Color

[Chaos]

I think that the site layout is much more professional but the colors do not make me think. "Oh wow this is DC's Euro Metal home!"

I think black background with white font would be better.

[Dave]

That's exactly what I was asked to get rid of. Jaxx isn't "just" metal and they wanted a much cleaner look, and even before the redesign was started he told me to get rid of the logo on the front page that said Jaxx was DC's Euro-Metal Home. I will be making a page for each show that will be black with all the logos like the old schedule was so that those of you that really want that will have it, but the majority of the people wanted to get on and see who was playing and move on.

I will certainly listen to anyone's complaints and suggestions but just so you know that the change is what was asked for :-)

[Alex Conti]

Grey isn't a great color to use though I don't think. It's not exciting, metal or not.

[Chaos]

OH NOOOEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!

I guess time moves on. Jaxx is still DC's Euro-Metal home in my heart.

[Dave]

Grey isn't a great color to use though I don't think. It's not exciting, metal or not.

Well, we wanted to get away from black, and white can be blinding when trying to read text and pretty much any other color would be silly. Grey may not be exciting but it is neutral and functional.

But who knows, it may change :-)

[Dave]

OH NOOOEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!

I guess time moves on. Jaxx is still DC's Euro-Metal home in my heart.

Well the shows will still be there :-)

[MetalChris]

Maybe you could do something similar to how http://www.tv.com has it's lights on/off switch.

[DuchessOfDork]

The page isn't quite loading correctly. I'd suggest making it a smaller format, especially the big banner you have at the top. An easy way to do it would be if you created a template in Photoshop, get everything positioned the way you like it, then import the HTML template to Dreamweaver. It will make things much easier for people using different types of browsers.

If you have any questions, I used to teach HTML, so you can PM me any time.

[Dave]

Thanks for the offer, can you tell me what isn't loading correctly? I tested it on my Mac in Safari and Firefox and on the PC in Safari, Firefox and IE and it looks fine in all of them. The banner is so large that it will stretch across the browser window no matter what size monitor or resolution you are at, and the format is done in CSS so that it stretches and shrinks with different sized monitors, I'm trying to get pretty much universal access which is why noo flash and minimal javascript, the CSS degrades fairly well and the site is still usable somewhat if CSS is off. I'm no graphic artist which is another reason I stayed away from Photoshop and exporting to html.

[Dave]

Maybe you could do something similar to how http://www.tv.com has it's lights on/off switch.

I'll work something for that up a bit later, for those diehards that want the black page with all the logos I need to do that 1st.

[DuchessOfDork]

I'm on IE at work, and the banner seems to be stretching my browser and not shrinking to fit. Also  I have to scroll sideways to see all of the updates. Also, the left part of the page isn't loading for me, but that might just be blamed on my computers at work. I forgot to add this, but for a site like this, you might want to use more neutral colors. Right now your colors are kinda pale and pastel-y. Blacks whites and grays would keep your site neutral, while giving you leeway for a snazzy design.

It's a good start on the layout, but I'd suggest getting rid of the visible divider line up top. Working in HTML and CSS is a good choice, but the layout needs to be a defined by the website's design theme. Considering how Jaxx is considered a local favorite hole-in-the-ground type of place, you could think about that when designing an over all look.

If you ever actually need a graphic artist though, let me know.

[Dave]

I'm on IE at work, and the banner seems to be stretching my browser and not shrinking to fit. Also  I have to scroll sideways to see all of the updates. Also, the left part of the page isn't loading for me, but that might just be blamed on my computers at work. I forgot to add this, but for a site like this, you might want to use more neutral colors. Right now your colors are kinda pale and pastel-y. Blacks whites and grays would keep your site neutral, while giving you leeway for a snazzy design.

It's a good start on the layout, but I'd suggest getting rid of the visible divider line up top. Working in HTML and CSS is a good choice, but the layout needs to be a defined by the website's design theme. Considering how Jaxx is considered a local favorite hole-in-the-ground type of place, you could think about that when designing an over all look.

If you ever actually need a graphic artist though, let me know.

Hmm, I think something is wrong with your computer at work, the site IS black and white and gray LOL. IE never does the right thing does it? The overflow is supposed to be hidden, I will seek out an IE fix.

The thing people aren't realizing is that Jay doesn't WANT a hole in the wall feel which is one of the reasons he wanted the DC Euro Metal Home thing gone, he's not getting rid of the metal shows but he wanted a more modern informative site, as I said on the news page, the site is rather plain on purpose, function over looks, although i don't think it looks bad, just plain. If you have any graphics you think might help feel free to hit me up by email.

Thanks :-)
Dave

[DuchessOfDork]

I gotcha, dude.

What I meant was, don't make it look like a hole in the ground, but give it a theme. For example, the Black Cat has a good simple HTML website that has a little theme to it.

http://www.blackcatdc.com/

Here's a website that offers free web templates that you can screw with. If you're on Dreamweaver, you can use any of these and tailor them to make them your own really easily. All you have to do is credit the maker of the template at the bottom of your page, and they're all free to use or mess with.

http://www.freewebtemplates.com/

[fd]

I for one really appreciate the new look. As an amateur web designer/programmer, I really thought the old design was very difficult to read. Frankly it looked a lot like some of the examples found on www.websitesthatsuck.com. The new design is much easier to read. I'll put my two cents in as to further tweaks you might want to consider.
1) Have the page a fixed width (800 px or so) but with an expandable black (or other color) background-easy CSS (add a wrapper around the fixed width div and add some relative positioning). This may help with some IE issues with divs getting pushed beyond the edge (somebody mentioned something like that happening I think-don't you just love IE). Doing so would also keep your design intact and uniform no matter how wide the browser window is stretched or shrunk.

2)Somebody mentioned having an RSS feed. It would be fairly easy (once you get the time-I get that part of it believe me) to write a simple script that would automatically create the xml each time you enter a new band into the calendar or upcoming shows. That way there is no extra data entry.

3) the hyperlinks should be more obvious. Most people expect to see them as another color and underlined. In this case, you already have enough different colored text. Perhaps an icon or button next to band names that have something to click on. It took me a bit to notice that the * meant there was a link present.

4)a search feature (probably already in the works)

5)an alpha listing of all the bands booked with links to the gig date in the calendar (another feature I really like- the calendar. Going to use that script in some of my sites). That might make it easy for some of the people complaining that they couldn't find bands as easily on the new site. Personally, I didn't care for only being able to see logos of bands. I couldn't read half of them, guess I'm showing my age.

Keep up the good work.

[DuchessOfDork]

Those are some really good suggestions. Also, if you're going to change the appearance of the links, make sure that the colors/style you use matches the color/style of the website itself. You could do maybe a variation of gray, just something that will grab people's attention.