Aesthetics/look of my website - suggestions

[pranavc]

Hi All,
I am not too sure if this post of mine is appropriate for this forum. I realize this is a forum for web designers. I currently have a website for an internet music radio station that I run. I have built the webpage on Microsoft's "Office Live Basic" - which is a free service. The pages were designed using the OfficeLIVE WYSIWYG editor. I have been told on multiple occasions that my website looks like an "amateur job" - which is probably true - as I am definitely far from professional. My knowledge of HTML is fairly rudimentary but I don't believe it is hard to grasp.

Now, here is where I need help. I do not need help with actual HTML code. I just need ideas/suggestions/recommendations for the aesthetics (color, positions of images, tables, positions of google ads etc.) and the overall "look" of my website - something that will make it look less like an "amateur" job. Any other advice is more than welcome too. Please keep in mind that because I avail of a free service (i.e. Microsoft Office LIve Basic), I am quite limited in terms of what I can do on my website. The website for my station is below:

www.radiocremebrulee.com

Any input will be much appreciated. I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Pranav

 

[jonze]

If I were you, I'd first of all make the colour scheme a bit more interesting, I think the one you have now is a little boring. It's not ugly or anything, it could be improved though.
I use this site if I'm feeling uninspired: http://www.colorschemer.com/schemes/
The header, the text sizes are weird I think, and it should probably stretch the whole way across the top of the page.
Radio Creme Brulee (this text should be a lot bigger)
The new taste of sophisticated global pop music!!!! (this text should be a lot smaller!)
My teacher always tells me that the header should generally link back to the home page too, so maybe you should consider that.
Also, I think the side menu bar is a bit too wordy. It says radio creme brulee in almost all topics, and in my opinion, thats a bit too much. I think it would work just as well without it!
Apart from that I think the layout is very nice Hope I helped a little

 

[natenation]

I would try to make your header extend to the full page, and get some nice pictures in there. The radio creme brulee graphic could use some graphical lovings.


~Nate Johnson
Web Design - Comics - Illustration

http://www.natenation.com

 

[pranavc]

If I were you, I'd first of all make the colour scheme a bit more interesting, I think the one you have now is a little boring. It's not ugly or anything, it could be improved though.
I use this site if I'm feeling uninspired: http://www.colorschemer.com/schemes/
The header, the text sizes are weird I think, and it should probably stretch the whole way across the top of the page.
Radio Creme Brulee (this text should be a lot bigger)
The new taste of sophisticated global pop music!!!! (this text should be a lot smaller!)
My teacher always tells me that the header should generally link back to the home page too, so maybe you should consider that.
Also, I think the side menu bar is a bit too wordy. It says radio creme brulee in almost all topics, and in my opinion, thats a bit too much. I think it would work just as well without it!
Apart from that I think the layout is very nice Hope I helped a little

Thank you very much for your input as well as the website for the color schemes. I will try and stretch the header across the entire top of the page. I am using one of those pre-defined templates so I am not too sure how much I can tweak it but I will definitely try. I will also adjust the text sizes. I agree with the bit of about the side-menu being too wordy. I guess I used wordiness as an approach to combat potential ambiguities. Furthermore, I figured the more I said, the more I would trigger curiousity. Anyway, I will definitely try and chop that down a little.
Any thoughts on the tables? I have used tables in three pages and I got a lot of criticism with regard to that. Any thoughts on how I might represent some of the content in the tables? Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my post.

 

[pranavc]

I would try to make your header extend to the full page, and get some nice pictures in there. The radio creme brulee graphic could use some graphical lovings.


~Nate Johnson
Web Design - Comics - Illustration

www.natenation.com

By the radio creme brulee graphic, are you referring to the header or the clickable image that leads to the broadcast? I would appreciate it if you could let me know. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

 

[jnjc]

I don't think you should be looking at stretching your header to fit the body. You should be reducing the body so it is the same width as the header. That header graphic is exactly the correct maximum width for a 800X600 screen.

The reason a lot of web sites have padding either side of them is so that they will display somewhat consistently at different display resolutions. The minimum resolution supported by most sites is 800X600 (I still get hits on my sites at this res.). So by reducing your body width your site will support more resolutons...

 

[pranavc]

I don't think you should be looking at stretching your header to fit the body. You should be reducing the body so it is the same width as the header. That header graphic is exactly the correct maximum width for a 800X600 screen.

The reason a lot of web sites have padding either side of them is so that they will display somewhat consistently at different display resolutions. The minimum resolution supported by most sites is 800X600 (I still get hits on my sites at this res.). So by reducing your body width your site will support more resolutons...

My website is created via Microsoft Office Live (which has posed some significant hurdles to flexibility). If I reduce the body, it cuts off my google ads making it look completely unprofessional. Only one page layout does not do this and this one layout stretches the body out - hence the mismatch between the header and the body.

 

[jnjc]

If you put together a sample page which demonstrates this issue and either post it here or better still put it on your web server (not as your index but as example.htm or something like that) I might be able to tell you why you are losing the ads.

 

[pranavc]

If you put together a sample page which demonstrates this issue and either post it here or better still put it on your web server (not as your index but as example.htm or something like that) I might be able to tell you why you are losing the ads.

The "Contact Us" and "Make a donation" page of my website has this problem. It might give you an idea of what the issue is. I sincerey apologize for not having acknowledged your post earlier.