http://www.dfdems.com

I started this site a couple of months ago and have changed it around many times. Still an ongoing thing.

I am looking fore some suggestions on a couple of things.

1 site layout and navagation (I dont think it flows well)

2 Graphics, toolbars, etc ( I have mixed pages, 2 themes throughout the site right now, changing....)

3 Size and content ( It is a pain to add content for this site it seems)

Generally, anything you might think would help. The computers most access them on at work are slow.......

Any suggestions or tips you might like to impart on someone who doesnt have a clue what they are doing would be appreciated

mike
Detroit EMS

Lots of issues here. Lets just look at the basics.

1) The way you've layed out the page and then fit the content it doesn't work... at all. You should have the news either with smaller font or a wider column... there's too much text wrapping for me to even consider reading the headlines. The general rule is around 6-12 words a line. You have 2-3 words a line for your news headlines. argh

2) why is the right column so big? keep the font size the same, just adding bold will do you good there.

3) the banner.. argh, not enough color contrast. fix it. (same with the footer)

Im pressed for time, but that right there will get you started on the right track. later

Ok, I...

replaced the header

deleted the footer

changed the navigation bar (not with links yet, working on format)

Made the News feed wider

I still dont like the way the page looks but it loads quicker. I still need to come up with good color, layout, etc

the test page is


test page

try a 50/50 split. take out that border around the news, add padding instead, make the preview summary font smaller, leave the link size the same. Good job improving so far, I like the new menu and the header too.

Ok, does this one look better or no?


test 2


1st try

current

test 2 is much better good job!!!

1) if you can make the headline link (the underlined text) a little bigger than the summary text it would look alittle better.

2) your title text for the middle column doesn't have to be that large, a bold 11-12px tahoma or verdana would look great, and you dont have to center align the text for the middle.

3) try finding a few images to bring life to the page. Look around on some sites... they all have a person or some image below the banner to add color (examples: comcast.com, even msn.com has a small image that keeps the page from being all text!)

keep experiementing, it keeps looking better every time!

Thanks for spending so much time helping me out. Here is a link with a background picture faded so that the text is still there. Haybe not enough. I have tried with some pics, the medic unit at the top.

I got the 1st graphic (to dark, 1st, current page)through photoshop cs, I like the style better, its flashier I guess on the first page. Need to figure that one out and make a good template with slices in the end


3rd try

try setting the entire page with to the width of the background image and setting it to no-repeat, on higher res's the background repeats in both the x and y directions.

i like the images, it helps new visitors understand what the site is about

clean up your code, use style sheets and id's, try to not use tables as much.

Ok, trying major changes with the site now. Went to CSS. Its a downloaded template (free use) but it is helping me figure it out a little


Tables.....

I have used them on a couple of pages mainly because I cant see a way around them...


tables page 1

Tables page 2

I am making a serious effort not to use them.

Images....I am still working on that one....

Code..

I am using Front Page to do this but the "optimize html" got me from about 600 lines of code to 60 or so. I didnt realize it threw so much junk in there

600+ to 60 or so

My biggest problem at the moment is I have 3 or 4 styles throughout the site with different link bars, dead ends, etc....

I am going to have to stick with this one ntil I get it all to one theme throughout the site again..

Any comments, tips?

there is nothing wrong with tables, they're fine, super and dandy, whatever you want to call them... and as far as i can see, you are displaying tabulated data with tables, which is perfectly correct

however, tables, should be constructed properly, and using css for styling. I'm not that familar with tables tbh, because i never to display tabulated data, however, after a quick google i found this which seems to be a good article.

atm your source is a nightmare to read, it's all over the place so I can't really spot any errors by eye, but a quick validation reads 167 errors!, it might be worth going through these, clearing them out, and at the same time neatening your code up by hand (validation)

good luck

I don't know how you would do this (not exactly an expert - just giving opinions here), but when the page is viewed at higher resolutions - the image does the same as a "tile" effect - it repeats itself...

If there is any way, you might want to try to have that image stretch to the window - or do something like that...

It probably isn't that big of an issue - it's just one of my big pet peeves... so I noticed it quick...

FYI: I run my computer at 1280x1024, 32 bits.

I agree, I am actually not going to go that route with the background image. I am working on moving the site over to this

Moving to this

My biggest problem (other than coding) is I have many styles throughout the site that have to be changed

style 1

style 2

Oh - I see...

You might want to (for the future), have everything link to a single CSS page that you can change whenever you want to change all of the sites...

That takes more work, but makes flexibility in the future easier... or you can do that after you're done with the other changes...

Just another suggestion...

IMO your first site looked ALOT more professional than your last one you did. i say go back to the current design and play around with shapes, header styles for sections and tone down the news so its not a big *** scrolling page.

Your site is very plain and simple and does not strike me as a fire/EMS website (very hard to tell what your website is about just by looking at the design) I suggest you change the color scheme. I know the station's website I volunteer at as a firefigther/EMT uses gold/white which are the colors of our Rescue Squad, Ambulances, Medic Units etc. Also add some pictures to your main page. There are almost no pictures making it hard to tell what your website is about. I also agree, the banner need to go it is way to plain and also shows up as a slightly off brown when compared to the background of the table that it is in. You also have a footer that is way to big and takes up way to much room. Also lots of your navigation links are broken/go to a bad page (links,news,sports, Detroit area sports) I hate sites with bad links...it is very unprofessional. Also with the forums integrate it into the design of your website. If you can't do that at least make it match the color scheme of your website.