Designing Again :) New Site I am working on..............

[livepcportal 0]

Hello everyone,

Now, I am finally able to show the glimpses of my new design to you guys. Please note that this is not finished yet, some of the things that are still left to do includes,

1. Buy a new domain name......lol....
thats the reason you will not be able to see my new site name at the footer in copyright Also, I am using my existing domain name to show it, its temporarily.

2. Design a new banner, and put it in its actual place...

3. Content area is still not finished, at the moment mainly focusing on header of my design
4. ...........a lot of other things

So, what do you think of the design? And most importantly I have paused working on the design temporarily, until I get to know that if I am heading in correct direction or not......so this is the right time when I still can go back and change it from the core to make the design more better.........

Click Here to check the design live in action.....I am eagerly waiting for your valuable criticism and suggestions....

edit: Click Here to see latest edition of template in action.....but one more thing, the content is still missing. however, will be added soon....

Thanks in advance

Edited October 29, 2010 by livepcportal (see edit history)

[mahesh2k 0]

Not sure if you are using any HTML template or CMS for this. I assume you are using HTML template. Looks nice to me. Don't know how many sections or content you are coming up with so can't comment for this template. Overall template looks decent. Just fill in some site content so that we can comment more. good luck with domain and site.

[Quatrux 4]

I like the design, it's a good one and has everything I prefer, a header, a footer, content area and several menus with some bars, really a good job!Now I could tell more if you would fill the content and we would see it in action..I like the colors, I think you need to design a favicon too, if you don't know what is a favicon, when do a google search and you'll understand.

[Nameless_ 1]

Wow... that looks AWESOME! :/ It actually looks really professional and everything. Only the text is missing. I'll have to learn how to do that. ONE DAY. But thats really good... no good criticism at the moment, it looks perfect.

[web_designer 7]

first, i got this error twice till the link works "500 Internal Server Error". i don't know why? since it is under your domain but keep that in mind.in general, it looks good. and you did a great job with the structure of the layout i like it, it is so neat. the same thing for the colors, the dark red and light gray are so convenient together, but make sure to make the the two lines of the dark area in the footer with the same shade of the header to give a harmony to your site. as i can see those two lines are orange now when your header is dark red.and if you concentrated on the header right now, then go on you did a good job. it looks fine for me, the colors and gradients are good even i liked the font. so continue your work and upload it again i am interested to see it when it finished. good luck.

[Baniboy 3]

Well, it looks good otherwise but there are some technical things I would like you to concentrate on in your design. It would be better if you aligned the elements in a vertically 'peaceful' way. By that I mean move the header contents to be vertically aligned with the rest of the content. Move the logo and sub-header to the right a little bit and move the elements on the right a little bit to the left. This is because of the human mind. Anyway, you'll realize that most people will find it more pleasing that way. I found your 3 boxes in the content area a bit confusing with 2 side by side little boxes of advertisements and statistics. You should consider realigning them so that they are aligned vertically correctly with the main content area box.The "you are here" -box, well if you're going to put a breadcrumb trail there then people are used to that kind of stuff and you don't need the extra text to explain what the trail is. Ignore this unless that's there just to tell where the trail is going to be.If you separate your advertisement from the content you're going to have less people clicking on it. You have to make it look like the ads are a part of the content. So don't wrap them with gray boxes (I'm talking about the "Advertise Your Link Here" -box).The graphics are good although I would reconsider using that orange color you use for your box borders.Btw I know it might be hard to accept criticism from people after you've worked hard and someone comes to tell you that you've done something wrong so...

[livepcportal 0]

Not sure if you are using any HTML template or CMS for this. I assume you are using HTML template. Looks nice to me. Don't know how many sections or content you are coming up with so can't comment for this template. Overall template looks decent. Just fill in some site content so that we can comment more. good luck with domain and site.

At the moment, I am just creating html template using dreamweaver, later on I will convert it to be used as a template in any cms whichever I select at the end......still not sure about cms software;)

I like the design, it's a good one and has everything I prefer, a header, a footer, content area and several menus with some bars, really a good job!
Now I could tell more if you would fill the content and we would see it in action..

I like the colors, I think you need to design a favicon too, if you don't know what is a favicon, when do a google search and you'll understand.

