my new website

[markhan]

I've been absent from the forums for a while - just thought I would drop a note to mention that I have a new website: www.markthanson.com

Mark Hanson

[adrianex]

looks ok,

but the layout is a little bit oFF balance, everything is much to left...(I'm not a designer) Also I don't like the gray with the blue letters (personal taste).

Also the contact link its kind extra, because you have the contact information all the time at the top. I would create a logo and the leave the contact info only at the contact page.

What I like is that is easy to find the information.

Its just my $0.02.

Cheers

[theblue1]

Well... you've got a good start there.

I looked at it in both Firefox and IE.

On the plus side, you've got good, straightforward navigation.

I would try to get my font sizes a little more consistent. Use the same body font for all pages. Keep your headline fonts smaller; those way-oversize fonts on some pages look way too "my first web page."

The "Studio" page is a good model. Font sizes are consistent and decent sized. (You could drop them down a little, actually, if you wanted to look more like typical commercial sites.)

But I'd make the photos smaller and move the studio view pic up above the body of the page.


A very important rule of thumb for web design is to keep informational text (such as your contact info) as text so that search engine spiders can find it, visitors can cut and paste it, etc. Get that contact info out of the graphic (or at least put it in text form elsewhere on the page). Additionally, the current graphic IS hard to read, as well. You almost have to squint to make out the phone numbers and email address.

[Now, the email address IS one place where you MIGHT want to keep the info in graphic form -- so that SPAM spider bots CAN'T read it. BUT that means your user can't click on it or copy and paste it. An arguably better way is to do a javascript presentation of the email address that only "assembles" the address when the page is rendered in the user's browser. It looks and acts like a regular email address in the user's browser but it SHOULD fool your typical spambot. You can get that code at: http://simplythebest.net/scripts/DHT...cript_120.html ]


With regard to overall look and feel... it's a bit rough and won't get you any hipness points. But like I said -- it does get the job done, mostly, information wise, which is a VERY important aspect.

I'd recommend you make a tour of websites and bookmark the ones you think both look and work well. Of course, you'll see stuff that's beyond you right now, things like sliding pulldown menu bars, or other coding tricks. But you'll also see plenty of hip looking but easy to create websites that will give you ideas for your next re-do...

Good luck to you!