Web Site Design

[Will.Spencer]

The category description says:

What design elements really irk you?

Well, what really irks me is my own sites.

I'm a reasonably bright fellow and I code all my own HTML by hand in vi, but my sites are ugly ugly ugly.

A few of my web sites are:

• Internet Search Engines FAQ
  Fort Liberty
  Nuclear Now

My question is: How to make these less ugly? <blush>

[wenwilder]

Your sites are not what I would call ugly :)

Interesting reads for the most part - I'll read more than the first two paragraphs of each when I get a chance.

What is it about each of them that you find ugly? They are functional, informative, and clearly laid out. What do you think is wrong with the sites?

[Will.Spencer]

Originally Posted by wenwilder

They are functional, informative, and clearly laid out.

Thank you. :-)

I concur on those points. :)

Originally Posted by wenwilder

What do you think is wrong with the sites?

Ummm... it's that "ugly" thing. It's sort of undefinable. Or, at least it is undefinable to me. <blush>

I just can't seem to get that "visual appeal" thing down. Is there a guide to "pretty" somewhere? :)

[wenwilder]

Visually, the sites are a bit challenged. :)

There is no set guide for site 'beautification' unfortunately. You can jump into Graphic Design feet first, ask a lot of questions and get a lot of help. They are always willing to lend a pixel or two. ;)

Read up on the importance of color and the affect it has on the viewers (and the designer).

Have you submitted your sites to site review? Are you getting any useful feedback?

[HardCoded]

Actually your Fort Liberty one is kinda nice. Somehow it works for me, even if the design is the same as the other two.

I have the exact same problem. I have the visual knack of a doorknob. But there's a couple of things I do to help crutch me up a bit:

1. I avoid primary colours. Like #ff000, #0000ff
2. I pick a sort of a colour theme and then everything else is variations on that, right down to the rollovers.
3. I look at phpBB themes for colour theme ideas.
4. If there is a nice pic the customer wants to use on the site, I'll pick colours out of it for the site.

So while I'll probably never win any graphic design awards, most customers wind up liking what I do for them.

[matauri]

Not so much 'ugly', more along the lines of 'not there'. You've constructed a 3 column layout & put everything where it 'should' be.

I applaud that you are trying to put all of your formatting in the CSS, now just try being a little creative with it. (mostly) Tabless designs like you have chosen can be tricky when using a standard column format, but if you play with it some, you will find that you can have a lot of fun (and frustration) seeing how far you can push it.

I'm one of those that likes to challenge what you can make tabless designs do (even if I do end up pulling my hair out sometimes!). Your part way there already. You have chosen to hand code, and you have chosen tabless/css... your next step is to be creative :-)

Check out the sites in my signature, they are tabless/css. By no means are they fantastic, but, you will see that with a bit of playing around, you can do pretty much anything you can imagine :-)

[magicfitzpatrick]

I think your pages could get a color charge like this page.Go ahead and copy the basic idea.
I think this lay out would work for you.


http://www.bigmagazine.com/home.htm

[MarcieZoob]

Like wenwilder said, they're visually "challenged", that's all.

Break up the the one row / three column layout with a header row, add some headings in the columns with color and break up your body text to it's easier to read. With that much text, set some leading in CSS and it will add a little white space between lines of text.

The most "dated" looking site is your Internet Search FAQs - try something other than that 90's grey background. That gives it a very OLD look in Internet-years.

Stock photography helps add some visual interest.

Good luck!

[Warren Contreras]

I guess from my point of view you need to evaluate your objective. I see it as the dissemination of information and not a graphic art display, to me function is there and would only be hampered by too much graphic infusion.

[deluxar]

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

The category description says:

Well, what really irks me is my own sites.

I'm a reasonably bright fellow and I code all my own HTML by hand in vi, but my sites are ugly ugly ugly.
My question is: How to make these less ugly? <blush>

Very few people is using vi nowadays. I'm one of them. All my websites are written in vi (well, actually, gvim).
http://www.elegant-living.com
http://www.buyduplicator.com
...

But i usually first use Photoshop to draw, really draw, the whole website layout. then always break them and translate into html through vi. that way, you can focus on the graphics, layout and color first. i always try to compare my site to others in similar context. pick out the fundamental elements that make me feel good.

gd luck with your site.

-deluxar