My New Site Give me advice and suggestions

[fffanatics 0]

Hey everyone i am working on my third version of a site for the final fantasy games. Currently all i have done is the login script, news script and the layout but i figured i might as well start early on getting constructive critisism. Please look at only the main page cause nothing else really works and also do not create an account because it will be wiped clean very soon again. Advice, suggestions, and complaints are all welcome but keep in mind it is a work in progress. For one, i know people are going to complain that the name of my site is not displayed and that is currently being worked on and it will be an image ontop of the banner on the top with Final Fantasy Fanatics posted on it in the final fantasy font (which i need to redownload). THnaks everyone and the link to my site is here Final Fantasy Fanatics.

Also if for some reason an image looks like it might be missing try refreshing and post what happened so i can try to fix it. Thanks

[Dragonfly 0]

Very nice. I like the top banner very much so also the background of the left main menu. But the only problem seems to be the main body. There is no space between the left menu and the main body. The tables are meeting and there's no padding made. Give some gap between the two. The rest looks awesome. Also you could change the main body background to some other image like menu may be..

[novaforme 0]

Well your header image is sweet but for some reason your menu bar on the left hand side is covering your news script.But besides that its a good start.

[switch 0]

absolutely beautiful in the way of graphics / multimedia.only annoyance is the way that the login box on the right obstructs some of the text. maybe a [X] button on the top right corner would be nice? (sorta turning it into a closable window), or even just a login box as part of your menu on the left hand side.as for content, i've only EVER played FF8 (and loved it) but you look like you're really dedicated to this. Good on ya!Nice work so far, looking forward to seeing how it will turn out.

[rvalkass 5]

Thats an exceptional design, however I have noticed that the nav menu and the login box have no left/right borders respectively. To me this just looks weird, but if you meant to do it then fine, go ahead. Very good design and I look forward to the rest of the site.

[novaforme 0]

OK, what i said about your site earlier was crap, when i opend your site in IE it was displayed right but under FireFox it looks weird. But it does look really kool in IE.

[rejected 0]

It looks very nice when I open it in Opera, the layout is very well placed and your banned is very nice looking.But in Firefox, the login box isn't shown and the main content box is way over to the left.If you need help with putting text on your banner you can PM me or even make a topic about it asking for help.

[Invader 0]

I really like the site other then the fact you cant read the news. Also, maybe use a graphic/logo at the bottom to make your site more original?Just my ideas.

[fffanatics 0]

Thanks for the advice everyone and like i said its a work in progress and so far i have only tested it in IE so it appears firefox is having some trouble with it. Keep posting advice and ill work on it. Probably next week ill make another topic for changes and more advice. Thanks all again

[fffanatics 0]

Hey everyone keep giving me advice and just to let you all know i fixed the firefox display problems (had to do with a space before the px for my positioning). Thanks everyone

[Sprnknwn 0]

The top banner looks too big for me. It spends a long part of the screen size. Also, a logo (integrated in the banner) could be a great idea.Good job.

[fffanatics 0]

Hey people, just because i am not listed at the top of this forum does not mean the comments should stop :-( feel free to add more of them and check back often to see new changes.

[novaforme 0]

Hey fffanatics were did you get your login system?

[BaseElement 0]

fffanatics, your site is a good start, but I do have a number of comments that could give some improvements to you site.

Firstly, the background color, it's a bit too used up. Try a more subtle and darker color.

Secondly, and I do agree with Sprnknwn, the top banner is too big, try for a smaller size, and do try to limit the width to a max of 800px.

This brings me to my third point, the page layout. It's a bit un-organized. Try to put everything in a table layout (within your page, and without borders). Assign fixed width to each column, and keep your table centralized within the page (keeping the width of the whole table at a max. of 800px).

The menu bar on the left side could use some renovation. Lose the background image, don't use transparent GIFs. Instead, keep in a rectangle shape and use the same color you are using for the page background as the background for the button. You can also replace the double arrow for the menu items with a small cirular button clipart (with the same background). If you still want to have the effect of transparent background button, do opt for another format other than GIFs. Try PNGs (more information about PNGs is provided by Trevor Morris.

My final point has to do with font size. It's a bit too big, if you see it on a small screen resolution.

[fffanatics 0]

To answer novaforme's question, i wrote my own secure login system from scratch so i didnt really get it from anywhere. However, if you seacrch google for "php secure login script" you get a bunch of good results that i helped me write mine.Now for BaseElements suggestions, first of all i plan on making the title image thinner but i still need it wide since it is a div background, if you view it at a smaller size you just dont see the side of it which is fine since i will text above it with the name of my site on it. The reason i need it wide is that many people now a days are running resolutions at 1920 x 1200 (like me) and this will allow a very good view for all users.Now for the background color comment. Since the site is just being created, the background color appears to be over used but once I post maybe 2 or 3 more news comments, there will be a good amount more of the dark background color on the screen fixing the color issueFianlly, i do not get the unorganized comment because my layout would look exactly the same if i used tables instead of css divs and would create many issues between browers. Plus css is the prefered style language these days.The left side. First of all i do not use any transparent gifs but i use a div background for the image giving that illusion. Secondly, png are not fully supported by all browers these days and are the gifs of the future but should not currently be used. I do use a rectangle shape except for the image for the title which was up for comment. I will definitely try to make a better image that is rectangle instead of circular for that now so thanks for the help. Finally, the text size. I use a basic text size of 12 px which is a standard font size for paragraph text. Then i use 14 px for a news title so that it appears to have some importance and for a page title I use 20 px so it stands out which is pretty normal and does not appear large at all when viewed at 1024 x 768. Let me know why you think a few of these things in more details if you see my post so i can maybe understand you point of view on some of them. However, thanks for the comments because i love constructive critisism since it the best way to create a good site. Thanks