[Blueprint Design]

Hi, my name is Paul. This is my second version of this site, but the first was not hand coded. Any thoughts/feelings or whatever, are very welcome. Btw, IE6 may look like it was hit with a nuclear weapon, but I for one can live with that. Thanks.
www.blueprintdesign.ie

[minucocat]

1. I think the logo is better without hover affect.

2. I still can see the list dots for your menu or content. You should give list-style-type:none in CSS

3. the homepage looks so empty.

4. your navigation doesn't look very nice which start from the left edge of the page.

[terydinho]

Yep the logo doesn't need a hover effect, it will only serve to confuse people and that is the last thing you want.

I really don't like the 'red' down state on the buttons either...

I like the cow image and the concept of it, but it looks a bit 'plonked' on the page, have a fiddle about with it and see if you can make it fit more with the design

[Highway7]

I like it but agree that the the home page looks empty due to too much space.

I like the rollover on the navigation but when you rollover 'contact', the icon moves up rather than down. If it moves down it would create the illusion of it being pressed down.

Same with the logo - it moves down 1 pixel on rollover.

[MolotovRuss]

You need to learn more about how to layout content, especially breaking up sections.

[Blueprint Design]

@ minucocat - hi, thanks Yeah the hover state does look a state, lol. I've taken a lot of advice onboard and I've decided to redo the CSS - new colours, new menu, new logo. It's looking much better and I'll post up the new design asap.

@ terydinho - hi, thanks, glad you like the cow idea, not everyone gets it OK, I agree, don't plonk pictures into your websites, that's sound advice! lol I was thinking of replacing it with three long rectangular images, previews of the best of the portfolio. OR I could have both these ideas on the homepage, making it less bare...

@ Highway7 hello, cool name! Yeah achieving consistency with buttons can be a pain, but makes or breaks the effect. The new nav will look much better! Thanks.

@ MolotovRuss - hi there, thanks for posting. I've just been to the itunes page and they use a kind of alternating contrast to break up the sections. 'Chunking' information definitely makes it more digestible. I think I'll explore that method some more.

[Blueprint Design]

smoothonline, on Jun 3 2009, 23:55, said:

It's not my cup of tea, it is just a bit too blue for me and the picture with cow feels like it is just stuck there.

I think your coding is coming along,
char

Hi Char, thanks. I'm getting more comfortable and quicker with coding.

If anyone is interested, I've mocked up a new design for the home page:

http://www.blueprint....ie/index2.html

Apologies if it's not completely tweeked for your browser yet.. Again, any comments welcome. Thanks

[MrBrightside]

Logo would look better on the left, the hover effect is still unnecessary but I guess there's no real harm if you leave it.
For the navigation. I'm not keen on the red, the box shape or the shine effect, plus I think you should have a standard font rather than the one from the logo.
The content area is a lot better than the previous design. I think the image should have a border, and maybe some padding around it.
The portfolio images need spacing between them (this might be one of your cross-browser issues, but on Firefox they appear stacked on top of each other with no space in between).
The footer is too bright.

[Blueprint Design]

Thanks MrBrightside, I was enlightened by many of the comments above and redesigned the whole site

www.blueprintdesign.ie

I'm much happier with it, so thanks to everyone who contributed comments etc.

Naturally I'm open to any more feedback

[Blueprint Design]

smoothonline, on Jun 7 2009, 11:52, said:

First impressions, much better, cleaner, and looks more like a web designers site.

Few notes, is it your server as the page took forever to load?

Your intro copy, 'you think i may be able to help with anything'

While I appreciate the broadness of that statement remember to include some crucial copy writing in there for SEO purposes.

The nav buttons are huge... maybe reduce slightly? The white space? Why not just add a gradient colour in there or have the grey all the way down except to footer>

Thanks Char. I think I must have been uploading to the server then, I think that slows the loading, I'm not sure.

