self-taught vs. technowebsites

hey there - my first post

im self-taught in everything i do - so whay you see isnt a product of a school or anything like it:

www.littlefever.com

how does it work out - i know the site is lacking both order and easy-to-use menus: but this is how far i´ve gotten without any help at all.... so does it add up?

i kinda think its nice to have a NON futuristic site - but thats just me!

First before I comment on anything else, 1280x1024 is a fairly large requirement. Im not saying you can't design for that size, but just be aware that much of your audience may have smaller screens. 1024x768 is really the norm....im sure there's still 800x600 etc.

About the splash, the color on black&white leading your eye to "enter" works well. The splash actually isnt needed (unless it provides useful information....screen resolution isnt useful as ppl wont change theirs just to view the site)......but if you want it just for flare or artistic purposes thats cool.


The main site: All good until the i-frame. Reason being its square...when no line on the entire layout can be called straight. Basically it becomes a distraction....and pulls your attention away from the navigation. You dont need all your news to be displayed at once.....so on your main page you could just display 1 or 2 headlines (or stories) and archive the older ones. Also text (instead of the iframe) would fit well and add to the randomness/chaos that the layout has.

Overall....not bad. Welcome.

agreed with rodder, you did a pretty interesting job. Other than what rodder said...

I'd just like to say that you are treading a very fine line between artistic creativity and useability of the site. For example, that first enter button is a little whacked up the way it blocks out the res size and everything.

Another example is how the page is 85% graphics and links and whatever, with only a very small square allowed for text. You have a link to the guestbook that i think serves better as a location for the site title. It whores attention. your links are kind of cool but i have a feeling you're going overboard with the crazyness and in the end you have a site that is less practical than would be preferred.

Another thing I don't dig (and maybe this is because I'm into CSS) is the inflexibility of the site. The site is a site that could transform according to the size of the window, so that in case of a small res it doesnt need to have horizontal scrollbars. This is just me, though, might not wanna take this one into consideration.

Also be careful of things ilke on your artwork page, where your text is overlapping your drawings... it's hard to read.

otherwise i'd say your site is pretty crazy, but it's interesting, and it's pretty good. Nice job, and welcome.

it all would be so much easyer if i knew more about coding, like CSS and other things to help out the useabillity of the site - but i dont.

i have always had problems with res. the only solution i know is to make a flash site - other than that, im lost -

hmmm maby i should get more into programming for a while!!

Yes, the code could be vastly improved with some CSS (read: CSS used exclusively, without tables or deprecated attributes ).

But the graphics are very good. Reminds me a lot of http://ths.nu. I'm sure you were inspired. ;)

Your gallery section makes me wait for a long time (loading the images). But then when its done, I can see everything with no wait. So thats good. Oh and the news box on the first page doesnt really match the style at all. That irks me.

Good job, though.

wow, I like it! it's pretty different...

a few points of critique...
optimize that sucker! Overall I had to wait pretty long to see stuff... and I have a broadband connection, imagine people on 56k!

I know I don't have a lot to add, but I figure I'll just drive home the point.

The site is way too big (screen resolution wise). The I frame is very distracting.

Aside from that, everything else is pretty darn spiffy.

All in all I give this sit 1 thumb up. (scrool bars upset me)

i have to figure out some way to deal with the res. - any ideas (im a n00b here) ?

*NL* ---> in some wierd self made theory i think that people with the interest in my kind of site will not still have a 56k ;) - i guess

otherwise im glad you all like it

I agree with rodder and supahsekzy on this one.
Loved the layout generally tho. If your're still going to use that
iframe I think you should use som css and change the color
on your scrollbar.

i have to figure out some way to deal with the res. - any ideas (im a n00b here) ?

For one, don't design with a website that generally has over 800 pixels of width... that way you can view it with at least an 800x600 res. Or, if you could have a site that changes according to the website (i.e. http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/063/063.css&page=0 ).

A good article for your reading would be http://alistapart.com/articles/elastic/ - it's an article on elastic design.