Hmmmm....

[StephanieCordray]

This is a site I want rich with features so I opted for a background image only and very little other graphics. Can you read the text well enough? Or do I need to set some solid backgrounds with perhaps some opacity settings in the .css so the background peeks through? I'm flip-flopping between the two choices.

WritingWise

I'm bringing it out of the mothballs, lol.

The site is still under construction and needs a lot of tweaking, but if you see anything glaring that you would change, feel free to say so.

 

[ian]

I think the text is a bit hard to read against that background, yes I can read the text, although it looks nice, I find the background distracting, too busy.

 

[StephanieCordray]

I think the text is a bit hard to read against that background, yes I can read the text, although it looks nice, I find the background distracting, too busy.

Yeah... that's kind of what I was afraid of... but the powers that be... my partners said to leave it as is. I was outvoted.

 

[ian]

Those sort of things look ok, but if you want repeat traffic, I would definitely consider changing it. Dont think of it from the view that it looks nice. There are a lot of really popular plain looking sites out there. Some of the sites that I frequent the most are the most plain looking, you need look no further than google as the prime example of how good simplicity works.
But as much graphics at the top, the bottom, the sides, but when it comes to the content, plain backgrounds are always the best.

 

[AainaA]

it looks a o-kay, but ... i'd tone the background to say 70% as a layer, and/or change it entirely to soft tones {pastel, if you prefer}

 

[Splendidesign]

Hmmmm!

Some problems. First of all the poll appears at the bottom because there are some problems with different res./browsers. Try to not use layers as they display differently for different peeps, but instead use percentages on tables. Also, frames are really a no go as search engines don't like them at all and won't look at the page for a long time if you have frames, as I learnt frome experience.

Otherwise, I like your nice background, font and colour scheme. Your titles are nice and split up well from the text.
Mike

 

[StephanieCordray]

Thanks, all. Looks like the site might be changing owners, though. Not sure what the new owner will do with it once the changeover happens. Keep the crits coming though, if you want.

 

[StephanieCordray]

It looks like they are going to go ahead with WW as is. On the main page, the text is okay against the background but some other pages where the text is closer and smaller it doesn't look okay. I'm going with AA's suggestion and using some opacity. I don't care for pastel myself so I'll keep the tone it is... perhaps soften it just a tad.

Splendiddesign, there are no layers really... the div classes are there for a reason but don't really affect the overall layout, that's all done with tables and cells. I'm fiddling with some of the settings in the css because I noticed the same thing as you.