New TMD Launched!

**TripleMoons** · 12-27-2007, 04:39 PM

After several (too many) hours of struggling through creating a table less layout, v1.0 of this design is finally launched.

http://www.triplemoonsdesign.com

I want to spruce up Services, Portfolio & Graphic Design Portfolio, but after staring at code for so long, my brain's fried!

So suggestions on these sections is very welcome. I have a ton of GD work that I need to go through and determine what all will be in that section, but I need a break from that web site!

Critique away.

**brianluce** · 12-27-2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TripleMoons

After several (too many) hours of struggling through creating a table less layout, v1.0 of this design is finally launched.

http://www.triplemoonsdesign.com

I want to spruce up Services, Portfolio & Graphic Design Portfolio, but after staring at code for so long, my brain's fried!

So suggestions on these sections is very welcome. I have a ton of GD work that I need to go through and determine what all will be in that section, but I need a break from that web site!

Critique away.

I like that, unlike about half the sites here, you can tell what the biz is all about right away.
Thought the home page was a tad text heavy and the text itself didn't do a lot for me, it was too generic.

Also, the choice of pink is interesting. Gave it an estrogen vibe. is that what you want?

**TripleMoons** · 12-27-2007, 08:09 PM

Hmm. Too text heavy, huh? I'll have to think on that. I was afraid the interior of certain pages was too text heavy (I have a lot to say) but hadn't considered the home page.

I got a chuckle out of your "estrogen vibe" comment. Pink's my color. I even make my husband sleep in a bed covered in pink!

Has nothing to do with the fact that I'm female...But I figure besides it being my favorite color, it'll stand out a bit more then the usual blues of design sites I see.

**xanadu** · 12-27-2007, 11:38 PM

Hello!
I would make Graphic Design, Printing Services, Web Design and Search Engine Marketing on the front page in bold

Also, as a courtesy to those who actually check, use

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer (six errors, but that's fine by my book) so that you can click on the button and check rather than do a two-step process.

Oh and I can't get back to the home page once I'm away from it.. boo.

Slightly too verbose, I agree. A design suggestion I might have is to use slightly less text on the pink area, like:

Triple Moons Design is a professional Graphic and Web design company based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Our business-driven approach and personal attention separates us from typical design companies.

but I would make the font slightly bigger to stand out. Also, you want to set your design firm apart from thousands of others out there, so you want to focus on what makes yours different. Everyone says:

We offer very competitive pricing for all of our services. We are committed to providing quality at affordable prices.

Hence you don't want to be everyone.

Good luck!
Nice design overall, color scheme too.

**TripleMoons** · 12-28-2007, 10:10 AM

Thank you for the revised link for the HTML validater. Can the same be done for the CSS one?

Those errors were from an oversight of a forward slash in the meta section and are now corrected. The home link on sub pages is also corrected, another oversight on my part.

**joder** · 12-28-2007, 12:35 PM

I like the design and color scheme. I would make the Featured Site a link to the site or a larger image.

**hostquack** · 12-28-2007, 03:17 PM

The buttons are great and color combination is good aslo.

**weilies** · 12-30-2007, 11:00 AM

the site is nice, no joke. If you need more traffic, i suggest you join more Design Forum, helping the ppl there (since your PS skill not bad). I believe ppl will not hesitate to visit your site

**TripleMoons** · 12-30-2007, 12:10 PM

I think you're trying to spam your signature links into my thread. What exactly does that have anything to do with a critique of the design & layout of the web site? FYI, I wouldn't be worried about traffic from other designers, I would be concerned with traffic from potential clients...Big difference.

**LadynRed** · 12-30-2007, 01:23 PM

Looks nice, I love the color scheme and you've done a lot of work getting away from tables.

I would make the following suggestions:
- Your headings, such as "Graphic Design", "Printing Services", "Web Design" and "Search Engine Marketing" should BE actual headings - as I noted before - they need to be Hx tags and not just text separated in a paragraph. Actual headings ARE picked up on by search engines, and it also goes to accessibility.
- On your Services page, your lists should be actual LISTS - use the UL as it was meant to be used.
- Your menu - nice job, but I would suggest using an image only for the background and use an Unordered List with REAL text for the menu items. This, again, is more semantically correct and much more accessible. This would also eliminate the horrible DW image rollover scripting, it can all be done with CSS

- Fix code like this:

Quote:

The center alignment belongs in your CSS and not using the deprecated align="center" coding.

