Need some help

[mightymose]

Greetings everyone! As some of you know, I have my own movie website that I putter around with in my spare time. I've been working pretty hard on redesigning the layout using CSS, which makes things easier for me in the future when I tinker with it. I've come to the stage in development where I am ready to start transfering over all of my old reviews, but before I do that I would like to get some feedback from everyone as to their opinions of the site. This way I only have to change one page instead of changing 100 after I put my reviews on them.

What I am looking for are comments/criticisms regarding the design, layout, functionality, etc. Is it easy to navigate? Do you like the colors? Did you find any errors, if so, what browser are you using (it looks best in IE, but should work okay in Netscape).

My biggest concern at this point is the functionality of the reviews themselves. I only have one up at this time, Jeepers Creepers (don't ask why I picked this one, LOL.) You can get to this review by either clicking on UPDATES on the first page, or sorting through alphabetically.

You can either post your replies here so that everyone can see, or you can yell at me in private by sending me an e-mail or signing the guestbook :)

I look forward to hearing from everyone and am appreciative of any help you may be able to give me.

Mose

The site is www.moviemofos.com

[B&W]

pictures, you need pictures.

also, why the hech do i go to the start of the website when i click on on of the movies out in theatres. i clicked on 'Collateral Damage' and i went nowhere

[mightymose]

LOL... b/c I don't have the reviews up yet :)

[spudracer]

The side bar which has film titles in it only displays so much on my computer at home running 800x600.

I thought I would bring that to your attention, but other than that. Looks great!

[mightymose]

What browser are you using Spud? I have looked at it in both IE 5 and Netscape 6 on an 800x600 monitor and it seems to look fine. What is the last movie title that you can see?

[spudracer]

I'm running IE6 at home and work...

Last title I can see is Jimmy Neutron and it cuts it off about halfway.

[Yoda]

My honest opinion:

Good points: Link mouseover fade.
Cleanliness of design.
Site name (:D). Smoothness...everything flows nicely. It's relaxing.Bad points: Needs more images to complement the text.
Too bright...needs to be darker, IMO.
Extension of above: more movie stuff. More of a movie "feel." A darker layout would be part of that.
Scroller. Cool, yes, but that wears off, and it becomes frustrating.Oh, and don't take offense at what Tyler said on his site. I think your site looks much better.

[mightymose]

I wasn't too concerned with what Tyler said... it's nice to know that you can get honest opinions from people though. I was curious as to what your comments would be after Ty seemed so eager to hear them... I must admit, I was too :)

Too Bright... that's an interesting on. I hadn't really thought of that. Making it darker is no problem now that I use CSS... definitely something I will look into.

I'm kind of upset at the lack of images really. I have a couple of really cool logos that were designed for me that I can't use b/c they are too big! (You can see them at http://homepages.wmich.edu/~s8mosey/)

I'd love to come up with a way to work it in, but am stumped... be interested if anyone had any ideas :)

More of a movie feel.... I'll have to think about that one. I see what you mean though. It could be a site for anything, there's really nothing that screams out 'movies'.

I've debated about getting rid of the scrolling arros, but it really messes up the look of the site. I'll have to think pretty hard about that one :)
Thanks for the comments T... as always you were right on :)

[Yoda]

I don't think the logo would fit. Like you said, too big. I've never been a fan of the cartoonesque stuff, either (like JoBlo.com). That doesn't make it bad -- just not my bag, that's all. :) Yeah, very well put: it could just as easily be a site about electric toothbrushes, with a few words changed here or there. :D Even if a more movielike feel is out of the question, using darker colors would definitely help, IMO.

Some people hate black backgrounds...but I don't think they're so bad...especially for, say, a movie, music, or gaming site of some sort. And besides: you can always use a dark BG with a light box of some sort so that you don't have to use white text.

The scrollbars are a personal call. They are definitely cool, and they definitely caught my eye...but I also know that I can only less fond of them, rather than more fond of them, over time. Your call, naturally. :) I'm glad to be able to help. If there's anything I can do, let me know.

[mightymose]

Well... I hate to admit it, but I was playing around with the layout and I think I may have found one I like better... but I'm not sure. The big thing was getting rid of the scroller b/c it was even starting to annoy me :)

Here is the original (site 1)

http://www.moviemofos.com

Here is the test (site 2)

http://www.moviemofos.com/test/

I'd appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know which site (1 or 2) you prefer.

Thanks for all your help!

Oh yeah, the links don't work on the second page... It's just to give you an idea of the look.

[Yoda]

#2 is definitely better, IMO. Still should be darker (dark gray instead of light gray...but light gray as the background for large blocks of text)...but I definitely like it more. :)

[spudracer]

Originally posted by TWTCommish
#2 is definitely better, IMO. Still should be darker (dark gray instead of light gray...but light gray as the background for large blocks of text)...but I definitely like it more. :)

Ditto!

