A Local Events Website

**mwsource** · 04-25-2008, 12:21 AM

Hey guys,

I've been a member of these boards for awhile but have been inactive for a bit, however I've always found webmaster-talk a great resource for constructive opinions so I need a review for a project that I just finished (at least enough to present) for my business class.

The concept is simple: Provide an easy to use Events website that anyone could use to find something to do. A bored.com for people who like to get out and about.

Events Pop!

Programming and Design is all mine, so please be as critical (but constructive) as possible. Also if you have ideas, please mention them. I'm going to continue building this out so concepts and ideas are welcome.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to your comments.

**ChaunnaBrooke** · 04-25-2008, 12:45 PM

The site looks great. I like the layout and design. I think you could monetize
it in other ways than adsense.. like offering to sell tickets to events through
your site, or even charging for advertising for local business in the restaurants
section.

I felt the 2 blocks of google ads on the right were a little too much
and you may do better adding just one block at the bottom of the list of regular
listing (maybe more people would see it as other options to click on)

I think you have a good color scheme going on and the site was very easy
to navigate and find out more information on topics/events.

Good job

**mwsource** · 04-27-2008, 12:20 PM

Thanks, that helps. I'll be making some tweaks today. Since this is for a school project, I figured getting something up there to show how advertising VIA Google Ads would help convey the method of generic advertising and local advertising is apart of the 'plan' but I just don't have any local ads so far. Though I'm going to try make it a little less than an eye sore with some tweaks.

Additional comments are always welcome, the more the better! =]

Thanks Chaunna, I appreciate your review.

**joe10135** · 04-27-2008, 07:38 PM

I did not look all over the web site but from the front page alone I can guess that's it's a awesome design! weldone.

**mandava** · 04-27-2008, 09:18 PM

Hi,
1.design is good
2.you might wanna work on the bg color of the header
3.try to style the text in the header

**mwsource** · 04-27-2008, 09:23 PM

Hey mandava, I appreciate your comments..

but Could you elaborate on 2-3? that was a little... vague.

**mandava** · 04-28-2008, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwsource

Hey mandava, I appreciate your comments..

but Could you elaborate on 2-3? that was a little... vague.

Hey,
2. regarding the header. i dont say it does not look good. it definitely does. you got an excellent logo there!! but the header does not complement the logo. they look and feel like two seperate entities. the gradient you used header fades down. if you want to use white, then i suggest you make the entire header white, and then probably add something on the right-hand side. or else, i suggest you go for a darker color, since the logo already contains bright colors. using a bright background will make the logo lose it's "impact". try some combinations of dark colors. you will be able to see for yourself what i'm saying (or trying to say).

3.you have placed some text "events in...." in the header. now, this text does go well with any element of the page in any way. you need to spice/style it up a little. you could change the font, size, color. or, even better, you can make a single image for the entire header, and include this text in it. so that you will not have any problems with the text and header background not going well together.

hope my review will help you!!

Cheers!

**innovate** · 01:56 PM

Good! Fresh and quite funky.

I would add some shadow or highlight edges to the top bar as it looks a bit flat next to the logo.

Reduce the width of the google ads bar on the right as dominates the content. Other then that it looks nice.

Phil
< removed >

**mwsource** · 04-28-2008, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mandava

Hey,
2. regarding the header. i dont say it does not look good. it definitely does. you got an excellent logo there!! but the header does not complement the logo. they look and feel like two seperate entities. the gradient you used header fades down. if you want to use white, then i suggest you make the entire header white, and then probably add something on the right-hand side. or else, i suggest you go for a darker color, since the logo already contains bright colors. using a bright background will make the logo lose it's "impact". try some combinations of dark colors. you will be able to see for yourself what i'm saying (or trying to say).

3.you have placed some text "events in...." in the header. now, this text does go well with any element of the page in any way. you need to spice/style it up a little. you could change the font, size, color. or, even better, you can make a single image for the entire header, and include this text in it. so that you will not have any problems with the text and header background not going well together.

hope my review will help you!!

Cheers!

Thanks Mandava,

I'll switch out the background with a plain white and see how well it plays. I had tried white before, but it just seemed so plain and empty, so I used the gradient to help the header out, but I'll give it another try (By that point I was tired at starting at the screen so really anything and everything with color looked good). I tried darker colors when I was designing however I couldn't quite get a look that didn't feel awkward, if you know what I mean. Someone else could probably pull off what you're suggesting with the darker colors, but from what I tried nothing seems to just strike me as 'the look'.

That text needs to be SEO friendly while also conveying the message to the user that this is an events resource and be visually pleasing. In addition to that I also need to progamatically change the text to reflect any city that the site covers events in. I'll have to look into my options as far as this goes, PHPthumb can generate images with custom fonts so I may go that route. The other option is using a flash emdedded option to place the text up there. You're right though, it's sort of pitiful up there =P

I'm really hoping that this small school project turns into something bigger, so I appreciate every single one of your comments. Presenting soon, I'll post how it goes tomorrow. Thanks guys!

**mandava** · 04-28-2008, 02:07 PM

Hi,
i think you can definitely come up with something really good for the header. just sit down at it when you are totally relaxed, and not thinking about anything else.

as for the text, you can always put a heading before the main content starts. you know that the spiders crawl the whole website, every pixel of it, unless you forbid it to do so. so, in my opinion you should remove that text from the header, and put up the heading. on the other hand, you could still keep the text there, but you need to find some other font which looks good out there. but, then again, you need to see what fonts are installed on a pc by default, or you will have to get into embedding your font and all that stuff, which i dont suggest.

hope this helps.

p.s.: please excuse me for all the spelling mistakes and missing words from my previous post. i hadnt slept in 72hrs when i was writing that post!!

cheers!!

**colbyt** · 04-28-2008, 05:53 PM

Consider this feedback from a user and not a webmaster.

The site loaded very quickly and I like that.

I found your main page much too cluttered and busy. I personally prefer the Google look. As another poster said the Google ads on the sub pages are just too big. I did not come to your site to read Google ads. I will and I may click some of them but they should not overpower the purpose of the page.

As a potential user/buyer I found no way to add my event to your site.

**NaughtyGirl** · 04-29-2008, 08:32 AM

It's 'ok', but not 'wow'. I'm not exactly sure how to recommend fixing it. Maybe check out other 'events' sites and see how their better looking ones do it.

Good luck! I'm always using event sites like that when I take vacations with my kids.

**danrak** · 04-30-2008, 08:16 AM

Great design and nice idea too.
I think you should put google ads on left (above weatherbug) on subpages (not on frontpage).

**aaronf** · 04-30-2008, 12:14 PM

kind of light on content but a decent design .. i would reorder your navigation .. are church events really higher priority than restaurants and sporting events?