Opinions on my Work in Progress

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

Im looking for Tips, Critisism, Opinions of my Website. I must stress it is in progress & Im fairly new to creating a professional website.

Ive got my Domain & my Logo designed which I am pleased with.
However now I am unsure on the best way to keep it on the Site.

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/version2.html
(Iknow this looks bad with the white logo, and blue everywhere)

I played around and changed the Entire Background to white to see how it works using the style sheet. Not quite sure how to change the area around the Logo to white and leave everything else how it is.

Anyway, just interested in what people have to say.

[creacom]

Im going to be really honest here, I could be wrong and if I am - sorry in advance.

But everytime I look at your logo I know I have seen it somewhere else..... its really starting to bug me !!! :lol:

Jacqui

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

hmm eagleimagery designed it for me & im getting copyright documents for it.

[creacom]

Well you see I stand corrected !

I know that Eagle is great and if he did it then it is my imagination that is playing tricks on me !!

Its a great logo. It must be instantly memorable thats all ! Which for your company will be a great thing. :wink:

Jacqui

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

nice back tracking lol

I had a logo in mind where it represented different areas of the world, and we came up with this.

Just need to find the best way to accommodate it in the way it deserves

[Cornish Steve]

I was a little put off by the different font size used on each page. You should probably choose one size and stick with it.

The general layout, however, looks fine to me.

[creacom]

Not what I would call backtracking.

You asked for an opinion, I gave mine. My opinion was wrong in this case but I am more than happy to admit that. :wink:

The logo is 1st class and memorable.

The initial aspect of the site that struck me was the use of cold colours. Although not all destinations are hot, I would suggest using warmer colours somewhere to make it more appealing. Maybe with larger images that attract the viewers attention too. The Australian one on the homepage is a good example and would be better if it was a bit bigger.

Hope it helps

Jacqui

[Eagle]

Just a hint on the logo placement. :)

I'd use one of the slightly smaller versions I supplied and not 'constrain' it within the page (the reason it looks kinda jaggy there).

Just let the dimensions of the graphic dictate the size - not the HTML. :) You're wasting valuable bandwidth too with an unnecessarily large graphic!

It should look like this:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/pbr/TFTravelAdvisor_300pixel_72dpi_RGB.jpg

:)

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

thanks

[Jayne]

That's a lovely logo Eagle :D

It does remind me too of something, films stick in my mind, like a video cover thing or something. I'll have to think about it :lol:

Pizza boxes, that's it, seen something similar on pizza boxes!

Jayne

[DarrenC]

Eagle, the logo looks excellent!

The loop bit with the troublefree travel looks like the old lastminute.com logo, thats what maybe everyone keeps seeing?

Trouble, :lol: I like the menu, much nicer than your other design. I'm not sure of the colours though, doesn't make me feel like it's a holidays website..

Wouldn't you be better putting it all in a table and centering it? I think the max table length is 740 pixels.

Someone mentioned the font sizes, I'd agree.

From a search engine optimisation point of view (I know you haven't got their yet) but make the file names keyword related, i.e.

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/review-4.html to http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/hotel-review4.html or just /hotel-lakeview.html

Where the logo is going to fit, I would certainly have it the same colour as the background of the logo, as it looks out of place otherwise.

Hope this helps

Darren

[DavidHorn]

This is just a general question and not a criticism - but why do you have a paypal donate button on your home page? I'm not sure why you would expect people to donate, and it's not clear at all how making a donation helps maintain the site, etc.?

[directmarketingadvice]

One thing I noticed straight away was how the punctuation (particularly the fairly random use of capital letters) makes it hard to read.

Steve

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

yeah i know the text needs an awful lot of work

Im just not sure of my best way to word things

[mattk]

Get rid of that pile of coins.

SAY NO TO CLIPART!

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

Made some changes

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/try2.html

[creacom]

Already that is starting to look a lot better. Good job.

How about adding a bit of colour to the navigation bar going down the left ?
I like the orange hover over effect, could look good on the same blue as in your logo or do it the other way around - blue on orange.

Hoep it helps

Jacqui

[Mac Yeti]

I'd start with changing the orange to the gold of the logo, and sort out the alignments - get rid of centering - if you want something to stand out either change the font, the colour, or make an interesting image.

I'd also change the blue bar on the bottom to be gold, and add more on the right.

[Andriy]

Just another option

http://www.ukfsl.com/troublefreetraveladvisor.html

[Mac Yeti]

Just to add, it seems a bit sparse aswell - it may be nice to create a header to go across the top out of the logo, if that makes sense. It is 3:30am so forgive me if it doesn't !

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

where did u get that template Andriy ??

Is it off dreamweaver or wordpress?



Have made some more changes

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/try3.html

[creacom]

Again you are making progress with this.

I think you could find a middle ground between how the left navigation was before and is now though. The red doesnt really appeal to me either. Take a look round other holiday websites and see what kind of colour themes they use for some inspiration.

The other thing I would suggest is that you get rid of all the capitals that you have in the middle of sentences. It makes it really hard to read.

Keep it up !

Jacqui :D

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

The Red - is this the Red Horizontal Rules under Images on the Right?

[creacom]

No the red of the navigation column on the left

Home
Destinations

etc

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

am confused

The Red Arrows?

Theres nothing else red, or do u mean the Orange text, im colour blind lol

[Ravenfire]

Have you thought of using one of the free CMS around? I think something like Joomla would work really well for you.

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

thanks for that, i hadnt heard of cms joomla before, I goog'ld it 2see what its about

Have been trying to get these border thingys to work for ages and had a break thru wahoo !
I think this makes it look alot more structured

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/try4.html

[Ravenfire]

Yes thats looking better :)

[creacom]

Well for me the navigation menu down the left is in red as is the title
" Drive down the cost of your holiday " at the top middle.

Above that you have the vertical navigation bar :

Home - Special Deals etc.... Thats orange

In the middle you have Click for online request etc... Thats orange too.

The orange and the red dont go together.

Jacqui

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

This is wierd

On my screen the left nav and vertical nav, they are all Orange

Drive down the cost txt is Red.

hmmm, try now, i double checked that the Links and txt should display in the orange colour

anyone else getting mixes of Red n orange?

[creacom]

No the left nav is still the same colour as the red on " Drive down the cost.."

The top nav in the middle is orange though.

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

I did a print screen

http://www.troublefreetraveladvisor.com/print.JPG

[creacom]

What browser are you using ?

Because Ive checked in Safari and FireFox and its the same.

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

IE 6

[creacom]

Well there is the issue. Download Opera and FireFox and you will see what I mean.

Whats your email address and I will send you some screenshots so you can see ?

[creacom]

Sent...:D

[troublefreetraveladvisor]

omg i see what u mean about the red now lol

Will def test my pages out in the diff browsers

Maybe I should scrap the Menu part I have so far and use some Buttons instead