My website portfolio, help and criticism please :)

Soldato
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http://www.team-proficient.co.uk/test/

This is just an online portfolio i have been working on to display my university work from my first year. Not really into code that much so any of these errors may be stupidly simple to solve :)
Criticism welcome but dont state the obvious, ie that there is no content at the moment and there is no real need for a website in this state, as im just looking to get the general layout sorted before adding real content.

If you can, view the page in IE and FF and any other browsers as i do need to check what the pages look like in a lot of browsers.
The sub navidation looks different in the 2, and the right hand content aligns correctly in IE, but not in FF. They have the same pixel setting but in FF it seems to be 3pixels out. ( I am using h1 and h2, if i use h1 and h1 it is fine, but h1 and h2 creates an offset in IE but not FF i think )
On the Services page, i used circles for each of the main list titles, this works fine in FF but they do not show in IE, is there any way around this ?
The images that are shown in the Portfolio sections line up correctly in IE, but they are aligned to the left in FF instead of the right.

i did have this looking exactly how i wanted in FF, but when i tested it in IE the alignment for the images and headings were out of line.

If i think of anything else or if you spot anything else please post :)

It will be xHTML Strict Valid once completed, i think some of the pages are at the moment but not all :)

edit: one of my friends just looked at the page on a widescreen monitor running 1280*960 and said the HOME was infront of the banner ? if anyone can check that, as i just changed resolution and it was fine for me
 
Last edited:
Using: Fx/Win2K/1280x1024

It's pretty smart looking, code seems a good job, and the layout is fine on my machine. Some thoughts:

  • At the moment it feels rather flat because there's a lot of red and grey and no strong contrasts, highlights or eye-catching typography/decoration. But I think that may well be sorted when you get round to adding content.

  • I'm not sure I like the blur around the header lettering of 'Starry Eyed Designs', it actually gives more of an impression of 'Bleary Eyed Designs' :D. Starry-eyed to me suggests bright, strong colours and contrasts and quite sharp and rigid decoration. Same goes for the wobbly underlines below the navigation links, but it may just be my personal taste on that one.

  • Resizing text isn't accomodated in the layout design. Site is still perfectly readable, but things will start to run over the footer bar.

  • I'm used to clicking the top-left corner or the main header/logo to return home. I'd recommend making that available as it's pretty common behaviour.

  • The sub-navigation looks a little out-of-place. It seems orphaned in the layout and I reckon it could do with a white background or such to tie it into the the navigation bar above. You also might want to think about highlighting which navigation item the sub-navigation currently relates to as the two sections have quite similar categories. Are all those sub-pages going to be necessary? Could you not detail all your skills (services) on one page?

  • "About Us"? "we are proficient in various areas of code"? Do you suffer from schizophrenia? It makes it seem that way ;). If you're one person, make it obvious that it is, and don't be afraid to make the site personal and all about you. I think sites that are honest about who they are come across much better than those that are clearly trying to be something they're not. May seem a minor point, but that's one of my particular bugbears with sites. Really irks me to see design 'agencies', webhosts and so on call his or herself 'us' and 'we' when they're clearly a one-man-band operation. It goes in the same pot as having links to admin sections on the front page.

  • Another thought about copy is the consistent 'Welcome to the...' message in each section. It's very kind of you to welcome me to each page, but it's a little like an over-attentive clothes-shop assistant.

To fix the alignment issues on your <h1>s and <h2>s, you should first make sure to explicitly set a value for both padding and margin on both. IE and Fx have different default values for both, so you need top 'reset' the values in order that they become equal in all browsers.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far.
i was thinking of making the header/logo a link back to the index page, just never got round to putting it in.
About the sub navigation, i did have it was a white background but it seemed to stand out too much and look like the nav bar was generally too big. At the minute the sub nav bar looks funny, as it was sealed off in a dotted container, which looked fine in FF, but IE had different ideas so ive had to start playing around with the code to get it looking fine in both, so far not fully looking like i wanted!

The About Us and the content referring to me and us etc which is confusing but i will sort that out, as i think that a more personal approach will be better as it is really going to be for showing off my work so far, so there is no point using an US and not ME.
The main nav bar i was thinking of changing to a small same sized flash banner, but im not sure whether to keep it as an image or convert it to a flash banner.
lol i like the welcome to comment though :P I'll probably stick that just on the main 4 pages, and probably change it so they dont have the exact same wording, as you said it could get irritating to re-read.
About the text running into the footer, is the best option just to set a maximum height on the content section and have the overflow into a scroll ? As i tried this and it buggered up, unless i did something wrong.

Many thanks for taking the time out to go through the site though, nice to have some feedback :)
 
tsinc80697 said:
About the text running into the footer, is the best option just to set a maximum height on the content section and have the overflow into a scroll ? As i tried this and it buggered up, unless i did something wrong.
Add a new footer paragraph or <div> below the main content boxes. That way, should the content increase in height, the footer will be pushed down apropriately. Add the footer graphic as a background image of it.
 
Think i will end up changing the navigation to flash, or maybe just create a drop down menu with CSS for the portfolio section.

I've updated the site now, see what you think :) The subnav bar i didnt like but it's growing on me the more i look at it, but i might see if i can get a gradient on the left aswell as it just seems to start suddenly.
The only thing i cant seem to get right is the imagesright, works fine in IE, but the images wont align right in FF, or i can get it fine in FF but not in IE, cant seem to get both :*(
 
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