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1st Website: Opinions Please!

A

adom

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 27, 2006
252
0
UK
Ok, so this is basically it.

The first website I have actually made for someone (a friend). Every other time I have messed around and never published anything :rolleyes: , but this time round its pretty-much all done and going to be used by the company!

Yay!! :D

Just wanted to get some opinions from other, more experienced designers - all critiques are welcome!

http://tinyurl.com/y4ogg7


(Yes its a temporary host for now. My friend is sorting the host details that the company currently use soon)


Thanks!
adam
 
it's nice and looks like you spent a lot of time. it is clearly a quality site. two points to address though are the fact that it looks more like a technical website than a website designed with the consumer in mind. it just doesn't feel like i am at a golf club. second, and this relates to the first point, is the use of the fig. 1 and description.get rid of the fig 1 stuff it is useless and the descriptions are very formal, just describe what it is and why it's significant, otherwise it becomes too verbose. otherwise well done, did you use iWeb?
 
ok i just went back and looked again. the language you use is problematic. it is disjointed and often tries to be clever, but comes off more silly. the point is, you have something really good here in the works, but need to make some serious improvements in the language used and the nature of the information and details provided.
 
I think it looks great. Very good site, insane quality for a first time website.

One suggestion, numberes three digits and less are commonly written in the spelled out way, rather than just putting in a two 2 or 3. It looks more professional. (except in a table ofcourse)
 
BEAUTIFUL

Are you a designer, or have you had any experience with graphic design?

You may not have that much control over the actual language used on the site.

One thing I would do, is change the urls from:

/keydogg/bcg/visitors.asp

to

/keydogg/bcg/visitors/

That way you are free to change languages in the future without the links breaking.

It's a small point, but it might save time in the future.
 
It does look more like a technical site instead of a site for a golf course... but it's nice for a first effort. I'd lose the Titleist logo, unless you have permission to use it... you can turn the ball to the site so it "looks" like a Titleist but you can't actually read it.
I'd optimize those pictures more... they are too chunky.
The text screams re-write... too disjointed...
 
I really like it... I think the typography, esp. the heading hierarchy could use some work though... there's too much padding between paragraphs / headings, and I think the font differences are a bit too large for sub-sections.

A great example is http://www.alistapart.com for typography done right...
 
Aniej said:
it's nice and looks like you spent a lot of time. it is clearly a quality site. two points to address though are the fact that it looks more like a technical website than a website designed with the consumer in mind. it just doesn't feel like i am at a golf club. second, and this relates to the first point, is the use of the fig. 1 and description.get rid of the fig 1 stuff it is useless and the descriptions are very formal, just describe what it is and why it's significant, otherwise it becomes too verbose. otherwise well done, did you use iWeb?
Click to expand...


Firstly thanks everyone for your point of views..will take them all to my friend and discuss. I acutally used dream weaver, and then mixed between code / design mode really.

again thanks for the ideas!
 
elppa said:
BEAUTIFUL

Are you a designer, or have you had any experience with graphic design?

You may not have that much control over the actual language used on the site.

One thing I would do, is change the urls from:

/keydogg/bcg/visitors.asp

to

/keydogg/bcg/visitors/

That way you are free to change languages in the future without the links breaking.

It's a small point, but it might save time in the future.
Click to expand...

Im just a 'dabbler' really. I have access to photoshop since a teenager, so just messed about really
 
iDuck said:
I think it looks great. Very good site, insane quality for a first time website.

One suggestion, numberes three digits and less are commonly written in the spelled out way, rather than just putting in a two 2 or 3. It looks more professional. (except in a table ofcourse)
Click to expand...

I believe it's only the numbers 10 and below that this applies to.
 
I would really have those pop-up photos either scaled to size (so that it doesn't open in a huge new window) or have some Javascript effect so that you never really have to have a new window open. May I recommend Lightbox?

I like the design a lot though - very clean and elegant looking.
 
I would delete the "golf course information" and "about us" headings on the home page. They are redundant. I agree with most other comments that the text needs work, and there are lots of areas where the design could be streamlined. For example, you don't need to say "click on thumbnails for a larger image" when the "+" icon in the corner makes it clear that's how they work.

But overall, it looks pretty good for a first effort.
 
wordmunger said:
For example, you don't need to say "click on thumbnails for a larger image" when the "+" icon in the corner makes it clear that's how they work.

But overall, it looks pretty good for a first effort.
Click to expand...

