http://www.murdertodiefor.1l.com

murdertodiefor · #1 (**permalink**) 08-19-2005, 05:04 AM

I have recently created this web site for a Murder Mystery company in the North West of England.

I would appreciate any feedaback anyone may have.

I will of course return the favour and review your site in return.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin Hall
(Actor, writer and all round dogs body for Murder To Die FOr).

webhost1 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-19-2005, 12:40 PM

Welcome to the Home of Murder Mystery Entertainment.

You might want to put this as this
Welcome to the Home of
Murder Mystery Entertainment.

and have it centered at the top. This will help out when a person with a smaller screen will not get a messed up heading.

You might also want to change the font size to a little smaller one.

ran_dizolph · #3 (**permalink**) 08-19-2005, 02:38 PM

Hi,
Okay, I agree with dropping the font size. I'd also suggest trying to validate your code. You'll want to contain your page so you don't have to scroll horizontally, and also...ditch the animations. Try and find some decent images to use in place of them.

Best of luck!

If you're reviewing sites, mine is the 'thunderroadharley.com' site in this forum, a few spots down.

thanks

greghart · #4 (**permalink**) 08-19-2005, 08:35 PM

This isn't really working at all.

I agree with the other two posts however this is just the start.

1. The animation definately needs to go, it makes the whole thing feel like a side show.

2. Why not consider a film noir look and feel, dark, black and white?

3. Some photos would'nt go a miss

4. The sponsors ads dont help much either.

CJacobson · #5 (**permalink**) 08-19-2005, 11:31 PM

I hate to pile on... but I certainly agree with others that the font size is too big and that the "gun" animations are distracting, annoying, and don't add a thing. I'd probably keep the animation of smoke rising from Sherlock's pipe - I think it adds a little "life". The dripping blood might look better if you slowed it down.

I HATE having to scroll left-to-right. That's got to be fixed. Furthermore, I'd strongly recommend keeping your content to 800 pixels wide (or less). Are you familiar with this utility: http://www.anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html ? I find it useful sometimes. When I test your home page with a 800x600 window size, some of your text gets buried under those awful Google ads. (Which indicates a problem with how you've defined the page layout.) That needs to be fixed... but defining Z-index values for your divs would be a good idea too. (Then, for what it's worth, you could have the text appear in FRONT of the Google ads.)

You need a doctype tag... (e.g. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">) Then, like ran_dizolph said, you really should run your code through a good validator. (It's hard to beat this one: http://validator.w3.org/ ). Your site isn't done until it validates. If it doesn't validate, chances are it will malfunction or vary unpredictably on some browser/operating system combinations.

That cast photo (on the About Us page) is fun... I think it ads a lot to the site. The crude clipping-path sort of reminds me of Monty Python... (which is just fine.) But wouldn't it look better with a grey background instead of black?

Your writing is very convincing, but testimonials from satisfied customers would make it tremendously MORE convincing.

Hey! I'd love for you to review my latest website... (You'll have to scroll down to August 4 to find the thread.) The website www.kb-thomas.com is something I threw together for an author friend to help her pitch her newly completed mystery.

DIRTYDISCO · #6 (**permalink**) 08-21-2005, 04:03 PM

needs to be re-designed too much scrolling massive text and google adds , I agree something more "Noir" ,looks amateur , but dont be dis-heartened all part of the website game , good luck with it

murdertodiefor · #7 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 05:22 AM

Thanks everyone for your input, its extremelly helpful.
The gun animations will be gone, I wasn't sure about them anyway, the cast picture will have a new background and the dripping line will probably go completely as I discovered in appears on alot of Murder Mystery sites.

The divs problem I'm still working on, if anyone has the time or would linke to help me out feel free to look at the style sheet and make any suggestions. It can be found at www.murdertodiefor.1l.com/style.css.

If anyone knows of a good source for style sheet tutorials please let me know, I'm struggling to get to grips with style sheets.

Thanks again everyone and I'll review your sites as soon as possible.

Kevin Hall

webhost1 · #8 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by murdertodiefor

Thanks everyone for your input, its extremelly helpful.

The divs problem I'm still working on, if anyone has the time or would linke to help me out feel free to look at the style sheet and make any suggestions. It can be found at www.murdertodiefor.1l.com/style.css.

If anyone knows of a good source for style sheet tutorials please let me know, I'm struggling to get to grips with style sheets.

Thanks again everyone and I'll review your sites as soon as possible.

Kevin Hall

Page not there when clicked on. Just letting you know. Did this last night and today. Samething.

murdertodiefor · #9 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 02:07 PM

Yes sorry everyone but the server at .1l.com is down at the moment.

CJacobson · #10 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 02:40 PM

I think there's an extra period at the end of that hyperlink too...

murdertodiefor · #11 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 04:53 AM

Link should read http://www.murdertodiefor.1l.com/style.css

The server is working again now if anyone wishes to have a look.

Thanks.

Kevin Hall
(Chief cook and bottle washer)

N30 · #12 (**permalink**) 08-24-2005, 04:15 AM

I can see what you're trying to achieve with the red text and dripping blood but unfortunately red is not an easy color to read with a beige background.

Personally, I'd of done things quite a bit different maybe with a black/sepia photo combination.

I'd restrict the width and make the menu a bit more prominent (it's a bit lost above the ads) There's nothing wrong with having the ads but it's the placement which is distracting.

All in all it's good attempt at what could be a lucrative site. Keep developing ;-)

MarcieZoob · #13 (**permalink**) 08-24-2005, 06:53 AM

When I think of mystery theater, I think of dark and early 1900's vintage. I agree with N30 that a good color scheme would be black and sepia tones. That might be a more appropriate color scheme for your site than the beige and red. The design, layout and color scheme seem a little too amateur and not fun enough for what you're doing! I don't really like the dripping blood, again it adds an amateur element and might turn your potential audience away.

Replace the clipart with more photos of the cast in action (Scenarios page, for example). Make this site more personal with photos; it's too generic with clipart.

Does your site really need Google ads? Two ads showing are for "Team Building Exercises" - that's too "21st Century" for your theme and is very distracting.

I agree with the other posts regarding your font style - it's too large. Find a way to format your text so it does not span more than 500 pixels (think newspaper columns, they do that so text is easy to read). On my widescreen, I had a hard time reading across each line and lost my place.

Break up your text with cast photos, images of past shows or action shots... Give it more personal interest!

murdertodiefor · #14 (**permalink**) 08-25-2005, 10:39 AM

Thanks everyone for your input, I've now got alot to think about and a lot of work to do.

Thanks again.

Kevin Hall