SITE REVIEW: www.bar-specials.com

Hey guys... I'm trying to launch an updated version of http://www.drinkdeal.com. The new version can be found at http://www.bar-specials.com ...

All feedback is appreciated.... about the design, layout, colors, ease of use, etc.... Thanks again guys, you really helped me out last time.....

The new version is really really, really cluttered! It also makes it more confusing with the different colors you use throughout the screen. You have about 10-15 different variations of colors on the main screen, its just too distracting. I think your first renovation would be picking 4 or 5 colors, making a scheme and make your site more focused. I think you should probably stick with the dark theme, black background and blue/grey foreground colors. Your menu clashes with the white background you currently have. Also, the last 3 menu items (drink dealers/with us/links) should be moved down slightly to align horizontally with the other selections. I also think that the drinkdeal.com logo should be at the very top of the site, not below the menu and tucked off to the right as you have it.

The ad you have below the header seems to clash with the rest of the site. I dont know if you can modify the colors, but I guess it all goes back to picking 4 or 5 colors and making your ad adapt to those colors. The whole middle portion of the site is a detailed puzzle. The brown image background for the headings doesnt fit at all. Modify that for sure. I can see what you tried to do in the middle portion, make each column a different background color and try and define them. But it doesnt come off very well. There's too many horizontal lines and font changes that its hard to see that column definition. I think you should definitely re-work the middle portion of the site so that its easier to navigate through and visualize.

Browsing through the rest of your pages, your colors keep changing. On the search page you have a brick background for the menu which doesnt look good. Also, you have your mission statement on this page? That doesnt make sense. When you select an item and view the details, you have that brick background again, this time for the whole screen. It makes it extremely hard to read the text. You definitely need to change that.

I think there's a lot going on with your site and you havent made it easy to navigate through your site at all. Your site has a lot of depth to it, so its really important that your customer know exactly where they are and where to locate sections. I would start off by setting a color scheme and improving your index page, making it easier to pin-point the various areas of your site. The services are all there and you provide great information to the customer, but I think you can do a better job with presentation.

Content is king for the visitor, so I personally don't mind lots of content easily found (causing the somewhat busy look - okay to me when it it leading to content), myself.

I agree about the color scheme - need to make it pleasing enough that the busy content doesn't further overload the viewer with too much color and color-use inconsistency. The blue and the brick just clash. The pages with no brick background at all are more pleasing to my eye.

The rows with the leftC3_inv.gif and leftC3.gif backgrounds seem totally extraneous and awkward.

Thanks for the advice... I kind of had the same feeling just wasn't sure how to work it. I have changed the color scheme some, and attempted to reduce the clutter with some more pictures. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

All additional suggestions on the look are more than welcome (PLEASE PLEASE)... and if the navigation needs to be made easier, any/all help is desired...

Thanks again...i really do appreciate it




[url]http://www.bar-specials.com[/url]

It still looks too cluttered.
reduce your words size and use good clear fonts.
that should work!

Nisce Website



http://www.templateshow.com

Whoah, WAY too much going on in that site. I would definitely try and simplifiy things - no one will want to sit through a page of craziness. Athough the sub-pages seem to be a little more tame - the ,ain page is what will eother keep someone there or make them leave immediately.

Test your site with as many browsers as you can.
I have a very slow connection. When loading your site, with Internet Explorer, it too almost 30 seconds before I saw anything.. then suddenly everything appeared at once.

The Mozilla browser allowed me to see things immediately, but was less kind in other ways.
There is a big hole, in the center of the page, and the intended content was pushed off to the right of the screen. Horizontal scroll bars are needed to see the rest of the content.

There is a bit of a need to scroll horizontally at 800x600, with IE, but things are pretty un-viewable with Mozilla, at this resolution.

There is a lot of work on your site, and I respect the effort. The most important suggestion I can make, at this point, is to get yourself a free copy of Mozilla, and make sure you also try that browser, when testing the pages.

Browers act differently. In my sad experience I discovered that tables may look fine in one browser, but might be awful with others.

