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Not support just looking for advice from the Pro's. My site

Not support just looking for advice from the Pro’s. My site is maybe 60% done as far as layout and down to details. However it still does not look right to me. Way to much white space around the site. Not sure if i should darken it up some or what. If anyone has any tips i would love to hear them and any criticism.

If you would take a few minutes and visit and give me your honest and helpful opinions i would be more then happy. I need to work out permanent image sizes and gallery layouts as post feature images are driving me crazy, just no way to control them that i can see..

http://www.sports-guys.com

Tue, 5 Jan 2016 5:38:09
  • voltaicrose
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Just a few notes. Site looks good. Need a strong above the fold message to entice people to join. I would get rid of the bread crumbs at least on the front page (where it says home since it is repeated in the menu). I did a screen capture so see attached.

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

  • Ash
    • Code Norris

    Hello @George Halstead

    The site looks good to me. I am not a design guy though, but like @voltaicrose I agree that maybe you should remove the page name – Home from homepage and reduce the white space in there.

    I will also leave this open for opinion from other members.

    Have an awesome day!

    Cheers

    Ash

  • SqueakyOx
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Hi George,

    Just a few pointers from me:

    1. Logo – perhaps design a nice looking logo or even a wordstyled version so that the user can identify the page from.

    2. Color background – a darker background would make the white middle section pop better

    3. Social Icons – you haven’t connected them all, so if you don’t need all of them, disable them for a cleaner look

    4. Widgets – your widgets on the right are forming into 2 columns on my chrome browser – taking up 50% for the middle section, i suggest you clean up the widgets?

    5. Footer Text – some of them are in black, and doesn’t show, so that makes it hard to read

    6. Top and Bottom Navigation links – perhaps some of them are redundant?

    Good luck!!

    Cheers,

  • Jeremy
    • WordPress Enthusiast

    I quite like the visual simplicity of either tiled card layouts or very wide images and no distracting side bars (wpmu does this pretty well). I’m looking at the wide no distraction style for our next own site update because I think it makes the reading experience much more comfortable and forces focus on the relevancy of information.’

    Using multiple columns and having social buttons and recent posts and events calendar are all good ideas except they are put into themes by developers not designers I’m sure with no thought for what will convert people to readers/buyers/members. Especially considering the prevalence of mobile browsing all that stuff just clutters.

    eg

    wide and in one or two column chunks

    http://tokokoodemo.us/kabari/news/

    http://demo.major-themes.com/norway/

    tiled

    http://vervethemes.com/demos/semantic/

    main column / minor column

    http://themes.themegoods2.com/grandblog/demo/

  • George Halstead
    • Flash Drive

    The 2 column widgets was something i was trying for a different look and never was sold on it after i did it. I have 3 different home pages and think i am going to go with a single column as mentioned by you. The social icons i added are not linked anywhere yet as i just wanted to get the layout down. Same as the posts. Trying different post layouts to see if i can get the gallery right.

    I want a gallery that has one image showing and when clicked it brings up the lightbox with the rest of the images. Not sure how to achieve that though. I just finished my logo but have not uploaded it yet as i am including it in my category feature images as well so the feature images will all be a single size.

    I never noticed the footer widget stext color until now, great eye friend. The top and bottom navigation are exactly the same just for main navigation but perhaps i can use the footer navigation in another way.

  • George Halstead
    • Flash Drive

    Thank you for the three demos and all look great with very different layouts and they made your points very well. That “Grand Blog” theme was the one i really like.

    I forgot just how much goes into a site. Just getting to a point where you feel comfortable submitting and ready for visitors. Been a long lay off for me and i think i blacked out the more tedious development side. LOL

    I think i will try for the minimal look on post pages as they just look to busy to me. Confusing to a point. I think in the end i will go for a main page with a single or no side bars. Use a single sidebar in posts.

    The final post template will have much more text, bios, bits of info on all folks in their perspective images etc. Hopefully i can get to where i have a single image that when clicked will open the lightbox gallery. I like the tiled mosaic as long as i can keep the images at around 150 X 150.

  • George Halstead
    • Flash Drive

    If anyone does know of a way to have a single image from the gallery react on a click to open the entire gallery in a lightbox please share with me. I see no choices for that when creating the galleries.

    Also Thank you friends for the helpful tips. Was very kind of you to take your time to view and share your thoughts.

  • motivatewellness
    • Site Builder Child of Zeus

    Consider going full-width on the home page slider if possible. I really like Slider Revolution for interactive and responsive sliders.

    On ‘Featured’ page the recent posts in the right sidebar needs some padding to prevent the text hitting the edge.

    Get rid of the “Elegant Themes” and “WordPress” links from the bottom section.

  • George Halstead
    • Flash Drive

    Thank you for your time friend. I am taking and implementing most of the ideas shared here. Is amazing to me how others see a site and the vastness of ideas. Is one reason i think so much of this community. The honesty, experience and how helpful fellow members are. I know some folks think the internet is a huge place but you can find comfort and friendly help if you search. I do thank you for your opinion and tips as i do from everyone who has posted here. Means a lot to me and it is appreciated greatly.

  • George Halstead
    • Flash Drive

    Friend just to get back to you on the Gallery i chose. I picked the Huge IT gallery as i like the layout options and features. I thought i would get away from the NextGen progression of needing to make albums, categories etc but no i guess that is typical for them all. In the end Huge IT seemed right for me. If you have any interest and would like to see the backend run for future reference just let me know and i will extend access so you can look through it all.