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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Bay Area -USA
    Posts
    1,740

    Rate my template.

    Hey everyone,

    I made a new template and I wanted some feedback on it.

    Tell me what ya think. Thanks

    http://www.blogyourself.net/downloads/volknet-v4.jpg
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  2. #2
    1. Large Header area. The header area (from the top, down to the navigation) is 275px in height. This is half of the screen on an 800x600 resolution. You may not be building for that res, but regardless, it's still a lot of real estate even on a 1024. I would recommend bringing the "Volknet.com Web Hosting Provider" down into the blue area of the header. You could move the servers down a bit, or move the "You small business..." down enough to make room. You can also kill a lot of the margin you have above and below the navigation.

    2. The Nav. The navigation looks a little off aligned to the left. If it were mine, I would center the nav perhaps by putting the text links on one bar rather than the buttons (which are not wide enough to fill from right to left). In fact, you could even fill the space with the "Members Login" button.

    3. Testimonial (What customers are saying). This is taking up a lot of real estate. It's much wider than it needs to be. I would make it just as wide as the "Your small business web hosting provider" section above and to the right of it. I would then cut off the testimonial with a "..." and a "read more" button. This way, you made it thinner (left-right) without making it taller.

    4. Blue blue blue. The site is pretty plain. It's blue and white with text all over the place. It's not horrible, but it's a bit monotonous. I would consider not using the blue section headers as much. Fr example, for the "what customers are sayng" section, try making it a lighter blue, or even another color all together. Or, perhaps using different colors for the sections at the bottom (Personal sites, ecommerce sites, corporate sites). Maybe use green headers for them, or some other color.

    5. Start Here - Step 1 section. Two things about this section...

    5a. If you are a hosting company (and hence someone who would purchase this template), the domain registration is not something that will be used by every customer of theirs. I would imagine that providing hosting is the main focus. Something to consider.

    5b. If this is step 1, where is step 2? Of course we know that if you register a domain name, then step 2 might be to setup/purchase hosting --- but there is no step 2 section. If someone needs to know that domain registration is the first step - what happens after the register the domain? Will they then know what to do? We are assuming they needed to be told that step 1 was registration, so it probably should not be assumed they would know what step 2 is.

    The point is, it might be confusing. If it were mine, I would rename that section "Domain registration" or "Get your domain name here!", etc. "Start Here - Step 1" implies you are going to walk them through a process.

    6. The competition. Templates for hosting companies... there are TONS of them out there. This template would be competing against many many other templates. Overall, without going into more details, I think the template needs some spicing up in order to compete. It doesn't have to be flashy like many of them are, but it needs to be a bit more than ordinary. Two things I would consider are spicing up the header a litte, and using more image based buttons (for example, in the navigation and the buttons at the bottom of the site for those sections) - everything is text on the template - try giving some of those fonts some style.


    Good luck with it
    Something witty here...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Bay Area -USA
    Posts
    1,740
    Wow! Thank you so much for your detailed input!! I really appreciate it.
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  4. #4
    No problem

    Heh, funny thing is, I didn't start my review with the usual, "Let's see here..."

    Oh well
    Something witty here...

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