[mightymose]

I'll work on that... but it's like I was just saying on that other movie site ;) I am horrible with colors and graphics. I would like to add some graphics to the site but all the clipart available is so generic and I have no artistic talent :) I'm pretty sure I can come up with something using darker colors though... back in a few :)

[mightymose]

Well I couldn't come up with a color scheme I really liked in dark colors, but I did come up with a blue/gray/orange scheme that I think might look pretty good. But then again, I've been staring at hundreds of different colors for an hour now so things are starting to look weird. I've decided to go with the new design, but I want to make it more exciting then plain old gray/white. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, I have no eye for color... practically colorblind actually. I was hoping that ya'll might be able to take a look and let me know how it looks, whether or not it's easy to read, etc. My wife says it looks nice, but she has to be nice to me :)

[spudracer]

You think there's a way you can work it so that the links show up with an underline when you rollover them? Hard tellin what's a link and what isn't...

[mightymose]

Good idea Spud. I did an overline/underline on all links but the top menu, which will have no text decoration. Look better? Colors look okay?

[spudracer]

Yeah...looks good. :D

[Fez Wizardo]

Colours really change a site (and the mood of it too) if you come across a site which doesn't catch your eye you'll most likely be out in 7 seconds flat. It's easy for someone to skip over something, so what you need is a kind of colour scheme where your eyes just lay over it and stay there, no concentration required.

I like this site (movieforums.net) I think it's well designed, easy to navigate, and most importantly very consistant.

To be honest however neither site designs are that easy to look at, what you need is a very subtle background which your content would stand out over. You definately need graphics, you can't have a text based site, it's just not right! :) I'm no graphics expert but I can piss about with adobe if you want for some potential logos - what I would do is get a very decent logo and then base your site around that logo's colour scheme, if you have different sections you can colour code each one (again like this site very consistent icon and orientated menus)

[spudracer]

The site i'm making, and have shown to a few here, has a bright atmosphere to it which uses orange, dark blue, white, and black colors. No logo, however. I'm gonna hold off on it til I get a better name for the site. :)

[Fez Wizardo]

awww show me, please do (i'm intrigued)

(i'll show you mine if you show me yours)

[mightymose]

Greetings all! I've been playing around with the layout of my site again (just can't seem to get it right) and think I may have it down (we'll see though!)

My big problem is that I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to graphics. I have a pretty sweet logo (IMHO) that I am trying to use, but it's too large and rectangular and looks a little out of place. I'm hoping that there might be someone out there that might be able to edit it for me so that it will fit with the site a little better. Ya'll are the experts, so whatever you think is best will work for me :) The only thing I could come up with is to crop it as an elongated oval or scallop the edges. I think both effects would be pretty cool, but I'm just not able to do it and really don't have the time to learn :)

The address for the new site is:

http://www.moviemofos.com/test/test.html

Oh yeah... I'm also open to any suggestions for the layout in general, LOL. None of the links work, but you can get an idea!

Thanks again for all your help guys! Hopefully I can wrap this up pretty soon and quit bugging everyone :)

[mightymose]

Just put some images up and would love some feedback... Like I said, I'm horrible with color and images :)

[spudracer]

Pictures bad. Not every site needs images everywhere. Second version looked fine. :)

[Fez Wizardo]

http://www.moviemofos.com/test/test.html

I think that one is coming along the best...can you not make the menu on the left vertically equal to the main screen on the right?

I think the only graphics you really need now or something like a small screenshot every here and there in the film reviews (depending on what film you're reviewing) you know like a small piccy like your movie reel one...

Personally I think the logo is quite decent if you can fill up the spaces on either side (this is a trivial point) just so your site has a bit more...umph...y'know?

[mightymose]

Hey all... I've got the site up and close to being finished (the layout that is... LOL). Was hoping for some final input from everyone. I've put up 3 or 4 reviews and would love some feedback on what everyone thinks as to the movie reviews, dvd reviews, etc.

I moved the site for now b/c my server is down again (must be some guy out of his basement or something!)

Check it out at

http://www.reliancefinishing.com/mofo/

[B&W]

The words;

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (11/10)

are missing from the 'T' section.


Other than that, I think you've got the makings of a really cool site there. :) :yup:

[mightymose]

Greetings Everyone!

Sorry I've been away for a few days, but I've been working pretty hard on my site and have some interesting news. I finally figured out how to run my own message board, though it sucks in comparison to what Chris has done.

Right now it looks just like MOVA, but that's b/c I haven't had time to customize any of the colors or graphics.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that it's up, though MOFO will still be my gathering place of choice :)

www.moviemofos.com