Be Gentle

**FPRob** · 08-11-2006, 02:11 PM

Re: Be Gentle

Hi Bruce.... Nice job, just a couple of handy hints for you. I hope they come in useful.

Lots and lots of colour contrast on your site which will definitely hurt the eyes after reading a few pages.

Maybe a few too many adverts my friend. Visitors may see this as you wanting their clicks to other sites instead of you wanting to provide them with info (ie your site subject).

Personally I dislike frames very much. It has been known that search engines will find the page that inside the frame, rather than the whole site. Imagine this... Somebody finds your site on a search engine but when they click there is no header, no menu and hence no way to navigate the site because it is the page with the white backgroun that has appeared on their screen, not the entire site with the white page inside it.

I wouldn't go through the entire site and rework it but if you are ever re-modeling or building new sites it would definitely be something to consider.

:)

**Collectors-info** · 08-11-2006, 02:40 PM

Re: Be Gentle

Hi Bruce, finding it hard to find something wrong, which can only be a good thing. I tend to be the one that will find fault, which is the views I want when I get my site up & running. Your site is real easy to navigate & understand & I like the way you have used frames. The only 3 little things that I wasn�t sure about is.

Not sure if your link is working back to your home page underneath your contact us form.
The white writing on your main menu is a bit faint on my screen, but looks fine with the mouse over to black. Not sure if the menu bar may look better in a royal blue. This is only from the adage. (Blue & green should never be seen) .
You have a link to the contact us frame on the background image on the main page, but this may be intentional.

But looking real good site.

Chris.

**islandcrazy** · 08-11-2006, 03:27 PM

Re: Be Gentle

Goodmorning Bruce! (well, it's 9 am here) Not sure what you were asking about the red banner....hopefully by now you have just played around with it and found what you liked...I was basically saying to move it down so you could move your "slogan words" down and eliminate some of the blue spaces to make it less "cut up".

Hope you don't mind if I tag along on some of the comments here since I'm trying to do a similar iframe site:

Rob said: >>>>Somebody finds your site on a search engine but when they click there is no header, no menu and hence no way to navigate the site because it is the page with the white backgroun that has appeared on their screen, not the entire site with the white page inside it.<<<

Can't you "fix" that by just making sure you have a link to your main/home page on all of your "inside" pages? Like a banner on each page? This whole SE vs i frame problem has me stumped as I LOVE the look of Bruce's site and the way it functions....I don't want to throw the concept out the window(no pun intended) but there has to be a way to optimize!

Chris wrote: >>
The white writing on your main menu is a bit faint on my screen, but looks fine with the mouse over to black. Not sure if the menu bar may look better in a royal blue. This is only from the adage. (Blue & green should never be seen) .

I agree...the white is a little troublesome! Sorry Bruce! That's my fault! Hey, I think blue buttons instead of green might be a good idea!!! I mean, as long as you are changing EVERYTHING!!! LOL But I would choose a blue in the same blue family you are using, just a bit darker.

Well Bruce.....are you sorry yet that you asked for MORE COMMENTS? LOL
You are a good sport for sure. It will be my turn soon and I will count on you to reciprocate! LOL

**Big-D** · 08-12-2006, 08:20 AM

Re: Be Gentle

Hi Bruce,

Nice site. From my own experience I have a few comments about color & design.

1. Never use a bright color on top of another bright color. The contrast is too much for us lowly humans to deal with.
2. For colors, always use a bright color on top of a dark color; or vice versa - a dark color on top of a bright color.
3. I read in a book somewhere that the most successful websites always use 3 dominant colors: Red, White, & Black.

Now for my comments on your website banner.

1. You could tweek it with photoshop. The words "The number one photo and video gallery of properties in your area" and "helping you search effortlessly for your dream home" needs to be nudged down a bit inside the colored bars. This could easily be edited with Photoshop.
2. Green buttons on a red background? Is that a South Afrikan thing? I mean, you have a blue back for the rest? Why not make the buttons blue? Better yet, what's your national flag colors? Use those colors.

