My website

**Anime12478** · 28th May 2005, 03:07 AM

I am making a website right now dealing with my two passions, video games and Kendo. Would you guys mind taking a look and just tell me of things that I could add or do differently? Don't expect too much though. It's not all that visually appealing and the content is quite small, but it should increase since I seem to have all the time in the world during summer vacation. As a note, I am learning HTML while I am doing this site so I'm not that knowledgable yet.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~cmgeorge - here's the link to my site. And thanks in advance.

**samurai999** · 28th May 2005, 03:15 AM

Originally Posted by Anime12478

I am making a website right now dealing with my two passions, video games and Kendo. Would you guys mind taking a look and just tell me of things that I could add or do differently? Don't expect too much though. It's not all that visually appealing and the content is quite small, but it should increase since I seem to have all the time in the world during summer vacation. As a note, I am learning HTML while I am doing this site so I'm not that knowledgable yet.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~cmgeorge - here's the link to my site. And thanks in advance.

Purdue huh? They have a really good mechanical and aero eng dept and a couple of my friends got masters degrees from there. Anyways, you need pics pics and more pics.. Otherwise people will usually not look at it.

Tim

**Anime12478** · 28th May 2005, 03:57 AM

I'm actually there for Aeronautical Enginnering. I'll add some pictures as soon as I read up on how to actually put them on. I hope to have it visually appealing sometime soon.

**asian_knight** · 28th May 2005, 04:46 AM

I think blogs work quite great if you want to ramble about kendo or your other interest. Check out the link at my sig, theres a link to other kendokas that are i this forum too.

**samurai999** · 28th May 2005, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by Anime12478

I'm actually there for Aeronautical Enginnering. I'll add some pictures as soon as I read up on how to actually put them on. I hope to have it visually appealing sometime soon.

AWESOME! I have a MS in Aero astro and BS in Mechanical/Aero. Good stuff good stuff. Well i liked structures and fluids when i was in undergrad.. Maybe you'll like them too.. Then I got interested in controls when i was going for masters.

Tim

**joekc6nlx** · 28th May 2005, 07:24 AM

The first major step in making a website is actually starting it. You've done that, so everything else is going to be icing on the cake (I'm getting hungry thinking about THAT metaphor).

I am just learning HTML, although I don't do my coding directly in HTML, I use FrontPage, but I'm going to start learning how to use DreamWeaver.

My recommendations would be that you have a catchy "main page", and then links to other pages on the main page. A pic of yourself (with and without bogu), link to your dojo, maybe pictures of the dojo and sensei. You don't have to have Flash and ActiveX controls on your website, just something that catches the eye, is appealing (to yourself and your visitors) and conveys the message you want to say about yourself, school, kendo, whatever you want.

Looking good for a start, though.

**Denker** · 28th May 2005, 08:19 AM

I'm not that knowledgable with Kendo yet, but I do know somewhat about web design:

Flash and Java can really be used to spice up a page. Java is a royal pain to learn though, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you like programming, or have a lot of patience. Flash is pretty easy and fun to use, and can allow you to create good looking buttons and backgrounds, maybe even an intro movie if you feel like it. Problem is it's a rather expensive program.

You definitely want to have color on a webpage. It makes it easier for the eyes and more memorable. Harsh colors like bright orange or red don't work well, it's better to work with light pastel-like colors that draw attention to the text, and not to themselves.

You can do some neat thing with div tags, helps with organization and design.

Most of that stuff is pretty complicated, and leads to headaches. DreamWeaver is a great program to use since you can easily do complicated things, and it codes it for you. But unless you're willing to shell out some money for it, or have access to it, it's not really an option.

If you're just going to keep it nice and simple, probably a good idea if you're learning HTML, you still have quite a bit to work with. I'd recommend not having too many pictures or links so as not to confuse or overwhelm a viewer. Also, centering the headers <h1> etc, is visually appealing compared to everything being at the left of the page. Organization is really appealing for a webpage, so make sure to organize things so that they make sense.

Whatever you do, don't use marquee or blink tags.

Good luck and have fun with the wonderful world of HTML!

- Matt

**Denker** · 28th May 2005, 08:34 AM

Oh yes! For class I did something neat with a website that you might like to use as a gimmick. I used an iframe tag ( http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_iframe.asp ) along with a div tag to create a cool effect where I had a page that had different pages appear within a section of the page. I used it to put a multi-part interview in. It created a neat effect without complicated programs. Here's a neat example of what you can do: ( http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit....tryhtml_iframe ). The only real drawback is that some older browsers don't support iframe, which could be a problem.

Have fun with playing around with that; it's another easy way to make your web page look good!

- Matt

**LarsCW** · 28th May 2005, 08:58 AM

I use Dreamweaver MX for my website http://lmaoland.com was a silly idea I had one day.

Dreamweaver has a really nice tutorial website which would be perfect for this in my opinion and if I am not mistaken you can download a demo from the marcomedia website.

In dreamweaver you can work in code modus but also in pagebuilder modus which would be nice to swich in to learn the code.

**Anime12478** · 28th May 2005, 10:13 AM

If I were still at school, I could use Dreamweaver. But for now, I'm just using Notepad for all of my coding. I thought I had Microsoft Frontpage, but it's nowhere to be found on my computer

Thanks for all the suggestions. They are REALLY appreciated.

**LarsCW** · 29th May 2005, 10:31 PM

I have tryed Frontpage but I don't like it.

There are ofcourse more programs like Dreamweaver, Frontpage and such.

**mystic_kendoka** · 30th May 2005, 01:43 AM

try learning 'frames' from somewhere, its quite simple and makes things look a lot nicer!

**nikolaj** · 30th May 2005, 01:57 AM

myeah, if ur gonna use a program to build your site, don't use frontpage, it's not that handy and frankly, most frontpage-sites are just foogly...
Dreamweaver is ok I guess... (never used it myself, but I've seen if before, you can do some good stuff with it...)

Personally, I do think a good layout would make your site 10 times better than it is ^^
(not that it's a bad start, just a little black/white...)

**h2o** · 30th May 2005, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by Denker

Flash and Java can really be used to spice up a page.

But mostly, it makes it stink. Java should be used only for applets that actually require a strong programming language. Small applets that let you test certain laws on physics etc are ok. Using Java for visual effects only is never, ever, ever right.

Flash is ok, but should be avoided if not neccessary becasue of your very cool idea.

CSS is capable of doing a fantastic work on design and eccefts, so you rarely need to use anything except that. Perhaps a litle javascript if neccessary.