pixelcoder

Hey Guys,
 
Thanks for your feedback.
 
I feel the main lesson i have learnt from this is that i need to focus more on reducing the file sizes as much as possible. This is something i will learn more about. The load time should be around 2 seconds now with a 2 second fade out.
 
I'm pleased to let you guys know that the 'workshops' page that takes you to an external site is only temporary. I haven't finished that part of the site yet so i thought i would have the link there for now.
 
Will also have a think of how i can make the buttons more prominent.
 
Pixelcoder - thanks for your kind words.

I really like this design, it's super unique and certainly one of a kind. It's nice to see something different to the current trends and I feel you really have got something good going here.
 
I didn't look at all the pages, nor read all the content. I was more enthusiastic at the subtle wow factor upon opening the site.
 
It took way to long to load this page...
 
http://www.urbanedge-promotions.com/teambuildingactivitiesandworkshops.html
 
Only to get a link to another web site. That hurt my experience.

I agree fully with cib, the design is good but way too dark. Being urban does not mean hiding in shadows and not being able to see. One thing you could try, that will add depth to the design, is lighten the grey used for the background and overlay a dark texture. Just not to much off it or you will loose the benefit of lightening the page.
 
As for the load times, well that just has to be sorted as it WILL cost you money with a high bounce rate because people will get bored very fast.
 
Getting to your workshop web site from the top nav takes 2 clicks, that is 1 too many. Have the top nav link go directly to the workshop website instead of to a page that effectively say's 'your in the wrong place, click again'. That will also put people of.
 
All in just a couple of minor tweaks really. To improve load times try using more CDN and compression, especially for images and scripts. Every little bit saved will make a difference. Also try reducing the number of server calls by combining files, and taking out any *'bloat' that is in the code to reduce file sizes before compressing them. All JavaScript files need to be {filename}.min.js and not {filename}.js, images need to be png, take out any white space including line returns from your css and html files as well. Every character that does not have to be there is slowing things down.
 
It will take time and patients to reduce everything to a minimum size, but the end result for your business could be big and well worth the effort.
 
*'bloat' if you are using frameworks or templates they will contain pieces of code that you are not actually using and these need to be removed in the production version only. Often when you right your own code from scratch you may find small pieces that you was using but then changed how you are doing things and thus can also be removed.
 
As you make these changes do it a bit at a time and save the updated version to a production copy so that you can keep the original easily read files for working on.

I really like this design, it's super unique and certainly one of a kind. It's nice to see something different to the current trends and I feel you really have got something good going here.
 
I didn't look at all the pages, nor read all the content. I was more enthusiastic at the subtle wow factor upon opening the site.
 
It took way to long to load this page...
 
http://www.urbanedge-promotions.com/teambuildingactivitiesandworkshops.html
 
Only to get a link to another web site. That hurt my experience.

Not sure if you have seen these guys around but they seem pretty rock solid. Not exactly sure about what updates they keep control of if any, but I would assume they keep their WordPress installs to the latest and greatest... Which doesn't answer any plugin questions.
 
http://getflywheel.com/
 
Updates is a cost that's transferable to the client under maintenance etc, and considering WordPress has one click updates for most plugin scenarios it doesn't seem to be time intensive (until your theme gets broken).
 
This really isn't something I've given much thought to, most of my clients were small businesses and not too interested in managing their website routinely, so their site was locked down as best as possible and left to bit rot unfortunately.
 
Good to see you've got the need to keep things up to date though, progress.

I'm not a big fan of CSS libraries, I recently made my site http://www.pixelcoder.co.uk/ responsive (my first responsive site) and looked into CSS libraries like bootstrap before doing so.
I found the quickest way of doing it was to use media queries and edit accordingly.
 
It didn't take too long to make a mobile version and seems to work okie.

i've never had any trouble ftping around 300 files of about 500mb
 
sounds very worrying
 
you might be better paying for the files (get them on a dvd and then pay) and finshing the contract and upload them yourself.

I'm thinking about trying to find a job in the web design sector soonish, not necessarily doing web design or development but possibly as a content author or general manager type position.
I'm wondering if my portfolio is suitable to be looking for work and showing to potential employers.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
 
Thanks
 
Link here

The last DIV in your HTML...
<div class="hr1></div>"  
The closing quotation on the class attribute seems to have wandered outside the closing tag which means that the closing </body> tag is being treated as part of the DIVs attributes.

A few ways to approach web design for a business.
 
You can have a company / freelancer / agency design and build your site and contact them when you need changes for an agreed rate.
 
or
 
Ask for your site to be designed with a content management system behind it which will give you access to a "backend" where you will be able to login and make changes to the sites content.
 
or
 
Have a site designed and built with no CMS and manually update the content yourself by learning to understand the underlying technologies.
 
Paying for a site to be designed and built with a CMS behind it I always feel is the best option as it saves money in the long run, however might cost a little more with the initial spend.

I didn't know you could fav posts. I thought the scope was for BP areas only. With that though I wanted to do something similar to you Teodora and created a tutorial for bookmarks instead of favs. It means adding a new tab to member profiles though and writing some jQuery.
 
Hope this helps and sorry if it's not what you are looking for.
 
wp dot tutsplus dot com tutorials plugins fast-buddypress-development
 
p.s. Sorry I can't post links yet.

In my introduction I talk about getting back into web design. I'm looking to work together with one or more people on a project that will allow us to trade online. Ultimately open a web design shop with parties involved working from home and communicating via Skype / Basecamp / Github etc.
 
I'm an accomplished web designer with a robust portfolio (61 clients) in 3 years. I found though working in a self employed capacity you can become very isolated.
 
So what i'm looking for is for people who feel the same who would like to extend their demograph by buddying with a fellow professional.
 
We would start by discussing service offerings, building a company web site and each person taking a role within the company.
 
Offering web design services largely in return for a fee from paying customers.
 
In return we will create a working environment instead of being isolated as a freelancer. You will have colleagues and a group of peers that you can turn to when working on specific projects with problems that may arise and ultimately give you company, experience and hopefully money to pay the bills.
 
This is the early stages but i'm thinking a generalist skill set for all staff would be good. My background is HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, BuddyPress, CodeIgniter and jQuery with a keen interest in interface design.
 
Anyone who is interested, join in the discussion and let's work together!

In my introduction I talk about getting back into web design. I'm looking to work together with one or more people on a project that will allow us to trade online. Ultimately open a web design shop with parties involved working from home and communicating via Skype / Basecamp / Github etc.
 
I'm an accomplished web designer with a robust portfolio (61 clients) in 3 years. I found though working in a self employed capacity you can become very isolated.
 
So what i'm looking for is for people who feel the same who would like to extend their demograph by buddying with a fellow professional.
 
We would start by discussing service offerings, building a company web site and each person taking a role within the company.
 
Offering web design services largely in return for a fee from paying customers.
 
In return we will create a working environment instead of being isolated as a freelancer. You will have colleagues and a group of peers that you can turn to when working on specific projects with problems that may arise and ultimately give you company, experience and hopefully money to pay the bills.
 
This is the early stages but i'm thinking a generalist skill set for all staff would be good. My background is HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, BuddyPress, CodeIgniter and jQuery with a keen interest in interface design.
 
Anyone who is interested, join in the discussion and let's work together!