Website Redesign. Feedback, Suggestions, Problems

[narangz]

Hello friends,
I've got a new website http://techiesrealm.com

Some of you might have visited it before. I've now redesigned it. The forum still needs to be redesigned. I'll do it soon. I am not good at photoshop so the logo still needs to be designed. If anyone can help, please contact me. I'll grateful to him/her.

Please note that you need IE 7+, Opera 9+, FF 2+, Safari 3+. IE 6 may not display it correctly. I don't have IE 6 so I haven't checked the site in it.

Please give your valuable suggestions, comments, problems, feedbacks.

Thanks!

[slugger]

search box does not appear on home page - needed I believe

also the image used just above the blue banner indistinguishable from the bg. IMO either make it easily visible or remove it. might also want to consider linking it to the homepage - click on the banner to go to the homepage

looks like you have use a bg image for sidebar
however the color gradient used makes it not so dstinguisahbe from the post bg

banner design not very appropriate for a tech blog - font more appropriate for a literary site

no difference between the homepage and article pages, except the latter has more post titles - if that is the only diff then IMO they could be merged

the recent posts and categories list should IMO appear on top rather than poll results

some page have CCL logo on top some at the bottom - any particular reason for the non-uniformity?

also the copyright statement at the bottom woud look more balanced if centered along with the CCL logo instead of the extreme ends they curently are in

[narangz]

1. I'll do it soon. I have that in my mind.
2. The image above the blue banner has rounded corners. Its easily distinguished on my displays! Or I am unable to understand you properly.
3. Yes there is. But its just for Sidebar titles like Categories, Comments etc which appear in CAPS.
4. I am not good at photoshop. Care to suggest a font? Need a logo too.
5. It'll be different when homepage will have hot posts from forum
6. Noted.
7. CCL logo appears at bottom only on main page. On other pages it's on top. I liked it this way. You dont like it?
8. I centered it. But the entries rss link didn't look nice when centred.

Thanks for the suggestions, slugger. I'll try the way you suggested.

More suggestions are welcome

[ray|raven]

^Dude ,whats the font on the header? Looks cute.

[narangz]

^^Bickham Script Pro

[ray|raven]

^Thanx.

Btw, if u designed the header urself, i think the jpg was compressed too much and lost a bit of quality. It looks blurred.
Use PNG.

And how abt using a nice theme, are u on wp?

[narangz]

ya created header myslef. will use png.

the main page isn't wp but blog is wp powered.

you don't like the design?

[ray|raven]

^Err, No.

I think its too bland. Try to get a simple yet elegant design.
And i see that the blog and main page are same, is the main page a part of the blog or did you use the same stylesheet?

Try to get a better theme.

P.S : Just my opinions , no offence meant

[narangz]

I designed it myself & the index & blog have almost same css.

Bland? Can you suggest me some themes & or a website to look at?

[iMav]

you seem to be working on the sidebar, I guess? it's not showing anything other than an empty gray slot and visitor map below it

i agree with slugger with regards to the font, suits more to a literary site

personally I would suggest making the banner a rectangle with round corners separate from rest of the content, remove the top white part, if you get what I mean

[narangz]

Originally Posted by iMav

you seem to be working on the sidebar, I guess? it's not showing anything other than an empty gray slot and visitor map below it

i agree with slugger with regards to the font, suits more to a literary site

personally I would suggest making the banner a rectangle with round corners separate from rest of the content, remove the top white part, if you get what I mean

Sidebar is okay. It's complete. Which browser & version are you using? Screenshot would be great

Yaar, suggest a font. I tried many but settled for this one.

I'll try making the header with rounded corners. Understood what you mean.

[ray|raven]

@narangz,
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008...dpress-themes/

And Bland : http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bland

*lacking in special interest, liveliness, individuality, etc.; insipid; dull: a bland young man; a bland situation comedy.

[narangz]

^^LOL! I know what bland means
Thanks for the link. I'll have a look at it

[ray|raven]

^Oops

[iMav]

Originally Posted by narangz

Sidebar is okay. It's complete. Which browser & version are you using? Screenshot would be great

aag wali lomdi 2.0.014, screenshot:

[ray|raven]

I dont see no sidebar either;cept for visitor locations.

Am on FF3Beta5

[narangz]

Have you blocked Google Ads?

Please post index page Screenshot & articles page screenshot. Full screen, pls.

[ray|raven]

Yep, google ads are blocked by my office proxy.

[narangz]

That's the problem then. The index page currently has google ads on the sidebar + clustrmap. However the blog has many widgets on the sidebar. Is blog's sidebar okay?

@iMav- Have you also blocked adsense?

[ray|raven]

^Yea, blog's sidebar is fine.

[iMav]

yeah, i had it, tried it by disabling working fine

[narangz]

Alright. Thanks, ray & Manan.
Anyone willing to help me on a logo?

[iMav]

an idea, currently no time to pimp it, even this simply put would work IMHO:

[narangz]

Thanks, Manan. Yes, T & R should be like that coz that way they look nice. created a li'l bit in photoshop but I want a li'l bit of 3d sort of effects.

Thanks for your efforts

[blueshift]

Is that upper white bar a part of header you design or is just a theme bg?

Do you want logo and header for the site?

I will comment later on the design aspects.

[victor_rambo]

1. The search box looks like out of the theme.
2. The header is too big.
3. The font on headers should not slant/be in italics.
4. Increase the font size in the body.
5. Be careful of the IPR(intellectual property rights)
6. Tag line is not impressive. Remember, for tech blogs, tag line is not a must have. But if you have one, it should not sound larger than like.

[narangz]

Originally Posted by blueshift

Is that upper white bar a part of header you design or is just a theme bg?

Do you want logo and header for the site?

I will comment later on the design aspects.

The header is just the blue part. Yes, I need a logo & header. Comments on design aspects are welcome

Originally Posted by rohan_shenoy

1. The search box looks like out of the theme.
2. The header is too big.
3. The font on headers should not slant/be in italics.
4. Increase the font size in the body.
5. Be careful of the IPR(intellectual property rights)
6. Tag line is not impressive. Remember, for tech blogs, tag line is not a must have. But if you have one, it should not sound larger than like.

1. Out of the theme? Do you mean the search button background? Well it's same as the menu bar.
2. I can reduce the width.
3. Yes. Care to suggest a font?
4. It's 12px. 13 px looks very big to me.
5. Why? Did you find any copyright material? Articles are written by myself & theme is created by myself by taking ideas from various themes. I seriously do not tolerate plagiarism.
6. Any suggestions?

Thanks Rohan

[victor_rambo]

Originally Posted by narangz

5. Why? Did you find any copyright material?

What about the images?
Anyways, you cannot put "Copyright" and "Creative commons license" on the same work. Someone may steal your work and still you may be deprived of your credit.

And yea, at 800x600, I can't see anything except that header and subheader links.
Reduce the header height. Width is OK.

[narangz]

Which images?

Well I'll try reducing the height.

[Gigacore]

Neat !!