February 23, 200917 yr Roxbourne.com Hey Guys, This is the 6th Website i've made. This Time it's my own website for my new start-up company Roxbourne. Could everyone please give it a review. Tell me what you think, and how it could be improved. Based on Looks, useability and the code. If anyone knows about SEO, please rate my attempt at that too! As a side note: I've learnt a TON from coding & designing this website. Heres just a few things: How to use conditional comments so specific browsers (Mostly the dreaded IE6!) use only the code within it. Testing the site in as many browsers as possible making sure the site is consistent. I tested using Firefox, Chrome, IE8, IE7 & IE6. How to use a sticky footer. (Makes sure the footer sticks to the bottom of the browser despite the content. This one being the best by far - CSS Sticky Footer How to load javascript via googles JSAPI instead of locally off our own hosting server. How to get Jquery & Prototype to work together. (This was a big pain in the arse!) - Tip..rename all mentions of '$' in Jquery JS files to 'jQuery'. Becoming more efficient at making sure my code validates. Thanks a lot guys, appreciate it.
February 23, 200917 yr Hi Roxbourne Nice site mate. Can I ask a few questions? 1. How old are you (just out of interest) 2. Who are your target market for design work? 3. How many people are going to be working at Roxbourne? The site looks nice - the only gripe I have is your contact form falls apart in Safari: Tel
February 23, 200917 yr Hey Welcome to the Forum. I like the website. Couple of things though. I would consider revising the location of your bookmarks and FireFox button. Looks out of place. Maybe put it in the header somewhere. Also, on your carousel I would have the description snippet at the bottom instead of the top will look better in my opinion. Other than that, great. It validates as well. .
February 23, 200917 yr Author Ah...The one browser I'm not able to check my site in is Safari Does anyone know any way I can do it with a PC? Anyway, to answer your questions, Im 21 and 22 in November. Our target market is mostly small businesses ranging from 1-20 employees, for now anyway! We aim to push our Web Design and SEO services, more than anything else I guess, graphic design is always part of that process though. I started the business and immediately the website in October 08, with my Dad. So to answer that question, theres me and my Dad for now! Thanks for all the tips so far guys. I was thinking of changing the contact form, for a start I need to add some validation, and the way it's styled is just too much of a hassle. requires lots of graphics etc. It's called 'Niceforms' - http://www.emblematiq.com/projects/niceforms/
February 23, 200917 yr Ok cool - thanks for the answers. If I am honest your site actually looks TOO good if that makes sense. Maybe good is the wrong word. But I feel it is almost punching above its weight for a 2-man outfit. I hate to say it (and many people may disagree with me) but the site screams out to me that you are a real professional outfit with account directors, a receptionist and some good creatives. Now please only take this as positive because I can see that you are a very good designer and competent coder BUT... some companies may feel (on a subconscious level) like they have been mislead when they realise that it is just you and your dad running the company... effectively freelancing. My advice would be to take your exceptional skills and think about mocking up something that screams out "Hey!! We are a small agency now but we know we are good at what we do". Does that make sense? Sorry to sound so negative, I am critiquing your work from a marketing view and not a design view here... Design wise it is spot on though, but for a different company in my honest opinion. Oh - check out BrowserShots.org to test in multiple browsers
February 23, 200917 yr Ya, I'd go with that Tel. Good call mate. You may get more conversions that way as well but obviously you'd have to test that.
February 23, 200917 yr This is a very nice site. Only problem I see is when you view the portfolio and then go to services menu the menu appears behind actual screenshots. Other then that great logo, and great site.
February 23, 200917 yr Ok cool - thanks for the answers. If I am honest your site actually looks TOO good if that makes sense. Maybe good is the wrong word. But I feel it is almost punching above its weight for a 2-man outfit. I hate to say it (and many people may disagree with me) but the site screams out to me that you are a real professional outfit with account directors, a receptionist and some good creatives. Now please only take this as positive because I can see that you are a very good designer and competent coder BUT... some companies may feel (on a subconscious level) like they have been mislead when they realise that it is just you and your dad running the company... effectively freelancing. My advice would be to take your exceptional skills and think about mocking up something that screams out "Hey!! We are a small agency now but we know we are good at what we do". Does that make sense? Sorry to sound so negative, I am critiquing your work from a marketing view and not a design view here... Design wise it is spot on though, but for a different company in my honest opinion. Oh - check out BrowserShots.org to test in multiple browsers Well said tel, on first impressions, it's exactly what i was thinking that this is a large design company. But, it's a very nice design and if you need any help with the graphic designs ect, then i am sure someone on here would help out, wink wink, nudge nudge. - Neil
February 23, 200917 yr I see the point of the posters above about the site being 'too good' but dont agree with it. Speaking as a freelancer who has done work for Carphone Warehouse, KISS FM and Lloyds TSB (none of which is yet on my portfolio due to ongoing legal wranglings I wont bore you with here) I can assure you that if a big company is after a larger agency they will ask you how large you are. Dont worry about taking on work and then having the client say they were misled, they tend to have numerous agencies pitch to them and they will look at each agency thoroughly before choosing one. Anyway, why wouldnt you want to take on big clients? Big names = big bucks (although they are VERY demanding).
