designcut - iCraig's new site.

Yeah, I really want to inject the site with a lot more content before switching it from test to live.

Like I said in my first post I'm planning on adding more content to the archive and then organising it better, probably a set of nested lists or something.

Is there any content on there apart from that you think needs to be organised better? :)
 
heh, thought my eyes had gone funny at first - love the menu :-)
(must stop playing with the buttons and type this)

I'm always amazed at how great you people are at creating this stuff :-)

oddity #1
contact page:
firefox 1.5.0.4 didn't display the 3D button effect on the boxes ?
 
the cool page transisions don't work in the latest firefox or the latest Opera either :) wondered what people where going on about with the nice transisions. had to whip good old IE out to see it.
 
The good:

  • The site features a consistent colour scheme and page layout, which aids navigation to a certain extent
  • The JavaScript (assuming they are JavaScript) effects degrade nicely. I'm not a fan of superfluous animations and page transitions, but as long as they don't have to irritate me when my browser isn't capable of displaying them, I don't mind
  • The code is (almost) perfect. You've got quite a lot of repeated class references which could be condensed into parent elements, and the colons after the footer navigation list items are unnecessary (such an effect can be achieved in your CSS file without soiling the HTML markup, I believe)

The bad:

  • What website am I on? I assume when you fill the index page with content the logo will be shifted below the fold for most people, so all they will have to go by is the little "Welcome to designcut. The online presence..." text hidden away under the navigation. Make it bigger ("Web 2.0" style if you must), put it in a better place or make the logo in the footer smaller and put the existing one somewhere at the top of the page
  • Leading on from the last point, people want something to click to go back to the homepage. At the moment, once they go past the index page all they have to guide them home is the little "Index" link hidden in the navigation. Bare in mind that a lot of people will not know what an "Index" is in relation to a website. Studies have shown (although I can't provide sources at this minute, and my memory may be failing me about whether or not this has been proved by studies) that people will look for a logo at the top of the page if they want to return home. Give them that logo (in the form of a CSS background image replacement of a top-level header, preferably), make it a link to the homepage. There's a thin line between being "individual" and impairing the usability of your website
  • Like the first point, what page am I on? Users want to know where they are, not just where they can go. Alter the navigation and highlight the current page somehow or provide a (large, preferably) header detailing exactly what page the user is on
  • The rotating image is nice, but at the end of the day it is non-contextual and shouldn't be defined in your HTML. Users with screen readers or viewing on mobile devices don't want to hear the alt text or see the image. Personally I would recommend forgetting the rotating script and sticking with a different image for each page, set as a background image in your CSS, and then creating a separate stylesheet for mobile devices which doesn't include it, or provides a more mobile-friendly alternative image
  • I noticed that your blog page especially — be this the work of a blogging engine or not — seems to be suffering from a bit of "div soup". Why the need for the span and paragraph elements to be embedded in divs? Why not set the titles of blog posts as proper third-level headers rather than putting them in spans, in divs?

Obviously I hope you don't take this the wrong way — there's nothing like a bit of constructive criticism. You may find some of these suggestions are based on my own personal opinions, so feel free to think about what I've said or tell me to "get lost" accordingly :p
 
HTML has never look so sexy!
My only critique is the index page feels a bit odd with the 'site' packed in at the top and a huge void surrounding it, but thats just because i'm used to the usuall full page layout probably. oh and the lack of some sort of title bar.
Great looking site all in all, wish I could come up with designs like that :o
 
not fond of the writing under the menu

also if u have flash experience get it so that when you click the menu the text slides down I'm not a fan of click then it content flashes up usually but that depends if you want flash on your site.

Very nice though I'm currently creating a site for a buisness would rather be making my own! :rolleyes:
 
m00ch0 said:
also if u have flash experience get it so that when you click the menu the text slides down I'm not a fan of click then it content flashes up usually but that depends if you want flash on your site.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't want to have my navigation items made out of Flash, it's unaccessible and search engines hate it. :)
 
Finally we get to see some of your work! :)

I think the code is decent, although doesn't validate, but I'm sure you'll fix that ;)
Overall, I'm not a huge fan of the design, although, I'm not really sure why.

I think the rollover effect you've got in the main navigation is cool, and it's good that you've used java instead of flash.

I'd try and brighten up the layout, there's not much drawing me in and making me want to read more.

I'm also not too keen on the javascript gallery effect thing, it seems to be over used now, probably because it's free to download somewhere.

[edit]
Forgot to mention your work. I really like the tshirt you got made, I like the typeface on it, and think it works well.
I think the typo on the designcut poster needs some work, and doesn't really work too well.

Keep at it :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom