The Webmistress — Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:41:27 +0000

I think there needs to be a distinction between a professional looking site - in as much as it doesn't look amateurish & a professional site - belonging to a business as opposed to a personal homepage site!

I disagree that a business site shouldn't have rounded corners and that it only works with 'fun' sites. If the design is good, the site works, it's easy to navigate and the client likes it, then it is a professional site whether it is centered, 100% rounded corners or otherwise. As a web designer I like to come up with different ideas to make the site as unique as possible for my client rather than sticking to the 'normal look everyone else uses'. At the end of the day it is down to personal tastes and ultimately what the client likes and we all know how funny they can be!

gavin681 — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:01:14 +0000

Annette,

Rounded corners look ok and may be useful for a "fun" site but for a business site rounded corners will not add anything to the design. The best thing about not using rounded corners is that you can easily change the background color if it is not working. However if you are centering your site you may need to use rounded corners. Go to http://www.webbyawards.com You will notice that most of the winning web sites are either set to the left or set at 100%.

Also if you do use rounded corners stay away from making the top and bottom of a web site one large image. Split the table into 3 columns and insert the corners on the ends. That way if you decide to change the width of your site you wont have to make another image.

Gavin

Annette35 — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 22:39:06 +0000

Re: >>For my business web sites I now even staying away from rounded corners as they make a web site look unprofessional. But they do make a web site more fun.<<

I'm just learning how to do rounded corners because I thought it would add something. Can you please explain to me (a beginner) why they look unprofessional (that is, provided the rounded bits are not jagged)? Thanks.

I wish you luck with your new site - looks good. And not a rounded corner in sight!

Annette

gavin681 — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 20:56:11 +0000

>>I didn't know you were born in Scotland & bought up in England.<<

No. I'm not the Bahamas Writer. Fay Knowles is.

>>its all personal taste, but have you tried:
white
very light grey
mid grey
very pale blue
a similar color to the persons chair<<

Yes tried all those colors. Actually I even redesigned the layout and color scheme completely to give it a very professional looking appearance. But the Bahamas Writer didn't like it. She said it wasn't fun enough. I think she's right. This type of web site is not a business web site it is a personal web site and should be fun. For my business web sites I now even staying away from rounded corners as they make a web site look unprofessional. But they do make a web site more fun.

I am in the process of designing my new FAST Sites web site, which will replace the very basic one I have now which is hosted on a free server. Just got the color scheme and layout done. Much more work to do but the basic design idea is complete. I could have designed something complicated but that doesn't represent what FAST Sites is all about: "Web Site Solutions Made Simple". So therefore the design should be simple and the information should be clearly apparent on first view. If you want to check out the first draft of the template click here:

http://www.advancedwebsitepromotion.com/fastsites.htm

Note: most of the text you will notice will of course be replaced with images. Lots more work to do.

Gavin

The Webmistress — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 07:35:13 +0000

The blue does make it feel colder, I still like the look whith the original colour I suggested (which is very similar to the chair)

Just read 'Becoming a writer' and a jolly good read it is to. I didn't know you were born in Scotland & bought up in England.

Busy — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 23:34:27 +0000

Thanks Gavin681, I think we all were affected by the attacks some way or another.

I'm looking at an article now but that light blue is bugging me, its kind of taken that relaxing, professional edge away.

its always hard to pick a background color that isnt used. I'm using Netscape 6 which has dark blue to light blue (faded) toolbars so makes it worse.

its all personal taste, but have you tried:
white
very light grey
mid grey
very pale blue
a similar color to the persons chair

once within the site it looks the same as the index, maybe have the page name your on underlined, or bold. change the picture per topic. I think the links need to be another color, esp at the bottom of the becoming a writer page, it all looks like text, maybe add a "top" link to each page

The Webmistress — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 19:02:28 +0000

Looks good, I'll have a read of the articles in a bit

gavin681 — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 18:34:55 +0000

Hi Busy,

I hope you weren't affected by the terrorist attack.

http://www.bahamaswriter.com is online.

Only two articles are finished so far but just about every day a new one is being added.

Take care,
Gavin

Keegan — Sat, 01 Sep 2001 21:48:33 +0000

I see what you are struggling with, you possibly are fighting against a very simple layout that you have chosen, mixed with not keeping with design perspective. Your corners arent the same radius which is subtle, but it is throwing people off about the current layout. If you are going to keep it simple then try embelishing the simplicity of it like this.

http://www.kilclinefuneralhome.com/wf_posts/bahama.jpg

gavin681 — Sat, 01 Sep 2001 17:41:50 +0000

To the body. I just changed the text color (too much blue)and reduced the table width from 760 to 720. I think it looks better. What do you think?

http://www.advancedwebsitepromotion.com/bahamaswriter.htm

Gavin