thats better now the words are readable

but it is all one color or so it seems your using only a few colors makes it
a soft fisher price smooth looking site no contrast. makes it look like an site that is as about as exciting to look at as fuzzy wallpaper.

i know its your first site and it is good for a first site it has more on it then most first sites do. but making links to pages in construction is a major mistake most people make. because that wastes the viewers time going to a page with nothing on it or looking at a link that has nothing there.

keep working on it you will get a good looking site just remember a few things.

1. don't blind the readers.

2. keep the scrolling of the page as short / small as you can.

3. don't make people hunt for information they want by teasing them with preview links. just put a link up to the page with the info on. if you make a new directory page state that in words by the link that takes you to that new directory.

4.load as many pages as you want on your site just as long as each page shows up fast and is the one wanted by the viewer when they choose that link.

look around the web, at download sites, and forums, and other personel sites, look how many hits they have if they are using a real hit counter.
try to look at why they get so many hits and work it in to your system some how.

the hard part is trying not to fall in to the traps of adding bunches of graphics that dont do anything and are just to look at. and or page tricks because you think the viewers of your site want to see that stuff.

graphics should be used as a logo and as links to your other pages or other sites. if it don't link anywhere it is then needing to be really giving a hard look as to why you have it there.

some use of graphics for site feel is good. but tons of them that don't link and just have one little use, on one part of one page on your site is then, making your site look like a distro site for graphics and that is not good. ( unless it is a distro site )

if you give items on your page that need popup windows it is best to tell the user it will make a popup window or they might kill it with their popup anti advert program.

also don't go heavy on javascripts 2 on a page that run as long as the page is viewed is a limit most should follow.
if you have java script games or programs you can put lots of them on a page just remember the scoll limit most don't like lots of scrolling.

off thumb limit on scrolling is to make the page show up on the screen. then scroll no longer then 2 or 3 times the visable amount of the page when it is first loaded.

that is not always able to be done but it is a good off thumb limit.
most of my messages in this forum break that off thumb limit and i do hear about it from time to time.

junglemonkey wrote: 2. contrast the colors of the fonts from the background color.
example. where your yellow back ground is you have the purple fonts.
you should also do the reverse for the purple background and use yellow fonts on it.

or make a different color in the background of the table, and use a contrasting color for the fonts in the table.
don't go black on white.
it is blinding.
and the same is true if you use black background and white fonts.
that is also hard to read.
if it was important for you to type it then it should be important for us to beable to see it ?

I made the table background constant and I do think it is an improvement, thanks

Thanks for your comments ppl.
I wasn't expecting them, just some fun and tempt a few ppl to have a look at least.

I'm not very artistic so yeah all the images suck, unless I can find the exact thing I'm looking for on the web somewhere I'm stuck with my amaturish attempts at "art"

I'm not sure how I can adjust the fonts to match the background automatically because the table is not fixed (how much text is in it) but the background is but I will see what I can do: It is a good point.

The navigation is "interesting" i didn't know there was a term for it "Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN)"
The instructions should go something like this I suppose:
The 4 left and right arrows should take you to directly related pages.
i.e. MM main in focus left and right are scripts, skins, how to's etc
The up-down and in-out arrows are loosely related
i.e. MM Main in focus up and down in and out should take you to something like my favourite artist(s), Instrments I play, movies with great soundtracks etc.
One will always be reserved as a back navigation.
i.e. if you arrived by clicking 2 o'clock you go back by clicking 8 o'clock very much like orienteering.

The image in the middle of the arrows I would like to generate a random number = random page in the current range available.

Which ever page you start at there should be at least 7 related links to follow. More than three pages (now 4) will help in this area

The news page can also be used as a table of contents I suppose.

It's called Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) and I'm not a fan of it. Users shouldn't have to figure out where a link might take you, it should be clear right away.

i am not voting on it as it is not yet finished.

but for helping you out

1. more then 3 pages would be nice

2. contrast the colors of the fonts from the background color.
example. where your yellow back ground is you have the purple fonts.
you should also do the reverse for the purple background and use yellow fonts on it.

or make a different color in the background of the table, and use a contrasting color for the fonts in the table.
don't go black on white.
it is blinding.
and the same is true if you use black background and white fonts.
that is also hard to read.
if it was important for you to type it then it should be important for us to beable to see it ?

3. instructions for the mind links? and make all mind links work the same on all pages. the mind link at the 2 o clock postion should take you to the same page no matter what page you find the mind links on.

4. if you go to a huge site. make the mindlinks on a page only for them.
such as an index page or table of contents. and have all your other pages return back to that page. makes for easier navigation.
think of your web site as an hotel.
every one has to go to the lobby desk to get any help to go anywhere else in the hotel.

you can also had other directory lobby links to the main one that way.
and have the secondary lobby menus point back to the main one.

there are many ways of doing it but remember too much trickery and people get lost and don't return. like web site transtions. ? boring been there done those. all they do is waste the visiter's time.

Really not bad althru more effective Graphics could be uses and also Arrows that has something should be different in color for easier navigate.

i rated it good/not bad because i did like the overall layout, although it could have used a little bit more "complexity." On the other hand, the main thing that bugged me is that the text did not show up in many of your links when you hovered over the arrows. The idea behind the links is good, and seems to remind me of trixmoto's site, but his version worked much smoother as i actually knew what i was going to, and in yours only a few of the links actually inform me of what I want to find, which could be frustrating as your site becomes more encompassing including a larger collection of links.

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