Ok after being inpsired by a tutorial in Web Designer Magazine I decided to design my portfolio. Please read it and test it in as many browsers as you can.

 

CLICK HERE

 

Thankyou in advance!

get rid of the visitors counter, it takes away from the design. Maybe put a what am i listening to widget or a twitter widget etc. to fill that gap. The design is not bad at all, im not sure how i feel about the scrollable content in the middle, I looked at it w/o overflow:scroll and I think it looks a lot better, just try it and see what you think

I would lose the scrollable content altogether and just let the page scroll naturally.

Thats what I meant, I just couldnt get my words to sound right lol

I would lose the scrollable content altogether and just let the page scroll naturally.

 

Ok I'll try that and see what I think

Yeah its a bad idea to have scrolling content when the site isn't a size that fits comfortably on a min resolution...as I have had to scroll down using the scroll bar and then scroll down again using the content scroll.

 

 

The design is much better that the other sites that you have shown for this portfolio You still need a lot of work on your coding skills as it looks like you are still relying on a WYSIWYG editor to generate some of it (such as your links). So I think before you call yourself professional you really need to have a good knowlege of coding...and the coding has improved but until you can do a site without the aid of a WYSIWYG editor you can't class yourself as professional. So nothing to do with your age, your client base, just to do with your knowledge at this moment of time. (not that you will listen to me about this)

 

Other design comments, get rid of the hit counter, if you want to monitor such things use google analytics or something similar that is a hidden stat counter. Get rid of the valid css button as when people who know what that is about see it they will wonder why you don't have a html (xhtml) one as well and check to see how invalid your coding really is.

This is so much better than the first site you put on here so well done on that, design wise I think it looks great but loose the inner content scroll bar or use javascript to customise it default scroll bars to put it nicely look crap however good the design of the site is this.

 

Som things that concern me are you yoursefl 5 and half stars for HTML skills but your HTML does not validate infact it returns with 67 errors and 19 warnings. Also you css skills you mark youself highly but you use tables partly in your site, surely if you are as good as you say are then replicating the layout in CSS should be a piece of p*** :-). Remember tables are for tabular data and for eating from.

 

Another wwarning I would take your phone number of your website...not a smart move in todays world.

 

Here are a few tips,

 

Use a <ul> to do your navigation, float the <li> left of each other and add a right margin to each of them makes your code nicer and do the rollover yourself with CSS, if you are unsure how then PM me and I will talk you through it, at the moment it is clear that dreamweaver, fireworks or photoshop have made the rollovers for you as your body has a javascript onload to load in the MM_preloadimages....this means that a user without CSS wont see the what it is potential a nice rollover.

 

Hope some of this helps, any questions about CSS I am more than willing to help.

 

Good effort keep working at it, nice to see you have reduced the use of red ;-)

Hit counter... -50000 points.

This is so much better than the first site you put on here so well done on that, design wise I think it looks great but loose the inner content scroll bar or use javascript to customise it default scroll bars to put it nicely look crap however good the design of the site is this.

 

Som things that concern me are you yoursefl 5 and half stars for HTML skills but your HTML does not validate infact it returns with 67 errors and 19 warnings. Also you css skills you mark youself highly but you use tables partly in your site, surely if you are as good as you say are then replicating the layout in CSS should be a piece of p*** :-). Remember tables are for tabular data and for eating from.

 

Another wwarning I would take your phone number of your website...not a smart move in todays world.

 

Here are a few tips,

 

Use a <ul> to do your navigation, float the <li> left of each other and add a right margin to each of them makes your code nicer and do the rollover yourself with CSS, if you are unsure how then PM me and I will talk you through it, at the moment it is clear that dreamweaver, fireworks or photoshop have made the rollovers for you as your body has a javascript onload to load in the MM_preloadimages....this means that a user without CSS wont see the what it is potential a nice rollover.

 

Hope some of this helps, any questions about CSS I am more than willing to help.

 

Good effort keep working at it, nice to see you have reduced the use of red ;-)

Thanks although if you did look at the code you would see that the tables only exist on one page and are displaying tabular data which as you formention is the purpose of tables!

Thanks although if you did look at the code you would see that the tables only exist on one page and are displaying tabular data which as you formention is the purpose of tables!

 

oh crap I meant to edit my last post.... anyway more feedback would be nice guys

oh crap I meant to edit my last post.... anyway more feedback would be nice guys

 

 

I think your definition of tabular data needs refining, an image and a visitor counter is not tabular data, something like a timetable is.