The worst browser lesson I got, was when I developed http://www.meloware.com just with Internet Explorer. All my cgi was debugged and working, and I was happy with the look of the site.
You might imagine my horror when I began using Mozilla, and discovered that all my cgi-served pages were printing my code, as plain text, to the client, instead of delivering my page presentations!
Aside from the obvious lack of professionalism, it was impossible for Mozilla users to use or purchase from my site.

Check you site, with every browser you can! You might also ask reviewers what browser they use, and the screen resolution they had, when viewing your site.

Not a bad site but the font is to enlarge and content is cluttered.

thanks again for all the responses... so I'm having a little difficulty understanding what makes it too cluttered...(sorry, I'm new to building websites)..
Is it because there is too much information on the site? Many websites I go to seem to have much more info/links, yet dont seem cluttered.

Is it becuase of the different fonts/sizes??

I feel it may be too empty and may restrict a users ability to navigate if I remove sections from the home page. More explanations / comments welcome and needed.

Also, I haven't heard any additional comments on the color scheme? I'll take that as a good thing, right?

The final bar page... no complaints on the purple background??? can't seem to find anything else that works but it just doesn't sit easy with me...

Well thanks again... look forward to the next round of comments... thanks

Dan
http://www.bar-specials.com
and the predecessor...
http://www.drinkdeal.com

I think what u truely mis in your site is unity...

For example..

U use a black on gray font in your titles, this is nice but it doesnt realy form the highlight your titles should have.

second, u use blue on white for some texts, this creates more of a highlight effect then your titles does. This makes people loose concentration and they will try to order the wrong information..
...

My advice to u will be the following,..

first, try to create some kind of navigation and explain the main contence in a predifined field, instead of spreading the information that counts all over the page.. This might mean that u`ll have to create multple pages for the same ammount on information but it will create a lot of symatry to your site.

second, Browse arround to other sites and see how they construct their pages and what makes them clear to u.. U will fand that this is mainly caused by the way the contence is placed and what methods of highlightings are used.

third, please restrain your self from using standard table borders and so on and try to style them using CSS, there are allot of pages covering this item and will prop help u clearing much of the clutter in your site.

Fourth, only use cursing colours when u try to highlight some kind of catagory for the following contence, not the other way arround and using these colours in our contence instead.

finaly, good luck with your site.. Ps if u need some help, pm / email me and i`ll see what i can do

Thanks for the comments

Could you explain the following for me? I dont understand how using the CSS for table borders will help clear up the clutter. Please explain...


I agree with changing the header highlights to make them clearer, instead of grey.

Thanks again for all the help

how should i put it.

well as u can see on this board right here all the borders are willingly altered to generate the disired effect..

for example,

CSS

put this in a html page and u`ll see what i mean

hope it help, greetz may

I dont have a clue what this site was like at the beginning of this topic but i imagine it must have been worse than it is at the moment.

When i first loaded this site up i really didnt like it, it was really muddled and quite cluttered. I still think this to an extent.

Somebody previously mentioned how the site links shouldnt be above the logo and the logo should be on top, i agree. The only thing i would like to add to that comment is, the logo dosnt have to span across the top of the page (if you know what i mean). I actually think when sites have logos across the top from the left side of the screen to the right actually looks pretty basic and tacky (depending on the look of the logo) I think you would get away with adding some sort of thing next to the logo at the top to give the top of the site a more proffesional look.

Your links you have at the very top of the page definatly need to be moved. If this was my site i wouldnt have them like they are, i mean, i dont like the font and i think it should be going vertically on the page in a much finer and easier to read font.

Some of the pictures on the page i think are oversized and could be reduced to half the size they are at the moment.

The mailing list subscription box should be moved to either the left or the right of the site and not in the middle. You have also aligned the text to central for this section which just looks bad as its as if the text is creating some sort of triangle.

At the bottom you have a line which is moulded to shape some drinks on a black border. What is the purpose of this? Its not really comfortable to look at especially because the line is in a glowing dark blue.

Nice site though.

You should add more show to your site like adding attractive ads available from posters4u.com or screensavers.com etc.You may even earn money.
anyway i liked your site.well done