Overall.. very nice, pretty good and VALID code - you just need a bit of work on semantics and accessibility

**TripleMoons** · 12-30-2007, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Your headings, such as "Graphic Design", "Printing Services", "Web Design" and "Search Engine Marketing" should BE actual headings - as I noted before - they need to be Hx tags and not just text separated in a paragraph. Actual headings ARE picked up on by search engines, and it also goes to accessibility.

I'm actually considering rewriting that entire section. It's a bit old and needs updated. Just haven't taken the time to sit down and do it!

Quote:

On your Services page, your lists should be actual LISTS - use the UL as it was meant to be used.

Doesn't that cause an indention in the list (which I don't want)? The entire page is on my list of things to redo anyway...Just haven't figured out how I want it done yet.

Quote:

Your menu - nice job, but I would suggest using an image only for the background and use an Unordered List with REAL text for the menu items. This, again, is more semantically correct and much more accessible. This would also eliminate the horrible DW image rollover scripting, it can all be done with CSS

I did attempt to create that particular menu in CSS but got thoroughly frustrated and gave up. Works as Javascript and is valid, so I didn't see a reason to change how I do them.

Quote:

The center alignment belongs in your CSS and not using the deprecated align="center" coding.

That's in there from when I was trying a half a dozen different methods to center. Once I got it all centered like I wanted to, I was afraid to remove anything and mess it up!

I guess that's my go ahead that if I remove those it won't ruin my hard work, huh?

**LadynRed** · 12-31-2007, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Doesn't that cause an indention in the list (which I don't want)?

By default, yes, but you control that in your CSS to remove any indenting that you don't want.

Quote:

I did attempt to create that particular menu in CSS but got thoroughly frustrated and gave up.

I can sympathize with that, when you're first learning it CAN be frustrating. Once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult at all, like anything else you might learn to do. While the JS solution works, it is not an accessible solution. You actually have more options by using real text and CSS than you do using images. If you change your menu, you have to go in and change the graphics, create new ones. If you use CSS and real text, you go in and change/add/subtract just that list item and you're done - much easier than images, more accessible, and more SE 'friendly'. Spiders read TEXT a lot easier. If you want some help with it, PM me, I'm happy to help.

Quote:

I guess that's my go ahead that if I remove those it won't ruin my hard work, huh?

Yep

If your CSS is working, you can take out that moldy old code.

**Bartosz** · 01-02-2008, 06:35 AM

Hello,

looks nice but colors... I would make these changes:

Menu -> Hover gradient : I dont like it, looks so amateurish
Portfolio -> Dotted frames : bad color combination with background
Forms -> Remake them, looks so much simple

**Chromatic** · 01-03-2008, 09:20 AM

I like what I see here. Nice work. Unlike what a few other said, the color scheme is very vibrant and beautiful. You do have a text heavy website, but thats okay because you're trying to sell yourself (instead of just mumbling about irrelevant information, your content has purpose).

The only suggestion I would make is to fix your nav bar rollovers. They suck. You can do a lot better. How about making each hover state fill the entire height of the navbar so that the edges are flush with the top and bottom of the bar? That would be nice.

Over all, good work. I wish you the best of luck.

**jdfreelance** · 01-03-2008, 11:18 AM

Not bad, I think the pink fits well despite the fact that I do not like pink that much. Good work, it's good you went to tableless design, it's much better!

**LadynRed** · 01-03-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

How about making each hover state fill the entire height of the navbar so that the edges are flush with the top and bottom of the bar?

If you looked at the IMAGE on the menu, you'd see that it DOES do that

**zephyrcat** · 01-03-2008, 06:32 PM

Overall, I like it a lot. As people have said before, the pink on black really stands out.

I was going to say that I did not like how after I moved my mouse off the navigation the buttons still stayed pink for a few seconds, but I can't reproduce that effect anymore. It might have been my browser or something.

On my fairly large screen, the logo is too far away from the content. This might not be a problem on smaller screens, but on my screen my eyes get pulled to both the content and the logo, which are in two different areas of the screen.

I find the alternative navigation at the bottom of the page a little confusing.

Overall, though, it looks great.

**TripleMoons** · 01-03-2008, 10:33 PM

I hadn't thought about how the 100% width would look on obnoxiously wide screens. Do you have any suggestions? I realize I can't make it fixed width for 1024 x 768 because I'm restricting those that are still on 800 x 600 and I really want the header and footer to be fluid.

**dman_2007** · 01-04-2008, 12:52 PM

Like many others i am not a big fan of using pink color in professional website, but you made it look good. Well done.