Comments on page layout:

1. I'm not fully understanding why you have a brick wall as the page background. Seems to me to be a lot of unused wasted space.
2. Most folks don't put a lot of ad banners on their front page. Most have a "Links" page where they put the ad banners. Yet some even use a banner frame and rotate the ad banners inside the frame, just NOT on the front page.
3. The bullets on the left outside the frame are way too close to the edge. I don't know if you can fix that.

Comments on i-Frame:

1. In the i-Frame you have a table with borders that you use for the "Pick of the Week," yet no table is used below that. The section that has tid-bits and news etc could really use a table to help seperate the columns and paragraphs. Currently they almost blend with each other. I would use some sort of line to seperate the columns, yet a table with no borders works pretty good here.
2. Again, on the "Listing" link the frame squishes some of the graphics on top of the text. You could really benefit from using a table for each element here, too.
3. In the Q&A link, at the bottom of the frame, the dark-blue link on top of the dark background just loses me. In MS-Frontpage, you can actually highlight that text link with a brighter color to make it easier to read. (Blue-link surrounded by white, ONLY for that text while still keeping the dark background).

Other than those things I mentioned, I really like your website, and would like to steal your code. LOL.

**helganog** · 08-12-2006, 10:40 AM

Re: Be Gentle

I like it!
The only (picky) point I would make is that the text for the "individual" section under the Price War header seems to be in a different font to all the rest of the site. Looks like Times Roman rather than Ariel?

Good Luck

**islandcrazy** · 08-12-2006, 03:20 PM

Re: Be Gentle

I think we killed Bruce! Bruce? Bruce? HUG FOR BRUCE!!!!!

**rayj89108** · 08-12-2006, 03:23 PM

Re: Be Gentle

I just want to know how you did it. I'd like the background as well as all the graphics. Any secrets?

R

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:28 PM

Re: Be Gentle

Sorry guys, been a bit hectic lately!
All your views are great food for thought!

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:30 PM

Re: Be Gentle

ROB: Will look at color contrast, lots of other views agree, I feel the ads applicable but on big-D's post seems a link to such services would be more applicable. There are a lot of diff views on i-frames. In my heart of hearts I know it is perhaps detrimental to SEO. I like the aesthetical appearance of it and as my site will be used more by agents SEO will not be a mojor issue, but a good advantage at the end of the day. I have back-buttons to the home page in case surfers get lost in space

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:31 PM

Re: Be Gentle

COLLECTORS: Will look at the link on contact-us, as most you have suggested to change the buttons to blue. The b/g mage on contactus was not intentional!

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:33 PM

Re: Be Gentle

ISALND: you won't scare me off that easily. Have links tro home page on i-frame info. I know there is a big debate on i-frames and SWEO, but I prefer the look and feel of a site using frames!

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:38 PM

Re: Be Gentle

BIG-D: You have a lot of good info in your posting, especially on color and design, esp blue buttons. The brick is relevant to the SA market as homes here are built of brick (site made for 800 X 600 as this seems the norm). Thanks a mil for the idea to have links to banks instead of the home page, watch this space. Can definitely move the bullets in. Will work on the listing link then.
Big_d - you steal, I kill.

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:39 PM

Re: Be Gentle

HELGANOG: Individual pricing needs work, as you picked up ity is not on a par with the rest of the info.

**Bruce Hewitt** · 08-12-2006, 06:43 PM

Re: Be Gentle

Howzit ray.
Pretty wide question you're asking.
More than willing to share how it's done, tell me what you want to do and I will give you all the info I can.

I created a template with an i-frame within it (matching the background to the area the frame was in), then linked buttons etc to other pages that opened in the frame's position.

Remember to name your frame and then each page that opens make the target the name of that frame.

Let me know what you want to do and will help wherever I can!

**islandcrazy** · 08-13-2006, 01:03 AM

Re: Be Gentle

Bruce, YOU ROCK! i really admire your openness. I feel that your website is part mine now and find myself wanting to "defend" the things you have there! That is WEIRD!!! But, I'm weird!

Anyway, so glad you are willing to let us all experiment on you!!! I guess it is ok for you to have some down time once in a while!

We are all anxious to see how you progress since your site is so unique and wonderful! Thanks!!!!