Website Design Ideas

[Gerrit Gulden]

Almost all of you have a website geared towards weather/photography/chasing, etc and have a great layout. I have had my layout for over 2 years now and feel like my layout isnt what it could be in terms of Up to date styles. There are those styles with the 3 column layout and flash banner and then the more simpler look with banner and immediate description with a photo.

My goal is to brainstorm and ask you guys how you came up with your design and also get ideas for my website. Believe it or not, I found a website designer that made a deal with me to link to his website and a few of his partners in return for the design of my website. After two years the contract is up and now I am the main webmaster for my website.

I want to design a new website or even have one of you guys design me a website that you think would work for the theme of my website which is "idaho, weather (photo & video), lightning (photo and video), thunderstorm cloud (photo and video), firework (photo), nature (photo) and also time lapse videos of clouds, thunderstorm, snow, etc.

My website has decent ranking among search engines and reciprocal and triangle link exchanges. I could offer exclusive linking which advertises both a text and banner link from my website in return for your design. I will gladly discuss the amount of time for the link and banner as well. Exclusive means I will not have any other links on the pages except for my links page. Meaning, you get all the traffic from my main pages.

I dont have the money to invest in design and seo work. At the moment my entire website is SEO'd and Html,php compliant so sticking with what I have isnt a big deal. Im just taking a chance with all of you to see if anyone would lend a hand to offer a great design and html,php complaint website. All the seo isnt a big deal since I did most or all on my current website.

If any of you consider this a good deal. I have some ideas of what my website could look like. Keep in mind that I have wordpress and Coppermine gallery and will need to implement both into the design.

I would like to have a Flash Banner, I would like a black background but dont have a clue what would look good for the content area. I am also open to the actual design area for the website. I just know I want a flash banner that is as wide as the website and at least 300pixels tall.

You can check out my website and try to get ideas. I still want to implement everything I already have on my pages but I also want to add more content such as youtube video thumbnails, more pictures such as updates to my gallery and also blog postings, etc.

If you guys have any ideas I would greatly appreciate them. My website is my world to me and the hobby of weather photography is even more fullfilling.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys... Thanks...

-gerrit

[Brian Press]

Hey Gerritt,

You got to check out www.bludomian.com. Be web templates ever!!!! Hands down.. Check out my sites. It was only $100 one time fee.

www.impressivecreations.com
www.beautifulvideos.net


Hope that helps..

[Joey Ketcham]

Hey Gerritt,

You got to check out www.bludomian.com (http://www.bludomian.com). Be web templates ever!!!! Hands down.. Check out my sites. It was only $100 one time fee.



[/URL]I think you mean http://www.bludomain.com/ (http://www.bludomian.com/)

I recommend WebSiteX by Incomedia, [url]http://www.websitex5.com/en/index.html. It is easy to use and creates sites using CSS rather than HTML. I used it to create my site at www.kschaser.com.

A few things to keep in mind...

Don't overdo things. Don't clutter it up and make it graphics intense. Keep it simple and easy to read. I really hate sites that are so cluttered up that it's like finding a needle in a haystack just to find something.

[Jason Foster]

Main thing: stick with traditional text/background colors. Black on white, white on black, or something really close to that. Various computers, screens, resolutions, viewers, etc. tend to have difficulties if you start throwing up green text on red backgrounds, etc. I still have to correct that on some of my sites, but the important stuff is like that.

For graphic design samples, feel free to check out my sites (listed below), which are very old school designed and managed.

www.theweatherwarrior.com
www.onlinejason.net
www.n3prz.com

[Mike Hollingshead]

Yeah I think basic is best as well. I've always looked at a site like a book. Just how much changing have book layouts gone through over the years? Of course I'm lazy at learning new stuff and that probably has the most to do with mine still being highly basic. But the book argument works for me as well.

[Tyler Burg]

I agree with Joey and Jason here...IMO there is nothing worse on the web than a cluttered website. I think that having easy navigation and minimal columns/text/links looks the most attractive. Recently I changed my layout, and I just pictured what I wanted it to look like, then just start messing around with HTML to make it happen, It took me just a few hours to get my layout updated throughout the entire site (although I don't have many pages...yet). personally I wouldn't even consider buying a template, especially since I'm only making enough profit to cover my hosting costs. Thats just me though.

