re- re- re-done www.zultone.com

labrynth_of_fire · #1 (**permalink**) 11-21-2003, 05:17 PM

Any suggestions besides a slight lack of content?

freelight · #2 (**permalink**) 11-21-2003, 05:45 PM

Well, the first link I clicked on froze my browser for about a minute then I was asked if I wanted to download something...who knows what. My firewall caught it and I got out as soon as possible. I do not dare go any farther. All I can say is that the first page was black and the links had red text. As a web designer, and a heavy internet surfer, I would recommend you stear way clear of this site. Sorry dude.

robin1 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-21-2003, 05:46 PM

I like the flaming logo! yowtch...

The initial issue, as I see it, is that your text elements are nearly unreadable because of the colors you've chosen. The blue text on green background made my eyeballs itch, and the blue links on blue background can't really be seen. Perhaps, though, this is the mystery you were going for. If so, then disregard these comments!

labrynth_of_fire · #4 (**permalink**) 11-21-2003, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freelight

Well, the first link I clicked on froze my browser for about a minute then I was asked if I wanted to download something...who knows what. My firewall caught it and I got out as soon as possible. I do not dare go any farther. All I can say is that the first page was black and the links had red text. As a web designer, and a heavy internet surfer, I would recommend you stear way clear of this site. Sorry dude.

I have an external css stylesheet, could that be it?
Thanks for the tips .

Sualdam · #5 (**permalink**) 11-21-2003, 08:48 PM

The navigation on the left is blue text against a blue background - that's not a good idea, as you can't see it. The mouseover condition is nearly white, and some of the text rolls onto a white background - again, not a good idea.

Blue text on a red background is also a bad colour combo - it burns youe eyes (it IS a recognised one to avoid :))

Blue on a dark green background is also a bit hard on the eyes, and underlined text makes you think 'hyperlink' - which it isn't in this case.

On your menu, you link to the index page - that's not really neessary since people are unlikely to want to go back to the index page since it contains nothing but the 'enter' link.

Quizzes takes you to Heather's site - that confused me. There's some good artwork on there and (I assume - poetry isn't something I'm into :)) some good poetry too.

That page is very long. Although the images aren't that big byte-wise on their own, when you add them up (I checked about half of them and got to well over 200kb) you are looking at very long download times for most people. Why not break the page up into several?

The overall design - I'd fix the width rather than having it wander on differnet screen sizes. Because of the nature of the content there are huge areas of white with nothing in them (I know you said content was lacking at the moment, but I can't see how you are going to fill all that space on some pages. The last thing you want is to procrastinate to fill it - and you might be tempted :)

vmahlin · #6 (**permalink**) 11-22-2003, 03:54 PM

You use blue letters on green background - it looks very weird. Can't see them. Blue on red is also inconsistant. Try different color scheme.
VM

labrynth_of_fire · #7 (**permalink**) 11-22-2003, 06:57 PM

Thank you everyone, for your input, Ive updated the CSS and changed things around, hows it look now?
www.zultone.com

labrynth_of_fire · #8 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 05:49 PM

That red box is gone, and the font is no longer blue, and i got rid of that green background and made it blue and changed that font color to, hows it look now?

Sualdam · #9 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 06:23 PM

It looks better on the main page rather than the index - mainly because the text height is greater, so you can see it.

I still think you have a clash of colours - on the index page you have black against dark blue at the top, and you still have a dark-ish blue against that blue background design, not to mention red against it as well. And black against a red background means you have to strain your eyes a bit, too.

Trust me: there are some colour combinations which are universally acknowledged to be don't dos. Red text against a blue background is definitely the main one. But similar colours and similarly toned colours are right up there.

You've got to ask yourself what you want to give your visitors. Then let them have it clearly.

labrynth_of_fire · #10 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 07:02 PM

what would be a good color to go over blue?

Sualdam · #11 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 07:38 PM

It depends on the blue, but white or pale yellow (not canary-burn-your-eyes-out-nuclear-powered yellow :)) springs to mind.

And don't forget that lines of whatever colur will always be harder to read than thicker ones - so think of the font, font size, bold text, and so on. That's why I always suggest a sans serif font (Arial, for example).

Or use a transparent background over the blue so it shows through paler, then you have more options.

Or use an image map.

But why not try out different things for yourself? Surely you can see the readability problems, too? ;)

labrynth_of_fire · #12 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 08:48 PM

what is an image map??

Sualdam · #13 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 08:53 PM

In simplest terms, a graphic with 'hotspots' on it.

If you have a photograph of something - say, a motor car - you can effectively 'draw' shapes around various parts of the car and make those areas 'hot' and link them to different pages.

You often also see these images sliced into sections and placed like a jigsaw using a table (or CSS - just to keep everyone happy :)). You must have seen those sites where squares of the page appear one-by-one?

labrynth_of_fire · #14 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sualdam

In simplest terms, a graphic with 'hotspots' on it.

If you have a photograph of something - say, a motor car - you can effectively 'draw' shapes around various parts of the car and make those areas 'hot' and link them to different pages.

You often also see these images sliced into sections and placed like a jigsaw using a table (or CSS - just to keep everyone happy :)). You must have seen those sites where squares of the page appear one-by-one?

OOh , www.neopets.com does that, do you just position the image where you want on the page and link it?

Sualdam · #15 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 09:17 PM

Well, sort of.

If you slice the image into sections, you can make each section link to another page. So yes is the answer to your question.

However, you can actually create polygonal shapes and have those hot within a single image.

You can link any image, as you probably know, so it is just a small step to putting images together like a jigsaw and having different parts link to different pages.

labrynth_of_fire · #16 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sualdam

Well, sort of.

If you slice the image into sections, you can make each section link to another page. So yes is the answer to your question.

However, you can actually create polygonal shapes and have those hot within a single image.

You can link any image, as you probably know, so it is just a small step to putting images together like a jigsaw and having different parts link to different pages.

ooh, I think i see what you mean, how would you do that with css?