So yeah, I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but it's about grapgics stuff, so hopefully.

So, I'm coding a site in HTML, and I needd your opinion on what it looks like (partucularly the menu/ Navigation.

Here is what it looks like:



Would it look better if the navigation was just under the header horizontally?

Please answer, and general C&C needed too....

I think I like it on the left where it is. If you put it horizontally it may get lost in the top graphic, because it is pretty busy. Beautifully done by the way. Maybe put it above the first blue content line, but space it between the grapic. It will get lost in the graphic if the nav bar is too close to it. I like the color scheme very much. They compliment the grapic well. Best of luck...don't know how much help I was but hope it helps.

The header is way too huge, and the menu looks like it was an afterthought.

I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't waste huge amount of space at the top of the site. Either reduce the height to around 200 px (and no more), or integrate the content of the site into the image, sort of like how Shurty is.

And you definitely need to integrate your navigation into the site design more. Perhaps a tab, or a widen the main column area and have a column for the navigation.

Also, what type of site is this? A personal blog? Portfolio? Are you trying to sell services? What are you trying to do with it?

It's a graphics site, so a portfolio.

I'd like to get away with a large header....it is a graphics site, after all...xD
Quite a few graphics sites have larger than normal headers.

If i were to tab the nav, I would put it at the very bottom or under the image.

Just because it's a graphics site doesn't mean it's good to have a huge graphic as the header. The thing about good portfolio sites is that the site itself is minimal, while the focus is on displaying the graphics work. Also, if that image is not your own photography, it wouldn't be wise to have on a site to represent your graphics.

I've seen many with large headers though. The rest of the site is pretty minimal, anyway, and I want it too look slightly diferent from a normal site.

Oh, the image is a screencap from a film.

I haven't changed the header, but I might when I do another version.
Here is the new menue etc:



Thankyou for commenting, arthryn and EA.

Slightly better, but now it looks like you think the audience is stupid. You've already implied a navigation with your links (home , about, graphics, etc) so you don't need to shove it down the viewers throat that that is indeed the navigation by labeling it 'navigation'.

Also yeah, don't use a screen cap from a movie as your main image, use your own work, or create a new piece specifically for your header.

As for the size, the only way I see you getting away with it is if the content featured on the home page is brief and doesn't cause you to have to scroll to see the bulk of it that would otherwise be above the fold (area you don't have to scroll to) if you didn't have such a huge header image. Also, just because you've seen other sites with huge headers doesn't mean they're exhibiting good web design.

Okay, I've removed the navigation.

I did create a new piece just for the header, if that's what you mean. I just used a screen cap for the base. And seeing as I'm an amateur and do sigs with screeencaps, I'm not sure what's so bad about it.

The Homepage won't have that much info.



EDIT: I'm kinda stuck on how to show that your hovering over the main menu....Do you have any ideas?

A screencap falls under copyright protection, using it on your own website, to represent you, could cause problems.

Not to mention the fact that by FAR the best way to represent your own work is by having atleast the main header all your own work, or a stock photo that is free to use.

The stuff we make is little more than fanmade tidbits, no one really minds about that (though legally if the copyright holder asks you to delete it, you have to) but as a personal website header that isn't a fansite, it's kinda bad form.

I will add that I don't own the screen cap itself etc.



You hardly recognise it as a screen cap anyway, unless you kinda new roughly what you were looking for. And it is a fansite to an extent- Nearly all of my graphics have screen caps, and therefore are kinda fan-made.

On the other side, I don't really have any of my own stuff really (stock of people etc).

I'm not trying to evade all your comments, but this isn't a proffesional site, so IMO, it doesn't need to be all of my own stock etc.

That's pretty awesome so far. I'm not very fond of the text running around "Celestial skies". Seems really off.

The 'vernok 1.0' or whatever it says seems a bit too out in the open, so maybe scooting it farther into the corner would help?

I dunno. I'm not a genius with graphics. I just go by gut feeling.

I'll post a different version of the header, but my main thought fo the random text was to frame celestial skies a bit.

xD...Its version 1.0....Perhaps I should make the text slightly clearer...
And yes, it was quite hard to position... I'll see what I can do...

And gut feeling is just as good- I won't your opinion of it, not just some graphics proffesionals.



The arrow shows up when you hover over the menu item. Good? bad?

This is way better than anything I could have come up with when I was 13.

Isn't the screen capture of Lucy from Prince Caspian? I presume you added the starry sky, which I think is very pretty. A problem you might run into is that people will assume the website is a Narnia fansite (I did at first) rather than a general graphics site. If you decide to make the header smaller but want to keep the image you currently have, I suggest you crop the lower half so that the focus is more on the sky and people won't assume it's about Narnia.

Do you mean how do you code the page so that when a user places his mouse over the text "Home" or "About", etc., it lights up or something?

One with no random text:


And one with slightly less opacity random text:



Yeah, it is. A future welcome message should clear that up though....Hopefully, anyway....
And if not, then it's time for a new layout!

I got the coding, it just the actual image. This:

Is kinda default to see how it looked....I'm not sure though.

I'm not sure about the choice of arrow. It seems a bit inappropriate for the style of the site. How about just making the text change colour, or using an embellishment from a font like Nat Vignette?

Thanks!


Actually, the embelishment could work quite well...

*goes off*

I like the second one a lot more, doesn't seem as awkward.

I've seen sites with things that do that when you hover over the button, (Light up, little images pop up, etc) and they're very distracting. If they're reading something, I doubt they'd want something to flash or move in their peripheral vision if their mouse hits it. (Happens to me a lot and drives me insane.)

Same, so up it goes!




Yeah, basically what it's for is to show that it's a link. it is kinda neccasary. All I've done is made it to show the arrow/whatever when you hover over it.

EDIT:

Well, the swrils were to small, so I decided to use paint brush stokes instead, the outcome;


Obviously not all would show at the same time...xD

Well, you mouse switches form an arrow to a hand when it's over a link, so it's pretty obvious.

Also, it's a menu bar, not too hard to figure out.

But a mouse doesn't really do the job.... If it's done properly, then it can look good.

*Shrugs*

The brush strokes look a tad rough though. Maybe feather them a bit or something?

Does it? I'll check it out when I get back on the laptop.

EDIT: they don't loom rough to me in the browser...Perhaps it is just the image.

They're not rough rough, but they would look better softer IMO.

Well, Okay, I did tone them down a bit.

Here's and update:

Awesome dude. Much better.

Hey, that actually looks pretty good. Did you use a radial blur on the image?

About the paintbrush strokes - they're all elegant except for the "About" one. Whereas the others look like feathers or leaves, that one looks like an obese banana.

I think the border looks better without the shadow at the bottom and on the right side; the black is somewhat distracting. The rest is pretty, though.

Thanks!


Thanks, Yeah, just a bit to get the focus right.

Okay, about is diferent. I also made all of them a bit more 3-d:

Rinion, notice the toned down drop shadow...

Live version here.