invisibleinkweb

There are quite a few really important questions to ask your client before you start designing - I've got a printout somewhere at home of questions I always take along and if I get the chance, I'll post them on here but there's a pretty good list here:
 
http://www.simonday.com/web-design-blog/2009/05/22/web-design-build-questions-to-ask-new-clients/
 
and...
 
http://www.designspring.co.uk/articles/pdfs/web-design-q.pdf
 
As for the situation you mentioned above, it sounds like you had a pretty good idea of what the client was expecting and what he wanted, only for him to change his mind. I would argue that this is grounds for a hike in the price of the site. If you've done everything to try and ensure that you knew what he wanted and then he's changed his mind completely, then that's not your fault at all and you should be paid for the extra time involved. It's a difficult thing to do but, at the end of the day, you're paid for your time and any quote you give a client will presumably be based on an estimate of how long it will take you. Any unforeseen increase in this time (as long as it's not your fault) should come out of the client's pocket.
 
If it's just small changes to a sit design, then you can't really justify a massive increase in price but, with a total redesign, then you can.
 
When do you bill the customer?? If it's 100% on completion of the project, then you put yourself in a difficult position in terms of renegotiating a price. A common choice is for 40% up front (before any work is completed), 40% halfway through and the remaining 20% on completion. This means that you are in a strong position, especially with major design changes near the end of the project.
 
It's also important to be very clear regarding your pricing before the project starts. Explain in no uncertain terms that major changes will be extra, although the client will have the opportunity to make a small number of alterations at no extra charge.
 
It's really important to remember that they've probably hired you for a number of reasons, most importantly:
 
1) They like your previous work
2) They are confident that you are good enough to produce an effective site
 
You don't tell a plumber how to do his job and, while design work is admittedly different, I think you need to take a little bit of that attitude into your work as a designer. You've probably made all your choices based on information the client has given you, so there's no need to feel uncomfortable changing your prices if the customer changes everything.

Its a clever design. Perhaps not to everyone's taste but you may wow certain visitors.
 
Its a difficult marketing choice, do you design a site that appeals to the mass, or target a smaller amount of people, but get a bigger response from those who like it!
 
For me this design would target smaller and maybe a few medium sized businesses!

I think the website is very interesting and I quite like the fell of it but the images I think might have people wondering to them selves how how old is this site? Unike yes but with more up to date images I think you could really have somthing special. Also if your doing website design then you might want to provide a place for people to contact you and to give a place that shows what your rates are.
 
Just my two cents worth for what it's worth.

unique, amazing, eye catching and really creative, well done

You got something there. It must appeal to individuals that regularly read newspapers! In my opinion, the color on the navigation at the top, may need to be stronger to stand out more, or you could try sticking it to the top of the page, I did this to a recent website.
 
example here: http://216.154.210.37/oldwalls_feasibility_study/gower_tourism.php (scroll up and down the page, note this won’t work in ie6).
 
One other thing that stands out me, is the line spacing, I think it would help readability with the column text.
 
Other than that, stunning design…

Awesome design, mate!

Looks great

My only comment is 'I am jealous!'. Brilliant website!!
 
If we don't break the rules sometimes we will never get anywhere.
 
I would maybe think about using CSS3 to make columns easier, the headlines search engine friendly and the html more semantic CCS3 examples
 
Nice one.

On first glance it looks like line 176 of your css is the problem:
 

.captionfull .boxcaption { left:0; top:186px; /* should be 514px */ }
 
should be set to the same position as this
 

$(".cover", this).stop().animate({top:'514px'},{queue:false,duration:200});

Its a bug in IE with ap next to floats
 
problem is it doesn't always happen! anyhow wrapping it in a none positioned div usually fixes it

It works because you are trying to float elements. When you are floating elements next to each other, make sure they are in an enclosing div.
 
It works for the same reason, that you have both your div#content and div#sidebars inside of div#content_box. You might as well change the id from div#fix, to div#header_box.
 
Hope that makes sense.

Can you try wrapping your top content in another div, I'm sure i've seen this before
 

<div><!--extra div added--> <ul class="menu"> <li class="tab tab-home"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms">Home</a></li> <li class="tab tab-1 current"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms/?page_id=16" title="News">News</a></li> <li class="tab tab-2"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms/?page_id=4" title="Why ILC?">Why ILC?</a></li> <li class="tab tab-3"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms/?page_id=11" title="Legal English">Legal English</a></li> <li class="tab tab-4"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms/?page_id=85" title="Leadership and Management Training Courses, Bournemouth">Leadership and Management Training Courses</a></li> <li class="tab tab-5"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms/?page_id=9" title="Contact Us">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> <div id="header"> <p id="logo"><a href="http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/ilccomms">ILC Communications, Bournemouth</a></p> <h1 id="tagline">Pioneers in Legal English & Business Leadership Training</h1> </div></div><!--close extra div-->

I think you pretty much get it to be honest. Classes and ids can be used together, which can be really useful...
 