Of course, almost forgot about SEO. I'll throw in some copy with keywords and see what happens.

RE: huge nav buttons - I want to redo the navigation altogether, gonna be fun Thanks a mil!

[alzer81]

yeah. ya gotta seriously sort out that nav bar! its just wrong!!!

have a look here and see if ya can get some inspiration: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/03/14...dern-solutions/

[terydinho]

I have to agree with alzer there, the new nav is pretty poor.

That link alz has provided is a great read

[Blueprint Design]

terydinho, on Jun 8 2009, 10:19, said:

I have to agree with alzer there, the new nav is pretty poor.

That link alz has provided is a great read

Did a bit of research and rebuilt the navigation. I think it looks and works (resizes, etc) better now.

http://www.blueprintdesign.ie

Thanks

[craigpettit]

Hi BluePrint
I deffintaly agree with everyone about your first design. however, second design. great work, Nav could be smaller and white space in main content area..
suggestion.
take the text which is placed next to the cow image and place it in your white space on your home page.
add a couple more images. maybe have a flash slideshow where the cow and image is? to display screen shots of some of your websites. or maybe graphic design examples.

Allot of CSS websites now are interpreting flash slideshows and i think it makes the website look alot more dynamic and professional.

Best of Luck

Craig Pettit
Web-Development under construction

[Blueprint Design]

craigpettit, on Jun 15 2009, 09:52, said:

Hi BluePrint
I deffintaly agree with everyone about your first design. however, second design. great work, Nav could be smaller and white space in main content area..
suggestion.
take the text which is placed next to the cow image and place it in your white space on your home page.
add a couple more images. maybe have a flash slideshow where the cow and image is? to display screen shots of some of your websites. or maybe graphic design examples.

Allot of CSS websites now are interpreting flash slideshows and i think it makes the website look alot more dynamic and professional.

Best of Luck

Craig Pettit
Web-Development under construction

Hi Craig, thanks That's a good idea moving the text down, it's done. I'll have to learn some Flash also.

Cheers, Paul.

[scifunk]

Hi,

Some good work in your portfolio, but the site is letting you down.

There's way to much colour on the homepage - the blue nav bar is detracting from your work samples.

There are also many line up issues that need addressing too. For me, each item has to have a relationship with something else on the page i.e. the last 't' in contact should line up with the RH side of the cow pic and both should then line up with the RH side of the text (but keep the text left justified).

Possibly a few small images/pics on your about page would make it more interesting and may say more about you. They don't have to be design orientated pics either. A potential client may share the same hobby as you and that will get you the call.

[codingmind]

Nice

[Pedro]

Mate what's that flying cow all about?

[Blueprint Design]

@ char & scifunk - thanks, there was too much colour, so I made the footer grey. Probably not the most interesting thing you've heard today

@ codingmind - thanks!

@ Pedro - At 20,00ft and falling, a cow will produce milk at a faster rate than usual. Also, the cow can learn very quickly how to market it's own milk, and that makes for happy cows This cow was bought for 20 magic beans and a toaster.

[Jamesicon]

Your logo you use on this forum for your profile is decent.
The site lets it down though... Your logo reminds me of Firefox's logo, take some influence from their design.

Spend a couple of hours in photoshop playing round with your layout.
Your footer would look alot nicer reducing the font.

[minucocat]

Your site looks a lot better than the previous one. If you can do something in the middle section on your homepage. Ur homepage will looks really good, at the moment the text and the image seems not connect much.

[pereira]

Quote

@ Pedro - At 20,00ft and falling, a cow will produce milk at a faster rate than usual. Also, the cow can learn very quickly how to market it's own milk, and that makes for happy cows This cow was bought for 20 magic beans and a toaster.

As interesting as that may be, do you think that image describes all those points? It just looks like your trying to show off some 'very poor' photoshop skills by adding a cow in the sky.

[scifunk]

Needs a left and right border. The dynamic header doesn't work I'm afraid.