opinions requested

[Pelagrin]

I'm working on a website for my church and I wanted to get people opinions on it.  Constructive criticism is what I'm looking for.  (I like it because..., I don't like it because..., You might want to try this..., etc.)

Please remember that this is a quick and dirty rough draft which was designed at a resolution of 1024x768, but I went back and tweaked some things so it would look ok in 800x600.  It is also using the <iframe> tag which I believe only works in Internet Explorer, but I'm going start working on making the site compatible with multiple browsers soon.

Also the lighthouse graphic in the top corner is my attempt at making a lighthouse logo.  I don't plan on that being there in the final design, but I wanted something there to represent my idea.  (If anyone feels generous and would like to design a better looking logo, I'd like it to be white to match the color of the logo, and no taller that 75 pixels. What I have in mind, and approved by the churh, is a lighthouse with the light shooting out of both sides of the top in a way that it resembles a cross.)

You can view the site at: http://asbeck.homeip.net

Please post your comments here, or send and email to Benjamin@airforcefun.com.

 

[CCGR]

I like it the colors work well. The layout is easy to navigate.

 

[Pelagrin]

Quote[/b] (CCGR @ June 17 2003,9:41)]I like it the colors work well.  The layout is easy to navigate.

Thanks. Easy navigation is one thing I'm trying to going for. I want it to be easy enough to navigate that anyone can use it. The plan is for this to be basic and informative (kind of like an online business card), then I'll have links to more detailed pages for a couple of the ministries (links to a detailed youth page and drama page) where you can view photos, listen to audio clips, and possibly stream video. I have ideas that I may incorporate in the future, but I want to take things one step at a time.

 

[amorphus88]

its very clean, graceful looking. beautiful, really.

the lighthouse in the upper right could use some anti-aliasing and smoother lines, it stands in contrast to the graceful look of the rest of the site.

I woudl suggest instead of using IFRAME, just have the various links go to separate pages, with the top section the same, but with the actual content in a one-cell table with width whatever you're using for the IFRAME. its cleaner that way, I think.


however, I really like it. kudos.

 

[Pelagrin]

Quote[/b] (amorphus88 @ June 17 2003,10:05)]its very clean, graceful looking.  beautiful, really.

the lighthouse in the upper right could use some anti-aliasing and smoother lines, it stands in contrast to the graceful look of the rest of the site.

I woudl suggest instead of using IFRAME, just have the various links go to separate pages, with the top section the same, but with the actual content in a one-cell table with width whatever you're using for the IFRAME.  its cleaner that way, I think.


however, I really like it.  kudos.

Thanks, I agree about the lighthouse, but I'm not a graphic artist in any way whatsoever. (I made it in microsoft paint

)

The reason I used the <iframe> is partially to experiment with it, but also because frames seem to make editing and adding pages very easiest with my favorite html editor (notepad). I've found a utility I'm going to play with some that is supposed to detect a person's browser type, and then forward them to the index file for their browser. Then I can have two versions of the main index file and the rest of the pages should be ok. I may find this to be too much work though and I might do what you suggested (thanks for the recommendation by the way).

 

[BlazeQ]

Very nice work. I like the colors.

I actually like the Iframes. I think it keeps your site very uniform.

3 of the 5 Iframe sections are centered, so you might want to center the Basic Beliefs and Worship Services titles. You could also full justify the paragraphs of text.

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><DIV STYLE="text-align:justify">text here</DIV>[/QUOTE]

As for the lighthouse, it has a nice icon feel to it, but like amorphus said, it doesn't really fit.

You could find an uncopyrighted image on Google ( http://images.google.com/images?....graphic ) to either use on the website or use as a reference for a graphic.