Yeah, I will design a favicon too and will put it in live action once the banner is also completed, I do also have a sample banner which I am using at backend to design the template, but, since I haven't purchased that domain name yet, its not public as it includes my upcoming domain name......

Wow... that looks AWESOME! :/ It actually looks really professional and everything. Only the text is missing. I'll have to learn how to do that. ONE DAY. But thats really good... no good criticism at the moment, it looks perfect.

Hmmmm......professional....thanks....but I am really not a pro....I just learn while I work You can check here my first design which I created a year back... Click Here- My First Design

first, i got this error twice till the link works "500 Internal Server Error". i don't know why? since it is under your domain but keep that in mind.
in general, it looks good. and you did a great job with the structure of the layout i like it, it is so neat. the same thing for the colors, the dark red and light gray are so convenient together, but make sure to make the the two lines of the dark area in the footer with the same shade of the header to give a harmony to your site. as i can see those two lines are orange now when your header is dark red.

and if you concentrated on the header right now, then go on you did a good job. it looks fine for me, the colors and gradients are good even i liked the font. so continue your work and upload it again i am interested to see it when it finished. good luck.

For testing purposes, I am currently using free hosting provided by x10hosting, and I am not surprised that you got this error......as their servers are not working fine like earlier....they are now too slow
And, the orange lines at the bottom have been changed......you can check the latest upload here and to compare it with my earlier upload Click Here.
Some of the changes I have made in my latest upload includes:

1. Much clean layout and code....a lot of unnecessary divs are removed.
2. Images used are optimized to a very small size.
3. New styles are used in the navigation
4. Box at the top right corner of the header which will be used to put search engine is now fixed and is now using much much clean code....you can check it by comparing it with my previous upload of template.
5. And, some other small change......just find it out yourself by comparing

Well, it looks good otherwise but there are some technical things I would like you to concentrate on in your design. It would be better if you aligned the elements in a vertically 'peaceful' way. By that I mean move the header contents to be vertically aligned with the rest of the content. Move the logo and sub-header to the right a little bit and move the elements on the right a little bit to the left. This is because of the human mind. Anyway, you'll realize that most people will find it more pleasing that way. I found your 3 boxes in the content area a bit confusing with 2 side by side little boxes of advertisements and statistics. You should consider realigning them so that they are aligned vertically correctly with the main content area box.

Hmmm....at the moment I am not concentrating on content because it depends on the cms which I will select at the end, so until I don't finalize the cms software which I will be using, I can't work on content area.
But, thanks will look forward to implement your suggestion when I will start working on content area of the template....and regarding advertisement area, I have plans of my own:ph34r: You will get to see that in action when site will be ready for beta launch which is still months away

One more thing, I would like to compare this design with my first design that I created more than a year back. Click Here- My First Design...and.....Click Here- My Latest Design......just curious to know how much I have improved...

Thanks in advance and keep your suggestions or criticism coming
Edited October 23, 2010 by livepcportal (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

I'm a fan of warm colors and colors that compliment each other. The colors you have currently do not seem to work entirely together. The only colors i see that work well together that you are currently using is the dark red, the content area's background color and the border color. Here is a few color schemes you could try out or take colors from:

1046780
784438
638860
920640

[livepcportal 0]

I'm a fan of warm colors and colors that compliment each other. The colors you have currently do not seem to work entirely together. The only colors i see that work well together that you are currently using is the dark red, the content area's background color and the border color. Here is a few color schemes you could try out or take colors from:

 

1046780

784438

638860

920640

 

Thanks truefusion for suggesting color schemes. Now, I have changed colors at the footer by choosing the colors from the schemes suggested by you. You can take a look at it again and tell me if its ok or not in your opinion.....

 

Click Here to see the latest version of the template after changing colors at the footer

[Nameless_ 1]

I was expecting a crappy design with your first design template, but it turned out to be pretty good. Wow. :/ Damn. I'm trying to create a design template for myself, but not using WYSIWYG software like dreamweaver, mainly because I don't have Dreamweaver. And I would like to learn out to code. If you have any tips feel free to PM me? You have really good designs. I think you have improved a fair bit from your first design, since the solid colours then are rather... plain looking and doesn't really fit well. But design wise, I think it's similar. Clean and Easy to use, so I think that's great. KEEP IT UP!

