preliminary site design review

[ran_dizolph]

Hey folks, working on a new design and am looking for some early impressions.

It's for a quickly growing Dragon boat race for breast cancer research.

At this point it's just the homepage. I'm looking for feedback mainly on legibility/readability. Everything seems clear to me, but just want to run it by a few other pairs of eyes.

Also general feedback on design/look/feel etc.

Here it is.

Thanks!

[aidsntcg]

I like everything about the design itself except for the pink and blue combo. I think it would look best just using the two shades of pink along with the white.

When viewing in IE7, the ribbon graphic to the right is partially hidden behind the center column.

[amxfan]

I'm going to nick pick here.

To be honest I did not like the site mainly because of the colors. The pink and blue do not go well as both of them are very light colors making the page hard on the eyes.

The first thing that caught my eye was the ribbon on the right. It looks like it is hitting a wall and would look better if it flowed into the header area and not just stop.

The blue column on the right. I was able to read the text ok but the underlined links in red stood out taking away from the black text.

The center white column looked fine and was easy to read and not hard on the eyes.

The pink left column: The navigation to me did not look right being right aligned. It look off due to the white border line. This line touches the left side and not the right causing everything to look one sided.
You have 3 rounded corners and 1 squared corner on the box as well. The square corner to me stood out because it is not the same.
You also have the 3 rounded corners with 1 square corner on the footer box as well.

[ran_dizolph]

I should've explained the colour scheme in a bit more detail.

The pink/white are the breast cancer colours. The actual shades of pink i used are pulled from the ribbon itself, which is required as per the client. The blue is there because the main sponsor (French Dressing Jeanswear) manufactures denim only, so it is to represent them.

When viewing in IE7, the ribbon graphic to the right is partially hidden behind the center column.

This is going to depend on what monitor size/resolution you're looking at it on. I can see the whole ribbon in IE7/FF/Opera/Chrome @ 1152 X 864.

It's okay if it disappears a bit.

would look better if it flowed into the header area and not just stop

Not quite sure what you mean exactly. Could you elaborate a bit?

The navigation to me did not look right being right aligned.

Guess I'll have a look at it flush to the right side...I kinda dig it though.

Sorry you don't dig the three-rounded-corner boxes...they're staying though!

[amxfan]

Sorry you don't dig the three-rounded-corner boxes...they're staying though!

That's cool. I know you take your work very seriously so I nicked picked at everything I saw that caught my eye.

Below is an screen shot of how the ribbon looked to me. It just stops and looks like it is hitting a wall.

If the left nav was centered it would help I think. I know no matter what you decide it will look good when it is all said and done as I do not think you will let it go any other way.

I viewed your site with Firefox 1024x768 as this to my knowledge is the most common size used.

[ran_dizolph]

so I nicked picked at everything I saw that caught my eye

Yup, that's why I ask!

Anyways, surprised that it's so overlapped @ that res.

I was thinking I may recut the PS design w/ transparencies behind all the curved parts so that it'd a least not 'hit the wall' as you put it.

My only concern with doing it that way is the bulky javascript I've got to add to make it work in IE6.

I'm thinkin' I'll just downsize the ribbon a bit.

Thanks again!

[davebarnes]

Overall, I like it.

Nits.

1. The pink bar containing the title Homepage should be flush left with its box. Right now I see a one-pixel vertical white line to the left of the pink bar.

2. I would remove the ribbon on the right and center the website on the screen.

3. I would make the background a very slight gradient.

4. Needs a great photo of the race on the homepage. Great meaning not stock and one shot by a pro from last year's race.

[ran_dizolph]

The pink bar containing the title Homepage should be flush left with its box. Right now I see a one-pixel vertical white line to the left of the pink bar.

By design, and i likes it!

I would remove the ribbon on the right and center the website on the screen.

I'll give it a shot.

Needs a great photo of the race on the homepage. Great meaning not stock and one shot by a pro from last year's race.

Agreed 100%. I'll be adding photos and such as I get 'em.

Thanks!

[incrediblehelp]

You need pics of some celebs to start each list for each day. Images turns everyone on, especially those of celebs.

I would list pics of 3-4 of the most popular celebs to lead of each list. It will also give you a chance to offer affiliate text links for each celeb and make loads of cash.

I have done lists like this before and images are needed on the page to hook the interest. The other issue is a lot of people don't know celebs faces matched to their names.

[ran_dizolph]

You need pics of some celebs to start each list for each day. Images turns everyone on, especially those of celebs.

I'm guessing this was to be a review of the 'celebrity birthday' site?