Any Web Designers care to offer some advice

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Brutus Brewer

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I am in the process of upgrading our company web page, which you can see at www.uni-grip.com. When I made the site originally, I would lay out a page in Adobe Illustrator, save it as a .GIF image, then using Adobe Go Live I’d make the .GIF image the page background and add navigation links as needed. My question is whether this is the preferred method, or whether I should be inserting the individual profile images directly onto the page in Go Live. I’m also open to any and all suggestions anyone may have.
 
Most designers still do the 'slicing' method based on a flat image but GoLive was discontinued in 2008 so most designers use Dreamweaver to handle slicing. I'm a weirdo - I don't even do slicing anymore but I know many other designers who still do.
 
most current designers don't use table's . CSS rules web design and there isn't any real need to use images for navigation. Slicing images seems old and archaic....

But, if what you are using works, why change?

*edit. I just had a gander at your site. May I offer some suggestions....

Put the navigation on each page and lose the 'back' button.
The 'back' and 'home' buttons on some of the pages get covered by the content on the pages.
the red color/text against the blue background is obnoxious (ISO certified), tone it down.
There is no reason to have your contact/address as the first item on the main page. This area is usually reserved for your logo.
Make the header consistent on each page.
the page that allows you to download the RV catalog should have Google Chrome in the instructions as well as the two current browsers.
The 'back' and 'home' buttons seem to take the user to the same page....

etc, etc.
 
Man, Web 2.0 is here...I had a computer shop (sales, service, web design) few years ago before I closed my doors. Then, my approach was .css based on html 4. I catered to small biz and tried to make web presence affordable. To cut costs (time) I bought a lot of templates (no sense in reinventing the wheel) and sold them as customizable packages. So Id suggest the same...it wouldnt hurt to look at all the Flash based templates out there and build on that. Flash being preferable, as long as you pick up action script. But either way, just google '.css templates' or 'flash templates'....
 
DO.NOT.USE.FLASH.PLEASE.

It's outdated.

why? elaborate...

Dude its a zero sum game at this point. Flash isnt outdated. HTML 5 isnt even standard yet, and fock, every focking thing we "think" as standard anymore (.mp3, h.264, .jpg, etc) are indeed owned by private companies. No different than Macromedia...ahem...I mean Adobe. Cough 'Flash'...cough cough.Tired of the fan boys...
 
why? elaborate...

Well first off about half the mobile devices one might be using to surf the web don't support flash.

Also, it is evil, tends to result in heinous memory leaks and browser crashes, and often breaks basic browser functionality like the back button.




There is probably nothing you want to do, navigation or design-wise, that cannot be accomplished with a little basic CSS and javascript. In fact you very well could get away with just the CSS, depending upon just how complex you want things to behave.
 
Well first off about half the mobile devices one might be using to surf the web don't support flash.

Also, it is evil, tends to result in heinous memory leaks and browser crashes, and often breaks basic browser functionality like the back button.




There is probably nothing you want to do, navigation or design-wise, that cannot be accomplished with a little basic CSS and javascript. In fact you very well could get away with just the CSS, depending upon just how complex you want things to behave.

We talkin the $99 Kindle? I get what your saying, but Flash isnt dead...
 
It should be dead.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good flash site. The problem is, it takes a team of designers to create a GOOD site made with flash.

Reasons to not use it, besides the ones mentioned above:
Search engines hate flash.
They take up bandwidth.
It doesn't work with ADA browsers.

Why use it? we no longer have splash screens. If you're only need or desire is for animated buttons, you should use CSS/Javascript.

The website in question could be greatly improved with JUST CSS.

fwiw, I was a HUGE flash advocate/designer. I still love a good flash site but they shouldn't be used for commercial sites.
 
My advice, if you want generally "web dumb" people to be able to manage content, is to just use a CMS like Joomla. I'm pretty stupid with web stuff and I built brewhardware.com and whalesbrewclub.com (you wouldn't be able to see the depth of it because it's mostly a members only site).

Picture based sites don't get spidered for search engines, users can't search for text or copy/paste addresses into google maps. In general, it's a nightmare. If you run it on Joomla, you can log in from any internet connected device and edit text in two seconds.
 
I code a lot of internal web pages, mostly forms, but CSS is going to be your friend here. I in no way means this to be condescending, but you have a very simple website, so keep it simple.

Some suggestions:

- Tone down the colors. White background, black text. Yeah its boring, but its more of a standard now. If you must have color, make it a little more subdued, the blue is a little harsh on the eyes, especially in your header with red text on blue.

- Lose all the detailed contact info in the header too. A basic form of contact would be good enough such as your 800 number and general e-mail. The rest should be put into your contact page. The majority of web users today will be able to gather that they will click on your contact link to get the info--you will not lose business because someone had to click 1 extra time to figure out how to call you.

- Fix the menu. Either give it a proper fixed width margin on the left side so it doesn't move when you go from page to page...any time I go to a secondary page off your home page, the Back, Home, or whatever buttons move to the far left of the screen. It doesn't effect the functionality of the page, but it makes it look unprofessional. Consider having the menu directly under your header. It won't move, it won't change the rest of the dimensions of your page, and it will stay in one place. Also, if you do redo the menu, always have links to the contact page. People could get annoyed after looking on a product page, and then having to go back, then go to a contact page to call you.

- Your header/image at the top of the screen usually should be a link back to the home page. Go to different larger company websites. Their header or logo usually sends you home if you click on it.

I don't mean to rip your page apart. It just needs a nice facelift and some UI tweaks to make it more user friendly.
 

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