First Time designer in need of some feedback

[ChrisSmith]

Hello all,

www.advancedaudioinc.com

This was my first time trying to do web design (or any graphic design for that matter).
- I used MS Publisher 2003 for the WYSIWYG design and 99.5% of the site.
- I also used Adobe Photoshop for the background graphic and to match the background of my images to the background graphic.
- MS Pub doesn't natively support opening a hyperlink in a new window. I inserted my own HTML into my "Manufacturer's Links" page so that they would open in a new window. While ok in IE, This looks misaligned in Netscape/Mozilla - Sorry.
- I created a favicon from our logo that appears in IE and Mozilla

I think other sections to add would be: News/Events, FAQ, Glossary, etc.

My goal was to create a site that drives people into the store or to call the store. We migh want to start to sell things through the site. The target audience is generally 25-65 with disposable income that value quality rather than marketing hype. Anything that might be obnoxious (loud audio, headache inducing flash sequences) is a definite no. Some flash might be interesting and a light piece of music would be ok...

Keeping in mind that I don't have the $$ to spend on another program and that Publisher has it's limitations (No dynamic menus, no automatic resizing or centering of the page, etc), any design ideas you would suggest? Different color schemes? Content? If you lived in our area and came across this site, is it interesting enough to get you in our store?

Thanks!

 

[daSilvia]

I like the initial look of your site, although the pic of the gramaphone doesn't say Advanced Audio to me... It kind of says Grandad's Record Shop...
To fit the pretty slick look of your site, you'd need to anti-alias that sort of image to give it some smoothness, and perhaps lose the background from the Advanced Audio logo.

Viewing in FireFox the text on the About Us and Services pages sits over the menu buttons. The text on the recommendations page is covering the album covers.

I'd love to offer some fix-it tips, but as a beginner myself the code that Publisher produces looks too complicated for me to follow. I use Arachnophilia to do my websites which is a fancy version of Notepad. Perhaps you can download that and use it along with some tutorials off the 'net?

Cheers
Randal

 

[Rowan W]

I would uninstall MS Publisher immediately and learn HTML, I find it quite unbelievable that your page can look so perfect in IE, but nothing except for the background image loads in Firefox. It really is unbelievable that IE handles such bad code.

It looks very nice in IE, but if it only works in IE you won't have much luck.

 

[daughterofeve]

it looks pretty good (I'm using IE..lol)

It's certainly not the most sophisticated design, but i think you choice of colors, and the way the site is designed really will attract your target audience... and i actually DO like the logo...theres just something about an old fashioned record player that brings a certain quality to the atmosphere.. but perhaps you could look for one that's slightly different looking, it seems a bit off.. stands out from the rest of the site.

 

[Subc0nci0us]

I use firefox and the site shows just fine to me..
I don't really like the contrast between the sharp, good quality middle photo and the looks of the logo (looks like a clipart/painting). What if you used a normal gramophone picture and the logo as it is without the spotted background. Just a suggestion.. I really like the rest though.

 

[Rowan W]

I just opened the page again in FFox and it looks fine, so I checked the source and it looks like entire chunks of useless code have been commented out, and I mean thousands of words, look for yourself at the code.

I'm glad it works now.

Rowan

 

[daSilvia]

I'm running Firefox 0.9.
Maybe that's why, but I still have the text on the About Us page sitting over the buttons... Strange...

EDIT: I just upgraded to Firefox 1.0... The About Us page still looks the same.

Cheers
Randal

 

[Dwaggy]

i dont comment on wysiwyg trash, but that looks pretty ok for a first site, i guess.

I see your "LEARN HTML" argument and raise it with my "LEARN HTML AND CSS" argument.

 

[Rowan W]

i dont comment on wysiwyg trash, but that looks pretty ok for a first site, i guess.

I see your "LEARN HTML" argument and raise it with my "LEARN HTML AND CSS" argument.

ahh, well played

 

[ChrisSmith]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback - I appreciate it.

dasilva - You actually touched on the logo exactly. While I didn't choose it (The owners did 6yrs ago when they started the business - They chose that exact image), the meaning is lost on most people. They were trying to get people to see the irony that a store called Advanced Audio would have a grammaphone (and a clip art one at that) as a logo.

Roman - Thanks for the notes. I would like to get away from Publisher and do see its downsides, but for knowing nothing when I started I was able to produce a functional site viewable in IE, and almost entirely viewable in Netscape, and Mozilla.

dwaggy - Thanks for the psuedo-comment. I am working on learning Dreamweaver. I'll apologize in advance for not being as good at web design as you. Does that help boost the size of your small ego...and other things on your person? We all have to start somewhere. for the time I invested in this site it turned out a whole lot better than if I had tried to use that time to learn and write HTML.

Nonetheless it is a work in progress and I appreciate everone's time...except dwaggy's...kidding..Love you dwaggy!

 

[daughterofeve]

You actually touched on the logo exactly. While I didn't choose it (The owners did 6yrs ago when they started the business - They chose that exact image), the meaning is lost on most people. They were trying to get people to see the irony that a store called Advanced Audio would have a grammaphone (and a clip art one at that) as a logo.

aye.. I thought so!

 

[HabboRadio.us]

Its very good, not bad, its decent ....I like the colors