Critique and Comments Please!

[Atolar]

Hello all!

I have recently entered a website in a web design competition for the international Technology Student Association.

Please critique and comment on my design. How would you change it? How would you make it better? What do you like about it?

http://naterad.com/hamptontsa/2009/ is the website.


Thanks so much!

[Pet]

The menu is unique, but, as a website it does lack a lot.

The menu is a clean looking idea, simple shape and simple text, not too fancy. But the text "Our school is" And "Our topic is" Are too grunge for it.

On top of that, the header is too big, even with a screen resolution of 1680X1050 I barely see the start of the content. It has been a practice of mine to try to keep a website without having to scroll down at all, or very little. It just makes it cleaner.

The little splurge undert he menu "or Concerning Our Web. Go to the 'Design Brief' site." Can be left on the bottom and not in the middle of the page.

[Atolar]

Thanks, that's some great advice!

Does anybody else have any input on the matter?

[OptiMAT Prime]

I just had a bit of a click around and the reflection on the member's images is so not needed. Just adds length to the site for no real gain - especially when the text fits fine to the depth of the normal image.
Other than that i think it's pretty good!

[Scrib]

yea i can't add anything more to what these guys have told u m8 good job overall

[unit_number_43]

I'll start this off by saying that I like the look. And I think you've got a good style, visually.

With that said; When I see the site I think "concert", "bands", "myspace", and for some reason "christian rock". I was very surprised when I realized this was for a school. You don't want to make the same stale design that everyone else has, but you don't want to go 180 from it either. The very purpose of graphic design is to relay the message without saying a word. You should be prepping your audience for what they're about to read. With this layout I'm being prepped for a rave and then reading about technology education.

As far as critiquing the layout itself. Like I said, it looks good. I'd get rid of the menu buttons, they look cute but are a pain in the butt to scroll past. The line spacing is a bit extreme, make it hard to read from one line to the next.

[Chris]

I would definitely rethink the font structure. I see alot of inconsistency concerning size, and as far as legibility, you could save alot of room by sizing them down. The large nature of the content font is a little discerning and a bit awkward to read. Judging from the style of the rest of the page, it wouldn't hurt to drop a few pts. Also, there are some elements that seem oddly placed. IE the text on the top and bottom of the top section of the site. I realize this is a spinoff of the web 2.0 style, but its bulky and screams precarious. The footer also seems to be a bit tacky. It feels as if my browser didn't load all the images.

I think some grid theory would be a great thing to consider in this situation. A good friend of mine wrote a blog article on how to correctly applicate the "grid theory" to design. The article is at http://vectorthis.com/2008/12/20/web...ting-the-grid/ . There's also another article at smashingmagazine which is at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008...mn-techniques/ . Hopefully that can help improve the overall appearance and professionalism that you clearly will need for a school or organizational website.