If you don't have a good graphics program check this page: http://www.creationindigital.com/viewtopic.php?t=10

 

[Plankeye]

Do you know if you have access to server side includes?  Server Side includes (SSI) allows for you to include files into a requested page before it loads.  For instance, say you have a navigation.htm file that includes the following:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><a href="link1.htm">Link 1</a> | <a href="link2.htm">Link 2</a> | <a href="link3.htm">Link 3</a>[/QUOTE]
Now in any of your pages, you simple do the following:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><html>
<head>
<title>Some Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<!-- #include file="navigation.htm" -->
<h2>Some Content here</h2>
</body>
</html>[/QUOTE]
What the web server will do is replace the line with:
<!-- #include file="navigation.htm" -->
with the contents of the navigation.htm file before sending it back to the browser.  This way you could implement a common navigation scheme accross the entire site.  It also makes updating and adding pages easier as you only have one file to modify to change links to you main navigation section.

SSI can be used by several scripting languages too like ASP, PHP and Cold Fusion.

 

[Pelagrin]

That is very cool and useful to know.

Right now I'm hosting the site off of my home computer using apache. After the site is completed, I present it before the church at the next business meeting and I get to make proposals on domain names and hosts.

I've seen the SSIs before, but never really understood how to do it until reading your explaination. Thanks a lot! I'll mess with that some because I'm sure that will make things a lot easier.

 

[Tek7 (Legacy)]

Uh oh. It doesn't work in Mozilla. ;_; The front page displays, but the main section remains a single color block.

While it works fine in IE, you might want to download Opera and Mozilla to check for compatibility with non-IE browsers (as these two are the most popular).

It's rare to find users who don't IE, but there are a few. If compatibility is not an urgent concern, then it's likely not worth the hassle to research the code and make it work in non-IE browsers. But some of us nerdy types just can't let go of tabbed browsing. *G*

 

[Pelagrin]

Quote[/b] (Tolkien @ June 17 2003,9:00)]Please remember that this is a quick and dirty rough draft which was designed at a resolution of 1024x768, but I went back and tweaked some things so it would look ok in 800x600.  It is also using the &lt;iframe&gt; tag which I believe only works in Internet Explorer, but I'm going start working on making the site compatible with multiple browsers soon.

Right now it is only compatible with IE, but I'm already planning on making it compatible with all browsers.  This is just the rough draft. I've been reading about a couple scripts that can detect the browser type and then redirect to the appropriate html index file for that browser. I may end up scrapping the frames altogether (although I personally do think the iframe command is very cool). In the end, I'm going to make sure that you could browse the site with Lynx if you really wanted to.

Thanks for the tips

 

[SSquared]

Wow! That really does look great. I like the colors. They are warm, classy, and make me feel at home.

I, too, am a little ambivalent towards the frame thing. It works when the information fits within the frame. But if I have to scroll, I suddenly realize how small the frame is.

But, I consider that a relatively minor issue. You did a great job. And I like that balloon ministry.

I want a balloon ministry at OUR church.

Quote[/b] ]but I'm not a graphic artist in any way whatsoever. (I made it in microsoft paint )

I'm right there with you. Have you taken a look at my graphically intense avatar?

I've had someone make me a new one, so I should be getting a new avatar up within the next day.

 

[Pelagrin]

Thanks for all the comments and opinions so far. I do appreciate it.

My wife and I have fun with the balloons and kids always love it, although I've slacked off some over the past few months. I need to start practicing and learning new things, and I've been meaning to finish/update my balloon site for quite a while now.

I just realized today that I forgot to have the link to the balloon site break out of the frame. Its just something to fix when I get home.

I'm thinking that I might just lose the iframe completely and change it to just using tables. I'm trying to figure out how to enable SSI on my apache server so I can play with the #include command.

Additional comments and suggestions are always welcome!

 

[Kidan]

the easiest way would be to download and install php scripting language for apache, and then change all your files to php files to use the include command. This will also give you the ability to do many server side functions and other fun stuff such as really nice feedback forms and whatnot.

also most hosting companies provide either php or asp (my personal server uses php, while the company i work for hosts asp pages). I recommened the php because linux servers tend to be cheaper than windows servers, plus php is cross platform and can run on windows servers, while asp can't.

 

[Pelagrin]

Thanks, I've actually already got PHP installed. I also figured out how to get SSI working on my apache server, wasn't too difficult.

 

[Pelagrin]

I did some playing around with Photoshop tonight and changed the lighthouse icon.  It looks better than the old one, but I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it.