Hotbotz 2640 New Website

[Qbot2640]

http://hotbotz2640.org/

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

[dcarr]

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.

[synth3tk]

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

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

[treffk]

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.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by treffk

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?

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!

[treffk]

Originally Posted by Billfred

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.)

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. =)

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by Billfred

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!

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!!!

[cadandcookies]

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.

[dcarr]

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!

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by dcarr

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!

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.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

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.

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.

[Qbot2640]

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).

[dcarr]

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.

[cadandcookies]

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.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by sentientfungus

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.

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