Hey, hope everyone is well.

 

I thought i would revamp my site, and came up with this.

 

I still have some more work to go up on it eventually, thinking of making the thumbs in the portfolo square to fit more in.

 

But anyway, please feel free to comment, any feedback is good feedback. (so long as its constructive lol)

 

if anyone would like to link to it, and have a link to theirs on mine then please get in touch.

 

Thanks

That's nice, easy to read and follow - not sure about the pinky text colour though

That's nice, easy to read and follow - not sure about the pinky text colour though

 

I was thinking about implementing a css style switcher to change the theme colour of the page, which would include the logo.

Great work, Mark. Found an error in you typografi though. Look at the bullets in your list.

 

Five simple steps to better typography - Part 2

 

Good luck.

 

Edit: And the code could surely be cleaner. This is a simple design and lots of the div's could be droped.

I like that a lot.

 

Couple of minor quibbles:

 

1. The 'Home Of' part looks a bit odd to me. I don't think the 'Of' should be capitalised. It also doesn't read quite right having it to the bottom right of your name. I'm guessing you put it there because it would have clashed having it to the (more traditional) top left of your name.. I'd be tempted to leave it out altogether if that's the case. Just having your name makes it pretty obvious it's your site, the 'Home Of' is kinda redundant.

 

2. The squares at the bottom look like they should be clickable. Could they be linked to either the portfolio page or to the relevant portfolio item page?

 

3. Couple of spelling/grammatical errors on the about page.

 

 

Pretty impressed, overall. It's looking good.

 

 

::edit::

 

Not sure about the style switcher idea, unless it's purely an enhanced accessibility thing.

I really like it. You've spaced out and structured your content well, the colours are nice, the contrast is good, although the pink could be brightened a bit.

 

Good job!

 

Rob

Nice work there

 

Really, really minor points.

 

I found the link/hover use of pink inconsistent. e.g. on your portfolio page I thought the highlighted words were links and in the footer sitemap is but XHTML validation isn't. I also though the little arrows (which I like) were initially links to example works.

 

It also needs to be edited for grammar - e.g. "Throughout all of my work I have tried to combine art with technology, I still believe in the good old pencil and paper" and style e.g. on 'About me' page "Having 3 years employed and six years of active web..." and others.

 

Also there was the other point about the "home of"; personally I'd keep it all lower case.

 

But, I'm coming from a magazine design background, and I get pedantic about things.

 

Overall though, it's better than I could do, great site

Great work, Mark. Found an error in you typografi though. Look at the bullets in your list.

 

Five simple steps to better typography - Part 2

 

Good luck.

 

Edit: And the code could surely be cleaner. This is a simple design and lots of the div's could be droped.

 

thanks for heads up, appreciate it, iwit regards to the code, i thought it was pretty clean. any suggestions where i could perhaps scale the amount of divs down?

 

thanks again

I like that a lot.

 

Couple of minor quibbles:

 

1. The 'Home Of' part looks a bit odd to me. I don't think the 'Of' should be capitalised. It also doesn't read quite right having it to the bottom right of your name. I'm guessing you put it there because it would have clashed having it to the (more traditional) top left of your name.. I'd be tempted to leave it out altogether if that's the case. Just having your name makes it pretty obvious it's your site, the 'Home Of' is kinda redundant.

 

2. The squares at the bottom look like they should be clickable. Could they be linked to either the portfolio page or to the relevant portfolio item page?

 

3. Couple of spelling/grammatical errors on the about page.

Pretty impressed, overall. It's looking good.

::edit::

 

Not sure about the style switcher idea, unless it's purely an enhanced accessibility thing.

 

Thanks for that, Im thinking about making it all lower case, i will see what it looks like without it, very useful comments

 

 

I really like it. You've spaced out and structured your content well, the colours are nice, the contrast is good, although the pink could be brightened a bit.

 

Good job!

 

Rob

 

I was trying to follow a rule i read, about website typography, using 140% line spacing, makes it much easier to follow!

 

 

Nice work there

 

Really, really minor points.

 

I found the link/hover use of pink inconsistent. e.g. on your portfolio page I thought the highlighted words were links and in the footer sitemap is but XHTML validation isn't. I also though the little arrows (which I like) were initially links to example works.

 

It also needs to be edited for grammar - e.g. "Throughout all of my work I have tried to combine art with technology, I still believe in the good old pencil and paper" and style e.g. on 'About me' page "Having 3 years employed and six years of active web..." and others.

 

Also there was the other point about the "home of"; personally I'd keep it all lower case.

 

But, I'm coming from a magazine design background, and I get pedantic about things.

 

Overall though, it's better than I could do, great site

 

lol thanks for the grammer check, i think i was staring at it too much!

 

for some reason the site is not validating anymore, so am going to have look into it.

 

thanks everyone

Great use of CSS there! Great logo, and a great colour combination, It potrays a funky, arty-farty image to me which is definatly a good think, I love the layout and the subtle dotted underline on the navigation, Some not so negative points....

 

'...full of scribbled on fag packets!' - Its all good abit of humor, your trying to look professional and the word FAG I personally dont think its appropriate, try something like CIG it sounds less harsh than it is, thats just my view though.

 

and finally, great Keyword tags (char.length) etc good meta descriptions and nice fav.ico

 

Good luck in the future

Great use of CSS there! Great logo, and a great colour combination, It potrays a funky, arty-farty image to me which is definatly a good think, I love the layout and the subtle dotted underline on the navigation, Some not so negative points....

 

'...full of scribbled on fag packets!' - Its all good abit of humor, your trying to look professional and the word FAG I personally dont think its appropriate, try something like CIG it sounds less harsh than it is, thats just my view though.

 

and finally, great Keyword tags (char.length) etc good meta descriptions and nice fav.ico

 

Good luck in the future

thanks for the input!

 

Im going to overwiew everyones comments tonight and see where i can implement them.

I think you should take your link color into consideration. The pink is a bit to dark on the grey background. It's not particulary hard to read, but I would've tried a lighter color on the dark background at least.

 

You should also try to add an icon on all you list items in your navigation. It feels a bit random, like you diden't bother to finish it.

 

Regarding you code, it's pretty good, but I would've used a defination list on you skills like:

 

<dl>
 <dt>My skills:</dt>
 <dd>Skill</dd>
 <dd>Skill</dd>
 <dd>Skill</dd>
</dl>

 

This is a very good design. I love it.

Hi Mark

 

Nice work.

 

I was thinking of going on a graphics design course after finishing my IT Applications diploma. Along with history of design (which I'm interested in), did they teach much design theory?

 

One thing I did note on your site in IE6 (yep there still backwards here at work), in the lightbox images there's a small bit of repeating pink in a dotted line when you hove over the close icon.

 

Thinking back I've come across a repeating text in IE6 before, never running over into a JavaScript image though!

 

If you want to resolve it a google search on repeating text in IE6 may well throw up some solutions. If I remember how I sorted it on my page I'll post again for you.

 

 

One other thing, my monitor is a bit naff here at work but the Web / Graphic Design at top of page in the right column is aliasing very badly. If I'm going this large in font-size I tend to use a non-standard font, Trade Gothic is my favourite and build in as an image.

 

Some may question this in usability/accessibility and SEO terms, but even Jacob Nielson suggested a minimum of 15 pt for font-size ages back, as your using at a guess around 30 pt here perhaps a decent larger font graphic might tidy up the aliasing?

You should also try to ass an icon

 

Aren't there laws against that?

Love all your ammendments, and I especially like the Contacts page, nice use of styles and colours!

 

I think you dont need to do much more, it looks as professional as it should!

 

10/10!

Awesome site. I like it. Well done.

 

Actually saw it early in the week after clicking your ad on facebook;)

Aren't there laws against that?

 

Maybe.

I think you should take your link color into consideration. The pink is a bit to dark on the grey background. It's not particularly hard to read, but I would've tried a lighter color on the dark background at least.

 

 

One thing I did note on your site in IE6 (yep there still backwards here at work), in the lightbox images there's a small bit of repeating pink in a dotted line when you hove over the close icon.

 

Thinking back I've come across a repeating text in IE6 before, never running over into a JavaScript image though!

