Websites

[Cube]

Over the past couple of days I've been working on a new website. I wanted something where I could simply paste various stuff I've done - at the moment all my stuff was scattered in various places.

 

My previous website - a website for showing products (but not a store) - took hours and hours of modifying Joomla to get it to what I need. For a fairly simple blog-like website like mine it was actually surprisingly simple.

 

Now, I want to state that the theme is not my doing (apart from some minor modification), still I'd like some opinions on it.

 

For the coders out there, there were a couple for problems I had to worm my way though. Placing the Google+ was one of them. I did the unorthodox thing of modifying the breadcrumbs module (and adding some stuff to the stylesheet) to get the result I wanted. I didn't put Facebook or Twitter as they look rather naff.

 

The Disqus system was also a pain. First I tried a Joomla comment system extension, but that had problems such as appearing on all article pages and overall looking/working rubbish. I decided on Disqus, but the extension doesn't support my version. So I had to find a module that allows custom HTML (the default one strips out most of the code) and put the generic code in it. Then all I have to do is put {loadposition comments} where I want comments to go. Strangely, though, there was one problem: bullet points appeared in front of all the Disqus images. In the end I had to sacrifice bullet points in the stylesheet to make it work fully.

 

(the only reason I'm going through the coding problems is that I personally think that doing all this is an artform).

 

Anyway, I'd love to hear any general opinions on the whole thing, and would love to see other people's websites.

 

http://www.djcube.co.uk

[Sméagol]

Hmm, I think I’m not a fan of the template. Slightly too “busyâ€, eventhough all the information is clear enough. Hard to explain.

Not hard to explain examples: I think you’re on-hover effects can stand out more. Like left in the menu, you go from dark grey to lighter grey, doesn’t really stand-out. I’d change them to have more contrast, while still keeping with the overall colour theme.

The other thing is submenus above, the transparent effect makes things more confusing. I’d make it opaque.

 

As for me.. I should really get into making sites.. The problem is content. I don’t have any. So motivation is a bit low. Anyway, I should fix that, while working on my Java (and perhaps start PHP), and then SQL. I know the basics, but not enough to get a complete interactive and dynamic site working yet, with a simple CMS.

[Burny]

Well, my two cents:

 

The width for the content seems to large imo. A fixed 1180px for the main wrapper just seems very wide. iPad users would already have to scroll and even on a Laptop screen (e.g. 1280x800), a bit more free space to either side might look better.

 

The left column with the navigation menu also looks odd imo, because it only fills the top of the column and leaves a lot of space below. You end up with three columns, each with a different height. It's also mostly redundant as the vertical menu on top has the same links.

 

The last thing would be the overly large header (?) image. Due to it's position below the vertical navigation menu and its enormous size, it's not a header anymore. Instead it takes the whole focus away from the first post's preview, as it pretty much fills the center of the page (Laptop) and even on my 1920x1200 screen, it appears to be the center of the page. If this is indeed intended to be a header, I'd try to make it so that it fills the space between the top of the page and the upper edge of the vertical navigation menu. This way, people opening the site on a Laptop will actually see the first post.

 

Otherwise, nice site so far!

[Cube]

Thanks. I've made some changes based on the suggestions

 

- The stuff from the right column is now on the left. Width lowered so the main content bit is the same.

- The home page image has been made much smaller. I think it needs something there to make the home page stand out a little. Without it, the home page wouldn't have anything to say "Yes, this is the homepage".

- I've simply removed the drop-down menu from the top. I personally never liked it anyway - menus like that aren't usable on mobiles, anyway.

 

I think the main reason it was so wide was that I didn't like such wide empty spaces on either side when viewing it on my laptop (1920x1080).

[Sméagol]

Looks better.

 

I personally do like the empty space on the sides. Plus, it probably fits (or at least fits better) on tablets, and it fits better on an half window (on the same resolution).