www.short-story.net new design

**Marc Timberlake** · 11-15-2004, 02:31 PM

Hi,

I've updated my short stories website to make it look more 'professional' so to speak!

Short-Story.Net

I thought I'd alter the colour scheme to make it easier on the eye, as well as fit in better with the overall theme of the site.

For those of you who did see the original, you can view it here

For anyone who remembers my original thread, don't worry, we're still working on the new functionality of the site (only the user interface to sort out mainly)!

What do you think?

**Ali_ix** · 11-18-2004, 02:10 PM

Hi Marc
That is a simple nice styled website...
but ithink u can use more little graphics on it ..
or u can also use CSS to improve it in Design

Succes with u ...
Ali ix

**pixelputty** · 11-18-2004, 03:05 PM

Layout works well, easy to understand, content is good, I would blend the google ads in alittle better, the sloagn IMHO needs to be smaller and under the site title in the header, and finally the header graphic reminds me more of a church, maybe re-address this, good job and good luck.

**Marc Timberlake** · 04:25 PM

thanks for the comments. I was trying to keep graphics to a minimum as I didn't think it'd be relevant to the content, but I get what you mean! What parts do you think I could use more CSS to improve? I'm still learning, so don't quite know all of it's capabilities.

I was planning on blending the google ads in, but wasn't sure whether to fully blend (as in only have the text, with borders, and ads the same colour) or to just change it to a similar colour scheme as the site, and keep the ad layout. Here's two different Google ad colour schemes I'm thinking of ... www.short-story.net/indextest.html & www.short-story.net/indextest2.html which looks best, or would I be best to keep the borders?

**CyM** · 11-22-2004, 09:13 AM

I prefer indextest2.html for the google ads, it blends in nice while still being obvious they are ads. I think you should use CSS to enhance the left side navigation, use the display: block setting and set a border and background (with mouseover changes) to get a more defined set of links. At the moment it looks a bit like its one long link thatys rolling into the other ones, its a bit undefined graphically. I think you should also reduce the size of the text a little, if people want larger text they generally have their browser set up to display it a little larger. One last point, I really don't like the header, its far to sedate, good for a funeral home maybe or as someone else said, a church but not for your site. Just my opinion.

**Marc Timberlake** · 11-23-2004, 05:02 AM

cheers for the input. I'm new to using CSS, so I'll have to do a bit of digging to find how to do what you've said!

**Marc Timberlake** · 12-07-2004, 04:15 PM

ok, I've altered the colouring of the google ads to make them blend in better, any more thoughts on the site?

**lilval81** · 12-08-2004, 03:26 AM

the only thing i can say is that i get lost in the writing on the index page... it doesn't really entice me - so ya more pictures or graphics would go well or header for each topic!! but as far as improvement wise - 125% improvement!! I definitely like the site and the idea - and I might definitely contribute!!

cause I'm big on talking and writing...

**toocool4u** · 12-08-2004, 03:39 AM

First of all this is a way better design than the first one. Second , I like the design seems very old fashioned like and fits the criteria .

**Marc Timberlake** · 12-08-2004, 08:14 AM

thanks for the input

Only trouble with trying to add pictures/graphics to the main page, is that it's hard to choose anything that'll fit with the theme/style of the site. On top of that, all the text is needed as an intro, and extra graphics may make the page too long.