I finished my shop's website, take a look!

[ELVA164]

Function: Great. Simple and easy to use. Everything is where I expected it to be, and appears to be laid out well.

Looks: Not impressive, but not bad. I don't know how important that is to you.

One thing I did notice, though I haven't gone through the whole site, is that in the driver's section, when you go to someone's bio, and click on one of the cars they drive, it seems like several of them go to the wrong page. For example, the ones on your page all link to the Lotus 41. I like that there is basic contact info at the bottom of each page.

Thank you! I went back through and tested each link; I found a few I missed the first time through. Hopefully they're all correct now!

I'm happy with the current look but always open to ways to "modernize" it since I've heard it looks dated. I have no point of reference but would be willing to learn.

[Wschnitz]

If you want to get some design ideas do a free trial of one of those website builders just to play around with the styling. Then you can usually just copy the HTML and CSS coding from the page sources.

Also there are quite a lot of youtube tutorials on HTML5 and CSS, and of course Javascript these days that can help out.

[ELVA164]

Well the thing is the host I'm using doesn't use HTML or CSS except in an embedable HTML plugin. It does limit my options a bit, but I think if I spend some time looking at more "modern" sites I can find a workaround in the builder I have.

[rturbo 930]

I'm not a web designer by any means, but I'll give it a shot. Here's a few ideas to make it look a little more modern. Still won't be great though.

Background. Something dark and simple with a little bit of a pattern. I like this one: http://wallpaperlayer.com/img/2015/1...wallpapers.jpg

Font. I like "Courier New." Your computer probably has it if it's a windows. Looks like a type writer font. I'd make it white (or off-white), or a very light grey.

Get rid of the 'buttons' at the top, leave the text and make them links. Looks cleaner IMO, still just as functional. I would slim down the bar while you're at it. It looks bulky, and it also takes up space. I like that it's always there and you don't have to scroll back to the top, but it should be slimmer, since right now it's taking up valuable screen space. I hate when websites have a bar at the top, and a bar at the bottom leaving only a bit of space in the middle to actually read the content.

I think those things will help, but I'm sure it'll still need work.

[Wschnitz]

Looks like is uses lots of java. Messy as fuck too. and an XHTML template of some sort.

[ELVA164]

Looks like is uses lots of java. Messy as fuck too. and an XHTML template of some sort.

My site, you mean?

[Wschnitz]

My site, you mean?

Yeah, from what I can see in the source. Looks like it pulls a lot of formatting from somewhere?

But yeah, id look at the examples Weebly and SquareSpace use for styling just for reference. They are mainly portfolio websites from my experience, but they are still designed well enough for reference.

[ELVA164]

Yeah, from what I can see in the source. Looks like it pulls a lot of formatting from somewhere?

But yeah, id look at the examples Weebly and SquareSpace use for styling just for reference. They are mainly portfolio websites from my experience, but they are still designed well enough for reference.

Maybe because it's mostly drag-and-drop?


I'll look at those for reference.

[ELVA164]

Okay, so the editor is very hard to work with regarding menu buttons but I deleted them and made text instead. Is this more of what you guys were thinking, layout-wise? I also slimmed down the upper bar some. This is a rough mock-up, so I could change fonts, font sizes, etc. still. Also, do I have to do anything to make it obvious these are clickable options or do anything to visually separate them at all?


Here's the current layout as an example. (The one above isn't live yet)


Here it is with some vertical bars between the options. Thoughts?

[ELVA164]

Updated the menu and got the float-over to work again! I was hovering over "videos" in this screenshot:

Let me know if desktop and mobile are working alright now!

[rturbo 930]

Yeah that's better. You could also slim it down a little by changing "Our cars / drivers" to "cars / drivers" and taking the 'us' out of 'contact us' which would help a bit with visual formatting having everything on one line. You could take '2016' out of 'race schedule' but it'll still be long. I think it might look a little better if it was spread out a bit more. Use the whole bar. The one thing you can't slim down much is the logo. Maybe put that in the middle, and let it hang down over the bottom of the bar some? Maybe you could make it the 'home' button, and split the remaining links, 3 on each side? Just thinking out loud here.

Not sure how much energy you want to spend on this, so don't mind me if I'm just nit-picking.

[ELVA164]

Yeah that's better. You could also slim it down a little by changing "Our cars / drivers" to "cars / drivers" and taking the 'us' out of 'contact us' which would help a bit with visual formatting having everything on one line. You could take '2016' out of 'race schedule' but it'll still be long. I think it might look a little better if it was spread out a bit more. Use the whole bar. The one thing you can't slim down much is the logo. Maybe put that in the middle, and let it hang down over the bottom of the bar some? Maybe you could make it the 'home' button, and split the remaining links, 3 on each side? Just thinking out loud here.

Not sure how much energy you want to spend on this, so don't mind me if I'm just nit-picking.

No, I appreciate it! I thought I had extra width on the sides to work with, but a couple people told me the page was cut off at the sides if I went any wider than it is now. Maybe an issue with certain resolutions? At any rate, I'd prefer to leave that bit at least for now until I figure that out.

I agree about some items being one line and some being two. I decided it may be better to have more items on two lines so the schedule didn't stick out as much. I also considered making it the "home" button (it actually does function as one), but I thought that might not be clear enough. Splitting it is an interesting idea though if I could make sure the "home" use for the logo is clear.

[MrSlacker]

Please don't take this the wrong way. But the site looks like it was made 10 years ago. Do not format your site to what your hosting supports - get new hosting!

There are a lot of affordable template sites. SquareSpace is a great example. They all also support mobile. Around 50% of people now browse on their phones.

Don't try to create something from scratch, find a template that you like and use that.

That's how I personally build my first ecommerce site.

[ELVA164]

Please don't take this the wrong way. But the site looks like it was made 10 years ago. Do not format your site to what your hosting supports - get new hosting!

There are a lot of affordable template sites. SquareSpace is a great example. They all also support mobile. Around 50% of people now browse on their phones.

Don't try to create something from scratch, find a template that you like and use that.

That's how I personally build my first ecommerce site.

Fair enough, but I'm happy with it for the time being.

[Wschnitz]

Its a shop site so its right in the family looking 10 years old lol.

You are on the right track though. The next step would be making all the menu options one line, no double line options. Then slim it down even further, and have the logo clip over the edge of the picture below it, then Id slim down that photo below it a tiny bit.

That would look pretty excellent.

Add some more neutral backgrounds and etc so the site isnt as polarizing color wise and you would be set.