[mahesh2k 0]

I was expecting a crappy design with your first design template, but it turned out to be pretty good. Wow. :/ Damn. I'm trying to create a design template for myself, but not using WYSIWYG software like dreamweaver, mainly because I don't have Dreamweaver. And I would like to learn out to code. If you have any tips feel free to PM me?
You have really good designs. I think you have improved a fair bit from your first design, since the solid colours then are rather... plain looking and doesn't really fit well. But design wise, I think it's similar. Clean and Easy to use, so I think that's great. KEEP IT UP!

If you don't have dreamweaver then you can always install softwares like NVU. NVU is free software and i guess it runs on Mac as well. Other than that you can always search for WYSIWYG freeware mac program. There are 2-3 such programs if i remember correctly. Not using mac as workstation so can't confirm.

[web_designer 7]

good job livepcportal,i really think that with those small changes here and there, your template looks much more better. especially what you did in the footer, the colors look more fit with each other. i will be waiting for more changes and the final look of your template. good luck.

[Nameless_ 1]

If you don't have dreamweaver then you can always install softwares like NVU. NVU is free software and i guess it runs on Mac as well. Other than that you can always search for WYSIWYG freeware mac program. There are 2-3 such programs if i remember correctly. Not using mac as workstation so can't confirm.

Wow... I might try that out... but I don't know. Shouldn't I do it the hard way to learn some programming first before I dabble in the easier ways of life? :/ Because I was aiming to get something out of it, like last time, instead of making it easy for myself and not learning anything. :/ But anyways, have to do the actual template first. I don't even know what I want on it exactly. Just some vague ideas on the design.

[truefusion 3]

Thanks truefusion for suggesting color schemes. Now, I have changed colors at the footer by choosing the colors from the schemes suggested by you. You can take a look at it again and tell me if its ok or not in your opinion.....
Click Here to see the latest version of the template after changing colors at the footer

The footer is a lot better now. Now all that needs work is the header and navigation. I noticed the design on digyourpc.com has better fonts than the one you're working on, not only the families but the sizes as well as the colors. But the footer font is better on your rough draft.

Wow... I might try that out... but I don't know. Shouldn't I do it the hard way to learn some programming first before I dabble in the easier ways of life? :/ Because I was aiming to get something out of it, like last time, instead of making it easy for myself and not learning anything. :/ But anyways, have to do the actual template first. I don't even know what I want on it exactly. Just some vague ideas on the design.

You can help avoid some confusion when designing websites if you learn HTML. If you were to ever find something to be "off," knowing HTML and perhaps some CSS will help you to understand how things work and therefore allow you to easily adjust things to your liking. Programming is on a different level than this kind of design. It is not surprising to see programmers create incredibly complex programs while the UI is horrible or lacking (Linux is an example of this). This is why the user interface is often left to others. Unless the web designer specializes on popular CMS scripts, then they don't require to know more than HTML and CSS.

I avoid all WYSIWYG editors because they tend to do more damage than good to my code. Instead i just look for text editors with a lot of syntax features. If you are looking to learn HTML and CSS, i would recommend using a WYSIWYG editor so that you can get a general idea of HTML. The way i first learned HTML was by visiting a random website and working in reverse. If i wanted to know how they accomplished something, i would find the text that is within the desired element and then find that text within the source code and then look at the surrounding HTML. CSS was a bit more difficult to figure out in this way, but i managed.

If you can understand something as simple as BB code, then you'll eventually come to understand HTML.

[livepcportal 0]

Just a quick update, I have made a lot of changes in the footer and now its totally different, and this is the first time when I would say I am pretty much satisfied with the output....

 

From my side the footer is 100% finished, although it requires code cleanup but that is not my concern at the moment. So, now waiting for your comments on the footer now regarding its styling and etc..... so give me your valuable suggestions

 

Click here to check it in live action........

 

Also, I am working on the header and the navigation in fireworks, trying to create a comp, really not good on graphics software, so its obviously taking time, but here is the link to what I have done so far, feel free to check it and leave comments on it also......and please note that banner is removed from the image...

 

 

Waiting for your comments and more importantly your suggestions...... and if anyone wants to help in creating the comp and can make it more better, then please do it for me........I am not graphical person I am a coder.....

 

Thanks in advance