site review pls www.loudaz.co.uk

Well for starters nothing is well defined its all just kind of gray. Most of the proublem would be the colors. Nothing wrong with gray, I use it alot but I also use other colors. Example... http://www.optimalsource.biz/biz/Flash

Good start on content, but I agree aboutthe colours. Black, gray, white, red, orange, yellow... that's quite a few text colours. Also, small black text on dark gray isn't the most readable choice. I'd make the content item titles into links. Also, the menu items highlight to gray on gray - again not especially readable.

Peter

I like how you arranged everything in the layout, the grey is a little too much, and more graphics would make it better. Over all a good job!

Very clean layout. However, on the left side, there's nothing to seperate each of the sections of the menu from the others. Also, on the right, there should be a bit of spacing between those borders and the border for the middle section.

Finally, some of the items on there seem like they would look better centered. Most notably the Traffic Swarm graphic and the text adverts.

Oh, and when I clicked on one of the articles to read it, it looked like all the line breaks had been removed. What's the deal with that?

Welcome to TWF, dancindaz! Thanks for reviewing some other sites first

I agree about the colours here but IMO the biggest problem is low contrast between text and background. The main body text is very small, which already makes it hard to read, and then you've done it in black on dark grey which makes it almost impossible. Juwst because you can physically make out the characters doesn't eman it's going to be easy or comfortable for people to read.

Personally, I really dislike this php-NUKE type layout. It's just ugly, IMO, and boring, uninteresting, unoriginal etc. etc. Drawing boxes around every bit of content isn't a particularly effective layout technique. As usual with sites like this, most of the content on the right side is unnecessary. You could easily move what you need to the other side and remove that column entirely. Then things wouldn't feel so cramped. Sorry to be so negative but I see this way too often.

I DO like the logo. You've done a good job with that. It might be interesting to try using those colours more throughout the site. It looks like your site has lots of potential - good luck with it!

Yes, it is dark, but look at www.mp3.com's background - However I agree that the foreground should be lighter.

I look at the banner: "Free games & music" or whatever, but there is no obvious link to either free games or free music. I click on downloads but there is just music.

I think you are on the right lines with this site, and with a little help, it could become a haven on the web.

Good use of Mambo, and as Megan says, nice logo. However the last four links on the horizontal navigation bar are links to external "spammy" sites, and this is not indicated. Perhaps these links should be put under headings such as "Useful Resources" "Ads" or "Affiliates".

It seems we share a fault. I the colours you choose. Grey is really boring........very boring. If you changed that, there wouldn't be any problem.

Indeed, it's very dark and boring (anyone in the UK remember the Spitting Image version of John Major?!)

On the plus side the logo is nice and stands-out quite well Vs the grey - although all grey is still boring!

In addition the page is very busy, it may be a better idea to put a mission statement/introduction on the front page, rather than launching straight into content.

I agree with the colours stuff (I know what you mean about the spitting image john major jeeves!). Your name screams loud and exciting but your colour scheme says dull and boring.

You need a margin between the middle column and the stuff either side of it.

Also... based on your hit counter you haven't got nearly enough traffic to make any decent money from advertising. Loose the banners, they're off putting and will just irritate potential customers (especially bunched up like that!).

Thanks for the tips people. I have added a second template - I made- and have added the mos_module for people to choose.

have got rid of the ads for now.

I have had 10 members sign up in this week. How can i make the site more appealingso that people post on my forum?

cheesr

Try to make your forums personal. Don't stuff it full of ads and "GET YOUR FREE FROUM HERE" links, they really put me off.

And whatever you do, don't include grey in the colour scheme, or I will kill you.

hi guys, thanks for the help

I have updated the format of the site but,

1. dont know which template is better
2. whether to find and put up a members function
3. whether to setup a email newsletter

any help pls

the grey template is much better than the red template, I can tell that just by looking at the thumbnails

I'm not a fan of dark sites in general so will decline to comment on a black template! Much more readable though...

The banner looks very out of place as that grey. Also the sidebars look a bit disjointed, content in the sidebars could be padded a little more?

In my undying quest for mediocre I have again added bits to the site.... once again would appreciate some feedback on all areas if poss

cheers

loudaz.co.uk

Black is a very hard color scheme to work with. If you use it correctly it's limited to black, and various shades of gray to white. Most of the time black is considered to be boring. I used black, and silver gray on my photo site to mimic the body colors of a high quality pro camera. Which always has a black body with silver trim.

I think black is probably best used with a certain theme in mind, rather than in a general use way. The orange is not quite a match. This is why I think black is so hard to use, most people want more colorful schemes, and black lends it's self mostly to black.

Overall layout seems pretty good. I think you should replace all the pastel colours with brighter colours that are easier to read with a dark background.

The site looks very professional but i find the amount of text a bit boring. I think this would be helped by inserting pictures. They would break up the text and make the site look even better.

I like the dark colour scheme. It's easy to read and is striking.

I would say change the yellow though. Yellow text and black backgrounds are really difficult to focus on.