Cleanup's first web design project

[Cleanup]

rokema.com (www.rokema.com) is my first hired web project - it's my parents company, so I worked for a new PC (:D), but otherwise, my parents would've paid thrice the value of the computer to some local schmuck graphics artist who uses Microsoft Frontpage.

Suggestions? Comments?

The silhouettes were made because the photos were terrible. We'll probably nab some photographer to put the products in a studio and do it properly someday, but the silhouettes look nice anyways.

What I need is a good DHTML/Java script for loading a random image the advertisement bar (the picture with the sunset). I'll be making many of those advertisement bars to advertise products, services, etc. Attached is an example.

Constructive criticism is great.

Made using Photoshop CS, an old digital camera and Dreamweaver MX '04. I also designed the company logos.

[xzxzzx]

Looks good, Cleanup. I think the silhouettes work fine. My biggest suggestion is to make sure every page is valid.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rokema.com%2F

There's also some minor things I'd recommend changing for a more polished look:

The tex on both of these doesn't render evenly in either Opera or Firefox:

http://www.rokema.com/products/gen_gas.htm
http://www.rokema.com/products/winches.htm

The a:visited color on the "Terms of Use" and "Copyright Information" links on the bottom make it very hard to read.

I also think the phrase "Engine Drawings" seems somewhat ameturish. I'd recommend "Engine Diagrams".

[Cleanup]

Yeah, the xml file that doesn't link correctly was a file created by Microsoft Word because I was too lazy to splice out all the pictures in the manual. It's a generated file - I'll delete it someday.

I think the text in the copyright bar is fine to read as long as the links haven't already been clicked. Besides, anybody with half a brain who sees the colour difference will hover their cursor over it.

"Engine drawings" - I was just following the old website, which, unfortunately, made my eyes bleed. It's fine for our purposes - it's quite the small company.

I have no clue how to fix the text for Opera, Firefox or other browsers. Looks fine in IE, which is most common.

[Namelessv1]

The minimalistic, vector look works very well. :up:

[xzxzzx]

Originally posted by Cleanup
Yeah, the xml file that doesn't link correctly was a file created by Microsoft Word because I was too lazy to splice out all the pictures in the manual. It's a generated file - I'll delete it someday.
I don't know what you're talking about here.

Originally posted by Cleanup
I think the text in the copyright bar is fine to read as long as the links haven't already been clicked.
Um, yeah. That's what I said, isn't it?

Originally posted by Cleanup
Besides, anybody with half a brain who sees the colour difference will hover their cursor over it.
Or a web designer with half a brain could fix it so they wouldn't need to...

Originally posted by Cleanup
"Engine drawings" - I was just following the old website, which, unfortunately, made my eyes bleed. It's fine for our purposes - it's quite the small company.
Why are you defending the site? If you don't like my suggestions, fine. You really don't have to tell me why things were such-and-such way, or why it's really not a problem because the user can get around it.

Users can read poorly designed sites too, you know. There isn't anything functionally wrong with the site, as far as I can tell.

It's not hard to make the changes, anyway.
.style1 a:visited {
color: black; /* This handles the link coloring */
}

I believe the text un-evenness can be fixed by fixing the errors in the source. See:

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rokema.com%2Fproducts%2Fgen_gas.htm

Originally posted by Cleanup
I have no clue how to fix the text for Opera, Firefox or other browsers. Looks fine in IE, which is most common. You're right that IE is most common, by far. However, if IE renders the page one way, and Opera and Firefox both consistantly render incorrectly it the other way, you can be damn sure that your site isn't very standard.

Anyway, the site still looks damn good, particularly for a small company. Overall, a very good job.

[lectrospin]

people still using ie deserve web sites that dont render properly, its the only way they'll learn ;)

Anyway, the sites looks ok to me in opera 7.5. An idea may be to indict who designed the site somewhere on it, its good advertsing for future work. Its a good site so put your name on it.

[InvisableMan]

tell opera and firefox to standardize. IE is most common. use it's parser. i do not cater websites i build to opera and firefox.

[xzxzzx]

Originally posted by InvisableMan
tell opera and firefox to standardize. IE is most common. use it's parser. i do not cater websites i build to opera and firefox. Opera and Firefox are standardized. Ever heard of the W3C? You know, the organization charged with maintaining various web standards, including HTML and CSS? (http://www.w3.org/Consortium/)

By the way, I hate you now.