February 28, 200917 yr I see the point of the posters above about the site being 'too good' but dont agree with it. Speaking as a freelancer who has done work for Carphone Warehouse, KISS FM and Lloyds TSB (none of which is yet on my portfolio due to ongoing legal wranglings I wont bore you with here) I can assure you that if a big company is after a larger agency they will ask you how large you are. Dont worry about taking on work and then having the client say they were misled, they tend to have numerous agencies pitch to them and they will look at each agency thoroughly before choosing one. Anyway, why wouldnt you want to take on big clients? Big names = big bucks (although they are VERY demanding). This is approximate and how I understand the figures. Your site took 10.16 seconds to load, but I have a slow connection and my web page takes longer. It used 771.25 micro secs of processor time in 60,000 micro secs once it was running. About 1.3%. It made 31,991 calls to functions and objects in that minute. I don't know how this useage is related to computer speed, mine is very fast and scores over a 9 on benchmark tests. These figures are only useful if something is wrong, and I can easily watch satellite tv run four browsers and a server an editor and another 50 applications without even breaking into a sweat while looking at your website so I guess it's alright. Design wise, I don't know. It is clean and efficient.
February 28, 200917 yr I like it, looks very pro, I see what Terry is getting at but personnaly feel that if you have the skill to make a site that looks outstanding then you should do it, You can always politely turn down an aproache by a company if you feel its beyond you, and as someone else stated the big boys usually put their contracts out to tender. The site looks great and sells you well. One critacism I would level at you is the slide show changes much too quickly, some of the text I had not finished reading before it changed. (Or maybe I read too slow )
February 28, 200917 yr Roxbourne.com Hey Guys, This is the 6th Website i've made. This Time it's my own website for my new start-up company Roxbourne. Could everyone please give it a review. Tell me what you think, and how it could be improved. Based on Looks, useability and the code. If anyone knows about SEO, please rate my attempt at that too! As a side note: I've learnt a TON from coding & designing this website. Heres just a few things: How to use conditional comments so specific browsers (Mostly the dreaded IE6!) use only the code within it. Testing the site in as many browsers as possible making sure the site is consistent. I tested using Firefox, Chrome, IE8, IE7 & IE6. How to use a sticky footer. (Makes sure the footer sticks to the bottom of the browser despite the content. This one being the best by far - CSS Sticky Footer How to load javascript via googles JSAPI instead of locally off our own hosting server. How to get Jquery & Prototype to work together. (This was a big pain in the arse!) - Tip..rename all mentions of '$' in Jquery JS files to 'jQuery'. Becoming more efficient at making sure my code validates. Thanks a lot guys, appreciate it. I like it but have a couple of niggles 1) i dont like the slide show, seems out of place up there on the header. 2) I hate seeing time and date on web sites, if i want to see the time i'll just look bottom right of my screeen 3) the font seems to small for me.
February 28, 200917 yr For me there is to much information on the homepage, other than that I really like it especially the forms.
March 10, 200917 yr Author Hey guys, really appreciate all of your input. In response to Thomas Hardy, I agree it was too 'busy'. I've made some pretty big revisions to the homepage, reducing the amount of information. Take a look again. Tell me what you think: Roxbourne Homepage In response to kree8or...I agree with you too, the text is not readable enough. I therefore changed the main font from Arial 11px to Tahoma 11px which to my eyes is slightly more readable. What do you guys think?
March 12, 200917 yr Great site, Although I think you are still having problems with your contact area. If I were happy with your own site, the first place I would next head is to contact you. The contact form is there, but I simply can't see the input areas. To a newbie that may get pretty tricky. Great feel, nice experience. Feels busy but not like a subway station overcrowded and such - more like an orderly line to catch a show. Keep up the good work!
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