Re: Phillips Group (commercial site first run)

Re:
http://landru.myhome.net/opperman/visual/phillipsgroup/new1/base.html

Ken-
Thank you. If you don't mind, I'm going to address each of
your comments. Either my justification, or asking you to
clarify what you're seeing, or something.

> 1) I like the colors but the horizontal pinstripes are a
little hard on
> the eyes, especially for someone viewing at a low screen
res.

Good point. Perhaps if the contrast in the stripes was
less...gold and yellow rather than gold and white.
Something to work on.

> 2) Your logo needs some work. It's very rough around the
edges -
> literally and figuratively. Definitely detracts from the
professionalism
> of the page. I am not (yet) a graphics person (and my
own site logo
> suffers for it) but I am sure that you will get lots of
advice on how to
> fix it.

Yeah, this is a problem. I am working from the one file
the client gave me with the logo in it. If anyone has any
suggestions on smoothing it, I've fiddled a little bit but
haven't put the effort into it. I'm using the GIMP, but PS
tips would help. (The best solution would be to recreate
the image, but the client is going low budget all the way,
so the time that takes might not be acceptable. :) If you
are referring to the blur behind the words that is really
messy, it's just a quick output file. I'll be optimizing
it better soon.

> 3) When you use actual table widths (in pixels), rather
than
> percentages, you force viewers with smaller monitors to
horizontal
> scroll - which many people find annoying. If you want to
avoid line wrap
> in the left cell with your menu, you could use pixel
width there and let
> the other cell adjust accordingly (but bear in mind that
people who use
> large browser fonts will wreak havoc with your best
plans).

Question: are you actually getting a horizontal scroll
bar? So that you have to move it to read the text? I'm
going for a fixed width for the page, to keep it all under
the header image. If that is too big, I'll reduce the
width of everything. Sometimes percentages look good, but
not always. Just as they can look bad on small monitors,
stretched tables can look bad on big ones. The real
solution I'm waiting for is setting a percent width, up to
a certain amount. Or setting a range. I believe this is
being discussed for CSS3.

> 4) If you use the background pattern behind the text in
your menu, then
> watch the *width* of the graphic so that you are
consistent. To my eyes,
> it looks a little off that the first two lines of text
(investment &
> management) are wider than the image and hang over the
edges. Maybe the
> image should be as wide as your longest text line.
> 5) I believe a little more cellpadding would make the
right cell (About
> ...) more attractive. Try to avoid text going right up
to the edge of
> the cell. A little bit of margin can make a big
difference.

True on both these counts. I'm fixing it as soon as I send
this off.

> Otherwise, a very clean and simple design which should
cross browsers
> and platforms with no problems. By the way, what's up
with the Welcome
> link in your menu? I thought we were already looking at
your welcome
> page.

You are. Kinda. See, this is really a base page, not a
welcome page. So nothing has been disabled or removed for
what page you are on. Thanks for the concern though.

Luke

===

                - ( luke opperman ) -
     Spigot Graphics, Cohesive Design for the Web
          - ( http://spigot.hypermart.net/ ) -  
      Viva La Revolution! Linux 2.2 and Beyond!



_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free (at)yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

HTML: hwg-critique mailing list archives, maintained by Webmaster @ IWA