Suggestions On Mah Site?

ok well can you review my site? i need help on making the header "pane" smaller....and also suggestons on text colors would be appreciated GREATLY....and haslip did the layout stuff so BIG thanks to him!

a link would be great for the people who dont know it

first suggestion get rid of that background that an eye sore litterally. Find 2 colors that work well with each other and then use them for a better layout colors. use a dark color and then use a light color to make it blend together better.Add 1px black border around the nav menu.also work on the coloring of your text as well until wew see content put on that I can't really go into detail on what you need to do except for what I just mention

I have to agree with SM the background sticks out way to much and hurts your eyes. Try something darker perhaps, or something more easy on the eyes. But besiders that, I like it a lot.

thanks husker....i will try to do it by myself....but like i said haslip made the colors and background and all so may have to wait for him

the bg wouldn't be so bad if you made it so that instead of the entire image repeating, just the middle(white part) repeated. But thats more work than necessary, so just get a different BG. The light blue text is out of place and hard to read. You sort of combined the navigation area with a content area, so I think you should seperate those. While the site is under construction, you should redirect it to the forums so users don't get the wrong idea if it looks bad at the moment.

maybe get it xhtml validated if you have the time
Edited October 16, 2006 by DarkPsycho (see edit history)

how do i redirect it to the forums?

Place this code in between your body,

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/;

You can change the time you want to refresh the page where it says 'content=0;'
Another option you could do that is really easy with Xisto is visit your cpanel and go under the section of Site Management Tools and find Manage Redirects. Input the URL you want to redirect(http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) and redirect it to (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) I would also suggest changing the background or something because I have problems reading the text. If you would like any other suggestions or help, contact me.

I agree with everyone else, the background has to go. It has 2 problems, first it distracts visitors from your content, (usually the whole reason you make a site) and second, because of the gradients it is causing your text to disappear into the background. This problem is evident in both the main section of your page and the menu. Gradients are tricky to use as backgrounds because you have to be very with your text color selection so the text doesn't seem to disappear.The style used for the menu is a good start but it does need a border as SM pointed out. Elements in your page should be clearly defined, a border will help with this. I suggest you search the web for some of the many templates that are available. I don't suggest you use a template as you want the site to be yours, no something that somebody else created. I suggest you look at the templates and use them for ideas, usually by combining different parts of different templates to come up with a combination you are happy with.Good luck with the site design, it's something that often takes a few times to get things exactly the way you want it. Don't grow impatient and settle for something that is not really what you want.

Good to see that jhaslip applied/designed that index page i've sent to you. Try editing the left pane and use it just for menus and short descriptions. The background as everyone else says is terrible. You should change it. I recommend a plain black or clear blue on the bg due to the hover links colored red.Try adding some banners to the main window in the right. btw, Banners for your site, not for ads. :)To put it clearly, in the left pane, pure menus and short desc, and announcements and such to the right. A little banner or description in the upper right pane may help visitors find out what your site is for.Good luck designing. ^_~

I agree, the background repetition hurts my eyes and you can?t read anything of the blue text when it?s above the white part of the background. And the black/red transition it?s too hard. This doesn?t look like a background really. I would recommend to change the font... I simply can?t stand Times New Roman in web design.Give it more format in general, and check colors, sizes, fonts and then you should put some "fake content" just to check how it would look with content. And then make the final changes.Plus, check browser compatibility, I see it slightly differente in IExplorar and Mozilla. Good Luck!

Edited October 16, 2006 by Sprnknwn (see edit history)