SITE REVIEW: First Call Truck Parts

http://firstcalltruckparts.com/

Let me know what you think.

Simple XHTML/CSS site with a touch of Flash for the logo.

Hey, jammer,

I'm new to this website review stuff, so please forgive me if my review seems harsh.

I viewed your site and to be honest, I was not impressed. The colors scheme seems kind of random to begin with. There are many websites that help with choosing a color scheme. (one of my newly found favorites is kuler.adobe.com/#themes)

After more than a few moments of trying to read your content, the header flash gave me a headache. You could probably get a better effect just by creating something using photoshop with colors that match your overall site.

The nav bar would look better centered. I would use a different font style and color for the tabs... something a little more complementary. You could also think about making a background for the whole navbar. Just a thought.

I do like the picture of your store. Maybe you could take a couple more and put it in a collage and make a tall banner out of it. I've done that before on one of my sites and it looked pretty good.


The content would look best if you "justify" the text. It would give your edge a cleaner look. Also, think about spacing your text a little more away from your picture.

I know this seems like a bunch of negativity, but I'm taking you wanted constructive criticism and I hope this will really help you. Good luck!

@natas: I agree with the navigation bar lacking a proper container. And I agree there should be more space from the picture, and the text should be justified, but I believe if I were to use text-align:justify;, I think I may run into compatibility issues with browsers. The site theme is red/orange on a neutral background. I'm not sure how the site lacks a theme. The header flash does a quick zoom in, and a sheen across the letters every 5 seconds... nothing too outlandish at all, so perhaps you need to turn down your monitor brightness and vividness lol. I'm not a fan of tall images due to differing screen resolutions and their compacted confusion. I will take some of your suggestions. Thanks for your input.

Actually I loved the first line of your code more than anything else on your site.

xD So there are people who actually look at the code!

Yes here at OZZU there are.

You know I kind of like it (from a coding point of view I tend to think that if it works who cares) in terms of look I like the simple look of it however the links along the bottom the footer are kind of to big really for a footer. Also your logo (the flash thing) is nice however after its formed it sits there and flashers a lot which is kind of a distraction also for the gallery you may want to use smaller file sizes they take some time to load.
But it is nice!

Yea, I've noticed this as well, and it's an ActionScript error on my part I've yet to correct. And perhaps I could lower the quality of the gallery images a tad. Thanks.

The site is really simple and clean which makes the content much easier to focus on. The logo is does draw the eye a good bit at the moment you might want to only do the shine every 15-20 seconds (or longer, I would say read the first paragraph and if it flashes more then two or three times you might want to slow it down).

Something about the colors does seem a little off. I think it might be the fact that the logo colors aren't really used that much. The image borders are black and red and the logo has orange (could be the gradient starts at red) and yellow with the second line in blue. Also some of the links on the products page just open new windows of the products page.

I light your light box & gallery and the overall the site looks well presented. Thanks for putting it up to review.

I'm sorry but design-wise, it reminds me of websites in early 90's.

@CXLink: Thanks, I'm working on the logo sheen. As for the color scheme, I myself did not create the logo, the owner gave me a jpg which I then had to make transparent and then animated. However I do see the point with the colors being yellow/orange, not orange/red. And most of the links point back to the site, as I have not actually put the real sites in. I have removed them for now.

@victoriaphee: That is more or less what I was aiming for, since I feel it shows the establishment's experience in the field, and the '90s focus on quality products, instead of the modern Asian imports. And it matches the logo he gave me.

Wow fantastic. It is like the best of both worlds! The instantaneous graphics are amazing at the top, and then the rest of the site looks like some people who are not internet savvy, and more real life work oriented built it. Awesome well done I truly think this site is friendly to the eyes.