I just made a website for my brothers tattoo shop. Take a look and tell me what you think. THANX www.evilbyneedle.com

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www.nightworks.ca
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OK well I have to say the red and black, skulls etc on the splash page were not to my taste, but they were certainly memorable!

Inside I was a bit more comfortable, but the downside in that is I would generally say that the look of the site should be kept consistent. Atthis point the splash page and the contant pages are two competely different styles. I would try bring them together.

Personally I would maybe try bring some of the (I can't believe I am writing this) red skulls etc into the layout of the content pages...

I quite liked the internal content pages. I thought the photos of the actual premises were a good idea and the navigtion was pretty straightforward.

One minor thing however is I would change the white text over a light greay background in the navigation links. It is not the easiest to read as is, but if you consider that different screens display colours differently and peole adjust brightness & contrast etc, you may find them unreadable on some monitors...

Tania

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Tested in IE6 56k modem 56k modem. Loads reasonably fast. The white menu text is a bit difficult to read - perhaps make the rollovers change to a different colour rather than a different font. Otherwise, a good design. Good luck with it.

Nick

Viewed at 56k and 1024X768 without any issues. Intro page did load slow.

Intro page is really not necessary and could hurt you search engine-wise. Animated gifs are fine but a page full of them isn't accomplishing anything. People go to a website get to the heart of what they are searching...the information.

The scrolling text is moving a bit fast and blurs.

I understand that it's a website about a tattooing business. But for search engines and readers alike there needs to be more text...especially on the homepage. You can pull a little information from the "Our Shop" section. The "About Us" page doesn't say anything about us. You can remove this link and put an information "About Us" on the homepage.

Tattooing is a great business to have a website. And these guys look like they do great work. The website just needs more work on giving them the image they need.

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I was intrigued by the domain name, so I visited ... good thing I read someone else's post about the skulls!
Very memorable opening :-)

Personally, I don't like entry pages or Flash intros because I think they are superfluous, take extra time to get to the site without adding useful data, and are typically just a "showoff" page for the designer.

But for your market, it's probably a great choice. It gives a feeling of "Danger ahead!" which is what would appeal to someone looking for body art or piercings. It is well-done. I agree with an earlier comment to bring in the theme to the site so they look part of one piece.

Visually, the maple leaf and question marks across the top of the home page are incongruous - they are not links to anything, don't follow the site theme, and provide no data to the user. And seeing the Canadian maple leaf,then the Asian characters, gives me a feeling of disconnection. Perhaps using the skulls where the leaf and question marks are would unify the look?

My other personal dislike is scrolling marquee text. Especially when it is not adding any new data for the user. Perhaps, instead of repeating the business name, you could use it to put in changing news or info. Advertise specials, call attention to new designs, something like that. My preference would be to remove it, though.

The photos of the business are a great idea - I like to see what a place really looks like. Next photo session? Have your picture taker watch for the reflections in the window that obscure the sign. And have fewer people around the car. I'd arrange just the guy with the tats in the car, closing in to see more of the car and the store window with the business name.

The Policies info is pretty important, so you may want to have a separate link to it rather than include it under "Our Shop". People may not care about your shop, but you need them to read your policies.

Buttons: I would consider removing the underline and the colon on the text - those are elements to call attention to the link, and putting the text on the button already does that.

And the white on grey is not easy to read.

On the TattooInfo.htm, the bullet images didn't display.

Info arrangement: I would consider moving "Tattoo info" up higher in your heirarchy, move "About Us" down to the bottom. The info about choosing an artist, tats are forever, etc. is very important and should be at the top of the list for the visitor to find. Most important info on top, lesser info toward the end. People tend to poke the 1st buttons in the list first ...

Be consistent with use of page elements: on the sterilization page, there could have been a bullet item on one or both paragraphs, and the red blotch that looks like a blood stain is not relevant to the site design. Same with the bullet hole on the after care page. Cute but out of place visually, since they are not used anywhere else. Kind of like the skulls ...

I would also suggest taking the Bart Simpson cartoon out - I know it's funny, but the animation didn't work and it is out of character with the intricate designs on the tattoo flash page. I'd like to see more designs, too. They are really beautiful.

The contact site does not make the address clear. The map was a good idea, but nothing else on the site says what state/country/province it might be in.

Be sure to include your phone, email and street address on the contact page - some directories insist on posting only sites with 2 forms of contact for commercial sites.

Overall, this is a creative and clean site.

I hope you don't mind the extensive comments :-)

CHeri

I had a hard time reading the white font over the light background in the navigational bars. Otherwise I liked it, except I kept looking for the address of the shop on the "About the Shop" page. I thought it showcased the art work admirably.

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I just built a new site 4 my brother www.evilbyneedle.com Please take a look and tell me what you think

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www.nightworks.ca
Vancouver nightlife entertainment website featuing Vancitys finest NightLife Staff!

I'm really out of my area of knowledge with your site but I did take a look (I'm never too old to learn ay?)

Although in this thread ( http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=8449) I did indicate I'm no fan of black backgrounds, I found the opening page really impressive. Not my thing subject wise, but I think that it is very effective and a good opening for the site.

The page layouts are clear and simple and the site is informative. There is however some kind of design error on each page. On the left above the menu is a turning leaf and to the right of it is a line of empty text (?) boxes. This is on every page. Is something missing? This is also on the Piercing page with the logo, 4 empty boxes. I kept running the cursor over the boxes with the thought I was missing something.

Anyway, good site!
Karen

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