New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

**rangaz007** · 09-19-2008, 10:10 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Hi Provocr

I've just had a quick look at your site. At first impressions, it looks really cool, funky, easy to navigate, vibrant colours, and different, I really like it.
A few things which I noticed are, that you have a scroll bar at the bottom of each page. If you centre each page & reduce the width slightly, it would get rid of this scroll.
Your page names are all "nogym" at the moment. You need to name each page according to the contents, and also add some key words for search engines to pick up on.
At first glance, the silver text (in the middle) on your homepage is a little difficult to read against the orange background.
Otherwise, a really cool looking site, well done.

**DCOFFICESERVICES** · 09-20-2008, 07:55 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Hi Provocr

Ditto to previous post but the other thing you might want to look at is this page http://nogymrequired.co.uk/eventscon.html My concern is the over use of the bold font on the right hand side. When I start looking from the left to the middle, your use of standard and bold font works really well. This is only my opinion but I think you've over done on it on the right hand side.

Other than that, great layout and nice to look at as it is so different to your typical page layout.

Regards

Darren

**provocr** · 09-21-2008, 02:54 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Thanks for taking the time to look at the site. I'm definitely considering your feedback and will make some changes. I'll also take those thoughts through to the main site when it launches on Sept 30th... setting up the shop is the difficult bit at the moment, as is creating all the art content... enjoying it though!.

Regarding the events page: I've been working on a calendar icon and Google calendar for this area too; should help remove some of the info. The copy is not entirely mine.

Silver text: I've thought the same myself; its part of the sites palette but as you've rightly pointed out, it doesn't work well with small text on the oranage background.

I'll post again when the new site is launched.

Cheers,

**davidundalicia** · 10-01-2008, 09:28 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Your site has improved a great deal.............perhaps you might want to now have a look at the SEO aspects.

**provocr** · 10-01-2008, 09:36 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Hello again,

I wanted to update the thread to say that the site has now fully launched.

There were a few day one hiccups due to copy and paste no-no's but had them fixed within 24 hours.

Anyway, would appreciate any further feedback. I am looking at an updated design to help navigation within the next week but this will only be minor cosmetic and composition changes that help get a user to the necessary info.

I'll check out SEO... I've had a mail about it but not looked into it yet. We are quite precious about the brand, hence no google ads just yet!

Cheers,
Pete

**Muzza** · 10-05-2008, 02:49 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Just a few things stand out
- your page is slightly too wide so you have to jiggle the screen backwards and forwards to read some of the text. If you change the width to 1000, you will cater for the majority of your audience
- for some reason your ticker tape doesn't work with Firefox. You just get a frozen version on the page which doesn't look that good. Works okay in Safari and Chrome, is a bit stuttery in Opera but frozen in Firefox. My audience is around 30% Firefox users, so to me that is serious. Personally, I'd find something that worked in all browsers or make it a static banner.
- last of all. I'm not a fan of letting people know my email address until I know they are probably a potential customer.When your email is in plain sight it is too easy for spammers to record and abuse it.
- wee spelling mistake on the home page too. It's in your latest news section so it will only be temporary rather than a permanent piece of text but "apologies" should be "apologise"

Apart from that it is a Lovely site. Man I'm jealous - a very nice job.

**Muzza** · 10-05-2008, 03:12 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

I like the calender and timetable. I tried this on my own site and could never get it to work properly so gave up but yours work well. One thing though, when you hit the link, you get taken to a page of different proportions (lots wider) and no navigation buttons - which can mean a lost audience.

I'd suggest making your links for these two pages open in a fresh tab thus retaining your audience on the original page.

**provocr** · 10-05-2008, 07:48 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Thanks Muzza, especially for the spelling and page size heads up; I'm in the process of reducing the width for all pages now. I really need to get into the habit of not writing directly into the text box

About Firefox; I've verified the marquee in all browsers and it works okay. As you state, it can have a stutter in a couple but nothing as serious as it stopping. Hmm.

I'm aware of the spamming potential; maybe I trust me host tools too much! There are no problems so far but I will keep an eye out for issues.

About the timetable; I've recently placed start, middle and end bookmarks on the page... did you maybe not see them? If thats the case then I guess I have a user issue... one more to the list. The design is also part image whihc is why I get the rotated text. I could knock up a version for you or you could give it a shot using inkscape... its a free vector program.

Thanks for taking the time to send your feedback.

Best,

**Sunchaser** · 10-05-2008, 08:38 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Very vibrant site :)

I think the site name is great! And I like the little touches, such as the symbols for phone, email and form.

I agree as said above on the width and seo aspects. It's good to have your website name in your title tag, even on every page if you wish - but at the end of the tag.

I was using the logo to navigate back to homepage - I didn't spot the home symbol at the top right of the page until I was about to leave the site. I think a lot of people would miss the homepage symbol (and wouldn't know to click on the logo)

Hope your site does very well!

(Will have to have a play with Inkscape!)

**provocr** · 10-05-2008, 11:18 PM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

thanks Sunchaser. I'm being brave with the orange and trusting newer monitors over old... some of which show the orange as somewhat bright!

Your not the first to mention the home symbol so I think its about time I made a move with that one... I've got a few places I can try.

You won't be dissapointed with inkscape. I thought I could simply download templates then as I developed the site further, the downloads just didn't work for me and I was forced to learn inkscape... which was a blessing in disguise.

If you are looking for inspiration you should check this site out; it has some Royalty Free stuff too... http://dezignus.com/ and if you are looking for help with colour; this is the best on the web IMO - http://www.colorexplorer.com/default.aspx.

Good luck with vectors!!! and thanks for taking the time to add some comments. Oh, and the tag thing... yeah, I'm learning to stop over designing stuff and adhering to basic elft to right rules with text

I'll be making that change when I've decided on the best place for the home icon too.

Best,

**Collectors-info** · 10-06-2008, 07:36 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Hi, ditto with the comments on page width. Some are set to width:1800px;
I see you are using a lot of text as images. Might be worth remembering that the SE's cant see this & might effect your rankings.

**Muzza** · 10-06-2008, 08:07 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Damn, I've been crying "wolf". I've just realised that when I was viewing your site I had JavaScript disabled and that's why your scrolling text wasn't working. (Bangs head against wall) Sorry sorry I so (bangs head again) sorry.

On the lighter side, this has to be one of the best sites I've seen since I've been here. Not complicated and whizz bang, it's so refreshingly different ... take a bow .... you deserve it

**provocr** · 10-06-2008, 09:58 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Appreciated Muzza.

Collectors-Info - The timetable page width is designed to always be bigger and scroll on the horizontal. The timetable should continue to expand as new venues get added. I didn't want people to be reloading pages all of the time and I don't really like iframes so a layout that fits most browsers vertically and the use of bookmarking should see me through. Chances are I will chunk it up whe it gets unwieldly but I thik this will be done using bookmarks again e.g. create a left hand frame and add links to venues which when clicked take you to position on timetable.

About the image text; I'm countering this in two ways. One is to never use image based text on the index page and make sure site information is duplicated here. The second method is to paste body text into alternate text for header image so those spiders still pick the relevant text up.

Thanks again for checking the site out. I'll be adding more pages and functionality as the business grows.

To say I'm impressed with Bluevoda is an understatement.

Best,

**Collectors-info** · 10-06-2008, 11:06 AM

Re: New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

Hi Provocr,
no problem with what you are doing, but have a check with a search of Google on the rules of using Alt tex on your site. There are minimum & maximum lengths, plus some other rules to watch out for.

Good luck.

New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

New to Bluevoda - Part one of website launched

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