Hi,

 

http://www.designarrow.com

 

Sorry about the previous post. Everything has been totally recoded.

 

Any feedback regarding the sites image, search engine optimisation and copy would be very much appreciated.

My first impression: I kept waiting for background images to load. After about 10 seconds I realised there weren't any.

 

What I mean is, I think it's very white and plain. The boxes you do have are very light and easy to miss, especially if you like a bright monitor setting. I would look at defining these areas a bit more and perhaps adding some colour somewhere. White space isn't bad but this will break up the sections a bit more.

 

I'd also suggest doing something to make the links stand out more. They are easy to miss in their current location and because they're the same colour as the rest of the text on your page (or close - one shade off). You also might want to look at the spacing of these links; they tend to run together and this gets confusing.

 

I do like the general layout and content tone of the site though. I think it'll turn out great once it's styled a bit more.

Sadly I don't like this version at all, the other had promise but since it was coincidentally very similar to another site I can understand why you scrapped it and agree that you should have. Thing is now you've rushed a recode on it and made a bit of a mess.

 

This one is just the copied design with all the obviously copied bits ripped out and recoded. It's still kind of similar but it just doesn't work. We were reviewing your last design just a few hours ago, you really are rushing and you shouldn't.

 

 

By the portfolio & that this is live, I am guessing your really just starting up. If you are then please take this advice (and even if your not you should still take it). Don't rush your company/portfolio site because if you do then its obvious to prospective clients, it will be a hinderence to you. Your site should show what you can do or be gleaming with excellent examples.

 

So just sit back, relax, draw something nice up on paper and put it into an idea thats well produced, not rushed and shows what you can do. The previous design was simple but had some potential if you sat down and thought about it. This time around you have ripped the good bits out of the previous design so that its not a copy and your left with a very plain, boring design that is, in essence just text laid out in some boxes.

 

You wanted something clean, simple and was going for that turn of the century industrial look with the black and white contrast and image choice. It kind of worked before due to the imagery and with that gone, its just a site with no colour.

 

So just take your time, do the job properly and make it your own idea (or if its inspired then know the difference between inspired and cloned) and produce it properly.

 

Where is this other design? Am I missing something?

It's nice and clean, however a bit plain.

You need seperators in your nav between the nav objects - they are a bit bunched together at the moment.

You also have some errors in your code.

In the portfolio the pics of the designs don't do anything- like taking you to the site, or enlarging the pic or something.

 

Also there is no logo or anything like that, and the header might look nice as an anti aliased graphic, as it's a bit texty at the moment.

this is reaaally plain. I didn't even realise there were boxes/lines until expat mentioned it...

 

The effect on "Design Arrow" is easy to miss unless by mistake, and even when you do see it, its pretty much pointless. An actual logo with that text as the Alt would be much better.

 

Also, make the menu span the whole width, rather than lead from the left.

This forum is so great for feedback!

 

Give me a second; going to add some of the suggestions to the front.

I disagree and yet agree with Expat on the colours. Using black and white with a little hint of red can give a really bold and powerful design if it is used correctly, so that is where I disagree with expat that you should add more colour to the site. I however think that your use of such a bold set of colours isn't used at all well, it really just falls flat. If you can create a bold layout that worked with the bold colours then that is great, if you can't then add another colour or hints of colour just to make it lift off the page. Thats the main problem with using such bold colours it will either look really good or really bad and you have to be confident with your use of space and layout o be able to use such a bold choice of colours.

 

 

As for what others said, I didn't see your original design as it was pulled before I got the chance to, but do know the reason for the change. To which I agree, its good to be different, but its not good to rush a new design. Even if you did accidentally rip off a design you can still use elements of that design within your new one, designers rip off other designers all the time and that is wrong. But being inspired by a design and improving it or making it work with your sites (as in taking elements of that design and then adding your own ideas to it) there is nothing wrong with that. However rushing a design just for the sake of having a new design its not right to do that, so it does need a lot of work to make this site that you have now a new and interesting idea.

 

 

Just to make my point clear, if you are using bold colours, create a bold design.

I don't like the effect on the logo - it's pointless. Surely you want to make a logo which has an arrow in it to match your name?

hmm...

 

My problem with this idea may be the before and afters as I saw the original and the one that was ripped off. I was being nice in my previous post since you said you didn't rip it off directly but still it really was a rip off as the images were taken from it, the logo was and still is the same with a different background colour and the code was verbatim.

 

I can still see the old design in it, sort of, but to me it just looks like the old one with a slightly different layout, a couple of design changes and the nice bits from the old one removed which for me leaves it bare and makes me think that you've just hacked away at it in a panic.

 

That, instantly, for me, gives the wrong impression and removes anything good from it.

I disagree and yet agree with Expat on the colours. Using black and white with a little hint of red can give a really bold and powerful design if it is used correctly, so that is where I disagree with expat that you should add more colour to the site. I however think that your use of such a bold set of colours isn't used at all well, it really just falls flat. If you can create a bold layout that worked with the bold colours then that is great, if you can't then add another colour or hints of colour just to make it lift off the page. Thats the main problem with using such bold colours it will either look really good or really bad and you have to be confident with your use of space and layout o be able to use such a bold choice of colours.

 

Your right, but where I run aground of this for him is that his logo/brand is red. Can that really be the only red thing on the page? Like you said, maybe it can but I personally think it'd be very hard to pull off (and it's not really red, is it? It's burnt orange-red unless my eyes are deceiving me ). Picking up that colour even the tiniest bit on the rest of the page (red bullets in an unordered list, or red headings) would be better IMHO, if only because he is trying to use that colour to connote his brand.

 

Happy to be proven wrong.

