First Client Website

Elekate

Member
Riteway Driving School

Recently made a website for a Driving School local to me (the one I am taking lessons with actually) I know alot of the guys on the forum are proffesionals and wondered if you could skim the site and give me any criticism? :)


Thanks,
Kate
 
Hi Kate.

Just some tips from a quick glance.
  • Increase the padding in most areas (the top, the text is extremely cramped, the main content box (white bg, red outer container) could do with some space to breath too)
  • Change the colour of the text at the top, you have to strain to read it if you recognise it.
  • The whitespace bottom left is very odd, would be better if it was re-ordered somehow.

That'll do for now, if you're serious about web-design then keep at it and you'll get there in the end!

Also, 15 driving lessons, isn't that like £300-400? I'd have at least asked for 20 lessons ;)
 
Hi Kate,

A driving School website is perhaps not the most exciting project but I think you can do a lot more with this design.

The menu takes up half the page. Looks odd. Align the menu to the left. You really need some more padding around the text. And just add a few simple things to add a little more interest. For example a heading and a few graphical elements to lead the eye. The logo is positoned in a strange way and the image of the car is fuzzy. The text in the top is useless. You can't read it and it looks weird. Use that text for some nice call to actions or something like that. Try to use it to sell his services better.

Here's a quick example of a few simple things you could do just to make it look slightly better. (1min job, just to illustrate what I mean)

playing.jpg


HTH

Thanks,
Soren
 
Tim-ater - I know how good is that ;p allright for my first site, plus I think I charged him £2 a month for hosting - but don't know if he sticking to that now :p



Xenonsoft - Thanks for the pointers will take another look when I get the chance, the coding puzzles me though as I did all of it in photoshop and then sliced it and put it into code (not using Dreamweaver, used Crimson Editior - which is a text editor) then loaded it on the server and previewed how it would look.


Aarlev said:
Hi Kate,

A driving School website is perhaps not the most exciting project but I think you can do a lot more with this design.

The menu takes up half the page. Looks odd. Align the menu to the left. You really need some more padding around the text. And just add a few simple things to add a little more interest. For example a heading and a few graphical elements to lead the eye. The logo is positoned in a strange way and the image of the car is fuzzy. The text in the top is useless. You can't read it and it looks weird. Use that text for some nice call to actions or something like that. Try to use it to sell his services better.

Here's a quick example of a few simple things you could do just to make it look slightly better. (1min job, just to illustrate what I mean)

playing.jpg


HTH

Thanks,
Soren


WOW cheers for that Soren! Looks 100% better!

I just don't know how to add all that stuff in, with it being my first website I took it on straight after a week of work experience learning basic php coding for a website.

Side bar on the left had me stumped on how to make it look good and simple at the same time, would you do the links as images or text? :confused:
 
Looking alot better then before ;)

See you can take criticism!

Few things I'd change though,

  • Change the navigation font (needs to smoother and bolder)

    [*]On the "testimonials" page put each peoples names in ITALICS

    [*]And... fix the image problem on "Prices & Testimonials" page

Other then that tis looking sweet, easier on the eyes!

Niveus
 
Niveus said:
Looking alot better then before ;)

See you can take criticism!

Few things I'd change though,

  • Change the navigation font (needs to smoother and bolder)

    [*]On the "testimonials" page put each peoples names in ITALICS

    [*]And... fix the image problem on "Prices & Testimonials" page

Other then that tis looking sweet, easier on the eyes!

Niveus


Thankyou :p

Yeah I know - bit ironic that I was told to take criticism from my driving instructor now I have to take criticism for his site lol :D

Still editing it so images go a bit funny on the navigation on the left, unless your on about the images of the people.

Will do the names when I get a chance *adds to list*

Re-did the Banner aswell - did you see?

Kate
 
Looking better I agree :)

I would give it a bit of breathing space at the top and bottom, something like this:

Can easily be done code wise if you've got your content in a div. Just give that div an id <div id="content"> and then in the css #content { margin:20px 0; } will give it 20px at the top and bottom.

You cut it using a tool though, so who knows how thats gone.

2uetuev.jpg
 
Will add that spacing!
Weird on my pc the links show as black and some in light grey :confused:
Redone the map btw, which looks alot better so will upload tht tonight :p
 
Elekate said:
Will add that spacing!
Weird on my pc the links show as black and some in light grey :confused:
Redone the map btw, which looks alot better so will upload tht tonight :p

Different browser different views!
 
Niveus said:
Different browser different views!

I got back home and uploaded the map and noticed the white space at the top had gone that may have been an uploading error or something.

Changed the names on the testimonial page to italics! :D


Plus some more good news actually showing up in Google Search now !

:clap: :clap: :clap::clap:
 
I think that it would be nicer with a different menu font and some padding,
I'd go slightly shorter on the banner height as well, or hang the car bumper over the bottom of the banner and run the menu horizontally just under banner along to car?

But a solid start.
 
Where to start.............

First I would pick no more than 2 or 3 fonts and work with them. Never ever have as many fonts going on as you have there. That's a basic typographic law.
 
Berry said:
Where to start.............

First I would pick no more than 2 or 3 fonts and work with them. Never ever have as many fonts going on as you have there. That's a basic typographic law.

Which ones to change though, I feel kinda happy with the way it looks now, font wise....maybe the text font in the content bit but thought that was supposed to be kept to a default that web browsers know.... :confused:
 
I think that the menu font should be changed as it's a bit dated, I would use something like a bold verdana personally.

Having said that it's all about personal taste as well....
 
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