Thread: First website

Perhaps I am a little late asking for comments, but if someone has time to look at my site I would surely appreciate it. There are several things that I am not to pleased with but will continue working on it.
Site is http://www.rotatemachine.com/
Thanks so much
Ron

Hi, site developing nicely. Have you viewed it in a number of browsers? I ask because I have only viewed in my default browser which is firefox and there are a few overlaps (the clickable link to tatesoftware on your homepage is obscuring some text and the same with a couple of images on your about us page). Although from your company name and the images on your site it is blindingly obvious what you do it might be of interest to a visitor if, on your about us page you wrote about what sort of jobs you specialise in and/or other interesting or saliant points that would say "I really must use this man". Your home page is where you try to persuade a visitor to go deeper into your site and your about us page gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. As I said at the begining, it is coming on well.

Proactivator, Thanks for the input. I will certainly look into the points you have made.
Ron

Very nice. I'm viewing on AOL and had no problem. Excellent navigation. Precise info. You've been working very hard!

Overall- the site is nicely put together. The red title writing on the home page hurts my eyes. The no-tranparent menu buttons make it look a little cheesy or cheapen the look. If you'd like- I can make a transparent one for you so that the edges will not show like they do now. Just contact me via my site below if you want.

But like I said- all is comming together nicely.

Andy

I agree you need transparent background on your buttons. and one of them appears to have words that exceed their boundary... but your hard work will pay off, just keep up the good work.

Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate them. As soon as I can figure out how to make the transparent buttons as suggested I will make the change.

Ron

Hey Ron

Your sites looking good now and easy to navigate. I would either consider making the red headings links to your pages as well as the nav bar or I would change the color and remove the underline.

Its just that when I visited your site I automatically scrolled over the red headings thinking they were links.

You've done a great job, keep up the good work.

Ditto with above.
With the buttons, you could just reduce the pay pal image a little place a white shape behind the all the buttons & the pay pal logo. May even be nice to add a border the same colour as the dark blue of the background image.

I am sure you are getting the hang of (and handle on) the basics, such as nav and colors.....but...

Your site is so very dependent on communicating "precision" in all that you do, and obviously, the more precise your page appears, the more that credibility is created, even subliminally.
>> That being said, the first (and in my mind, the foremost) concern that immediately caught my attention was the lack of visual acuity of your product images, which are in the most prominent and important section of the site itself!

I suggest you start with the original images, and properly size them to the exact size you require; "*****en" them, and then "despeckle" them so to present the crisp, clean images you intended. Presently, the distortion that is apparent is most likely from them being "sized" imporperly and not to proportion. If needed, you may need to crop them prior to resizing, if to hold proportion. ** And, if you are cropping them, try to crop out the floor and shelves, focusing on the product alone on the table......"direct the cleaner, uncluttered view" ... if you want to include racks of products (we have what you need) or a shot of a machining process (we can do make what you need), that works well also to "fill-in" under your left margin nav, or along the bottom.....

I believe that when these critical elements are in place in proper fashion, they will influence the remainder of the site's redesign, and thus, be a smoother process overall.

Really good site plan and layout!
Looking forward to your refinements.

Originally Posted by lodgepole

Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate them. As soon as I can figure out how to make the transparent buttons as suggested I will make the change.

Ron

You could always simply choose another more complimentary set of buttons (there are a lot to choose from)!

Since you do use a gray theme, and you are about "machining"/tooling, even the menu buttons I have on this site would look fine, with the "flutes" and the precision edges....they are in BV, and you can even add a "blue" rollover to tie in nicely....