putting myself on the choppping block

ok, i am going out on a limb and at this early stage, will you let me know what you think of my personal hobby site

i know it does not validate, and there is a reason for this, it runs off a cms called subdreamer, which is a pain to make validate

also it has those very nasty things they call tables, this includes the recipes section which contains lots of files to make up this plug ( not built by me )

so, i think i am asking you to let me know what you think of the design ( which is mine lol ) and the basic idea

thanks

http://www.recipebite.co.uk

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The idea i like, i think it will work and will be very helpful to a lot of people.

Regarding the design, i do not like the, "life is about compromise" under the header, it is hard to read against the background and doesn't appear to have any relevance to the site.

Also not a fan of the footer, maybe look at some other colour schemes?

Like the layout of the site, easy to navigate and read

Hope this helps

Craig

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would you go out on a limb and suggest possible hex colours for the bar and footer ?

also the text in the right there was placed just to stop the bar looking 'boring' ( it was a 'stamp' so i cannot change the text and keep the same design ) any suggestions for the right hand side of it ?

i think you hit the nail on the head, as these were the parts of the design i was unsure of, i have always been more of a coder

thanks

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About the colours, maybe a pale yellow or something like that, probably best off asking someone better with colours than me

the right hand side of the bar, maybe links to favourite foods, or get rid of it completely??

I no you didn't do the coding but get who ever did to switch to strict doctype when he validates

Hope this helps

Craig

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i swapped the doctype because it validate better as transitional

i did build and code the template, it is only the element i did not do, like plugins etc, unfortunately these don't validate

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Not bad although it seems too "boxy". Although I am a horrible designer so don't take anything I say about design too seriously.

It feels kinda slapped together and doesn't feel like it has a "flow" to it at all.

All in all its little things, I agree with the footer comments, seems a tad outdated. Perhaps you should go with a less is more approach? on a it picky note in the login box, may I suggest you target the text fields directly thus leaving the check box alone and keeping it from spanning the width of the box? #foo input[type="text"] {}.

Works well, and is a great start.

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I hate IE 6. Just sayin....
http://www.mevans76.com

thanks, will definetly check it out, once again, the login form is part of subdreamer, so i will have to hunt it down

and tbh, it does look a little 'slapped together' but i am not a designer, like yourself i am a coder

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hi saltedm8, i think the images have too many artefacts, too much compression applied maybe?

expecially the logo, though i do like it.

saltedm8,

I just made an overall overview and made a "map" of the areas I think you should adress to and on which parts I believe you're doing great.

View Graph

Sorry, got that link wrong - this is the correct link:

CORRECT LINK

403 Forbidden page

i got it working, putting the root directly in the browser

http://housebaked.zzl.org/img/recipebite_overview.jpg

ok so, i like the google textwords idea

will get rid of the text on the right of that bar

i agree the footer background needs a change, dont know what to though

the footer text font, well, i like that so that is staying lol,

i also think the bar needs a change of colour, i dont know what to though, any suggestions ?

thanks for your 'extra' effort there

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I think perhaps the footer could be a light green (or similar to the colour of the pear in your logo). Best is to play around with it and see that the orange link is also visible on the background as well as your ordinary text.

Good luck

not sure about the mix of orange and green, but i will see what it looks like, cheers

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More rollover contrast needed on the top left menu bar.

Nice Logo.
How about adding a favicon in the header.

ok, i have made a few changes, the footer and bar are now different colours, i have also changed the a:active, please tell me if it looks better

thanks

p.s - favicon will come later thanks

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can i be blunt mate... i think it looks like it was moulded in word and then copied out...

i am off home now but will have a look at it tonight and will give some constuctive crit. then - just realised its home time and the sun is out!! w00p.

to be honest, you are not far wrong, - the text was anyway, i needed to spell check it lol

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glad you took it the right way... as i didnt want it to come over as i was being rude!

I looked over it last night and i figured out what it was missing... and it was 'white space'.

With everything boxed up it makes it look constricted and not much 'flow' to it. with more space around the elements and less boxing it would make the page flow better and make your eye move throughout the content.

I would also say try and stick to 3 main colours and use shades of them rather than the almost randomness of colour that is used at the min.

Does all that make sense?!