I think your definition of tabular data needs refining, an image and a visitor counter is not tabular data, something like a timetable is.

The data I have displayed in tables is tabular data. I have not displayed the visitor counter in a table...

get rid of the visitors counter, it takes away from the design.

 

Yes. Agreed. If you want a visitor counter go with Google Analytics.

 

 

Ok.. Let's see... You XHTML doesn't validate: 23 errors.

 

I see your CSS validates... That's great.

 

Typo:

 

Under "My Skill" you spelled "Including" "Inlcluding"

 

As Dizi said, you should try to familiarize yourself with hand-coding rather than WYSIWYG.

 

And everyone else said the same thing I was going to mention... No reason to mention them again.

 

Better than your last site, but still needs some work.

Yes. Agreed. If you want a visitor counter go with Google Analytics.

 

 

Ok.. Let's see... You XHTML doesn't validate: 23 errors.

 

I see your CSS validates... That's great.

 

Typo:

 

Under "My Skill" you spelled "Including" "Inlcluding"

 

As Dizi said, you should try to familiarize yourself with hand-coding rather than WYSIWYG.

 

And everyone else said the same thing I was going to mention... No reason to mention them again.

 

Better than your last site, but still needs some work.

Thanks Mesach, I have corrected the mistake, I am going to get rid of the stupid hit counter and I am currently working on making my site HTML valid!

I was just looking at your vocational skills, if you rate yourself 4 and a half out of 5 for css why are you using javascript to make your hovers, instead of using one of the very basic css methods, that if you did have a 4 and a half star you would know?

 

 

Also on your about page your home button doesn't seem to have a hover state.

I was just looking at your vocational skills, if you rate yourself 4 and a half out of 5 for css why are you using javascript to make your hovers, instead of using one of the very basic css methods, that if you did have a 4 and a half star you would know?

 

 

Also on your about page your home button doesn't seem to have a hover state.

I'm not familiar with the CSS rollover method, could you link me to a tutorial please?

Also I have fixed the home rollover and my website validates in CSS and HTML now!

HTML validation

 

I know this might sound harsh but if you rate yourself so highly with css how come you don't know something very basic?

 

 

http://www.webdesignerforum.co.uk/index.ph...ost&p=21844

 

That will probably help you out.

would also suggest on the testimonials part you do something with the text other than italics, probably just my preference but I find it hard to read. Otherwise keep it up fella.

 

go to W3C schools and its under the CSS sections (drr of course you know that forget me I'm getting on a bit!)

Ok I've updated it for SEO purposes, It is now both HTML and CSS valid

Ok I've updated it for SEO purposes, It is now both HTML and CSS valid

 

I still don't think you should be calling yourself a professional web designer, I still think you need to need look at your vocational skills, you really overstating your skill set your css is not where near 5 and half out of 6 sorry to sound harsh but you will not get anywhere by kidding yourself. As for this tabular data argument, I am glad to see you have removed it well done on that.

 

If you want to improve your CSS may I suggest looking at Stu Nicholls site this guy is a genius, take apart his examples and put them back together with your own twist is great to learn the core skills.

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Some of your copy needs looking at aswell can words really give a website a taste?

 

Also your testimonial did you really create that guys website because if you did why is flash not in you vocational skills?

I still don't think you should be calling yourself a professional web designer, I still think you need to need look at your vocational skills, you really overstating your skill set your css is not where near 5 and half out of 6 sorry to sound harsh but you will not get anywhere by kidding yourself. As for this tabular data argument, I am glad to see you have removed it well done on that.

 

If you want to improve your CSS may I suggest looking at Stu Nicholls site this guy is a genius, take apart his examples and put them back together with your own twist is great to learn the core skills.

?

Some of your copy needs looking at aswell can words really give a website a taste?

 

Also your testimonial did you really create that guys website because if you did why is flash not in you vocational skills?

4.5/5 don't worry, in life I learn to ignore people like you

4.5/5 don't worry, in life I learn to ignore people like you

 

I agree with him. You're not going to get anywhere in life if you don't listen to people's advice/critique.

 

*I still think you need a lot more work to call yourself "professional".

 

**"Wise men learn from other mistakes, fools by there own."

 

--

 

 

 

*Just my humble opinion.

 

**One of my favorite bits of wisdom.

I think the problem is that because Sam has learnt some of the basics of CSS and HTML he feels that he knows a lot. I'm sure as long as he keeps learning new things rather than thinking that he does know it all now, then in a few months he might evaluate what he has written and see that he isn't as good as he thinks he is.

