Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

http://hotbotz2640.org/

Still very much a work in progress, but comments and suggestions are welcome!

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

I think the design really captures your team spirit. At a first glance though, it's a bit overwhelming and perhaps doesn't convey the best message.

Remember, your site is not just for your team - it is for potential sponsors, mentors, and members. Something with animated tickers and blisteringly bright colors might be off-putting to some who are expecting a more "professional" tone.

That's not to say your site shouldn't have personality - it absolutely should! Just find that balance :)

Personal note: I have a strong distaste for Comic Sans. Times New Roman is also a bit bland for a modern site. Look into using @font-face in CSS to use cool custom fonts.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

That's, uh.... that's color.

I'll have to come back to this when I have some time.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

First glance the pink is difficult to look at for long in my opinion. I understand that this is your team color but it becomes a little overbearing. I would look into possibly flipping the color scheme. Making the pink black and and black pink. Message me if you would like an example of a team's website who has similar team colors. Just for ideas on how to possibly tone back the color. How does everyone else feel on this issue?

Also the color scheme should translate to all pages. It makes it look more professional and clean.

I love the fact you have a button to register in STIMs for team members. It makes it easy for them to get directly to the page.

The "click here to contribute" link takes you back to the "about our robot" page.

On the "about our robot" page some of the text is difficult to read on top of the photo. It looks really cool but just a bit difficult to read.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

It didn't faze me nearly as much...and everyone does black. (We favor garnet over black for the same reason, though even we have our limits.)

Also, nice having your titles right there in front. ;)

Keep refining and working at it!

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Maybe I'm just a bit weird any bright color not just specifically pink(lots of white does it also) gives me a headache when I look at it on a computer. I get a headache from someone looking at me wrong though. That's why I asked for other peoples input on my opinion. So thanks for giving your opinion too. =)

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

We've got plans to create a "PINK ALLIANCE" page with all our buddies from throughout FRC...look for the "Crazy Chickens" to be represented there soon!!!

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

One other method for making the website a bit more refined might be using a more pastel version of that pink for the background-- much easier on the eyes. If you haven't already, looking at other excellent team sites, such as 254's or 1816's.

I haven't seen much of your team's style, other than your website, but if you want to use bright colors on your website, I would recommend using a different, less severe color for the text background-- then you can have your bright pink on the screen, but also be more readable. I have some other things I'd like to mention, but I'm short on time right now, so I'll add some more this evening.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Consider switching to a Content Management System. Currently you have a bunch of static HTML pages that don't follow the same style, don't have cohesive navigation, etc. Using a CMS will make your life way easier. You can still create your own theme to represent your team style.

Virtually all of the best team sites I've seen are using WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or similar.

At a minimum, consider using a CSS framework like Boostrap or Foundation to clean up the design. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look like you're using CSS at all!

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

They're not.
Source: The source

Including a CSS file (and the navigation header) across every page on your site can make a huge world of a difference. Then it won't feel like I'm navigating between thirty different websites.

I'd recommend reading up on some basics of web design (preferably written after 2006). There are plenty of websites that explain the simplest elements needed to create a good website. I'll try to find some of the sites I used and/or still use.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Absolutely look at Bootstrap or Foundation and walk through some introductory tutorials. You'll be amazed how awesome you can get things looking with a minimal amount of work.

Smashing Magazine is one of my favorite places to read about web design, their articles are well-articulated for all experience levels.

TutsPlus is also a great site. There are countless others.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Thanks everyone for the comments...we appreciate your time and insight.

We will be working to make our site a more cohesive presentation as we continue...but right now it is what best serves our needs. Our team made great use of a Facebook Group page last season for communication and sharing info, but that has fallen out of favor, and we are trying to find a vehicle to electronically pull us all together. While we do understand that the site is intended for a bigger audience than just our team, right now the chief audience is our team, school, and families.

We've checked out a bunch of other team websites, including all of the ones mentioned in the above replies...our team has a much different dynamic than those sites seem to purvey. We sorry so many people seem to have a problem with our pink - but that is not negotiable. We're the Hotbotz...not the "Warmbotz"! We want the site to be fun, above all - and so many of the other team sites seem way too bland.

Again - thanks for the help. We'll try to incorporate as many of the recommendations as we can (other than changing the pink, of course).

