help please with new website

[sammyboy]

Hi all,

I have decided to take the scary plunge and do my own website, but being a complete novice I'm not sure whether its
ok or not ,so if any one has time could you please take a look and tell me how I can improve it;

thanks PS please be gentle !!

gitechataigne.webs.com

[CSE]

First thing is to remove the background... it is ghastly. Yep that one is a bit blunt, but I could not be any gentler, sorry.

I do not understand the section for up coming events all it shows it when you was booked.
The recent photos section may should just read album? Some of the photos could do with some dressing like the one of the sports net, maybe add some people playing the game?
I do feel you should add some more details about the house.
There a re a few spelling errors dotted around I would suggest a spell check on all the website.

For those of you who wish to see the site click this link.
http://gitechataigne.webs.com/

[Don Ciccio]

I liked it over all, pleasant composition and well laid out.

However, the following things i noticed in this order and offer them back as food for thought:

1 - Colour of text in top rh box - purple on green is not a very readable colour combo, and I feel the font (comic sans Italic?) jarrs a bit with the otherwise consistent Garamond/Arial elsewhere on the site. I have used Jasmine (font) in my revamp image below

2 - I love the top picture, but feel that a little more sky would balance the photo a bit more in its setting? Maybe its cut off to save space? Also, the bark background dominates the edges a bit too much for my liking, how about an olive to complement the purple you have used.

3 - Come come, dont be so modest! You can think of a more appealing title for the main introduction than 'GENERAL description'. How about 'Relax at Gite Chataigne' with 'Accommodation' & 'Activities' as sub headings?

4 - Menu text, Some capitalised, some in lower case? Main text, Gite Chataigne not capitalised... Niggly typos? You have a well laid out site, don't give visitors the opportunity to nit pick your grammar/typing skills!

5 - Main text, Sentence starts abruptly and the spaces after full stops are a bit hit and miss. The actual content seems great but along with the list beneath it could do with a bit more order/layout to make it read more easily. Lake text lacking capitalisation and IMO is only really half a sentence.

6 - The space on the lower half of the page around the lake picture seems to be wasted. could you resize thepicture and place a 'Further Afield' bullet point list here ? Or could you crop the lake picture and stretch it across the gap to complete the lower half of the page neatly?

I have reworked some of what I have said into my reworked front page for you to consider. I apprecaite you are not building a site just for me, but hope it gives a flavour of what i am suggesting:


I think you also might need to give a little more order to some of the other pages and decide on what is bolded and normal text. I find the bolded text domates the 'facilities' page, yet the local area page is pleasant and easy to read. Member barbersdrove said on another thread here ' i hear what you say but I'm deafened by the way you say it' - and I've been guilty of that in the past on my site. Less bolding will help the facilities page appear more legible.

One other thing i noticed, on the contact for page, i think you have some rogue coding '<br>' appearing on the form fields?



I hope that all helps, and hope that it's not too cutting a critique of the site - I know how long they take (having just undergone a remodelling of mine, only to get just as much work again from LMH Members suggestions post review!

All the best
DC

[lorca]

Well it looks like you have a very nice gite, but I think maybe your website isn´t doing it justice.

I agree with most of what casasantoestevo says, I think the background is unattractive and a fussy and really doesn´t set off your property. With the exterior photos - could you take some with blue sky? They all look a bit washed out. Also the guestbook is a bit strange - normally you´d expect to be able to read comments from previous guests here, if you don´t have any yet, best leave it out till you do.

Oh - when I started looking the home page was purple - it seems to have changed now. Not sure what happened

[Windy]

At the bottom of the home page you have

Add your main content here - text, photos, videos, addons, whatever you want!
title

Add your main content here - text, photos, videos, addons, whatever you want!

And it's all VERY gloomy colour wise

[sammyboy]

thanks everyone for your replies, I was hoping it was'nt going to be this bad so back to the drawing board!!

thanks again for your input

[CSE]

Sammy it is not so bad...the changes suggested are quite small as you have a good basic layout.

Lorca..I knew there was a much better way of say what I had to say about the background, but I was not having such a good day that day.

[sammyboy]

hi casasantoestevo

no problem we all have bad days,anyway I have worked on my site so see what you think now.

http://gitechataigne.webs.com/

[CSE]

Had quick look just before going off to help cook the evening meal..read short of time.
First glance it looks better, but the first page has a different background image to the others. Which one are you going to use?

[Austria]

Yes stick with one background throughout the site.

Rather saying sleeps 8 - 10 say sleeps 4 -10, great for couples and families! Has a wider appeal.

Looking at doing a blog, to feed visitors to your website? Keep on in there.

Good luck with the bookings.

[Jimbo]

... back to the drawing board!!

Sorry but back to the drawing board with your photographs, I'm afraid. Suggest that you first look at websites of long-term members here for inspiration and guidance and google for simple technical tutorials on picture editing. Until you understand what a publicity photograph should look like - both technically and creatively - you will not be able to do your property justice. Or maybe hire a local pro photographer for a day?

Good luck. It may seem like a mountain to climb but the first few steps are always the hardest.

Jim

[Don Ciccio]

sammyboy,

Dont take it badly. Some of the best advice I have had is from Jimbo. Take a fresh look at some other sites as reccommended by Jimbo and see how they use photographs to positive effect.

DC

[Jimbo]

sammyboy, Dont take it badly.

No, don't take it badly or be offended. It's only my opinion and you may decide that I'm talking nonsense.

My opinion is based on my idea that somebody needs more than Dreamweaver and a digital camera to produce an effective website to promote their property. The building blocks are coherent spell-checked text and attractive technically sound photographs. Technology has given the power to individuals to take over much of the stuff that was once the preserve of professionals (who'd spent many years learning their trade), but, with that power, goes the responsibility of determining if we're up to the task. Or whether we need to do a bit of basic research and study, before we dip our toe into the water.

Jim

[Don Ciccio]

Jimbo is right, if you feel out of your depth, get down to your library (while we still have them) and see if they have any dummies guides to photoshop/paintshop pro or dreamweaver etc. Thats what I did.

My sister has also been looking into taking a combined photography and photoshop nightschool course to help with picture taking and editing pics for our site.

All ideas

[sammyboy]

Thanks for the feed back, I think you are right about the photos,so apart from that would you say its not too bad?