you're saying. The graphic/logo is coming from my site. Well, alright, I won't report you for stealing bandwidth. ;)

[Tatu]

I was referring to bandwidth.

I'll take the page down as I see a clone at index5.

IMO, index6 is the best one so far once you get all of the kinks worked out.

[MTDesigns]

The new design looks very clean and professional. I prefer the blue as a border on both sides of the white text box ;) .

Best always,

[sheila]

That's funny.

I've been playing with the design a bit more, but hadn't uploaded them yet. But my husband and I were trying to decide between the centered table, with blue borders on both sides, and the off-centered version.

When Tatu first suggested a centered version, and I tried it out and looked at it and thought, "Gee, that is a lot better..."

But after staring at both designs for a long time and sharing with my spouse, we thought the off-center version was better. The centered one with blue on both sides I found too distracting. (That blue double stripe is quite electric. I could tone it down a bit, if I made both of the stripes darker shades of blue.)

Anyhow, I had all decided to go with the off-center version, and here comes another one saying the centered design is better. Hmm. I'll think about it some more. Maybe in a couple of days I'll upload my more "finished" versions. (Not much different, just playing with table spacing...)

[Deb]

In an effort to make your life more difficult.... I have to say I like the centered one better as well. I was able to focus on the content quicker, rather than looking toward the ads in search of the menu (though that FutureQuest one does really help the design out a lot)

Deb
- In the end...the content is still what counts.

[sheila]

Gee, maybe you guys are trying to tell me something?

--What did you say???

[Matt]

Hi Sheila,
I've checked out your site a couple times now. I agree with Joi, I think the blue border on both sides looks the best. Of all the designs I've seen, I like http://www.thinkspot.net/index4.html the best. Perhaps in conflict with some posts here, I think that I wouldn't center align the "Math, Computers, etc" portion vertically. A few <BR>'s between "...for people who think" and "Math, Computers, and Education."

As for ad placement, I would either put them vertically in the right panel (on a light blue panel) or horizontally in the white space along the bottom of the window. If you put them at the right or top of the window, I think that it will be confusing as these are traditionally navigation bar areas.

As a slight aside, on the pages linked to the index page, I would put a link back to the index page (http://www.thinkspot.net/index.html) if it's possible.

Overall, I think the new index page is an improvement over the older one. It is a cleaner design. -Matt

[Tatu]

Not to drop more clues or anything, but I have to say that my recent pet peeve (developed a month or two ago) is when I see perfectly good sites aligned to the left, when they could be <i>perfectly</i> centered to not look so lopsided on larger monitors/resolutions. I can't think of any examples right now (a surprising amount of big online properties have this lopsided thing all wrong) but look at the FutureQuest index page and imagine it aligned all the way to the left for no reason. ;)

[sheila]

OK, I can take a hint (if you hit me with it three or four times over the head).

Centered it will be.

I'll play with it a bit more later this week. I really appreciate everyone's input! Thanks heaps! :D

[teach1st]

It's a clean design, Sheila! I like index5 the best, personally...

[ISCNetworking]

I think in the new designs index2ads.html wins. It creates almost a new sense for the site... meaning that it looks more navigable that way. I also like the index6.html page. I would make the stripes smaller though in your blue background.

[sheila]

Originally posted by ISCNetworking:
I would make the stripes smaller though in your blue background.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have now done that.
Now all I have to do, is get together a custom 404 and 403 page, so that I can put this stuff up.

[ISCNetworking]

You might need htaccess files for 404 and 503 error pages. If you already have them, GOOD! That is really good. Well thanks for the comment back sheila. Best wishes with your website!

[sheila]

UPDATE:
Most of the links in this discussion no longer work.
I've updated the site. The new stuff is up. Much of the old stuff has been removed.

--we can't edit messages more than 48 hours old on the BB, or else I would have deleted the links from my previous posts. :(

[ISCNetworking]

:cool: Thanks Sheila! :cool: