Hey everyone,

 

I'd like your opinions, both good and bad, about my company's site.

 

Please go to [edited out because this shows in google and will ruin our company].

 

I look forward to both your praise and critique.

 

Cheers!

 

-Seth

Hi Seth

 

I think you've got the beginnings of a very nice site there, but there are a couple of things that don't work for me.

 

I don't find the content very easy to read. Either the gradient behind the main content needs to change, or the font colour. I would also consider making the font 1 or 2 points larger. Also, the text in the right column needs some padding/ margin in my opinion. I think that would improve it a lot.

 

On the plus side, I think your menu is very nice. I also like the graphical part of your logo, but find the text gets a little murky on the right where the background is darkest.

 

I also think changing the background colour would open up the feel of the site, which is a little heavy for my taste.

 

One last thing - I think you should look at your HTML code, because the W3C markup validator is showing 45 errors. It's not as bad as it sounds, as one incorrect element can throw up 2 or 3 errors in my experience. You can always run your code through the markup cleaner on the validation page, which may give you a good starting point though.

 

I hope you don't think this reply is too critical I actually like the site and think it's a good design; just one with room to be better.

looks like a site from the '80s to me...

looks like a site from the '80s to me...

Eskymo can you be more specific? Does it look like a site from the 80's because it's not interactive and flash? What makes it look that way? I think you mean the 90s because in the 80's the Internet was text based.

It does look a little 90's ish, but not because its not interactive and flash-based, because of the lack of white anywhere on the page. Make the page background white and I think you will solve most of the problem.

 

Also because of the lack of "whitespace" (which doesn't have to be white) as notbanksy said, you need to pad out the text on the right (which just disappeared.. you must be updating?), I personally would add a bit more padding to the main text as well.

 

What is the gray block on the top right doing? (Apart from annoying me lol) it should be a gradient like the rest of the top of the page... this too will dramatically improve the site - also that gradient needs to fade to the same black as the site background!

 

A potential idea in keeping with the current design is to have the main page background white (by that I mean the gray gradient bit behind the text) but leave a much smaller gradient dropping down from the menu (I would get rid of the border between the menu and page which shows the image from behind... to me that looks accidental). Leave the sidebar gray or some other colour.

 

Although I have been told recently that I make strange connections. When I first looked at the site I thought it was for an electrical company not a web design company.

 

Just my 2c!

At the risk of sounding harsh, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of overall concept or design, it's using bevels, gradients and effects to cover that. The main image is overpowering but serves no real purpose (is that a flying car? I can't quite make it out...). Not sure what the topmost boxes are for (as ErisDS pointed out), they seem to be just taking up space which could be better used for giving other elements a bit of breathing space and lay out the main text a little more interestingly.

I mean '80s in style as old sites from the good [bad] 'ol days of the web used loads of buttons with bevels and gradients in a bad way - I have a really old cd-rom containing a load of these style buttons that I rescued from going to the skip at the first company I worked for - I kept it for prosperity and to remind me never to use those kinds of styles.

 

These are my opinions:

 

- Your site is very dark

- Your logo looks very dated

- overuse of bevels

- overuse of gradients that all go in opposing directions which makes the 'lighting' of the site very confusing and dated

- text is difficult to read because of lack of contrast with the background gradient

- the header image isn't very clear and again uses too many gradients/dropshadows/glows

 

all in all there is too much of too many things and you need to simplify and minimise the use of effects and concentrate on your content and presenting it in the best way possible.

Eskymo hit the nail on the head regarding your gradients. You've really gone over the top with them, and they all go in different directions and have varying intensities, which completely throws out any consistency with the design. You don't need to use gradients to make something cool, try the layout with block colours at first, I'm sure that will look better.

 

If you're desperate to go with gradients, then make sure they all have light coming from the same angle, and also think about the colours of the gradient, keep the difference subtle, and the gradient will be less likely to offend.

 

Rob

1. Gradients can work, and look very modern if done correctly. Never fade grey to a colour, just looks plain ugly imo.

 

2. Give your right column some padding, text should never be touching the edge of its container.

 

3. Content area generally needs more breathing space, and more contrast (lighter bg) as already said.

 

4. Top area seems pointless

Eskymo couldn't have said it better. Especially with the bevels and gradients. Also the planet could use a better cut out. do you use photoshop? use the circle marquee tool for a cleaner cut maybe, as well as removing the lines from when the clone stamp tool reached the edges when you made the stars, and overall I'm not much of a fan of the "B/W space" header in general.

Eskymo couldn't have said it better. Especially with the bevels and gradients. Also the planet could use a better cut out. do you use photoshop? use the circle marquee tool for a cleaner cut maybe, as well as removing the lines from when the clone stamp tool reached the edges when you made the stars, and overall I'm not much of a fan of the "B/W space" header in general.

 

 

Hey guys. Thanks for all your suggestions. I do have a problem. This shows up in Google and will kill my business. How do I erase the sub title and an mention of my domain and company name. This will ruin my reputation. Please let me know.

that's the beauty of the web - list anything on this forum and it's instantly top in Google - this can be used to your advantage sometimes. Just go in an EDIT your post and remove anything you want to remove.

The problem is you wanted an opinion and now that it isn't all praise that you are a wonderful designer and great at designing you want rid of all evidence that you need to improve because you don't like it? Take on board what people have said and change a few little graphics and your site could be ok.

 

Now people on here have worked hard to give you a true insight into how you improve and you want to get rid of that...truth is if you didn't want a bad word said about the design of your site then you shouldn't ask for opinions amongst opinionated designers.

 

 

Next time you should think of impacts, not everyone will love you design and people on here are only trying to help you improve...like you asked for.

 

I will not being erasing this thread as you asked for opinions and you got them but...

As for reference in thread title I will get rid of that for you (if it is mentioned in other peoples posts then I am sorry I refused to erase other peoples views). I would suggest that you get rid of your signature reference too as that also can cause goggle to refer to this thread based on that signature as well (That is if you are truly concerned it will damage your credibility)

 

 

I hope you take on board what people say as I really agree that you need to learn how to modernise your design techniques and improve the design a bit.

 

 

Thread closed