For example, let's say you have 3 feature boxes at the top of your page... Your html might look something like this:

<div id="page"> <div id="first" class="featurebox"> </div> <div id="second" class="featurebox"> </div> <div id="third" class="featurebox"> </div> </div>
You might want them all to have the same class (featurebox) because, essentially, they are the same thing (same width and height maybe) but maybe you want to place different backgrounds in them, so you give them separate ids. You could then style them like this:

#page { width: 960px; margin: 0 auto; } .featurebox { width: 312px; height: 140px; } #first { background: red; float: right; } #second { background: blue; float: left } #third { background: green; }
etc. etc. etc.
 
You can also then combine the ids and classes in your css as well...
 

#first.featurebox { margin: 12px 0; }
 
Hope this helps. Remember though, each web designer will, over time, develop his/her own style. There are no real "hard" rules on how to do it, just guidelines. It'll start to make sense as you do more of it. Also, look at other people's code and ask yourself maybe why they chose an id or a class!

I think you pretty much get it to be honest. Classes and ids can be used together, which can be really useful...
 
For example, let's say you have 3 feature boxes at the top of your page... Your html might look something like this:

<div id="page"> <div id="first" class="featurebox"> </div> <div id="second" class="featurebox"> </div> <div id="third" class="featurebox"> </div> </div>
You might want them all to have the same class (featurebox) because, essentially, they are the same thing (same width and height maybe) but maybe you want to place different backgrounds in them, so you give them separate ids. You could then style them like this:

#page { width: 960px; margin: 0 auto; } .featurebox { width: 312px; height: 140px; } #first { background: red; float: right; } #second { background: blue; float: left } #third { background: green; }
etc. etc. etc.
 
You can also then combine the ids and classes in your css as well...
 

#first.featurebox { margin: 12px 0; }
 
Hope this helps. Remember though, each web designer will, over time, develop his/her own style. There are no real "hard" rules on how to do it, just guidelines. It'll start to make sense as you do more of it. Also, look at other people's code and ask yourself maybe why they chose an id or a class!

Try adding your line-height to
 

div.coursefeature .linkholder ul { color:#FFFFFF; list-style:disc outside none; }

It doesn't look terrible, but I agree with the comments made here. For me it seems that there is too much contrast in the colour scheme - the {almost) black and white border just seem a bit too jarring, and some of the drop/inner shadows are either way too obvious or not really appropriate to use. A bit of work and it will look nice

I agree with the comments here, over photoshoped. Strip it back abit and you'll have a good design. I'd start by reducing the amount of drop shadow used.

I just realised what you are referring to. You need to grow up a bit and learn to take feedback when you actually ask for it.

Seems way over photoshopped to me. Also, Im never too keen about lightbox. That is overdone as well, as it its no longer original. May I suggest linking to a page that actually tells the visitor about the site and what you did to complete it? The navigation is way too close together, and it was hard for me to tell it was even a nav in the first place. The social media icons looks like site buttons (one oddly larger than the other), so I would change that. It is an odd place for them anyhow. The background also clashes with the plantish graphics in the main header. It doesn't make much sense.

Because over-photoshopped isn't something to be proud of. Surely the purpose of a website or piece of graphic design is to communicate something. In your case, to show visitors what your websites are like. If your own website overpowers your message in a sea of bevels and gradients, then I think I know the answer.
 
Each to their own, but I would say that if you come to a community asking for criticism, you'll get more out of it if you try to take it on board, or at least think about it and be able to justify your work from a design standpoint.
 
Personally I think your design is getting in the way of your message. Visually there's too much going on and the parts that really seem to draw my eye are the white parts of the container borders. Not going to learn much about your work there...
 
I think what cib was trying to say is that there's a difference between using photoshop well, and using a lot of photoshop effects in your layout. At the moment your website is about itself, and it should be about your work.

Tell me... why did you post your site here?

As it happens I'm not happy with it, and I've taken feedback (good and bad) from members on this forum. I value their advice, and I'm following some of it for V3 of my website.
 
However, it's you who's asking for feedback. I gladly gave my time and said what I thought. But because you don't like what I said, you decided to be rude about my work.
 
No wonder I don't spend much time on this forum any more.

Perhaps some people post on here expecting to hear how great they are - rather than to seek the objective criticism that is provided.
 
I don't think anyone was trying to be cruel. They seem like valid observations to me.

I really like it! It's such a shame that the CSS Zen Garden isn't as popular as it once was. It's where I went to learn CSS
 
Great creative visuals and CSS, I'll be surprised if they don't accept it.

Good job. Lovin' it.