Advice for website design

[parrothead]

I just uploaded a website I created to promote my fledgling boat building business. It is still very raw, but I think it gets the point across. I built it using Rapidweaver, which seems to be useful for this marine biologist trying his hand at website development. If any one has any ideas feel free to let me know.

The site is at: www.keakayaks.com

Also, if anyone wants me to build them a boat I can do that too!

 

[Kardashian]

Wonderful website. Really nice and Apple-y looking, the shinyness of it. Yes, I am attracted to shiny things.

I've been asked to create a basic website for someone, I was thinking of using iWeb but if you can recommend the app. you used to beginners - I may well go ahead with using it.

Well done, its awesome.

Edit: On re-viewing the site, I would remove the word other, and move Completed and Current projects, maybe under the title bar? Above the image of the Kyak?

 

[parrothead]

Wonderful website. Really nice and Apple-y looking, the shinyness of it. Yes, I am attracted to shiny things.

I've been asked to create a basic website for someone, I was thinking of using iWeb but if you can recommend the app. you used to beginners - I may well go ahead with using it.

Well done, its awesome.

Edit: On re-viewing the site, I would remove the word other, and move Completed and Current projects, maybe under the title bar? Above the image of the Kyak?

Thanks, I already removed the word other and it will show up when I update tonight. The app I used is called Rapidweaver. You can play around with it in demo mode to see if you like it.

 

[frankblundt]

Very nice, I like it a lot.

Although.. perhaps the navigation could be a little less dominant (not so wide). And on the completed projects page I got confused.. both links go to the same page. Navigating through the numerous photos over multiple galleries also got a bit confusing.

 

[etoiles]

when you select 'contact info', 'site map', I wouldn't switch to a different page, but just update the righthand section.

Maybe keep the background (white box) all the way to the bottom on every page, regardless of window size? That way you don't have the impression to jump to different pages...

Also, not sure if you can do this, but it would be cool to expand the menu items on the left when you click on them... for example clicking on 'site map' would place the list of pages below the button etc.

 

[johnniewalker]

Looking pretty good, the only things I would change are:

The width of the theme, increase if possible which might stop the nav titles from getting squashed together.

Lose either the 'contact info' or the 'email me' page, I think you only need one or the other.

Try using some of the plugins available for RW from here http://www.yourhead.com/ , I particuarly like 'collage' for giving images a more professional look.

For more great plugins, tutorials and even some REALLY nice FREE themes go here: http://www.squidoo.com/rapidweaver/

and here: http://www.multithemes.com/themes/free32/free32.html

Hope you don't mind me being critical, I'm sure my efforts aren't award winning

I've been building sites for a while now but have only just entered the mac world and so I'm testing various web apps.

I also have settled on rapidweaver, it's great, simple to use but easy to customise by using various themes and plugins available.

I have just updated one of my earlier sites using RW and as a testbed for future projects.

http://www.dromorefreight.com/

 

[johnniewalker]

PS, another really useful site for RW info:

http://www.rapidweaver-seo.com/

By using some of the advice I'm hoping my RW sites will be search engine friendly!

 

[parrothead]

Looking pretty good, the only things I would change are:
SNIP

Thanks for the advice. I dont mind at all you being critical. I welcome constructive comments. I will definitely check into the resources you listed here.

 

[parrothead]

I just uploaded an upgraded version of my website using advice from replies I have received. Let me know what you think.

 

[parrothead]

I saw a website made with rapidweaver that integrated Slideshow Pro. It looked really nice, much better than can be done easily in RW. Does anyone know how I would integrate this into my site with RW?

link to Slideshow Pro site: http://www.slideshowpro.net/product_ssp.php
Site that uses it: http://www.pixelseverywhere.com/

 

[desenso]

Nice, clean website.* However, do you really need a sitemap?* In my opinion, you do not - sitemaps are for complex sites, which yours is not... it's not really necessary.

Also, a big of a navigational faux pas: when I follow the link to*http://www.keakayaks.com/hulla/hulla.html, all of a sudden the navigation changes!* From what I can tell, the only way to go back is to use the comparatively understated breadcrumb bar at the bottom of the page... this can be very confusing to visitors.

Sub-navigation is a very challenging thing to master.. even though it is logically simple, it can be difficult to strike the right balance between primary navigation, secondary navigation, and the site content itself.* My preferred way of achieving this is to have the primary navigation horizontally across the page, with secondary navigation vertically on a sidebar (where your primary navigation currently resides).

The alternative, if you wish to maintain everything on the vertical, is to use tree navigation that expands when you get to a certain area of the site.

Just something to consider... otherwise, the site looks good

 

[parrothead]

Also, a big of a navigational faux pas: when I follow the link to*http://www.keakayaks.com/hulla/hulla.html, all of a sudden the navigation changes!* From what I can tell, the only way to go back is to use the comparatively understated breadcrumb bar at the bottom of the page... this can be very confusing to visitors.

I know all about this. I hate it. I have been racking my brains to try and figure out how to fix this. However, it seems that this is a limitation to Rapidweaver. The photoalbum page, which is what I use for the pictures of the boats does not let me do any of the things you suggested. This is why I posted about slideshow pro above. I know next to nothing about writing html or flash, etc, so I am pretty much limited t RW and plugins for it. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[idea_hamster]

I know all about this. I hate it. I have been racking my brains to try and figure out how to fix this. However, it seems that this is a limitation to Rapidweaver. The photoalbum page, which is what I use for the pictures of the boats does not let me do any of the things you suggested. This is why I posted about slideshow pro above. I know next to nothing about writing html or flash, etc, so I am pretty much limited t RW and plugins for it. Thanks for the advice though.

I agree that this is a bit of an issue -- if you recall, for a long time MacRumors had no way to get back to the front page once you entered the forums. Now we have that snazzy first Mac Rumors tab!

Rather than write a whole bunch of code or tearing your hair out, a simple (but possibly less-than-ideal) work-around is to have the photo album page open in a new window. Then the visitor would just close the window to return to whereever they were. Not "best practices" certainly, but functional.