Review : foohonpie.net

I like pie · 10-13-2003, 02:13 AM

Foohon Pie

Interested in what some more experienced people in the business have to say about it.

I've made a few before this, but they were the stereotypical n00b sites, with the animated gives, harsh colors, and no real purpose or content.

Eventually though I managed to break out of that state, and designed this site which in my opinion, isn't half bad. Roughly 2500 visits since August of this year isn't too bad considering its only form of advertisement is free link trade with 3 other relatively new sites, and word of mouth.

Yes, the layout is simple, but that was my intent as I wanted to focus more on content than flashy graphics. Keep in mind that I'm not selling any service or product, it's more of a community and article driven site.

Still, I'm sure that it could use a good deal of work.

**John Scott** · 10-13-2003, 03:44 AM

Clean, simple design. Original.

Is it like a blog?

PhilC · 10-13-2003, 04:50 AM

Uniform the white, so you'll have a color scheme going instead of this odd white space in the middle of nowhere (try making the blues on the sidebar darker, then changing the white into the blue)

I like pie · 10-13-2003, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Is it like a blog?

Kind of... but I'm trying to get away from that feel by "recruiting" a team of writers. At the moment I have a person who writes a parody of Dear Abby letters every Monday, and a guy writing "nostalgia" every friday is looking to join the team. Until I get a few more people on board, it's gonna have a bloggy type feel.

Quote:

Uniform the white

I'm not quite sure what you mean here

Calisonder · 10-13-2003, 06:41 AM

mabey add some nice images to spice it up a bit

PhilC · 10-13-2003, 07:34 AM

You have 4 colors (black, white, grey, blue) and I'm saying fillin the white beacause it contrasts too much with the black.

raciviusdawn · 10-13-2003, 08:02 AM

when i look at it, it just says "plain" to me. most things these days rely on a certain amount of eye candy to compliment the content...i didn't see any..maybe you could add some.

Suspicious · 10-13-2003, 08:35 AM

If you're bandwidth concious, little things like a small border outline using a small gif image can go a long way.

samer · 10-13-2003, 09:00 AM

i agree with raciviusdawn .. : the site is plain...

Sharpie · 10-13-2003, 09:03 AM

You should work on the header, and the design of the content about the fold. That calendar right in the middle of the page is kinda boring.

SVB · 10-13-2003, 10:54 AM

Yeah I think its a bit plain aswell. BTW, how did you take pics of media player like that?

raciviusdawn · 10-13-2003, 10:56 AM

unreal,

you can do that a variety of ways, print screen, digital camera, desk cam...a lot of ways.

SVB · 10-13-2003, 10:58 AM

They look too good to be digi cam. When I try to print screen media player, the movie doest appear in it. If I paste it into photoshop or Word, if I play the movie the movie plays in the photoshop copy aswell

raciviusdawn · 10-13-2003, 10:59 AM

weird...very weird..there are media programs as well for copying stuff like that...but a dig cam works...i've done it.

Sharpie · 10-13-2003, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unrealfragmaster

if I play the movie the movie plays in the photoshop copy aswell

That definately does not sound right, especially for a image editing program.

SVB · 10-13-2003, 11:13 AM

It is right. I found the solution. Its to do with big graphic cards and media player. Its fixed now anyway.

Racivius, how did u get preferred member status??? You had around the same amount of posts as me

I like pie · 10-13-2003, 11:50 AM

wow, alot of comments about the lack of style and graphics

well, i appreciate the comments, but since the conceptual stages of the design, i've always told myself that my focus is content and easy navigation

i want my visitors to come for the content, and return for the new entries, but I do appreciate the criticism

Pretend · 10-13-2003, 11:58 AM

I like it except I think you should move or get rid of the calender. (move let's say, over to the top-right bar thing)
I also think you should move the content part up a bit and make it a bit smaller.

I like pie · 10-13-2003, 12:12 PM

you know, i've been thinking about moving the calender myself... perhaps widen the left and right columns a bit, and move the calender under the left one

i dunno, it's pretty much v.1 of the design, once i make it fully interactive I'm sure it will get a layout overhaul =)

but probably still pretty simple and graphic-less =P

raciviusdawn · 10-13-2003, 12:25 PM

most people won't notice the content unless you have something visually appealing..once you have your audience then you can phase out all the eye candy ya know...

unreal, i'm just a special kind of guy ya know