Spice up my site 2

[jimoo]

I admit it. I am graphically challenged. Any tips on spicing up my site?

- Keep in mind my HTML knowledge is medium.
- I am already looking at 3rd party menu products, but welcome suggestions.

site:

http://www.deltabg.com

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate,

You are asking a pretty impossible question for us to answer, without us actually making the site for you.

Home page - White page with a logo, company name, slogan and 5 links.

About page - Logo, company name, 3 paras of text and a mailto link.

Sample Customer Listing - Logo, company name, 3 lines of text, textbox and submit button.

Education Information - Logo company name and 1 Link.

None of the pages have any navigation, except to go deeper into the site.

What you are showing here is like showing us a blank piece of paper and asking what and how you should draw, it's not a question that can be answered in a thread like this.

Put something together and then come back and ask what we think, or how you can improve it, then we can help. You do not need a graphical layout to create a great site.

One sugestion though, ditch Frontpage and go with a text editor so that you can learn the code and what it does. Your site currently has a lot of redundant code.

Hope this helps

Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.shuttlecomputer.org.uk

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change.
The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[jimoo]

Thanks Wullie

Good feedback.

I don't expect you to make the site for me, just provide tips like you did and maybe suggested reading, tools, etc.

For example, I mentioned that I am looking at 3rd party menu programs. I am also looking at moving it from front-page, which I find difficult to use, to dreamweaver. I will considering flash later.

In summary, any advice or references is appreciated.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[deecee]

best i can say is check other sites that you like and look at their code and try and emulate what you like from each of those sites.

Sometimes the Answer You Are LOOKING for can be FOUND BY SEARCHING THE FAQ'S @&%$*#!!!

 

[harrymossman]

Why would you want to "spice up" a web page on connecting business data? You don't always have to have eye candy or dancing balony in a web site.

Your page is clean and neat, which to me says "connecting business data" quite nicely.

Perhaps you could make the site a bit more friendly with a photo of you.

 

[jimoo]

Thanks Harry.

I appreciate your feedback.

It is my intention to keep the site somewhat simple. I don't want a lot of pictures because I want it to load fast, even on a modem. However, I know a lot of people like menus, and other cools stuff. I like the photo idea - worth a solid star.

Soon I'll add customer information and sample downloads. It's kind of funny, but sometimes when we are in business for ourselves, we have less time to spend on our own needs.


Thanks again.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[ecobb]

You could probably add a lot to it just by coming up with a nice background. As harrymossman mentioned, keep it clean and neat and focus more on the functionality of the site than the eye candy.


Hope This Helps!

Ecobb
- I hate computers!

 

[jimoo]

Thank Ecobb,

I have considered chaning the backgroup, but my background image is white. I could change it, but then it's not consistent with company colors, letter head, etc.



Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[luds]

maybe make the logo a link back to the home page??

It's pretty common and many users would try that.. though a common nav bar on each page saves that prob

luds

 

[TaiChi56]

I have many web sites up. Check out

http://www.jnpwebdesign.com

The secret in education lies in respecting the student. {Ralph Waldo Emerson}.

 

[ChrisHunt]

Your site needs a great deal more than "spicing up". Indeed, you should be wary of making a business site too "spicy" as it can end up just looking tacky instead. What your site needs is FOCUS, CONTENT and STRUCTURE.


Focus

Who is your site aimed at? What is its purpose? It appears to be selling some kind of product or service to some kind of customer, but it's not at all clear. A potential customer needs to know from the front page onwards "This is what I'm looking for".


Content

Your site has very little real content - a couple of pages and a couple of cgi scripts. If the latter are intended to show off your skills, dress them up with another page or two explaining what they're about, how they work, and what skills they're intended to demonstrate.

Think about all the things you could put on your web site. If there's another person with whom you can brainstorm ideas it can be invaluable. Looks at other peoples' sites in your business area to see what ideas you can steal, ahem, draw inspiration from.


Structure

Once you've got all your content ideas you need to determine a structure for your site. A useful technique is to write each page idea on an index card and shuffle them around on a table till they're arranged in an order that makes sense. You should aim to group them into half a dozen (or so) main sections, with subsections as required.

Having got your site structure sorted out it's time to structure each page. Work out a template for each page. The conventional choice would be to use tables or css (or, blech!, frames) to put a menu column down one side and put your page content in the other. Your aim should be to produce a template page into which you can insert each page's content. If you can use SSI (see faqs on the designers' forum) to display standard elements so much the better.


Only once you've got these fundamentals sorted should you think of "spicing up".

If possible, you should get someone else to check your copy. Spelling mistakes can creep through, and things that make sense to you can mystify others. For example, from your About DBG page...

"We provide assistance in all phases of system development from planning, trough analysis and design, to complete implementation."

Trough analysis? Is this something to do with pigs?

"... we plan to provide you with a customized Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded from this site to access out data from your Excel desktop application without ever loading your Internet Service Provider."

What does this mean? "access out data from..." just isn't good English - do you mean "access external data from..."; and what's this about not loading your ISP? Loading them with, or onto, what? A low-loader? Do you mean "without opening your web browser", or is it something about bandwidth?

In any case, I'd be wary about launching a site that seems to contain only promises of what you're going to include, without actually containing any finished products. Get something up and running first - then you can promote the "coming soons".



-- Chris Hunt

http://www.extracon.com

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[jimoo]

Thank you for the comments and time to put it together.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com