 

If you want to resolve it a google search on repeating text in IE6 may well throw up some solutions. If I remember how I sorted it on my page I'll post again for you.

 

 

One other thing, my monitor is a bit naff here at work but the Web / Graphic Design at top of page in the right column is aliasing very badly. If I'm going this large in font-size I tend to use a non-standard font, Trade Gothic is my favourite and build in as an image.

 

Some may question this in usability/accessibility and SEO terms, but even Jacob Nielson suggested a minimum of 15 pt for font-size ages back, as your using at a guess around 30 pt here perhaps a decent larger font graphic might tidy up the aliasing?

 

 

This was really frustrating me, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the pink dotted line was showing under the close link, something to do with the css 'a' tag.

 

With regards to the font size its 2ems.

 

Love all your amendments, and I especially like the Contacts page, nice use of styles and colours!

 

I think you dont need to do much more, it looks as professional as it should!

 

10/10!

 

thanks.

 

Awesome site. I like it. Well done.

 

Actually saw it early in the week after clicking your ad on facebook;)

 

really?? haha sweet! I thought I'd try out a weeks worth of advertising. It had over 100,000 impressions within facebook and about 120 clicks. Sadly no enquires though, yet.

really?? haha sweet! I thought I'd try out a weeks worth of advertising. It had over 100,000 impressions within facebook and about 120 clicks. Sadly no enquires though, yet.

 

How much is advertising on facebook then?

Just looking through it now, I think i was billed for about $50, so about 25ish quid.

 

I was only testing water so put a max limit of $10 a day for 6 days. Its finished now.

I believe it's done on a CPC (Cost-Per-Click) or CPM (Cost per x amount of impressions).

 

I'm not sure of the actual costs, though I THINK, it's done via bidding and what determines the ratew is the advertiser competition and the demographic you are targeting.

 

You can set your daily budget and duration of your ad campaign also

Just looking through it now, I think i was billed for about $50, so about 25ish quid.

 

I was only testing water so put a max limit of $10 a day for 6 days. Its finished now.

 

That sounds reasonable. I think once I have a few of my projects up and running I will look into advertising on facebook alot of exposure. Facebook also offers alot of free exposure.

I believe it's done on a CPC (Cost-Per-Click) or CPM (Cost per x amount of impressions).

 

I'm not sure of the actual costs, though I THINK, it's done via bidding and what determines the ratew is the advertiser competition and the demographic you are targeting.

 

You can set your daily budget and duration of your ad campaign also

 

 

yeah thats right ben.

 

I just edited the h1 tag on my site and now its all messed up!! if you take a look at the portfolio!

 

Grrr!!! have no idea whats going on!

Its quite simple and clean looking but effective, i like.

 

I also like the form styles.

I like the site a lot. It's very simple and to the point, which is a good thing

 

If i'd suggest changing anything I'd make the lightbox images in your portfolio bigger. When you click on the image the resulting lightbox isnt much larger than the banner - you could afford to offer a much larger snapshot of your work. Just my tuppance worth.

Nice and clean, valid code Some suggestions to make it more attractive:

 

1. Make your left menu a bit bigger and loose the icons on the right. ( the gold one and the pdf icon)

 

2. The pink arrow - bullets need to be a bid smaller, they are far to big. Too much focal point.

 

3. The red stripes on the top-left are off balanced, try to work some more on the top-left synthesis.

 

4. Give some saturation on your left column background color it looks too pale.

 

 

Overall nice work m8

I like the site. I really do.

 

The only thing I'd say to you is that your site map is missing the CV page

Quite a few have commented on the pink color... I dunno, I like it!

a brilliant site overall! A really nice clean design which is nicely laid out and very easy to navigate through.

 

just two extremely tiny things I would like to point out:

 

1) In your CV, on the very last line, you have misspelt 'pursuit'. You put an 'e' in the place of where the first 'u' should be.

 

2) Try and define your links so that they are consistent all the way through your page. There were some text items which were pink also and I tried clicking on them thinking they were links. A simple dotted border on the bottom of links could easily prevent this mix-up.

 

But that's just me being extremely fussy. An amazing website all-in-all. Good job

 

 

Ravi