Another website design - advice needed

S

Squiddy

Guest
I've kind of hit a brick wall with this site, It has been through various revisions (not as many as usual though, I'm definitely improving on that!) and now I'm wondering what can be done to improve it?

It's near enough ready to go but I still consider it to be in development as I think it needs a few tweaks and to actually get the content put in. I think I'm most unsure about the spacing between the sections of the website and I've played around with various different values.

The URL is: Seahaven Dance - Home Page

Advice and constructive criticism greatly appreciated.
 
Looks good, but I agree needs some tweaking. How would the stage area look as a solid area? You already have lights lighting up the section you hover over/ are in, so I feel like making them look like buttons is almost redundant? And takes away from the stage feel.

The bars behind the screen are distracting and pull my eye out of the page, I also don't think they are necessary.

Some other thing than a dotted boarder, something that is more theater-like or ornate to separate sections would be nice. I can't speak on word spacing much, I'm terrible at that part, personally.
 
Maybe you could lose some of the effects on the nav text to make them clearer?

I know you are echoing the logo, but it would be clearer if it was body copy and using the a and title wont hurt the SEO.
 
background curtains are red.... so you use pink as the accent which clashes and just looks wrong. Trust me when I say, use colour picker on curtains and use the hex code provided instead of the pink, as it will look a lot better :)

don't like the choice of font on the menu

don't like the 'horizontal divide' you've used to step the menu to the main text area. It just doesn't work - look at your last review on this design to see how I would have done it

Also think you could lose the silver cylinders up top
 
Got to admit for me its once the slideshow kicks in and you lose the logo.
I went to the bottom back up and then went okay whos the site for?

I think making the logo a constant may surprisingly improve it. Like the top bit really nice, the bottom bit don't know somethings just not right?

What about adding a bottom to the "stage" at the footer to tie the bottom in to the top?
Also the middle bit may benefit from a background texture as well. Kind of a rough this is bitty wood, the kind of texture I suppose what I mean is if you actually look at a stage close up texture, I know what I mean. :confused:

Really like the header though and do agree with Levi that I don't think the headers are the right colour, would like it more with a constant logo though. But again I know that would take a lot of revisions to get signed off on. :)
 
Thank you guys for all the advice, I will have another go at this early in the new year and take into account everything that's been said here! For now though, I will just get a website up and running so that they at least have something to use in the mean time.

Thanks again guys :)
 
Its definitely got legs...

In terms of improvement, I think really, I can only echo many of the comments already posted:

  • Logo needs to be a constant feature - maybe even if it's built into each of the slides - maybe 1/3 of each slide is taken up by the logo?
  • The font in the main menu needs to be less stylised - I'd say simplify it and improve readability
  • The chrome bars above the screen can go - don't add any value
  • You need some hierarchy in the headings below the main menu - the eye just doen;t know where to go next.
  • Maybe add a subtle background pattern either side of the main content area?
  • I'd probably increase line spacing a little too
 
Thanks, I think the only bit I'm going to struggle with is placing the logo, it's just so.. big. I think it might have to stay in the slider.
 
Okay so I've just spent the last 3 hours re-designing this website. It's around 90% complete but I'm more worried about getting the content layout correct. I'm going to spend some more time on the navigation later tonight. Link hover effects have been demonstrated in the first link of the row, denoted by a >>

http://ladesigns.co.uk/images/designdraft.png

I'd really appreciate any further advice and comments on this design against the previous one. Previous design: Seahaven Dance - Home Page
 
I'd prefer the jump in spacing in the header between the home and inner pages to be slightly less. Would you be able to keep the slide on all the inner pages?
 
Thanks for your feedback, I'll be sure to take your comments into consideration for any new projects or if I decide to re-design this site in the future. This is a particularly old project and all parties involved are happy to move on and get the site up.
 
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