Hey, a friend and I are going to make our little webdesign hobbiist thingy public. I present you an "early" Photoshop Mockup of the design.

 

What do you think?

 

UPDATE: See a few posts down

 

 

//Text and Images might be changed in the process aswell as the typography in the blogsection of it (+ more yadda yadda like date etc)

2nd pic here. didnt work in the first post

I think the basic layout looks good. But I think it doesn't look quite finished and the design needs working on. I think the small details make a website look professional.

Thanks for the advice.

 

I was thinking about a logo but decided against it at first. But I see your point an I'll try a few things.

 

I almost always have this problem that my design doent look right finished in Photoshop because so much of the "moving content" is missing. I don't know how to really FINISH a design in PS what IS a problem for me.

 

Anyways I'll will let you know if the next version is ready and show it again. This is only a 1 to 2 hour sketchwork and I hope I am able to improve it further.

**UPDATE**

 

Here is the new version. I like it much better. What do you think?

The layout and basic idea is nice. The background gives it that little bit of interest that it was missing.

 

The only problem that I have with it is positioning issues, the text and the way parts of it sit on the screen makes it look badly thought out. As in some parts there is too much space and in other parts there isn't enough, so it gives the site an uneven and slightly messy feel. So my only advice is just look at the way you have positioned some elements and play about with how you are spacing them out

The layout and basic idea is nice. The background gives it that little bit of interest that it was missing.

 

The only problem that I have with it is positioning issues, the text and the way parts of it sit on the screen makes it look badly thought out. As in some parts there is too much space and in other parts there isn't enough, so it gives the site an uneven and slightly messy feel. So my only advice is just look at the way you have positioned some elements and play about with how you are spacing them out

 

You are right. I made the slider a bit smaller now so that the text won't stretch so much. The replacement text under the Design/Dev/wordpress box is really bad. When this thing finally becomes a Webseite (xhtml/css) there will be lists or very short text instead. It's such a pain to do this in Photoshop (at least for me)

 

I'm thinking about adding another mosaic effect on top of the footer to round it up. What do you think?

Another Update:

I like the basic layout, heading/logo, background, colour and navigation bar.

 

I don't like the colour of the grey boxes or the drop shadow/stroke around the titles in them or in the footer.

 

In the footer I would also have the headings aligned to the left.

 

The featured slider colour doesn't go well and the previous/next buttons look out of place/amateur. Also the numbering on the slider does not fit at all.

 

Fix those and I think you'll have a really nice looking website.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards

 

Gareth

Thx gareth^^ you're right.

What about this? The slider still is not quite right :/

 

Hi,

 

Much better.

 

If you're going to use white text on the grey boxes (if you're keeping them) I would add a stroke at about 2px to the headings so they stand out more and become more readable, I'd use the blue from the background for the border colour and add a drop shadow at 3px distance. Also, center them vertically with the top of the box, same with the footer titles.

 

Slider is much better now, although I'm still not hot on the colour. Also, I'd curve the corner at the bottom as well or encompass the thumbnails.

 

It's definitely getting there now dude.

And the next update:

Hi it's amazing to see the transition on this.

 

It's looking fantastic now.

 

thanks

AH, I see that the slider did encompass the thumbnails but I missed it because it blends too much with the background, I would lighten it up. Colour looks much better now and the grey boxes fit much better.

 

One thing though the slider box looks weird at that size compared to the grey boxes, header and footer. Make it the same width to fit in more with the rest of the design.

 

The thumbnails could also do with a defined border, as well as the main image. Quite thin and subtle.

 

You've left aligned the headings in the footer now and they don't look right because the grey box headings are center aligned. Have them aligned the same. Also, a nice idea for the footer headings might be to break them out of the box slightly, half over the top of the footer and half over the bottom of the content area. I think that would look nice.

 

On the footer right at the bottom, try a dark blue or very dark grey 80px high border with about a 75% to 80% transparency on it and a top border set to overlay to hold your copyright information etc. I think that would look cool.

 

On your services section in the first grey box. Why not have some nice Web 2.0 icons next to each of the 3 bits of text. I think that would look great, making it stand out and giving it some emphasis and contrast. Then that's pretty much it I would say.

 

Looking great so far.

How is this for the slider? I don't know really. It feels better but I don't know about the preview thumbnails. I don't like them under the slider either. Somebody got an idea?

That's excellent. Just reduce the size of the thumbnails so there is about 8px to 10px padding around them and I think your there.

 

. Excellent work.

 

P.S. Maybe round the corners on the grey boxes and the footer background to fit in with the slider. Not a major concern but it may just polish it off.

Also, maybe add quote marks to the testimonials and have the client name in a slightly lighter colour.

The sad thing is... I might not be going to use it because my friend isn't really fond of the colors. Well goes for sale then... I'll finish it anyway and @Gareth thanks for all the help.