You know when you just sit still looking at a design thinking "hmmmmm"

I know it too well.

 

Get up, grab a glass of your favourite non-alcoholic beverage and get some fresh air. Staring at it and willing it to happen almost never helps.

I'm sure I replied to this, but anyways - it's not a design-feedback but a WP-install for £15 and webdesign from £99 Is that your real price, or just filling text?

The way I do it is - knock up a quick design, forget about it, knock up another one, forget about it, knock up another one etc. etc. (saving them of course). Don't worry too much about whether they are ideal or not.

Then take a break - get fresh eyes and look at them all - there may be elements from one and elements from another one you want to keep, combine them into one design.

Also - spend some time looking at other designs on the web to give you inspiration. Don't outright copy them (obviously) but gain ideas from them that you build on.

I tend to sit pixel pushing with photoshop a lot - for a while nothing happens but then you hit upon something which gives you another idea, which leads into another idea etc. etc.

I'm sure I replied to this, but anyways - it's not a design-feedback but a WP-install for £15 and webdesign from £99 Is that your real price, or just filling text?

 

Filler text of course

The way I do it is - knock up a quick design, forget about it, knock up another one, forget about it, knock up another one etc. etc. (saving them of course). Don't worry too much about whether they are ideal or not.

 

I guess this is an important point; see if the site converts. Then do some split testing with improved and tweaked designs.

Ohh yeah more red (edit: orange, burt orange ) is needed, I just mean that no other colours are needed but if having such a bold stament with colours the layout needs to be bold too

 

 

When I imagine the name and the colours I see this

 

 

 

I don't know why, I think it might be because I expect to see some sort of play on the word arrow, it seems like a missed oppertunity to me when it isn't used in some form of design way.

 

Sorry for the image and I know its not that great, but sometimes I get ideas of sites when I see them and its easier to show what I am thinking rather than try to explain...and it might help spark some ideas to create a nice bold design

I may incorporate an arrow into the logo but I've found details on logos never show up that well on business cards. As for the image you posted Dizi; I can see what you're saying, but would like the arrow theme to be a little subtle!

I think that really depends on how you design the business card, how much text you apply to a logo, and also the quality of printing of the logo.

 

 

Design is about taking the obvious and turning it into something that isn't so obvious, like the arrow, it might be obvious to use an arrow but its how you use the arrow that matters not that it is an arrow. A good example would be apple, obvious to use an apple as their logo but take a bite out of the apple and its a genius logo, its still an apple but its different. So it may be obvious to use an arrow somewhere in the design, but its better than to just have a bland page with nothing that stands out at all and a colour scheme that will never work unless you design something that can handle such a bold colour statement.

 

 

ohhh wow, I just realised why your design is so familiar to me, the use of black text and that tone or red/ burnt orange to pick out a word in the text and the use of serif and sanserif text ....Adobe...it reminds me of the CS2 adverts and boxes as they used the same colours and a mixture of serif and sanserif fonts. Please don't think I am saying that you are ripping off adobe, as a lot of people use the same colour scheme and have done before adobe. I am just happy that I finally figured out why it was familiar.

FedEx do a great job of subtly incorporating an arrow into their logo. It took me years to notice (someone had to tell me to look) but it's pure genius once you know it's there:

 

 

I like that logo concept, Dizi. I can see The word "Design", in white, on top of the black arrow with "Arrow", in black, following it, and as it's B&W it would translate well to print. Now can I bribe you to come up with something for my (soon to be redesigned because it's crap) website?

Whether filler text or not. you did ask about checking copy and there's an inconcistency between saying "websites from £49" and "prices start at just £99" -

 

"your companies" should be "your company's" or something similar double check the apostrophe

 

-

teehee the great fedex debate was it great design or an accident? I always say great design because of the kerning between those letters (oops a clue), but maybe I am wrong

 

 

But that is a good example of how an arrow could be used in a very subtle way

My two-penneth for what it's worth:

- Header and navigation need more definition from the main content. Perhaps a darker background or make more of the red/orange?

- on the nav, when it rolls over I'd give is a different colour to emphasis against the other items. Similarly make the active nav link more prominent, i.e.: if you're on the home page, highlight that link.

- Content links aren't obvious enough at first glance or when you hover

- Also "click here" isn't great for readability and accessibility. Try a more context based link name, eg: like you've done with the right hand side get a quite button/link

 

Overall I quite like the design. Clean and crisp. Nice choice of typography. Just needs some final polish and you're done.

I'm not that worried about the logo for now and I understand basic logo concepts

 

Btw. Lindon Leader at www.leadercreative.com created the FedEx logo, and it was intentional. You can find an interesting interview with him here: www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php

 

Thanks for that spot Patr100, this is a totally new design with new text so I'm ironing it out as much as I can before the weekend.

- Header and navigation need more definition from the main content. Perhaps a darker background or make more of the red/orange?

 

Thanks for the feedback Badmotherz. I've just made a small change to the content titles to perhaps show the header area up a bit more and also changed the 'Click here' text (Excellent suggestion btw!).

 

Will go over your other advice soon.

Hi Design Arrow,

 

Just checked your site out, and it looking good!

 

I like sites like this, as they are clear and have a minimal style to them, as its great for legibility of content!

 

Are you working on this site at the moment ? (as of right now as a I am typing this post?) because the navigation links are broken . (Please ignore this if you are actually updating your sites code at the moment, and its temporarily down!).

 

Good work so far!

Hello and welcome I like your home site, but i feel its a little bit to plain though, maybe if you added a little color it would look really good, but good site tho.

contact link / request quote links not working..

 

-SEO needed

- content restructuring needed..

 

goodluck

Could you elaborate a little on SEO and content restructuring!