• Hi. Not too experinced with site design etc. Would appreciate some advice on making my site look more interesting and user-friendly. Would love some feedback on any other issues that need attention. It actually started out as a static website before I moved it to wordpress.
    https://www.menopauselifestyle.com
    Please be as frank as you like. Thanks a lot for your time.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Ok, let’s see…

    I like the font, the spacing, the shades of blue, the green tag at the bottom…

    I try to be really mean next ??

    It looks like a fruit salad. Are you aiming at a heavy blue or a light green look? I like the green, white and light blue elements. They give a fresh and light look. But when you combine those with the heavy, dark blue and purple… ouch. In my opinion these two color worlds do not fit together. This breaks the coherence, the structure is lost, and the page becomes difficult to read. Maybe you could keep the green elements of the sidebar, but that second header/menu is a little bit too much. It is actually the headers/menus that I find most troubling. There’s too much stuff up there. Simplify.

    You also use two types of lists: numbered and bulleted. Choose one. Simplify.

    The green element at the bottom right corner seems to work with this blue theme. But what’s that green line slightly above it? Or the “Older entries” graphics? In my opinion there’s too many sorts of colours there. And the blue striped lines or “older entries” are not found *anywhere* else. Don’t use something just once. Try to apply similar looks throughout the page. Simplify.

    The purple menubar changes colour in the middle, and there’s a strange “white well” at the bottom of the page. Simplify.

    The content matters. If it’s interesting, then it is. I am not capable of evaluating the contents of this site, though. Not my field of expertise.

    If you want to make it more appealing, then add some polls. Polls that are interesting. Forget about information there. Ask questions, that members WANT to answer and read. The democracy2 plugin is one way of achieving polls. Recommended.

    If your page contains enough information, and if you manage to organize it’s regular updating, then it could benefit from a forum, too. Creating forums is difficult, though. You need to get a fair amount of active members right in the beginning, or the forum will die even before it was born.

    Oh, the footer is nice dark blue. Why not the header?

    Thread Starter jadeb

    (@jadeb)

    Thank you lost in network. I was smiling all through because I really asked for it! Will get to work ASAP fiddling with the theme. It’s a free theme so I used it pretty much as is. Spot on about the dark blue for the header. The white well- made the theme a bit wider so forgot to adjust the width of the bottom as well. Will do. Was also considering moving my feed button to the header. Good idea? Thanks a million for the flattery before the butt-kick. Makes it easier to swallow the medicine. Have a great day.
    PS. 1)Is it better to align images in posts to the left or to the right? 2) Should you try and make them the same size throughout you blog to make it look more uniform? 3) how do I get rid of the border around my images from my style sheet?

    I think nice graphics in your header will help too.. ??

    Thread Starter jadeb

    (@jadeb)

    Hi gandacious. Thanks for dropping by and for your suggestion. Will be doing a lot of experimenting over the next few days. Have a good day.

    Came back to see what other people think.

    A few more thoughts…

    The dual coloured “Recent Entries” and “Else Where” look beautiful.

    You could consider using some javascript plugin, that would float the sidebar (vertically), and make it follow when one scrolls up and down the page. Try “Sidebar slider”: https://aranea.zuavra.net/index.php/27/

    I am using it and it works well. You need to add a few hooks in your theme files (at least one in the header and one in each moving part), but it isn’t too complicated for a non-newbie. I have installed it on (both columns of my two column) sidebar, and on the main content too. On the other hand, leaving out these kinds of tricks yields simple and calm pages. I cannot tell if the slider would actually improve the page or not, but it’s worth a try.

    Thread Starter jadeb

    (@jadeb)

    I’ve changed to a new theme. The other one was a bit bright (my other themes have been a bit dull/boring!) so I thought I’d go for something a bit quieter. Thanks for all your advice people, Lost in Network: I shall remember you forever. Thanks. I have “Simplify” engraved on my brain! Decided against the sidebar slider thingamygig. The last site I saw it on made me a little uncomfortable.
    Am looking into the idea of having polls to make the site more interactive. Thanks for all your trouble and God bless.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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