j3n Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Hey, I've just launched my portfolio site and need some feedback! Thanks! http://www.draconicmedia.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Over all, I like the look Jen (from a standpoint of being clean and clutter free). Not much to critique as far as visuals goes. - I'm not fond of the background, but this is simply my subjective point..(not a " I'm right, you're wrong" kind of thing). Maybe its the shade of purple. As for the under-the-hood stuff: Using Yahoo's smushit tool, it looks like you can shave off some image file size (home page sees a savings of 20.37 KB for example. I see you have 5 javascripts totaling 137.1K. Using Yahoo's Yslow, there is a tools panel with stuff like minifying and whatnot. Might want to merge and minify those... For SEO purposes, I would consider adding heading tags (<h1>, <h2>..etc..). Your description meta tag should read as a short but concise and relevant sentence (not stuffing key words into it), and the keywords meta tag can be safely removed, as search engines don't put much (if any) weight on that anymore. I would consider using css instead of tables for layout purposes. I would validate the markup, as well as the css. You have a nice visual sense of things though.. Seems well laid out and organized. Good over all.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 nrg_alpha beat me to it for most things Some additions: I'd make the links at the bottom both centered and darker, they're hard to read atm. (If you plan on adding another link I'd prefer to have them as they are atm, left aligned) Use a <blockquote> for testimonials and <cite> for the person who wrote it Besides the already mentioned use of tables for layout you used a <center> tag, which has been depecrated since HTML 4.0 (Yes, that's since 1997, so the advice for the last 12 years has been not to use them). Tags besides <td> are rare on your site, take a look at the available xhtml tags . Each one has a purpose and should be used where it makes sense. http://www.draconicmedia.com/services.php <- use of tables there is fine as it's tabular data, however tables have more 'child elements' available to them than just <td>. For example "custom WEB design" should be in a <caption> and the text on the left should be <th> instead of <td>. note: ecommerce components are not yet offered. That's probably something you'd want to stick in <tfoot><td>. Same page, the • Red-Eye Removal • Reduce Shiny Skin • Blemish/Mole Removal • Whiten Teeth/Eyes • Add Text to Photo • Sepia or Black and White Tinting • Change Eye Colour • Sharpen, Brighten, Contrast (minor) bit is a list, you can stick an <ul> unorder list inside a table cell just fine. Completely at the bottom there is a list of items again, use a list but I'd also put a link behind the email/site, and an <address> tag around the address. http://www.draconicmedia.com/contact.php use labels for the the form, with their 'for' attribute set to the corresponding form elements ID. Search engine wise I'd try to stick some more information on the portfolio page. For the frontpage, maybe http://imageflow.finnrudolph.de/ ? Does make the frontpage quite heavy, but in your line of work it's important to impress people (be warned that with javascript disabled nothing is visible so some <noscript></noscript> alternative content is advised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Thanks guys, tons of help, as usual. nrg, smushit is awesome, but it always gives me errors, maybe because I'm using chrome? It only works when I give direct links to images. axeia, I hear this talk of "don't use <center>...", but if it works, why not? It doesn't NOT work in any browser, so forgive me, but sounds like code snobery! Ha... Otherwise, I am obviously missing something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 nrg, smushit is awesome, but it always gives me errors, maybe because I'm using chrome? It only works when I give direct links to images. I use firefox with yslow for smushit (as yslow has other built in tools besides smushit (like javascript minifying and whatnot). Besides, while in Yslow, I can see the page's stats while I'm there to optimize images). axeia, I hear this talk of "don't use <center>...", but if it works, why not? It doesn't NOT work in any browser, so forgive me, but sounds like code snobery! Ha... Otherwise, I am obviously missing something... <center> is not permitted within strict doctypes (your's is strict.. so don't even bother). Centering can be done using css (stuff like margin: 0 auto; for instance, or text-align:center; - additional methods could include something like this). It's never a bad thing to decouple content from presentation .. that's what css is for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Alright, alright, I'll chew on that for a bit.. (BTW, Yslow will have to be super fantastical to get me to switch from chrome! But we will see...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizmola Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Are these all separate pages, each with a header() & footer()? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 each page is separate using include()... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 (BTW, Yslow will have to be super fantastical to get me to switch from chrome! But we will see...) I only use firefox for webdev purposes (chrome is my main weapon of choice otherwise). Until chrome comes out with addons / plug in capabilities (which I understand version 2 will have), I think firefox is king for web development in that regard. So this doesn't mean you have to become a 'firefox converter' or anything like that. If you want image file sizes reduced, it's really worth it. Yslow is a really great tool to gauge website performance issues. There is more to web development than pretty visuals. Paying attention to what is under the hood never hurts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 There is more to web development than pretty visuals. blasphemy! i will not hear you speak (type) such words! Graphic designers make the virtual world go round. Haha... (and yes I agree, but we each have our focus, and for the rest, well, we have forums) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 For web development Firefox is the best thing you could wish for. (And personally I prefer it for normal use as well, although Chrome and Safari are both excellent alternatives.. if you're using windows that is) Just install it for developing and get the web developer toolbar, firebug , yslow addons. The web developer toolbar for example will point out your got a javascript error right here: http://www.draconicmedia.com/services.php (Testing in Firefox is more or less a requirement anyways considering it's marketshare) Out of curiousity, do you intend to use the earlier mentioned script? Almost seems like a match to perfect to skip out on considering the current frontpage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSuperHero Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 j3n, this maybe a bit off topic, I did notice you have some ads down at the bottom right of your page....I was just wondering if you were going to keep that there...I think that may give people a reason not to contact you, eg. I was on pricing page, you said 1k for website, while ad at bottom gave me the option for a $199 custom website, to the less computer savvy person, that link would give them an excuse to get away from your site. Just a thought I would share... Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizmola Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Ok, so my recommendation would be at very least to do a junction box type architecture. You can do this pretty easily without a lot of rewrite, by putting at the heart of your index.php a large switch statement. Your urls then become index.php?page=contact etc. You can then use a simple mod_rewrite config to have pretty url's like: http://www.draconicmedia.com/page/portfolio This hides the fact that you're using PHP, but also has the benefit of providing maintainability. You only need to have the header() & footer() in the index.php controller script, and you do includes of the appropriate script based on the page parameter. You also get those search engine friendly url's. Right off the top, there's no reason for your home to link to index.php. It should just be http://draconicmedia.com/, or relatively, just "/" as your target. Last but not least I 100% agree with DarkSuper -- you should have no advertising, other than for your own services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 Switch statement! Excellent advice, gizmola! I have been looking for a more solid webpage architecture for a long time. Include() was a huge step up, but this is definitely worth some exploring - thanks! As for google ads, I hear what you are both saying - but for now I am getting enough work by word of mouth. Once a few more projects are completed, I will replace that spot with a "In The Works" spotlight... but for now, I'm using it to get a better understanding of google adsense, as to pass on the experience to clients. Axeia, I may very well use that script you suggested, but not yet - I am not looking to invest monitarily into this project just yet (other than webspace) as I believe they are charging for commercial use. But yes, it seems to be quite perfect for my home page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Seeing as the error I was getting was from scriptalious I looked for an alternative based on scriptalious, and behold.. protoflow blog.deensoft.com "You are free to use this file wherever you wish but please do let us know at so that we can showcase it." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3n Posted June 2, 2009 Author Share Posted June 2, 2009 neat - thanks. in time!! you guys are too quick for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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