First tableless design I need ideas and comments

**trulyunusualdot** · 02-20-2007, 04:39 AM

I'm building a themed website starting with the index and I'm at a standstill. I'm not liking the left menu text/links or the overall font style so if you have any ideas feel free to spit them out. Comments about the design would be appreciated aswell. Trying hard to keep it WC3 Strict. I also do not know how older browsers are handling this design so if you have an older browser (IE6.0 or lower) I would appreciate that aswell. Looks fine in the current IE and FF. Not sure about Safari or other browsers. This is my first tableless CSS design so please be kind.
http://www.unusualartists.com

Thanks

Jon

**krishna** · 12:09 PM

looks preety, and have to say is a terrific colour combination.

**twiggy** · 02-20-2007, 07:28 AM

Different concept to what I have seen before.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the menu text can be a little hard to read with it being a similar colour to the background.

**archyboy** · 02-20-2007, 09:06 AM

i love that brown background

**houdini987** · 02-20-2007, 11:51 AM

Yeah that color scheme is pretty cool.

**trulyunusualdot** · 02-20-2007, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twiggy

Different concept to what I have seen before.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the menu text can be a little hard to read with it being a similar colour to the background.

Yeah that's why I posted here. I'm hoping for some ideas for the menu. I might try making buttons but I'm not sure what would work.

Thanks for all the comments so far everyone.

**t4tom4** · 02-20-2007, 01:52 PM

I'd recommend changing the font of the text links, but use text rather than buttons. Perhaps a simple underline rollover would work....

**memberpro** · 02-20-2007, 01:53 PM

That's a pretty cool website....

The only problem is that your link color is the same as some of you non-link text graphics. It is always a good idea to make all of you links standout with a different color.

I would try to find either a complement color or opposing color for your links. You can find one by using a color wheel (google "color wheel").. You can also use CSS to change the complement color to the opposing color when the mouse rolls over it.

Just an idea..

Good Luck

**aldor** · 02:31 PM

I like the unusual design but feel you need more contrast between the text and background.
For some great ideas on producing menus using just CSS without the need for graphics have a look at:- http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/index.html
Good luck you have a great concept.

**LadynRed** · 02-20-2007, 03:07 PM

Very nice design

You've made a good effort on the CSS, but you've got some work to do.

- Put your nav menu in an unordered list. Do not make a batch of links with s. Use your menu div and float it left.

- No need to use position: relative on your main areas. What you need to do to keep the design centered is to put everything inside a #wrapper div, set IT to position: relative and margin:0 auto with the width defined. Add text-align: center to the <body> to make IE 6 and below center it. This will then allow you to get rid of the relative positioning on everything else and use the normal document flow.

- Use conditional comments to target IE 6 and below 'fixes'.
- Get your styles OUT of your html and put them all in an external CSS file.
- put your text inside tags and style the as needed ie: margins, padding, etc.
I don't have any particular issues with the text colors, I think it's readable on the dark background.

**trulyunusualdot** · 02-20-2007, 04:58 PM

Thank you very much LadynRed,

I have implimented everything you suggested except two things. The styles in the html were there because I couldn't get them to work from the CSS but it must have just been and order issue cause they are working now. I wasn't worried about the content part and stuff, it's the menu. UL/LI is so ugly and I have never had luck styling them. I've tossed quite a few designs because I can't get the menu to look nice enough. I didn't do any fixes for earlier IE browsers because I have no idea what they are or what to look for and I didn't change the menu from a relative to a float. What are the benefits of using a float as opposed to a relative?

Thanks again for the comments

**LadynRed** · 02-21-2007, 12:02 AM

For a list of IE's bugaboos.. and their cures, start reading here (there are MANY !):
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html

Positioning is a bit harder to explain - and one of the concepts it takes time to master. This source will explain it better than I can:
http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast...s/positioning/

And for learning lists:
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listutorial/index.htm

**ForrestCroce** · 02-21-2007, 01:42 AM

You should get rid of the lines around the nav elements. I don't particularly like the font, but I really don't know much about using them well, so I wish I could offer more advice there.

I like the design overall - it's fantastic - and the roll-overs. But somehow the site makes me expect a lot of fancy java. If the roll-overs changed the content in the box at right, that would be impressive, and go with your theme.

**SittingBull** · 02-21-2007, 05:03 AM

I think you should change your font first - hate seeing colourful well designed websites with Times.

Also the footer seems kind of weird how Unusual Artists in incorporated into the image but then there is a text link touching it repeating the same word. Maybe incorporate the copyright into the footer itself and make the images into links.

**trulyunusualdot** · 02-21-2007, 04:13 PM

Ok a little bit of an update. I created separate stylesheets for IE7 and IE6 because they didn't like each other and I only had to fix a couple things that way. I figured out a workaround for transparent .png in IE6 backgrounds and implimented in my drupal section. I have to go back and fixup the menu for IE6 on the index but everything has gone smooth.

If you want to see how far I've got.
http://www.unusualartists.com/lounge is the drupal section and
http://www.unusualartists.com is the main index/entry page.

I think the design is really coming along. I still hate the fonts but I'm at a loss as to what to do there. Any ideas will be welcomed.

**webmaster1234** · 02-22-2007, 12:56 AM

I liked the colour combinations on your web site.The brown colour background is amazing.If you want more ideas about how to make it fully gorgeous then visit at www.webdesigningcompany.net a web site of a company where expert in making web sites related to your topic

**vasam** · 02-22-2007, 09:19 AM

The site looks good. I like textures and colors. good idea, great job!

**kids** · 02-22-2007, 08:08 PM

Yeah! Color scheme is ok, but I think need change font-family and articles need more images. But good job!

**azr007** · 02-22-2007, 10:12 PM

Very eye appealing. Nice colors and transitions. I would like to be able to create designs like that someday.

**nemo1980** · 02-23-2007, 09:19 AM

no comment needed ...keep going ;-)