waynew Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Finally re-did my website. Going to continue improving it. http://waynewhitty.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-H Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Nice, well laid out, easy to read/scan across. Doesn't validate with W3C tho, and img tag needs alt attribute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynew Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Nice, well laid out, easy to read/scan across. Doesn't validate with W3C tho, and img tag needs alt attribute. Yea, I'm going to have to fix that. Biggest problem is the div inside the h1 tag. I made the template nearly a year ago, before I knew that was a bad thing to do. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 I agree, looks nice. I'd remove the gap at the top though, looks a little odd being there. Unless you have plans to add something there of course? Can't find much else to critique about it, just the right column seems a little empty. The little advert also doesn't link anywhere which makes it seem kind of useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 It's certainly your best yet, Wayne. Here are my thoughts: - I find while it's very clean and simple (nothing wrong with that), I would consider sprucing up what visuals you do have. For example, the rainbow tree in the header, I would consider looking through some free clip art (if you're not graphically inclined), and see if that can be replaced (perhaps it's the rainbow circle and not the tree itself). - The special offer graphic on the side.. why make the whole thing a graphic when you could use actual text with a small css spritesheet containing just the price (along with its reflection) as the checkmark? It would make the graphic smaller (not that it's large or anything..) On the topic of those checkmarks, I think those could be smaller and more polished looking imo. Just have a search on free stock icon sites and see what you can use to spruce things a tad. - I'm reading the copy of the home page All of the websites that I develop are built with Google optimisation in mind, with no added cost. I think I would consider wording it with the use of SEO in general instead. Explain to the readers what SEO is and how it could benefit them. How much does a website cost? How much does a car cost? Or a house? Hmm... I'm guessing you are trying to say that price varies. I think I would consider looking at other copy people have written for ideas on how to better express certain things. While I don't find the writing horrible or anything, imo examining what professional sites use for copy could greatly bolster yours (don't worry, I'm not the best at copy either.. in fact, I suck at it..something I need to improve, and that's how I would do it.. examine the pros, see what they write.. observing others can go a long way). - I think as far as the menu is concerned, I would consider two things: a) making the mouse hover effect more noticeable by perhaps using a brighter grey background colour, and b) having whatever section you are visiting permanently highlighted so that visitors can see at a glance at the top menu which section they are on. - In the portfolio section, I am seeing some entries with thumbnails, some without. I get a sense of visual inconsistencies with that. I would consider using a smaller thumbnail for each one, with the description beside them. Keeping things consistent from a formatting perspective helps with visual harmony so to speak. - At the bottom of the same portfolio page, I am reading the 'Need to see my freelance work?' section. It comes off sounding negative for some reason. If you absolutely cannot showcase work done under contract, I would simply avoid mentioning this altogether and instead put a positive spin on a message to prospective clients by what benefits they will have choosing you to do business with. Make better use of that space (and perhaps put that at the top of the page?). - On the contact page, I would perhaps issue a little paragraph showing that you are very interested in hearing from the visitor (and perhaps also guaranteeing that their info is not sold/shared with anyone). Establishing a friendly (and trustworthy) tone on this page would go along way towards visitor / prospective client participation. As it currently stands, the message I get from this page feels more like: Here, fill out the forms and prove you're not a bot. Kthankxbai. Or phrased another way, it feels cold. In summary, all in all it's the best you've done to date. I would just focus on graphically sprucing things up a bit (using free quality icons, clip art and whatnot if you're stuck), examining what professionals are using as copy so that you can get some more professional copy in your site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 hmm interesting design.... But it isn't a design I would use for a portfolio. Dark backgrounds rarely look professional, and the gloomy dark color isn't working for me. The rainbow and the tree graphic on the right side is pretty cool. Codewise - I'm a a little disappointed in your coding. Due to the high competition in the web designing industry, you should strive to utilize the best practices in your code. I'm seeing things like <br /> used for whitespace. I see no css reset stylesheet. There is a div in your <h1> tag. You're overusing id selectors in your coding. What happened to descendant selectors? You're using an image to convery a textual message. Why did you wrap the <h1> tag with a div just to give it a top margin? Why not just give the <h1> the margin? Things like that separates us from the professionals. It may sound small, but cutting out 5 - 10 redundant html tags can greatly increase text to html markup ration, thereby increasing SEO rankings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynew Posted August 15, 2009 Author Share Posted August 15, 2009 hmm interesting design.... But it isn't a design I would use for a portfolio. Dark backgrounds rarely look professional, and the gloomy dark color isn't working for me. The rainbow and the tree graphic on the right side is pretty cool. Codewise - I'm a a little disappointed in your coding. Due to the high competition in the web designing industry, you should strive to utilize the best practices in your code. I'm seeing things like <br /> used for whitespace. I see no css reset stylesheet. There is a div in your <h1> tag. You're overusing id selectors in your coding. What happened to descendant selectors? You're using an image to convery a textual message. Why did you wrap the <h1> tag with a div just to give it a top margin? Why not just give the <h1> the margin? Things like that separates us from the professionals. It may sound small, but cutting out 5 - 10 redundant html tags can greatly increase text to html markup ration, thereby increasing SEO rankings. Oh I agree. The template is from last year. When I get the time I'll build on it. I'm happy with this one so I'm actually going to take into account the advice I've gotten in this thread and try to put it to use. I was even shocked when I noticed that I had put a div inside a h1 tag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxus Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 Looks very clean. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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