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Congratulations on what you've done so far, looking forward to seeing it progress.

In my eyes, the pink isn't really as much an issue as the other design aspects that need some modernization and improvement. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, I'm sure the other posters would be happy to help as well.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Yeah, sorry-- like I said, I don't know much about your team's style outside of that website.

Like David said-- the colors are sort of secondary overall to just having a modern interface for your site-- there's a hugely distracting gap between the cool pixel-art style graphics you have and the flat colors elsewhere on the site, not to mention the modern video player (I do love that you're using Vimeo), which really clashes stylistically with the rest of the page. \

There's also that "floating in space" feel of all the graphical elements on the page-- when I highlight I can see that the images on the bottom as a whole line up, but they don't appear to when you're just looking at the page.

As I mentioned before, if you haven't already, looking at other websites that have won awards can be a very, very useful tool to use. Here's a thread that has a list of winners . In particular, you may want to take a look at the following teams' websites:
Team 987 The High Rollers
Team 1114 Simbotics
Team 1429 Team KAOS
Team 1816 The Green Machine

You layout isn't entirely off, but the page as a whole feel a little bit, I'm not sure the best to phrase it, but it looks like the '90s. A website is one of the many public faces a team presents, so finding the balance between a professional look at personal flair is a difficult balancing act-- my team knows that from experience, transferring from a rather unique design that was made completely unmanageable by the fact that the guy that coded it graduated without a clear replacement, to what we have now, which is still very, very much under work, and will be going through a long series of adjustments and alterations to be an appropriate face for our team.

Best of luck in all your endeavors.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

This kinda sums it up. You have an awesome start to the site, if you use Bootstrap to add in a consistent nav bar, page width/grid alignment, and modern fonts & UI elements, your site will go from good to great. And you can keep the pink :)

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

The pink really, honestly, wouldn't be so bad as a background and across the entire header. But there should be a different background for the text areas.

I know you mentioned your site was created to meet the needs of your team first, but I hope you come away from this thread with at least some of our suggestions. One that I view as important whether it's an intranet for a Fortune 500 company or a team's public website, is to have common navigation throughout the entire site. It doesn't even have to look the same (although that's strongly encouraged), you just need something somewhere on the page so that people can navigate between pages.

It doesn't look like you're using PHP or any other scripting language, so I guess you could try the suggestion here, although it'll only work if your web server was configured to support it:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/ssi/a/aa052002a.htm

Essentially, you'd make a file "header.html" and just include it at the top of each page.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Interesting site. There are somethings that could be changed, but I think it looks pretty decent. Are the students designing it? Kudos to them if they are.
I know you guys probably won't want to do this, but I'm telling you anyway, you should try to tone it down a little and make it a bit more professional (better color scheme, less "flashy"ness to it.)

I also suggest that you try to incorporate your top sponsors into your header or homepage. This makes them happy and helps provide better visibility to them. Feel free to check out our website for more ideas as well (www.teamneutrino.org). Feel free to contact me or anyone else I'm sure if you guys have any questions.

Good luck!
David

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

OK...big changes made, mostly based on everyone's input. Team is having lots of fun with this, and work continues...but please check it out again everyone, and let us know what you think.

http://hotbotz2640.org/

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Huge improvement! You've literally brought your web design forward at least 10 years!

A few quick suggestions:

• Footer should be persistent across all pages
• Header logo should be consistent across all pages
• Font/background contrast is a little off. Consider choosing colors that contrast more with the pink and dark-grey background (white could work, but play with it and see what is easiest to read & aesthetic)

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

1000% better! Good job. :)

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

I -LOVE- your sponsorship video!

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

Thanks! That was done completely by one member of the team during the summer before her sophomore year. I'll pass on the complement!

Where in the Burgh is your team...I'm originally from the Irwin area. We really wanted to come to the Pittsburgh Regional this year, but it is the same week as our NC event.

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

WOW! 5000% improvement! Are you guys on Wordpress now then? Kinda looks that way :) Although what I said before (Including your top sponsors on each page) would be nice, you don't have to do it. Also if you lost some of the pink in the footer (from the bottom), and continued the background, that would make the page look a bit nicer, but again, you don't have to do any of this, just some friendly comments :)

Happy Holidays!
-David

Re: Hotbotz 2640 New Website
 

A quick look at the code reveals that no, they are not using wordpress.