Nicasus wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm really not aiming to please everyone's browsers as on the front page of my website I've added a link to download a new browser if the page isn't displaying properly.

Don't expect people to download and install a different browser just to view your website properly for 10 seconds.
Instead, they will think "he can't even make a working website" and leave your site ;)

Well, I'd rather not support IE8 than sacrifice animations and everything CSS3... And I'm not going to use Flash.

iiLagZz_x wrote ...

Some tips:
- Try not to use solid colours, can you make it into an image and add little noise? or small stripes? ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )

This is a frankly moronic point. Solid colours are a perfectly good design technique. And your suggestion to use noise and stripes more via the use of background images would only rank up the number of HTTP requests therefore wrecking the load time.

iiLagZz_x wrote Also, try and use a graphic for the title banner rather than CSS3 for two reasons, Firstly, CSS3 doesnt work in < IE8 and the other reason being you can make it look more realistic

Actually you shouldn't just swap out CSS3 for an image unless absolutely necessary. Your design should allow for graceful degradation instead. This essentially means that the design should still be usable without CSS3 features and said features should only add to that usability. However another alternative is to base pre-CSS3 support on your visitor stats. For example in the image below (stats from my personal website) it's clear that only a small fraction of my visitors are IE and infact only 1 visitor has used IE8 and under. Therefore what would be the point in going through the hassle of supporting a browser that the large majority of my visitors don't use

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iiLagZz_x wrote Try and use shadows where possible, so like under your top navigation, under the center bit of the banner. It's small details like this which make all the difference

This should go without saying but the overuse of 'jazzy' effects such as drop shadows, gradients, noise and stripes will more than likely makes your website look like it was designed by a child who was dizzy on lemonade.


==================

Now for my personal advice:

• Tighten the design up a bit. While whitespace is nice, too much of it can cause the user to feel 'lost'.
  
• Drop the stripes on the background. They're frankly far too distracting.
  
• Don't capitalise everything. There's a reason lowercase characters exist - they make text far more readable.
  
• Bold text is for emphasis and not for use as the default font weight.
  

-Jordan- wrote

iiLagZz_x wrote ...

Some tips:
- Try not to use solid colours, can you make it into an image and add little noise? or small stripes? ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )

This is a frankly moronic point. Solid colours are a perfectly good design technique. And your suggestion to use noise and stripes more via the use of background images would only rank up the number of HTTP requests therefore wrecking the load time.

iiLagZz_x wrote Also, try and use a graphic for the title banner rather than CSS3 for two reasons, Firstly, CSS3 doesnt work in < IE8 and the other reason being you can make it look more realistic

Actually you shouldn't just swap out CSS3 for an image unless absolutely necessary. Your design should allow for graceful degradation instead. This essentially means that the design should still be usable without CSS3 features and said features should only add to that usability. However another alternative is to base pre-CSS3 support on your visitor stats. For example in the image below (stats from my personal website) it's clear that only a small fraction of my visitors are IE and infact only 1 visitor has used IE8 and under. Therefore what would be the point in going through the hassle of supporting a browser that the large majority of my visitors don't use

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

iiLagZz_x wrote Try and use shadows where possible, so like under your top navigation, under the center bit of the banner. It's small details like this which make all the difference

This should go without saying but the overuse of 'jazzy' effects such as drop shadows, gradients, noise and stripes will more than likely makes your website look like it was designed by a child who was dizzy on lemonade.


==================

Now for my personal advice:

• Tighten the design up a bit. While whitespace is nice, too much of it can cause the user to feel 'lost'.
  
• Drop the stripes on the background. They're frankly far too distracting.
  
• Don't capitalise everything. There's a reason lowercase characters exist - they make text far more readable.
  
• Bold text is for emphasis and not for use as the default font weight.
  

I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

I am only using it for headers...

Its looking good, but lacks of improvement mate.

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

I am only using it for headers...

This looks more like a paragraph to me.

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-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

I am only using it for headers...

This looks more like a paragraph to me.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

I wish that 2 sentences was a paragraph. Sadly if my teacher asks for a 20 paragraph report, I don't give her 40 sentences.

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

I am only using it for headers...

This looks more like a paragraph to me.

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I wish that 1 sentence was a paragraph. Sadly if my teacher asks for a 20 paragraph report, I don't give her 20 sentences.

Actually a paragraph can be 1 sentence.

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote

-Jordan- wrote

PandaSnip3r wrote I'm not capitalizing everything or making it bold, that's just the way the font is.

Well in that case I would advise that you consider changing it or at the least using it only for headers as is likely the intention of the font's designer.

I am only using it for headers...

This looks more like a paragraph to me.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

I wish that 1 sentence was a paragraph. Sadly if my teacher asks for a 20 paragraph report, I don't give her 20 sentences.

Actually a paragraph can be 1 sentence.

Either way I'd classify it as a header and not the actual body of the page.