Scripting II Techniques

[philsinatra]

You've done a minimal job using PHP scripting to your advantage for the site.

Good:

• You have one page that pulls the lifters from a database.
• You have a template page for displaying each individual's info.

Could be better:

• You repeat the connection variables on both pages instead of using an include.
• You don't use include techniques for any of the repeated content/structure throughout the rest of the site e.g. headers, navigation, footers etc.
• The design of the photos page is lazy. A big stack of pictures? You can do better. A grid or a slideshow? Captions for the images? A template for larger versions? Any reason the images couldn't be a database table and use a template technique?
• The index -> about redirect is unnecessary. Just make the homepage the index file and avoid the extra redirect.

Design:

The logo feels weak. The typeface doesn't match the rest of the site at all. I realize it's an informal group, but you could design something more visually interesting. There are plenty of weight related svg files available for download if you don't want to create something from scratch.

The whole thing feels minimal with regards to design concept. There's very little content, very plain design. What about information how to join the team? When/where the team works out?

Take the bio page as another example. There's a ton of white space, a tiny picture and unstyled text in a little block.

Some color or font weight for the attribute titles or something? The site feels like a polished wireframe but not a finished product.

Tighten the design and use PHP to optimize it. I know you understand the concepts - show me in the code and in the design. Put in the effort to build something complete and optimized.

[philsinatra]

Improvements made, still could be better though. Look for any code that is repeated on more than one file. Example: your aside element. It's hard coded on every page, why not use an include instead? Same thing for the navigation links. You included the _header and then hard coded the logo and links. Why not include them all?

The images on the photos page: any reason that information is not stored in a database table? Again you are hard coding each li instead of using a loop and writing the code once.

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The style updates to the profile page help, the design still could be better. The text aligns above the image, in some cases drastically. The images are very small and there's a whole lot of unused white space.

I think all the white space in conjunction with the Times New Roman style logo is what I keep having a problem with, the site still looks unpolished. At the very absolute least, change the logo typeface to match the typeface you used for the navigation. The serif typeface isn't used anywhere else on the site and it looks totally out of place.