Suggestions on How to Improve my Site

[Chris Bybee]

Rock 105 Local Show
Check it out, please post me some feedback on how to improve it, I am in the process of correcting the DHTML

Thanks,
Chris

[filburt1]

Try using a dark-on-light color scheme instead because the current scheme is very hard to read. Other than that it's a very nice simple layout.

[splufdaddy]

I agree with filburt. Another suggestion would be to make this a fixed size layout. As a personal preference, I like fixed size layout betters. I have a large resolution, so this site is very wide and there are only a few (long) lines of text. Others may disagree with me, thats what makes this a personal preference.

Also, it's not a good idea to underline text, because that makes it look like a link. To highlight that text, you could make it larger or bold, or a different color as long as it fits in with your color scheme.

[Chris Bybee]

How do I make it a fixed size layout ?

[splufdaddy]

instead of

<table width="100%">

type

<table width= "780">

that will make the table 780 pixels wide. That will be pretty much the width of the screen on an 800x600 res, so if you want the layout to look slim to 800x600 visitors, make the width 700 or something like that.

[Chris Bybee]

So how will this affect what it looks like to 1024x768 viewers ?

[splufdaddy]

the site will be 700 pixels wide for everyone...those with 1024 pixels wide will see approx 160 pixels of blanks space on each side.
[ (1024 - 700) /2 ]

...and those with 1280 pixels will see approximately 290 pixels on each side.
[ ( 1280 -700) /2 ]

As a 1280x1024 user, I'm used to seeing sites like this, because most sites aren't designed for my resolution. Change the site to a fixed size and then change your res around, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[smoseley]

Comments:

1. BODY
   
   onload="dynAnimation()" ??? The dynAnimation() script doesn't do anything. If you were planning on implementing some plugin javascript animation, I'd say forget about it. They typically just annoy people.
   
   bgcolor="#000000" text="#FF0000". Big mistake. Red text on black background is the most painful combination to read (except maybe black text on red bg). The contrast is very low, the colors are inverted, and red is a detractor to any audience. try bgcolor="#CCCCCC" text="#000000"
   
2. <table width="100%" height="590"
   
   change it to <center><table width="780" No need for height specification.
   
3. NAVIGATION: right now you're doing this:
   
   <p dynamicanimation="fpAnimformatRolloverFP1" fprolloverstyle="color: #0000FF; font-family: beanie; text-decoration: blink; border: 1px ridge #FFFF00; background-color: #FF0000" onmouseover="rollIn(this)" onmouseout="rollOut(this)" language="Javascript1.2" align="center"><font face="Beanie" size="2" style="font-size: (9 pt)"><a href="pics.html">
   
   I don't know what's going on with this. Why not just use <a class="nav" href="pics.html"> and set up an A.nav {} and A.nav:hover {} style in a CSS?
   
4. Also, get rid of the border onhover effect. It makes your nav shift down, which looks ugly.
   
5. Try putting a cell background color on your nagivation.
   
6. Put a white background on your content area.
   
7. Carry the theme through to all pages. Don't just have you navigation on the homepage. Subsequent pages right now have no flow of visual theme or way of getting off them (besides the Browser Back button)
   
8. If you're gonna use bulletin boards, get a professional looking one like vBulletin or phpBB2.
   
9. Don't have any links that use tools "off site". This includes your "Bravenet Guestbook". You should probably lose the guestbook altogether. They are very "home page" in nature.
   

[TheGAME1264]

transio is absolutely right in all of his points, but he has forgotten one thing which I would have expected him of all people to pick up (no Bible stories for YOU tonight, young man, said Ned Flanders):

<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">

Rule #1, #2, #3 of web design: Front Page is e-v-i-l. Chris, you're much better off learning to do the pages by hand rather than relying on Front Page to generate your code for you. I do realize that it does make designing web pages significantly easier (hey, I started using Microsoft Word of all things), but they end up destroying a website and adding useless and unnecessary code in the end (such as the JavaScript functions).

So step 1: Learn how to do a fairly simple page using a text editor. If nothing else, Notepad will do for this, but I would recommend HomeSite 5 by Macromedia/Allair. It colour-codes your HTML code, which allows you to quickly and easily pick up on errors.

Step 2: Come up with a consistent "look and feel" for the outside of the page (i.e. your navigation).

Step 3: Put the appropriate pages in.

Step 4: If this is a professional company site (and it appears to be) invest the $8.95/year for a GoDaddy domain and be prepared to spend $5-$10 a month on decent but budget-conscious hosting.

I know that's rather generic advice but everything else from a layout point is covered.

[iphong]

The link in your pages are hard to read.Change your link color to brighter blue.
And too much space in the homepage instead! try to smaller your table's width to 700 or 780 pixel.Maybe it makes your page looks better.