In other cases on the site I agree, but not there. I don't think the 'plus' sign is enough for your average idiot to understand. Leave that text there. (But remove the 'fig.' stuff.)
 
besler3035 said:
May I recommend Lightbox?

I like the design a lot though - very clean and elegant looking.
Click to expand...

Wow that looks really cool. Thankyou for the link mate!

As for the text, that was specified by the owner of the course. However thanks to your feedback, we are revising that over the next 48 hours....and yes, the Fig. scheme will go to show instead "Above: The image shows bla bla..."

Thankyou for your kind and constructive comments all!

Edit: Well i have taken besler's advice, and grabbed myself Lightbox code. I've added it to the site and it looks great. Also, all Fig's have gone, and have been replaced. Just need to do some re-writes, and optimise some of the larger images and it should be sorted!
 
looks fantastic, its not a template? all I can say is my first site was HORRIBLE...lol... yours looks great.. what software did you use for laying it out? my first was notepad..lol..

keep up the good work

DD
 
ddekker said:
looks fantastic, its not a template? all I can say is my first site was HORRIBLE...lol... yours looks great.. what software did you use for laying it out? my first was notepad..lol..

keep up the good work

DD
Click to expand...


We'll, its not my first site per se, but it is the first website I have ever uploaded. For years I have just dabbled in photoshop and dreamweaver - having had access to them at college. I have made web pages (i.e. messed around with designs for a single page, just for the fun of it) but have never seriously made a full site for a particular purpose.

But to answer your question, no, it is not a template. the whole design, logos etc were sketched out - made real in photoshop and chopped and implemented using alot of css and my first real try at DIV tags.

To be honest, doing well in graphic design and art at school, has helped me design wise - it was just the coding side of things that i picked up myself.

All in all its worked out pretty great! I think the client is going to sort out their currrent host sometime this week, so that we can upload and get it live. :D
 
It looks a nice site, and a great course. I live just outside of Hull and I wasnt even aware that this course had been built! I will try and get up there and have a game when I get over this bloddy broken leg!

Nice work though!

Something I always want from a golf course web site is a route finder thingy! I want to be able to enter my post code and then get a link to an AA route finder or something like that showing me a route. You have to remember that 75% of peole who visit your site will not be members so they want to know how to get there.
 
R.Youden said:
It looks a nice site, and a great course. I live just outside of Hull and I wasnt even aware that this course had been built! I will try and get up there and have a game when I get over this bloddy broken leg!

Nice work though!

Something I always want from a golf course web site is a route finder thingy! I want to be able to enter my post code and then get a link to an AA route finder or something like that showing me a route. You have to remember that 75% of peole who visit your site will not be members so they want to know how to get there.
Click to expand...


Wow, thats wierd. I live just outside of Hull too. You really should visit it if you enjoy golf, its a great new course that is maturing month by month...plus the family who run it are a great set of people!

That is a great idea tho, about the route finder. I have basically, under the Visitor's page, put a picture of a route from Hull to the course...but yeah maybe a more national way would be better.

If you are into your golf, also be sure to visit the forums for the club, which are at http://burstwickgolf.forumer.com/. They are not busy yet, due to the fact that they will be only advertised with the new website launch....but u can register and get your username early!!

Their acutal web address is www.burstwickcountrygolf.co.uk, but as you can see, the current site is lacking - hence my version, which should be replacing it within the next week!
 
I will have a look at those websites, it looks a nice course.

I play at Cottingham Golf club. This is part of their website! It is so tacky it is beyond belief. It s actually a lot better than the photos and those terrible drawings look like!

Here

Compared to this your looks amazing (which it is!) and it is a shame that a relatively well established club as mine has a shocking website!
 
R.Youden said:
Compared to this your looks amazing (which it is!) and it is a shame that a relatively well established club as mine has a shocking website!
Click to expand...

thanks mate. well, you can always talk to who ever is in charge there, and give them my details :p ;) *hint*hint* lol
 
well....its finally done, dusted and pretty much complete. We got the website hosted on some paid servers (hence a little bit faster), and got the domain name the company want.

All in all, for my first website experience - great fun to make !!! :D :D

Check it out, if you like:
http://www.burstwickcountrygolf.co.uk/home.asp
 
adom said:
well....its finally done, dusted and pretty much complete. We got the website hosted on some paid servers (hence a little bit faster), and got the domain name the company want.

All in all, for my first website experience - great fun to make !!! :D :D

Check it out, if you like:
http://www.burstwickcountrygolf.co.uk/home.asp
Click to expand...

It looks great! But how did you get the png transparency to work in IE?
 
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