Good Luck Gerrit! Look forward to seeing what you can come up with!

[Darren Addy]

FWIW, I don't think your current design is "dated".

I would, however, change the page titles (look in the top bar of the browser window) so that they don't all serve as advertising for the guy who did your web site. :)

You can find them near the top of your page code between the TITLE tags.

Also, you can do a little facelift/freshing if you learn a little CSS (change fonts, colors, etc.). Google "styling text" and "CSS" for more info.

[Gerrit Gulden]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I decided I would play around with the design and just modify a few things such as color and header. I came up with the following..

http://www.severeidaho.com/testsite/

Its the same design minus a few items and a drastic color change. I think the white that shows on the original is too blinding.

Can you please let me know what you think? What do you like/dislike/recommend/ etc. I have revamped all the pages as well, just havent given them a launch yet. If you click on "gallery" or "blog" youll notice I messed with those as well to give my website a complete solid look from page to page.

If you notice anything please let me know... Thanks...

-gerrit

[Darren Addy]

Honestly, the #1 thing that people could do to improve their designs is to learn the basic principles of visual design (and they aren't that hard): Contrast, Proximity, Alignment and Repetition (http://thinkvitamin.com/features/how-crap-is-your-site-design/). Once people understand what these 4 things mean, then they can have a reason for why/where you put things on the page and can stop just centering things because that's the only "special" alignment they know of.

Getting Robin William's book The Non-Designer's Design Book will show you before and after of each point and then you will know why you like some ads/web sites and not others. (Because they probably follow these basic principles). You will also look at things like magazine page layouts in a whole new way after grasping the principles of C.R.A.P. :)

For example: Your basic design has a couple of nice vertical alignment lines created by the columns. Those lines suggest two good places that you could have utilized in placing (and/or sizing) your new header graphic text. But you ignored them and centered the text (where the ends of the lines don't line up with any existing vertical alignment). Play around with that idea and see how much stronger the "whole" look becomes.

[Gerrit Gulden]

Im a little noobish when it comes to design. Can you clarify what you meant about "ignoring vertical alignment lines between columns where I could have added something?

I did fix all the titles on each page (thanks for recommending that).

[David Drummond]

Yeah Darren touched on one of my pet peeves in website design...sites with centered text and sites with comic sans font! (Unless it's a comic site of course!)

Justify that text like in a book or newspaper on any site you do rather than left or worse center. When is the last time anyone read a book with centered blocks of text?

[Gerrit Gulden]

Okay, The text is no longer centered. Does this make a difference now?

Any other advice you can offer?


also, my fonts are "Trebuchet MS", "Bitstream Vera Sans", verdana, lucida, arial, helvetica, sans-serif", where to do you see Comic Sans?


-gerrit

[Gerrit Gulden]

I edited the header and just added a watermark for the text.

The actual site being centered is okay right? Just dont center the text I assume. That isnt a biggy for me. Text wound up getting centered on accident to be honest, I thought the center was only for an image. I fixed that.

David, I really like your website man. I like how you implemented "storm alerts and the twitter app. I also like the color and design of your website. Was that a custom made template?

-gerrit

[David Drummond]

Yeah centering the actual entire site layout is desirable, due to various screen widths. Like I have a wide screen and few sites expand to fill it up. It's the text within that should not be centered.

My site is based on Joomla, with a heavily modified template.

[Mike Hollingshead]

also, my fonts are "Trebuchet MS", "Bitstream Vera Sans", verdana, lucida, arial, helvetica, sans-serif", where to do you see Comic Sans?


-gerrit


He said sites in general, perhaps mine was included...given I have use of Comic Sans right on my front page and others. Hell my lazy site is probably a big fat how not to do a web page.

[David Drummond]

Yeah I was talking about sites in general.

http://bancomicsans.com/home.html

[Gerrit Gulden]

Ohh ok. So you guys think I should launch? If you look at the testsite link in my earlier posts youll see what I came up with as far as colors, design. Just dont want to launch if there are some eyesores.

let me know.. Thanks...

-gerrit

[Jordan Bell]

while on this topic of website creation and layout... i am looking for some i guess you would call them Free Domain sites? anyone have any ideas?

[Dean Baron]

while on this topic of website creation and layout... i am looking for some i guess you would call them Free Domain sites? anyone have any ideas?


tripod.com

Includes site builder as well for free.