 

Sam could you build something like this without any help or looking at the sourcecode of this example?

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/jump

I'm not going to get on your back, but I understand where the other people are coming from.

 

I think your learning about designing pretty quickly, and it shows from your last design to this one, but maybe try and take a step away from tutorials and start designing your own ideas.

 

I noticed, on another thread, that your doing some templates which is a great idea to showcase your potential and is great to practice your skills. But maybe have a look at different website design sites, have a look at their ideas, the typography, the layout, the whole feel of the website. I sometimes have a look at other websites to see what colours they use. I dont copy their design, but sometimes it can give me an idea of what I want.

 

Your only young, really young, and its great you've gotten this far but you still have a long way to go. You need to look into CSS and XHTML alot more.

 

I'll critique the design for you though, seeing as that's what you've asked for;

 

Why do you have scrollable content when its much easier to let the page stretch and flow to the content. Just remove them, I find it really annoying and i'll just go to another site.

 

Also been mentioned, there's no need for you to use javascript for rollovers. Its alot easier to do it in CSS and alot more accessible.

 

For me, I dont think its professional when I look at photos of you on holiday, or fishing. Nice idea to make it personal, but maybe link to a blog which has this information on.

 

It *could* be a great site, with its own character, but at the moment its lacking that. Just take out the scrolling content...I dont want to have to scroll down the page, to then have to scroll down your content.

 

Hope this helps, I dont want to be harsh about it.

Also, why have chosen the name 'imagesforsite' for your images folder? Better practice would be to simply call it 'images'

Also, why have chosen the name 'imagesforsite' for your images folder? Better practice would be to simply call it 'images'

Because the lightbox plugin I am using uses a folder called images and I didn't want it to interfere with it. And sorry for my reply earlier, I'm just a bit tired of everyone saying my work is bad when I really think I'm improving. As for the CSS rollover technique I have learnt it thanks to a post by Dizi and I will implement it in any websites I design in the future.

 

Oh and Dizi obviously I couldn't build that, I'm not an expert like you. Although give me a month or so to learn more and I reckon I could.

I Quite like it, nice friendly design makes you just want to smile , i like the thought bubble the most.

 

as others send who needs scroll bars

Oh and Dizi obviously I couldn't build that, I'm not an expert like you. Although give me a month or so to learn more and I reckon I could.

 

 

I wish I was an expert on a scale of 1 to 5 I would give my css 3.5 (if I am lucky). I was just showing you that CSS can do a lot and you have just scratched the surface of it, and to not give up on learning because you can build a simple site (no offence meant by that). I don't care too much that you have put yourself down at 4.5 I disagree with it though, and really I just don't want you to stop learning because you have got a lot of potential and have been getting better. So just keep at it

 

 

As for your image calling, it really doesn't matter what you call your folder, also as long as you don't name anything the same as the lightbox images then you are fine to put images in the same folder. It is really why the images for lightbox are in a folder called images because it is what people commonly call their image folder. However you could call it 'spring rolls' if you wanted to, as it really doesn't matter, its not like calling the folder images gives it magic powers

I wish I was an expert on a scale of 1 to 5 I would give my css 3.5 (if I am lucky). I was just showing you that CSS can do a lot and you have just scratched the surface of it, and to not give up on learning because you can build a simple site (no offence meant by that). I don't care too much that you have put yourself down at 4.5 I disagree with it though, and really I just don't want you to stop learning because you have got a lot of potential and have been getting better. So just keep at it

 

 

As for your image calling, it really doesn't matter what you call your folder, also as long as you don't name anything the same as the lightbox images then you are fine to put images in the same folder. It is really why the images for lightbox are in a folder called images because it is what people commonly call their image folder. However you could call it 'spring rolls' if you wanted to, as it really doesn't matter, its not like calling the folder images gives it magic powers

Thanks Dizi, I just had a look on your website, it's awesome! how did you create the scroll effect you have on your images in your portfolio section?

thanks The one on my portfolio was created by PHP_Penguin from this forum, I asked him if I could adapt it for use on my site. But there are other ones out there, the most popular one is known as the Coda Scroller, which uses Jquery.

thanks The one on my portfolio was created by PHP_Penguin from this forum, I asked him if I could adapt it for use on my site. But there are other ones out there, the most popular one is known as the Coda Scroller, which uses Jquery.

Thanks