SITE REVIEW: The-Fusion

Hi, this this is a free chat site for Kids and Teens.
Please give honest opinions, but also take into account that this site is brand new.
So therefor the members numbers aren't too high.
Thankyou SITE URL: http://www.the-fusion.co.uk

Not too bad. I Like it overall, but you would completely lose me as a viewer, because at some point while browsing your site I got a popup to download "Orbit Browser Plugin" by Tempo Internet -- I already know that's spyware. If that's you're host that did that, I'd suggest a new one. Bottom line is although I like the concept of your site, I'd never go back to it because of that.

Yea i think that's something to do with paypopup i might remove some of them.

let's work on the footer Purple Haze. No larger than 468x100px @ 6kb. thanks.

What footer?

i love it
apart from the fact that i went on and i was the only one there it is really nise
when it gets a bit more popular it is nise

Not bad. Looks like what it is. If I were a kid, I'd think it looked like fun.

One recommendation to make it look even cooler: Use CSS's a:hover and bring some of your links to life. Make them change colors or go bold or do something funky to the underline or.....

Another recommendation, use the same a:hover to make the "home, forums, games, contact" images come to life. Keep the current image as your resting state link image and make a separate rollover image. I recommend using this and making another version of the graphics where the crosses and text light up and become more distinct.

You might want to make your top image links a little more crisp too. They seem a little low-quality. What program are you using. Try to get your hands on a copy of photoshop if possible.

Good luck.

Yes i made them with Photoshop, but to be really honest with you i am a novice with it.
Well i would have to read a tutorial for the rollover and hover things you said about, that seems like it would make it loads better.
Your advice has been brilliant, and i will definately act on it.

How would i make images look sharper and better quality?

Hello! I am a novice too. I thought it looked good - the design was well thought out and would appeal to teens (I'm way past that, so I'm just guessing!) Do all of those games work? Wow - there were so many! I would imagine that once word gets round, it'll be popular.

My only minor gripe was that the blue on blue colour scheme could do with a bit more contrast.

Barmy x

To improve the quality of your images, start with a 300 pixel/inch (I think) resolution, design your images using several layers if needed, and then when you're done with all of your effects and what-not flatten the image, resize the image to 72 pixels/inch and the appropriate size for your website and then do "save for web" (alt+shift+ctrl+s <- shortcut). In the save for web preview window, you'll be able to see what your image will look like when it's optimized. If your file is a JPEG Increase/Decrease your optimization levels to increase/decrease the quality of your image. Usually, 55 is adequate. If your file is a gif, increase/decrease the amount of colors to use. Usually 64-128 is fine for a gif.

This should get you started. "Save for Web" is your friend. Get to know it as well as you can!

Thankyou for your help and time, i will surely do that when i get home, i am at college at the moment.
And yes i was actually thinking of changing the background color to make more of a contrast, maybe a nice white with a rounded cornered edges.

save for web makes it 72 dpi for you in the compression process.

Since the web's dpi is 72, there's no reason to design a web site
in 300dpi unless you plan to print it for something. As for the
quality setting, I would simply recommend you judge the image's
quailty to the lowest setting it will go without pixellating or
distorting. This will be different for every image.

It seems I usually get better results when I start at 300 and scale down to 72, but I'm not a photoshop guru. That's probably more your domain than mine.

you say it's based for kids, from that aspect it looks good, the banner is nice and crisp. Some alterations could be made to the navigation to make it a little clearer, otherwise it's a fine website. Just to repeat what others have said really, image resolution! Good work!

Well thanks for your review.

P.s just to add, this is my first site.