[Chris C Sanner]

Honestly, the #1 thing that people could do to improve their designs is to learn the basic principles of visual design (and they aren't that hard): Contrast, Proximity, Alignment and Repetition (http://thinkvitamin.com/features/how-crap-is-your-site-design/). Once people understand what these 4 things mean, then they can have a reason for why/where you put things on the page and can stop just centering things because that's the only "special" alignment they know of.

Getting Robin William's book The Non-Designer's Design Book will show you before and after of each point and then you will know why you like some ads/web sites and not others. (Because they probably follow these basic principles). You will also look at things like magazine page layouts in a whole new way after grasping the principles of C.R.A.P. :)

For example: Your basic design has a couple of nice vertical alignment lines created by the columns. Those lines suggest two good places that you could have utilized in placing (and/or sizing) your new header graphic text. But you ignored them and centered the text (where the ends of the lines don't line up with any existing vertical alignment). Play around with that idea and see how much stronger the "whole" look becomes.
GREAT POST Darren! Just want to echo your comments!

Gerrit, your site isn't all that bad as it stands right now...a few simple tweaks following the 'C.R.A.P.' principles will make it pretty strong overall. I don't think a complete redesign is necessary man :)

[Darren Addy]

Gee thanks, Chris!
(I just noticed that I did the principles in the wrong order which makes the acronym CPAR - not quite as memorable.) For those who don't like C.R.A.P. your alternative is C.A.R.P. :o (not a bad thing, since one you learn these principles you will be constantly carping about them.) :rolleyes:

I think that all of us (well, most of us) are equipped to make value judgments on aesthetics of a web site, magazine layout, ad layout, etc.
In other words, we know what we like (looks good) as opposed to what we don't like (looks unappealing). But what most of us can't do (without a little training) is to explain WHY. What makes this look "good" as opposed to this looking "bad".

Generally, once you understand C.R.A.P. you can explain WHY. You can look at a web site, or magazine layout, or print ad, and view it through those different lenses:
How are they using/not-using: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity? Once you can do that you can turn a critical eye on your own work.

It is not that there is only one way to do things. You could take 10 graphic/web designers and they will come up with 10 different designs/color schemes/etc. But if they are good, chances are it is because they all make use of those principles.

[Chris C Sanner]

Haha, let's not stress over details of that Darren...I've always called the acronym C.R.A.P. because it explains why some web designs are...crap.

I also want to say this for ya Gerrit...KISS (Keep it simple stupid). Sometimes (actually most all the time) less is a lot more and it's a lot more classy and professional :)

Good luck man!

[Jason Foster]

I haven't skimmed over the latest comments, but I think you could go a little wider on the design if you wanted to. Not too many that have low resolution screens anymore. Same thing with dial-up, so I'm not as particular with that aspect myself anymore. I do try to make sure pages load quickly though.

Looks good though so far, I think at this point it's just a matter of tweaks that are ongoing that is typical of any site development.

[Anthony Petito]

I like this site: http://www.freecsstemplates.org

Picked a design that I liked and modified it to fit my needs.

[Gerrit Gulden]

I went ahead and launched the new colors and layout throughout my entire website. I will be replacing some items here and there, but the overall layout is done. I just couldnt imagine anything else added unless I do a complete redesign and from the 3 hours of changing css code on my gallery and blog alone, 5 hours total with my entire website, I dont think a redesign is possible.

I do agree that my website could be wider, I will play around with that and see what I can come up with. Being such a noob as I am, I will do the adjustments to my testsite area.

Do you guys think the colors work? What do you think would make the site jump out more? I will be redoing my front page content with more stuff aimed at my website rather then the Noaawatch graphic, etc.

What tweaks do you guys recommend?

-gerrit

[Gerrit Gulden]

Just finished widening my design. I went to 850 pixels wide. Didnt want to go too wide. Check it out and let me know what you think?

-gerrit

[Jason Boggs]

Looks good Gerrit, I like it a lot.

[Gerrit Gulden]

Thanks bro. It turned out be a speedy fix and the results couldnt be better. Im very pleased....

-gerrit

[Jason Foster]

Yeah, I like it.....great start for a launch. And with time, it only gets better. Just remember, it's all about the content too. Good quality content.