Review my new site design

[[JSH]John]

I've been working on a new design for my site and would appreciate if you would be able to comment or review the site. I haven't had much time to get around to designing but since I've got a little spare time I thought I'd start doing some more learning in Photoshop as well as a new design for the site as it's been needing a new one for months now. :)

Site URL: http://www.jslane.net

Thanks guys :)

[BSmith]

Overall it's not bad.

I would add some padding to the content areas and get the text off the border lines.

I would also slice my logo to allow the icons and sections to be actual links or remove that part from the logo.
I kept wanting to click them to get to new sections.

And lastly, you might want to add more elements of your site to your forum layout so that it feel more a part of the main site.

[KarlHost]

Looks good.

However as BSmith said i would slice the logo and code in the links so we can click them.

[[JSH]John]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've made a few changes and the links now work again, they worked on other pages but I must have deleted the hotspots when I was working on a part of that page. I've also put some padding to the content areas and now it's looking better already.

I've already been thinking of a new design for the site so hopefully sometime next month it's online. :)

[KarlHost]

Its looking a lot better already.

[Mystikk]

Hmmm - You know when you go to a site and your like "wow! that is nice!"?

Some reason, your site just isn't giving me that. My eyes feel confused on your site. You need to make things more noticeable(ex. Make Titles Stand out as titles[larger font]).

Also if this is a business, and you are planning to make money from this site. PLEASE DO NOT PUT AD'S ON IT! Nothing more annoying to a customer.

[[JSH]John]

It's not a business and I'm not planning on making money for it :) It's just a site I've had for a while since I got interested in learning web design so as I learn more I try to help others to also learn some more.

I've done some updates and still updating the site now, I think it looks a bit better now with more graphics rather than a lot of text.

[BSmith]

Looking better. I'd add still more padding. I'd do atleast a 10 or 12 pixel padding between all content elements and their outer borders.

I'd also check you images for stray lines in your jpgs. I would recommend transparent gifs for most of these.

Example: http://www.jslane.net/images/psg.jpg has some vertical stray lines in the background that stand out on my monitor. I'm guessing it happened during compression or during a resize.

Also, now that I'm looking at it again, I am seeing colors that are close enough in shade and hue that my eyes think they are supposed to be the same, but my brain is telling me they are different.

You have #fd8300 on the borders and #ffa500 on the text. I would suggest either making them the same if you want to leave them orange, or better yet, changing the main text color to something like a #79aabd (light grey blue selected from the paint brush in your logo) and allowing the links to stand out more. Bringing in more colors from your logo might be a wise choice as well.

Just my .02 cents

[Zeppelin]

Looks nice, bright with plenty of info, the type of site I would go back to.

[BooM]

padding, make the containing div have between 7 and 12px of padding, then the text divs and image divs wont need altering.

And there's something about that black and orange...

I remember using that on one of my past website layouts, and later on i saw its not that nice.. maybe try the bg dark grey/blue and the font white. White, black or grey font is standard :D

But its looking alright with the layout, gl with it