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ScoutHTML.com for review
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:11 pm
by prov
I began this site about a month ago, and wanted some feedback.
ScoutHTML
It's got tutorials, reference, and a discussion forum. At this point, I'm trying to drive some interactivity to the site by having comments, allowing people to contribute their own articles, and having the discussion forum.
Any praise? Criticism?
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:14 pm
by pinehead18
First off, i think the green is an ugly color. With the right colors the site would be very nice, the layout is good.
I think you should provide some information on standards, what standards are being used now, and what will be used in the future.
Really clean it up, it is kinda dirty, meaning if you go to the forums it is very confusing. The txt font wouldn't be my first choice.
If you do those things i think you might be onto something.
Defiently change the font face and the green. Clean it up from the rough/dirty look and you will be in good shape.
My personal opinion, i like eye candy.
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:45 pm
by John Cartwright
when viewed in fullscreen on 1280x1024 i get this

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:07 pm
by prov
Heh, this is the problem with crits... in the previous crits I did amoung friends, and other forums, nobody had a problem with the green; and a lot of people said they liked the colors.

I guess it's all a matter of preference. Before those green parts were just the same color as the rest, and it just looked too blue.
As for the standards issue, I do teach the tutorials following standards, and I make a couple references to the w3c standards. However, I don't want to make standards a overwhelmingly discouraging thing for novice webmasters. That is something that they should learn after getting the primers down. Perhaps I could make an extra article about the importance of these standards.
As for your problem, Phenom, that's the first time this was reported to me. I'm in 1280 X 1024 using IE myself, and I don't get that, but just found out that I could get that by sizing the window. At different sizes it would randomly stack the divider vertically like that, or would show it correctly... I'll have to look into why that is happening. I use percentage values for the widths, and that could be it...
Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:12 am
by pinehead18
Well, I think you could probably do something with the green, however not the current shade you have now. To dark.
Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:20 am
by mikeb
Hi,
I run a web dev company and I'd largely agree with Pinehead. I think the colours are wrong. But that's ok if you're not a designer. The site is well layed out and simple enough to get around and you're content architecture (i.e. the way you've presented your content) is pretty good too. If you're not a professional designer, you need to get an arty person (or a designer who you know well!) to just have a look and make some 'tweaks' to the colour. Or else listen to people like pinehead telling you it's crap lol! After all, he's an end user.
A few other things.
Include some links to 'where can I check my pages out for compliance'
Leave a little more 'breathing space' in your margins. Things are a littel jammed up to the edges
Little more 'air' between Newsletter and discussion board. Put a subhead in
Newsletter even if it doesn't particularly need one, for instance an intro page describing when the newsletter comes out, unsubscribe details etc.
Nice use of textual content, very good for SEO.
Your Goooooogle ads look a bit like an afterthought. Give them some space where they look comfortable (reduce text size in right column and make extra column for ads?). It's a good site, you should make some money out of the Adsense stuff.
cheers,
Mike