[Muzjik]

What do you guys think of my gaming website? Its just a little website me and some friends are going to put up are reviews, nothing big. Comments are appreciated!

http://www.diehrsystems.com/freetemplate/index.htm

EDIT: its not done yet, havn't really decided on a logo or anything.

[doodler]

Freetemplate...?

[Muzjik]

Yes, im making this for someone, for free. So i just wrote that as it was the first thing to come to mind. Im flattered you think i just stole this off some site though.

[wheedwacker]

Cons:
The links at the top look horrible.
It is wider than my 1024x768 display. (horizontal scrolling = bad)
The spacing between Updates and Videos is too large.

Pros:
The colors are nice.
The banner looks nice (Windows Vista-ish)

[Muzjik]

Its a liquid design, it should work at all sizes, Im a spacing nazi, all the spaces are exactly 26px apart.

Why do you say the links at top look horriable? How should i fix that.

I just checked it in 800, and it works fine... What browser are you using?

[wheedwacker]

I am using mozilla firefox. I checked and it worked in IE6 correctly.
I used Screen Grab to see how wide it was displaying, and it says it was 1133px wide.

The links should be positioned higher, and would probably be better if they were text instead of images. The two toned background should just be one tone.

[Muzjik]

Ok, just tested it in mozzila, your right, going to fix that asap

And how can i make the links at top look better?

EDIT: Fixed horizontal scrolling, Bug with mozilla where 100% width = 100% plus some!! no idea why this is. Doesnt matter now that it is fixed.

[doodler]

I think this design needs a bit of work. Why's the nav text centered? The huge "Update" text might not be necessary either, and will give you some nice white space. Is anything going in the header? Using such a stylized nav bg (gradient + outlined text) that is not mimicked anywhere else is kind of weird looking too.

I'm not sure what to say about the whole huge text scheme... without juxtaposing it with smaller stuff, I'm tempted to think it's not an efficient use of space. I'll keep thinking about it and get back to you.

You also spelled REVIEWS wrong

[Muzjik]

Haha, yea i did spell reviews wrong.
i fixed some of the stuff you mentioned.

http://www.diehrsystems.com/freetemplate/index.htm#

I am a bit confused what you mean by huge text scheme?
Is legability a crime?

EDIT: i relize that the updates bar is a bit close to the main text in fire fox, working on that now.

[doodler]

Bigger isn't always better. Large text can also be a pain to read. Plus, scrolling is a crime, and you don't want us to have to scroll, do you I think it'd be good to just experiment with some smaller text. Nothing permanent. I like how your first article is large like that, but having the entire site that way might not be necessary.

There was one site I saw that did large text REALLY well, but I can't remember the link

By the way, are you designing this piece by piece in XHTML/CSS? Trust me, if you start off designing in Photoshop and finalize it there (before having to code), you will save yourself countless, countless hours and allow for a lot more creative freedom.

[Muzjik]

Hmm, i always do start my CSS/html phase to quickly. Bad habbit i guess. Which text is it that your saying is to big? The whole body of text, or what?

[doodler]

Well, here's why I think it's hard to make a decision on that. This is a gaming website, but all I see is text. What kind of stuff do you intend to have here? Rankings? A blog? The first thing you should be thinking when building a site is "what is its purpose"? If you build a gaming site to look like wikipedia, things are going to seem funny. You have a good color scheme and overall a real nice start, but it's difficult to critique because I have no idea what your Lorem Ipsum is supposed to represent. Surely you're going to have thumbnails and stuff, right? How's that going to be composed?

When I started doing design, I built sites piece by piece, graphic by graphic, then stitched it together with HTML (no CSS back then). If any changes were necessary, IT WAS A PAIN IN THE ASS. Since you've done your site entirely with code so far, I imagine you're afraid to make any major layout changes. That's not how creative thinking should be. Since you already have a layout going, you could probably rebuild it in photoshop in 15 minutes. Then you'd be free to tinker as much as you want, no commitments. The greatest thing I learned in the past few years about design is this: If you get stuck, hit Save As, and start from scratch or completely restructure your layout. Chances are it will look better than the first time. If it doesn't, who cares, you have it saved already

[Muzjik]

Well i listened to what you said, the font is just set to sans-serif and the size is default, and i like the sizes, so i decreased the lineheight for h3 h2 and h1 from 160% to 100%, i think that helped.

It is a constant battle between asthetics and usability. I plan on adding images in the text area, this webpage is a review\blog type of site for a group of friends and i.

The other reason im doing this is to improve my portfolio, i want somthing that looks nice, and is impressive.

I do like the layout, main thing im worried about is the nav bar though, i think it looks good ( personally ), maybe make it a bit bigger, and obvious?

[kwills]

it doesnt really look like a gaming website does it?

[i3lance]

Looks like a badly done blog website with 100% width.

Have you looked at any competition? Eidos, EA Sports etc...? Find out what their sites are like...looks, functionality and so on...then create a few versions and work from there.

Sorry, try again dude is my suggestion.

[Muzjik]

so i sould just scrap it and start over?? I thought it looked pretty good, guess i was wrong.