nickschiwy.com

Hi I've got two sites that I've been doing and I need suggestions on how to make them better.
Thanks
Nick

http://www.nickschiwy.com
http://www.guntherselectric.com

http://www.nickschiwy.com/
The header with the wood effect is too large width wise.

Make your buttons (the grey ones) all the same size.

Remove the icon button at the bottom left and the hit counter. The hit counter does not fit in with the rest of your site and the small banner has no purpose except advertising.

http://www.guntherselectric.com
The same with your first site, the header is too large and its file size is also too large causing it to load very slowly.

Remove the hit counter and banner icon again.

Get rid of the MSN icons as they are very pixelated due to you increasing their size in a graphics program when they were originally built to be smaller.

You said NickSchiwy.com for both - Which is which???

Also I want to keep the hit counters because I want to know how many people have visited. With Gunther's Electric, That's not my choice anyway it's not my buisiness. The small banner is not optional either with using the web builder i use comes that stupid little thing and I can't delete it except in HTML and if I do the whole page becomes all wierd and funky. I would buy the software but it is outdated now and I like the version I am using now better. (just my luck) I know the banners are too big but I can't find any way to make them part of the background or fit to the screen that is shown. Neither I or Gunther's Electric wanted to pay for the GoDaddy Hosting and therefore we have those ugly ads in the background, the only way is to cover them up. Lastly thanks for all of you're suggestions I will think about them carefully and try to fix what I can.
Nick

I'm Sorry, I have no Idea what you are talking about.
I have no recelection of MSN icons I've been working on both all night and I can't think of what could be talking about.

There aren't any grey buttons

Sorry edited the url now.

http://www.guntherselectric.com/
This site has some buttons at the top (Home, About Us, Job and Contact)
They each contain an icon from the MSN icon list.

I would seriously suggest moving away from the web based builders and moving onto something like Dreamweaver.

Although I'd like to get something like dreamweaver I don't really think it could fit my budget - what is it about $700 to buy?

I am already working 2 jobs (maybe 3 soon summer break started today), I'm 14 - I can't even think how i'd manage that.

I would like to buy dreamweaver or something like it when I can afford it.

You can try the trial version for free.

www.macromedia.com

I was wondering about that this morning and was acctually going to ask you.
Thanks,
Nick

Wow, your site is really eye-popping. The red page hurts my eyes. I know how difficult figuring out a site is, so I don't want to be critical, but I do have a design suggestion for you. Sites really flow if there is consistency, and people know they are on your site no matter where they click. I would try for a uniform heading and/or color on each page, then have fun with color, etc. within that format. Try for same fonts, same logo, same sizes, etc.
Just an idea.

Eye Popping Good or Eye Popping bad?

But thanks for the input.
I feel dumb asking for suggestions and not taking any but I will look into everything you say.

I downloaded Dreamweaver - it's so frusterating it always is Saying "error" of somekind and telling me i'm doing something wrong, I think that it is not for the computer illiterate - or it just doesn't like me.

Also, not to start anything but, I thought threads were for discussion so why close that one thread that was full of problems just because it had a discussion?
I'm sure you know which one i'm talking about but just incase its that one in the site critique started by: smartboy

Because it was going off track. And was likely to cause arguments due to some posts.

We also prefer you to critique one site at a time otherwise its not taken as 'seriously'.

ok, i can't really do anything now, but i'll do that next time if there is a next time.

For someone new to web design your doing a great job! - when starting off try to keep things simple, simple layouts using colors that go well together and lots of white space, which you have done. For both sites you need to learn to use semantic markup. It's not difficult and will make a better designer out of you overnight! I wrote a short article on semantic markup you may be interested in, and also I couldnt reccomend this book highly enough.

Keep coding your getting there!

p.s you can do me the favour in return and tell me what you think og my site click here.

The Fun has arrived...?

Hmmm OK. lol

Well, let's go for looks first shall we.

Your header graphic started out really blocky but it soon downloaded enough to display fully although this too was very blocky and pixellated.

It is FAR too wide. I'm running 1280x1024 and it mostly filled my screen. people on 1024 and below will be stuffed.

your navigation offers no feedback to the user that it is indeed navigation, I thought the boxes would change background colour or something when you moused over them... but alas, no.

Now your code.

Don't use capitals in your code unless the language specifically calls for it. It can mess you up further down the line.

Other than that, take a lesson in standards and document structure...