My First Site Made With Xara

[KeithH]

Hi. This is my first site that I have built with Xara. I originally had it under a different domain name, but changed it to one more suiting for it. It is really a personal site that is a little hobby of mine, and it is an early work in progress; I will be adding much more to it in the future. So far it contains some of my original writings.

I would appreciate feedback and constructive criticism. I am just learning how to use Xara Designer Pro X and also just learning how to make websites, so I would appreciate advice from you.

Thanks for all the help that everyone has given me through this forum

Sincerely,

KeithH

Site Link: www.keithharrierministries.com

[Big Frank]

i may disagree vehemently with the site content, but the design is clean, simple, easy to read - there's no issue with it really. what's important for the site visitor is ease of navigation and legibility. you should perhaps pepper the text with an image here and there to colour it a little, and i find your colour scheme quite cold, perhaps it needs some warmth, orange instead of red, a lighter blue instead of ultramarine, change the background from grey to white - you'll feel you're on a whole different website by just changing two or three colours

one specific observation, you have used the page curl filter on the bottom home page image, it gives the impression that it is a page turn image, either make it so or remove the page curl filter if it serves no useful purpose, remember that site visitors scan a page to look for information identifiers, if a feature is merely decorative, think about whether you need it there at all

[Cloud]

That is a very good site considering it is your first with xara. The one thing I would change is make the slideshow on the home page wider so that it fits in nicely. Also on the contact form, it seems a little small, also have you checked out jotform, it produces better forms and there is no 'powered by'. A lighter background would look better and perhaps change the glossy elements such as the header and footer to more modern ones, flat colours would work far better. Also I would left align the navigation as it would look more professional.

Overall though I like the clean information area with not so many colours or pictures. It is good to see new users of xara who are creating websites, as you know one of the benefits of xara web designer is that you can create stunning websites in a very quick time, so to demonstrate my comments above I have created a home page for you quickly, I think it looks cleaner and more modern and suits the subject of your site. www.sketchprinting.com/keith

Try something like this, you don't necessarily need the slideshow as long as you have a nice image.

[Big Frank]

have to agree with sketch here, that home page is so much warmer and welcoming - you see the difference immediately

[KeithH]

Thanks Big Frank and skech for taking the time to give me advice regarding my site. I really appreciate it.

i may disagree vehemently with the site content, but the design is clean, simple, easy to read - there's no issue with it really. what's important for the site visitor is ease of navigation and legibility. you should perhaps pepper the text with an image here and there to colour it a little, and i find your colour scheme quite cold, perhaps it needs some warmth, orange instead of red, a lighter blue instead of ultramarine, change the background from grey to white - you'll feel you're on a whole different website by just changing two or three colours

one specific observation, you have used the page curl filter on the bottom home page image, it gives the impression that it is a page turn image, either make it so or remove the page curl filter if it serves no useful purpose, remember that site visitors scan a page to look for information identifiers, if a feature is merely decorative, think about whether you need it there at all

Thanks for the advice. I picked the blue and red colors to be symbolic: the red for the blood of Christ and the blue for water, the washing of the word. I was going to add a third yellow color for a third theme color, representing the Christ being the light of the world; but i couldn't figure out where to uses it without making the site congested looking. The symbolism might not be obvious to other people like i thought it would, so i may look into changing the colors like you said, to give it some warmth.

Your right about the curl to the photo. I was trying to learn different features of Xara Designer Pro X, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time that I could curl a photo or any other shape for that matter. But I do need to change it.

[KeithH]

That is a very good site considering it is your first with xara. The one thing I would change is make the slideshow on the home page wider so that it fits in nicely. Also on the contact form, it seems a little small, also have you checked out jotform, it produces better forms and there is no 'powered by'. A lighter background would look better and perhaps change the glossy elements such as the header and footer to more modern ones, flat colours would work far better. Also I would left align the navigation as it would look more professional.

Overall though I like the clean information area with not so many colours or pictures. It is good to see new users of xara who are creating websites, as you know one of the benefits of xara web designer is that you can create stunning websites in a very quick time, so to demonstrate my comments above I have created a home page for you quickly, I think it looks cleaner and more modern and suits the subject of your site. www.sketchprinting.com/keith

Try something like this, you don't necessarily need the slideshow as long as you have a nice image.

Thanks for your advice too. Your absolutely right about widening the slideshow; I couldn't find any photos that were really wide enough though; most of the ones I have were more square. I guess I need to learn how to combine photos or make more advanced graphics myself (Time for me to start learning. lol.)

Thanks for the advice about jotform. I didn't like the 'powered by' on the FormLogix one. I will start looking into that.

Thanks for making the demonstration homepage for me. It looks nice. I do have a question though. How did you make the footer and the navbar to stretch across the full length of the screen; I don't see this setting in the program of the help? I would like to know how to.

Thanks again to both Big Frank and skech for your help.

Sincerely,
KeithH

[ahmedkadora]

the design and the tabs are looking amazing.. but you need to improve the font and the content.

[Big Frank]

One month later and still no changes to the site.

Bad minster. Bad, bad, minister.

[KeithH]

One month later and still no changes to the site.

Bad minster. Bad, bad, minister.

Hi. Big Frank. I've taken a short break from the website. I have been bogged down at work. I am not a minister in the sense of a full-time person doing it for a job. This is just my personal hobby site that I enjoy, and I hope to help others who may read it.

I started adding some content to some internal pages and made some more diagrams; in fact, I posted a question to the wed design threads with a problem with a slide show. So, i have been doing some work here recently.

I do need to work on the form. As far as the home page Nivo slide show, I do need to widen it, but I just don't know how to design a wide photo to work or make a custom graphic yet. So, until I learn more about the program, it will have to do. (I am a real newbie still).

I actually like the overall design I have of the header , navbar, white shadowed content area, and footer; they took me a long time to make and design; plus, they are my own original design, which I like. I might change it if I could figure out how to do a nice full lengh header and footer, but I cannot. Skech did it on his post #3 in this thread, above. He reworked my site and has a full length navbar and footer, but I cannot figure out how to do it.

But I will start doing more to the site, as I learn more. I am trying to add content to internal pages too.

Thanks for all your help

[KeithH]

the design and the tabs are looking amazing.. but you need to improve the font and the content.

Hi. Thanks for the advice. Could you elaborate on what you mean by improving the font and content. Thanks