My third site, check it out.

Hi everybody, this is my third site that I've actually published. The previous two were personal sites and they were just upgrades from my first design. I've started a community of latin dj's and this site is in desperate need of conversion into PHP. Just wanted to get some comments on the layout and ease of navigation.

http://www.turitmo.net

Very nice, congrats

Not too shabby.

The only things i can suggest is more cellpadding. Everything looks really cramped/busy because there isn't much white space. Maybe adding another colour to your pallete would help too?

Also, the nav could use a litle work (space it out a bit more). It's a bit awkward to use.

Like the color and the graphics.

A few thoughts though:

I'm not a big fan of "entry" pages. Just one more screen to click through. I would do away with the entry page, because I don't really see it adding any value.

Also from a usability standpoint, the animated graphics (new and arrows) are a bit distracting and take away from the content and the design.

Make your top graphic clickable to home and use alt tags for your images, particularly for the nav bar.

If possible use a different color on the nav bar color for the selected section. So if I am in the links section, the links button would appear in say the dark blue shade, so that the user would better know where they are on the site.

I agree with Stumpy that a little more white space would help to make the content more readable.

My eyes hurt!

When someone has to focus so intently to get anything from a site it is too much strain and not worth reading.

The background image only adds to the 'noise' on the site.

The heading fonts are hard to read too...

Too much stuff packed together in such a small space.

Other than that...


I think there are some cool things on the site, like the heading image. I also like the design on your 'boxes'. And the menu buttons.

That's it.

My 3 cents (Hey, I think my opinion is more valuable than most.)

Bryan

Bnoonan what are your display settings set at?

My settings are at 1024 x 768, but I have my fonts set to small. I did check it out in a larger font setting and it was better, but I would suggest using CSS to specify your font sizes so that no matter what setting on the browser it'll look the same to the viewer.

Btw, I'm not trying to be harsh, I just notice nearly everyone says, "Nice site..." etc. with no real feedback. So, I'm trying to give good feedback.

Bryan

Cool comment!

bnoonan - please keep your little side posts like this to a minimum - they're not helpful. Maybe you didn't read past the first post??

um i thought he was being harsh but after reading his comment, thought it was rather mature.

Funny, I can count five items of constructive criticism in my post and I never mentioned the words "Nice site". I also believe stumpy's post provided tangible feedback on the issue of cellpadding. So perhaps bnoonon, your comment is a bit overstated.



Also just an FYI, the issue of specifying font sizes is currently under debate. One usability expert argues that you should not override user preferences for font size.

See http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020819.html

Well I didn't take any of the comments in a bad way. When you start a topic like this you're opening yourself to criticism and all comments are welcome. Most of the comments I've gotten are positive one's and I'm not going to change the site unless it's a really good point and it can improve the site overall.

I am currently doing a new layout, nothing to drastic it will be the same except that I'm changing the background and main menu. It will still have the 3 columns but like I said just a different logo and background.

Stumpy, perhaps you missed my 'nearly' in the sentence. I'm not criticizing you, or anyone else that provides helpful feedback. I'm sorry you were offended by my 'little side comment'.

I'm not sure why the issue of font size is under debate. I understand that you need to be careful not to override user preferences, but when it comes to making the text look right on your site, and making your site look right with the text, I say speficy the font size that looks best on your site.

Your resolution changes the size of the font still.

<<RAN>>...glad you are open to suggestions. I hope you find the right fit for your site.

Bryan

Fyi, I actually didn't see your post, so perhaps we posted about the same time.

People please...my comments were not meant to incite anger. I read many threads before I posted and the general 'flavor' of the threads in the 'reviews' section were not helpful.

I guess I would say, If the shoe fits...wear it. Otherwise I wasn't speaking about you.

Bryan

a very nice first impression when loading the site...

everything seems to fit right in and nothing sticks out, kudos to you!

very clean layout.

Hey there. Thats a pretty nice job you have done.

Couple of tips.

A better layout design may be needed as the page looks very cramped.
From a design stand point your choice of fonts and color schemes is distracting and difficult to read. A change there would take the site a huge leap ahead.

Otherwise it's a good job