SITE REVIEW: thenitelite.net

thenitelite.net

Well guys it's been a while last was here, but I wanted to fill you guys in on some changes we've done. We've had many people complain that the font was too small: it's now fixed. We've also had people suggest that maybe we make the font an off-white: that's fixed. We've also encorporated some personal graphics and iframes.

For those of you who saw our earlier design, let us know if this is a move in the right direction. I realize there are still some minor tweaks and that the links page currently does not work (currently working on finishing)

Thanks guys, for all your time and trouble in checkin' us out.

Brad.

Nice site design, the only noticable thing is your header logo is very blurry.

Yeah the guy that does our graphic design had it too high, so I had to stretch it out some.... he'll be replacing it with a new cleaner one...

good-o - otherwise it looks great

The header logo is tough to read, to much going on in the graphic around it.

Also, I'm on a laptop and the screen was tilted a bit back. As a result, I didn't realize that you had a graphic (scribbles) around the frame on the main page. The scribbles is faint gray on black which doesn't really add a lot.

Add some more colors too.

Just a few suggestions

First of all, it's generally accepted that the 'movable' portion of a scroll bar is lighter colored then the 'empty space'. Your black and red bar in that iFrame should be switched - red for the scrollbar black for the background IMO.

Also, on the right hand side it looks like you have lots of good information, but I can't click on any of it to find out more. I would stay a lot longer if I could just click on some of those links and read up..

Also, content like:
"Remember to bookmark us and check back often! "
is pretty useless. Users know how to bookmark a site if they like it, plus it adds nothing to your content / keyword density for your page.

For the top nav, I think that mouse over links would look much better - maybe try the white changing to red or orange to go with the rest of your site?

And about the IFrames - most people use them because they like to edit all of there navigation at a later time - the reason I'm sure you did it. It really looks much, much better to use a PHP include, where you can have, say, an 'interviews_left_links.htm' for your inview links, with a cell on the left side that has the include (PM me if you want to know how to code this, it's really simple). That way your pages will flow much better, and when someone arrives at your site from a search engine, they are sure to have the navigation they need to explore.
Now for each of your pages...
On the Reviews Page
The idea of a 'general information' page is good, but you should avoid using underlines like you have on the word 'Message'. It leads me to think it's a link, when it's not. You should try using bold, or larger font to make it stand out. Maybe a bullet or graphic would do the job just as well.
Also, you have pictures of CD album covers on the left hand side which lead to reviews. As I've already shamelessly admited, I'm a kazaa user along with lots others, so I don't recognize the albums. You may want to put a name above the pictures, the alt tags simply take too much time for me =). Or perhaps have a dropdown menu with the names above that frame so I can just select what I'm interested in?

The Interviews Page
It's a good concept, but the first inview I looked at was simply way too long and had lots of irrelevant info (not that it shouldn't be included, it was a part of the interview)..Maybe a summary at the top so I can just get the gist of what was said before I decide to read it?

The Photos Page
This page needs a teaser like the others! Something in that black area (maybe a few of the best pictures with captions?? or the newest pictures??). Also, when I click on a link to look at pictures, it takes away my navigation...which is just one extra click to look at other pictures (for the thumbnail pages)

The Links Page
Names can be decieving? Seems none of the titles actually link anywhere??


Whew. Sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps you improove some

Great ideas, wouldn't have thought of those. As for the PHP, that's all extreamly new to me and I really don't know if I have the time to learn about it (19 credit hours at the college and part-time job).

Love the idea on best of photographs... that really caught my attention. Yeah, I know the links page currently does not work. I was actually working on it before I came here. Top nav? You lost me... are you talking about the home etc? If so, yeah I was thinking the same thing.

The CD reviews, yeah I was a bit worried about that. Was actually thinking of listing them below the CD cover. Or maybe to the right? Something bound to look good. What about making some sort of drop down function so that when someone hovers over the CD Cover, it displays the information. Sounds something like JavaScript...

As a novice would say, "HELP!" I am really interested in learning the PHP/SQL part of website deisgn...

Well as it stands now, for mouseovers you already have the alt tags, but I just thought something more would be helpful.

The PHP bit is really simple actually, if all you want to do is use it for includes. I believe you can also use SSI if you'd prefer to look into that.
You wouldn't need any SQL to handle it

I think i may have checked out your site before a while ago. Did it used to have a cityscape along the top frame? It looks like you've totallt redone the site since then and the most noticable difference, is that it is now kind of plain and littered with pixelated images.

Looks aside, the content of the site is great. Keep up the good work.

littered? Pixelated? Wha? I didn't think the images were pixelated... the only image we're havin' probs with is the banner... which is being worked on... but... I didn't think it was littered....

anyone else see it as being littered with pixelated images? Seriously.

The site is a bit 'busy' as I posted above, but I kind of like that aspect of it. I just think you could clear up some of the clutter by combining sections (like you have more then one 'affiliated' section on the right hand column that could be condensed into just one section IMO)

I like the colours.. but why dont you center it? even in 1024 X 768 resolution it still looks too much to the left.

Anyhows... it gives information straightly which makes it easy to navigate... and I think it's very important for me

Im a stiffler for graphics - so I gotta talk smack about the obviously scanned in images for the logo and what not.

If thats the look you going for great - but doesn't look super professional that way. Try throwing a couple filters at it in photoshop, see what you can do with it w/o tweaking it too much.