Complete Relaunch

**sarab** · Apr 09th, 2004, 10:27 AM

Putting Good Friday hols to good use, and ignoring the fact that it was a beautiful day outside, Jen (helped by moi) got her 29 pages rehashed and up on the server...

Triumphant, but wired on coffee, we'd like any feedback please.

She chickened out on the CSS buttons thing, since she's scared they won't look the same on all platforms. (Is that true?).

But the new nav buttons are only 1k each, as opposed to 4k previously, so it's a big improvement anyway.

Obviously, this is not an ideal way of doing things (rehashing a design when there are lots of pages) but you live and learn, as we kept telling ourselves.

So, what's anyone think? Would it be worthwhile at a later stage swapping out the button images for CSS?

The new stuff is at:
http://www.algarve-beach-life.com

While a (copy) page in the previous 'format' is at:
http://www.algarve-beach-life.com/old-style.html

We're exhausted, but the fellas have promised to take us out for a drink tonight, by way of celebration.

And, does anyone know an easy way to do that rollover effect thingie? (On the nav buttons).

Thanks

sara

**Web Design Forums** · Apr 09th, 2004 10:27 AM

**justlivyalife** · Apr 09th, 2004, 10:34 AM

CSS, if kept to spec should look the same on all computers and browsers. Your nav images can be just plain text anyhow...

The site has had a lot of improvement, but I feel that you need to make the site look as if it spreads the entire screen width, this could be achieved by setting the background to your logo, which IMO is in need of a slight spring clean as the table row bg and setting it to be 100% width

3/5, keep working

**zeroskater88** · Apr 09th, 2004, 10:49 AM

Link Rollovers:

<HEAD>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">

a:link { color:#000000; text-decoration:none;}
a:hover { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline;}

</STYLE>
</HEAD>

**will7** · Apr 09th, 2004, 03:10 PM

You have redesigned your site lots of times and quite frankly, I haven't liked any of your designs. I'm sorry but they just look too..."amateury". Sorry if I was harsh, but that is my opinion.

**splufdaddy** · Apr 09th, 2004, 03:25 PM

This site is a definite improvement over your last one. The orange L-shaped graphic still doesn't fit in though. You may want to try to make your site less graphical, and focus on a simpler design. The background image coupled w/ the bring orange graphc are what make this appear amateur-ish, IMO. Keep working at it though!

**Maverick** · Apr 09th, 2004, 05:38 PM

A lot of improvement has been made over the previous versions and I commend you for that. Although I still do have a couple suggestions for you, some of which are probably just a rehash of the comments above:

- The logo still needs work. I understand that you want to give it a "sandy" type of feel, but it still comes off as just very pixelated looking. Look at the logos of other sites to get ideas, and trying giving it a more "solid" look.

-I think the biggest thing hindering you sites design is the use of the L shaped navigation/banner bar. The bright orange gradient and the sharp corners contrast harshly with your pages' sand texture, making the site less smooth and flowing than you would expect for a site about beaches.

Try giving the bar a color or gradient similar to that of your background texture so the design is more cohesive and I would also HIGHLY reccommend making your site liquid. That is, giving the main table a width and height of 100% , removing the width attribute from the top row (so it goes all the way to the right edge of the browser, removing the width AND height attributes from the main content cell so it moves all the way to the edges as the browser is resized, and removing the height attribute from the navigation cell column. Oh and get rid of the bottom margin on your page.

-Lastly, redo the navigation links with text. There is absolutely no reason not to in your case. And use a little CSS if you want for some mouseover effects (you'd be surprised how much you can do with CSS, and it will display equally well across all platforms)

Your site has definately improved over the last few iterations, but if you can remedy the problems i mentioned, it will look many times better.

**will7** · Apr 10th, 2004, 08:07 AM

Originally posted by will7
You have redesigned your site lots of times and quite frankly, I haven't liked any of your designs. I'm sorry but they just look too..."amateury". Sorry if I was harsh, but that is my opinion.

I stand by what I said. I would just start again from scratch!

**ceetee** · Apr 10th, 2004, 03:25 PM

I agree with splufdaddy. It's the top of the page that's creating the problem. Since I'me fond of giving links here's one of my favourite texty sites which might help to resolve it.

http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/index.html

Make the photograph bigger, and place the title/logo underneath it. You could incorporate it in the image.

Too be honest I'm not a great fan of tiling background images, - but if you're after sand see what the mama mia (the musical) website have got.

**zeroskater88** · Apr 10th, 2004, 03:41 PM

http://www.mamma-mia.com/broadway/broadway.asp

**sarab** · Apr 12th, 2004, 04:45 AM

Thanks for all the contributions so far:

...your designs. I'm sorry but they just look too..."amateury"

This is a tricky one, will7. I've made the same point to Jennifer a number of times, but she thinks that, given the site's theme, an approach that looked too 'slick' wouldn't work. It's an enthusiast site rather than a 'professional' one. I see her point (a bit)...

Make the photograph bigger, and place the title/logo underneath it. You could incorporate it in the image.

Were you referring to the beach photo on the index page, ceetee?

Thanks for the Mamma Mia URL, zeroskater. (And for the code for link rollovers - we'll look into that soon).

I think the biggest thing hindering you sites design is the use of the L shaped navigation/banner bar. The bright orange gradient and the sharp corners contrast harshly with your pages' sand texture, making the site less smooth and flowing than you would expect for a site about beaches.

I don't disagree, but as Jen pointed out, it looks okay in 800 x 600 res, and she thinks that her typical visitor (when she gets some :devious: ) is likely to have that resolution, or will be interested in the content and not whether the text fills the screen. (An opinionated girl, you see). What would lessen the hard-edged effect of the the L shape, maverick? We're graphically challenged, remember.

I feel that you need to make the site look as if it spreads the entire screen width, this could be achieved by setting the background to your logo,

Others have also suggested filling the screen, justlivyalife, so that might be next on the agenda, if I can talk Jen around. Not sure what you mean by 'setting the background to the logo'. Can you explain please?

Hope everyone's enjoying a great Easter weekend. I got taken out for a slap-up meal last night and ate so much I couldn't look at breakfast this morning!

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