Critique My Web Design Portoflio Website

There's a few typos on the portfolio page. I don't like the image in the header top right, the text seems fuzzy and coins seem badly cut out?

And the footer is a bit ott, especially in contact.

Does look nice in general though.
 
platypus said:
I like it. Clear, concise, well laid out.
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Thanks for looking :)

markeh said:
There's a few typos on the portfolio page. I don't like the image in the header top right, the text seems fuzzy and coins seem badly cut out?
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The header image and navigation is only temp. These bits are going to be changed soon when I get photoshop running again, too something a little bit more imaginative.

With regards to the fuzzy text, I know what you are talking about and I think it has something to do with the fact I saved it at PNG8 to save on filesize and therefore bandwidth and loading-time.

The coins are not actually cut out at all...they are from a high resolution image taken of them on a white background. I did remove the background - yes - but I did it in a style that left some of the original background around the coins because it was essentially the same white.

Typos have been sorted out - thanks for noticing that.

And the footer is a bit ott, especially in contact.
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Do you mean too big? I just wanted to make it standard for all the pages, if you have a big 24" monitor that it may look rather big.

How would you do it then?

Does look nice in general though.
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Thanks for looking :)
 
How would you do it then?
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I did ponder this when posting but all I could come up with was making it the same width as the rest which seemed a little unoriginal. May fix the height so it doesn't take up so much of the page if there's little content?

Looking at the coins again, it's the shadowed area of the 50p which just looks at the wrong angle. It's either an optical illusion or just me eyes ;)

I'm a little suprised (and my boss would be shocked) that the image for each project doesn't also link to the appropriate page/site.

Still, it's honestly better than anything I could come up with :D
 
markeh said:
I did ponder this when posting but all I could come up with was making it the same width as the rest which seemed a little unoriginal. May fix the height so it doesn't take up so much of the page if there's little content?
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I will look into fixing the height now, thanks for the suggestion...but I wonder whether it will still look weird because of the large unfilled whitespace?

Looking at the coins again, it's the shadowed area of the 50p which just looks at the wrong angle. It's either an optical illusion or just me eyes ;)
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I honestly wondering whether we are looking at the same image....I will try and find the stock one for you which is a photograph...the whole header will be changed so hopefully the new one won't confuse you as much :P (joking!)

Here is that stock image:



I'm a little suprised (and my boss would be shocked) that the image for each project doesn't also link to the appropriate page/site.
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Costs nothing to add - added and updated.


Thanks again for your suggestions.
 
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Even if they're not actually cut out on the high res shot, they do look cut out to me as well. I think it's just the lighting.

Good call on linking the portfolio images as well.


Personally, I would make the copy text larger myself.
 
Tripnologist said:
Even if they're not actually cut out on the high res shot, they do look cut out to me as well. I think it's just the lighting.
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Hmm...I sorta see what you mean, I think its cause its against a white background that it looks wierd.

Personally, I would make the copy text larger myself.
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Will play around with the text size and see if something looks better.

Thanks for looking :)

=========================

For anyone with a browser that supports favicons, do you see this favicon on the homepage:

64987660sr9.png


...that was my old favicon and I see that but I see the new one on every other page. I have deleted my cache from firefox, but I still see the old favicon.
 
Id change <b> tags to <strong> and add acronyms if you want to make the site more accessible. Also, when your talking about why not export from photoshop, why not link your reasons to the main ones that everyone can understand:- redundant, messy code means higher hosting costs, wasted bandwidth and slower load times for customers.

Just being picky really though. Nice site.
 
Ladforce said:
Id change <b> tags to <strong>
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Forgot about changing that - thats just me being lazy when coding. Thanks for pointing it out. Changed the <i> tags to <em> too...

I should still use <b> tags when its purely visual IIRC?....like when I talk about project summary at the bottom of projects, the bold titles...?

and add acronyms if you want to make the site more accessible.
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Know what you mean - will add...thanks. Would you add these tags on all of them or just for the first one in the page?

Also, when your talking about why not export from photoshop, why not link your reasons to the main ones that everyone can understand:- redundant, messy code means higher hosting costs, wasted bandwidth and slower load times for customers.
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Good point - thanks.

Thank you for looking and thanks for the suggestions. :)
 
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1. I would use strong everywhere as b is deprecated from XHTML 2. (as are i tags).
2. I would add them to all the tags as not all your customers will come in from the index, some might be linked directly to a sub page who would still like some explanation of the acronyms.

I would also spend a little time thinking about the type of customers who will be coming to your site - to begin with they will probably be individuals or small companies who may not have a good understanding of web technologies, ideas and terminology. For example you say "comply with internet browser standards" - Maybe add a few sentences somewhere explaining the benefits of compliant code and how it can add value to a website you could produce for them.
 
Added acronym tags, will probably add them to all instances aswell because I don't think the user would notice them otherwise (if scim reading).

Been working on a new header, how does this compare to the current one:



Needs colour and for the content to be moved up, but hows the concept?...I wanted something a bit out of the box because the current design doesn't really grab the users attention and say, yeah this is modern and stylish...its rather bland so I will need some vivid colours etc.....Or should i keep it as it is, in keeping with the rest of the design(s)?
 
Conrad11 said:
First of all - I am in the process of doing a new header/nav section, so ignore those sections, but the rest of it is up for critique.

Want to know if you notice anything that isn't right...

Also - any SEO points that I have missed?

Ben Barron's Online Web Design & Applications Portfolio

Let me know if you have any suggestions/something is broken.

Thanks.
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I only see one problem immediately, your logo is very very similar (trademark infringement similar) to the Dow Corning one:

logo.gif
 
philjohn said:
I only see one problem immediately, your logo is very very similar (trademark infringement similar) to the Dow Corning one:

logo.gif
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Didn't even know that company, I doubt I will have any problems if I choose to use my original logo...nowhere near the same (IMO) to the one you linked, apart from the same shades of colours.
 
Here is the new header I have been working on: http://benbarron.com/test/

The navigation menu would go to the right of the "BENBARRON" bit.

Which do you think is better, this, or the original.

...still looks too bland to me...but maybe thats all that can be achieved with the rest of the colours/layout/design i have done.
 
That really is much nicer, my only critiques of it would be it's quite tall, could you remove the two middle loops and rotate and lower the lines with affordable and contemporary on them? Do you need professional in there twice? The 'd' in affordable seems a pixel too low as does the 'e' in professional (and the whole word is a little cramped?)
 
I really like that header. My only problem is that you need to change the default font used on the page to something a bit more 'modern', if you're going to end up with a modern font as your header (Talking mainly about the turquoise headers mainly). It looks a bit out place you see. I would look at trying to use one font consitantly throughout the site too.
 
Hi, really nice website.

The words included in the header just don't quite work for me, The word professional on the paler gray part of the header is too faint compared to the rest. I also think that having professional on the smaller green part of the header is uneeded, and perhaps unbalanced. I think it would work better if the words were only in the gray part of the header.

That said you were going to keep it where it is I would be tempted to say lose the drop shadow.
 
Attractive site. Couple of quick questions :

1) When you say web design, is that individual pages, templates, templates for CMS's etc? Which CMSs?
2) Where could someone see your current/previous clients/examples of your work?

Those are the two things that customers are going to want to see...
 
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