Hi, two of my friends and myself have got together and created a freelance design agency.

our url is Dharma Designs

 

The site is still in beta and we have all been staring at it and need a fresh pair of eyes on it. When we have ironed out the creases and taken on board what you guys have to say, we'll migrate to our live host.

What do you like? what do you hate?

*bump* anyone?

Honest it looks really amateurish.

 

I can go into detail a little later and how to improve it but colors are off, typography is way off, graphics are bad, and the layout is generic and not well thought out.

 

As I said, I can go into more detail later because I'm on my iPad and heading out the door.

As I said, I can go into more detail later because I'm on my iPad and heading out the door.

 

Funny how you had the time to post the first reply, though ... although I suppose it does take a lot of effort to tell people "It's ****" because you are the best designer the world has seen and none shall ever surpass you. I don't know why we bother. It's not like we come here to find out how to improve our site and treat you as the experts and put our trust in your opinion ... oh, wait a minute ...

Funny how you had the time to post the first reply, though ... although I suppose it does take a lot of effort to tell people "It's ****" because you are the best designer the world has seen and none shall ever surpass you. I don't know why we bother. It's not like we come here to find out how to improve our site and treat you as the experts and put our trust in your opinion ... oh, wait a minute ...

 

Hi Nathan,

 

You seem a little upset. Are you one of the team involved with the OP?

 

I'm sure he will give a detailed analysis soon

I'm sorry guys, I'll have to agree with cibgraphics about the amateurish look. I know it can be hard to accept critique especially if you've been working with the same project for a long time. However you said yourself that you've grown blind to your design so here's a few things that came to my mind:

 

Front page:

1. Logo. You might want to consider removing the drop shadow. Anyone who has ever used photoshop will instantly recognize it to be directly from blending options and judge your design based on that. More importantly, it makes the logo appear a bit blurry, I would much prefer the logo to be as crisp as possible. Actually the whole logo could use a redesign.

 

2. Navigation. I don't think Sitemap should be included as a navigation option in the main navigation. Realistically, who's ever going to look at it except for Google robots?

 

The border-bottom hover effect doesn't work very well together with the drop down menu. When you hover over the dropdown menu you can see the bottom-border cover half of the top edge of the dropdown menu. Anyhow, I'd prefer some other hover effect. The dropdown menu itself is nice though.

 

3. Slider. The shadows on top and underneath the slider are way too strong for my taste. Often times I find that subtlety is the key. The text content on the slider looks really crammed. Put some padding on both sides. Also, the stock photos look pretty bad, and they don't really fit the message.

 

4. Content area. If I were you I'd reconsider what's the most important thing to show to your clients. Is it the blog posts? Is it what you charge? I don't think so. I'd imagine clients to be looking for your portfolio, to see if you're up for the job. Or a way to contact you, through a form or by phone. The testimonials can be a nice thing to have, but why put it there now when you don't have any?

 

5. Footer. I don't like the 1px black line. You don't really need it, and it takes away much needed white space from the design.

 

Portfolio page:

The 'get a quote' banner on the sidebar looks pretty bad. I'm sensing a vague Loreal reference here but it's not funny enough to make the banner work. Also the banner is way too close to the navigation. Put some margin in there. Empty space is not wasted space.

 

Services pages: The links don't stand up enough from the rest of the text.

Edited August 7, 201115 yr by modipeluri

Funny how you had the time to post the first reply, though ... although I suppose it does take a lot of effort to tell people "It's ****" because you are the best designer the world has seen and none shall ever surpass you. I don't know why we bother. It's not like we come here to find out how to improve our site and treat you as the experts and put our trust in your opinion ... oh, wait a minute ...

 

Cibgraphics is a valuable member of this forum whom always gives a detailed explanation of why a site may not be performing to the best of it's abilities and as he stated in this case, he will come back with a further explination (although I wouldn't blame him if he didn't).

 

Can you declare if you are anything to do with the OP? Because if you are then I will decline to review the site myself.

Edited August 7, 201115 yr by MikeChipshop

Can you declare if you are anything to do with the OP? Because if you are then I will decline to review the site myself.

Look at his URL - it's one of the site devs.

 

I love it when people ask for feedback then throw a hissy fit when it's not to their liking. All I have to say about the site (apart from the serious lack of content which begs the question: what design?) is that's one muthaf*cker of a drop shadow on that welcome banner. Also, scrolling blog posts, really?

 

Might be a good idea to drop the attitude, Nathan, if you're really interested in making your site better.

Look at his URL - it's one of the site devs.

 

Nice spot!

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments. They are valid points and have given us some food for thought.

I have a question, its regarding the image slider, Are these becoming to common that they start to look naff? Kinda like the phase of shiny floor images and "Web 2.0" buttons?

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments. They are valid points and have given us some food for thought.

I have a question, its regarding the image slider, Are these becoming to common that they start to look naff? Kinda like the phase of shiny floor images and "Web 2.0" buttons?

 

They're certainly over used. To a certain degree I still use them as they're great for visuals however you're correct when you say they're becoming 'naff'

@nathanbunn - Don't get your panties in a wad. I said I would go into more detail.

 

Design:

 

Masthead & Logo - The search option doesn't really make sense. The site is hardly big enough to warrant one. If it is only for the blog, then only put it on the blog. If you are going to put an element, make sure there is a reason for it. To me, there is no reason for the search option other than on the blog.

 

The drop down menu really doesn't make sense either. Do you really need to separate out your content as such? The more pages you have, the more the client needs to sift through, and the more he needs to sift through, the less likely they are to actually want to hire you. You can condense the About section, as well as the products section (which I would rename to services as it makes more sense). So in reality, drop your drop menu (pun intended).

 

The logo needs to loose the drop shadow as it just doesn't look right. It can be done right, but in your case it is not. I would also consider a redesign altogether. The Slide gallery also doesn't make sense. Even though many people do them, they have to have a purpose. There isn't much of a purpose with this one. The images don't make sense and don't match what little theme there is on the site. The only one I can see that might be keepable is the coffee one, and even then you need a better image of coffee.

 

Content - Please do not use Open Sans for the main content font, it looks horrible. For your para tags, use something like color #666, font-size 13px, and line-height 20px. Just a suggestion. Your headers also need some work. Make them something other than default color and size. Also try and keep your content not so close to your masthead. Give it some breathing space.

 

Your quote graphics look like ads, the wrong ads. Clients typically know how to contact you so just provide them with simple links aside from the contact link on your nav. The link doesn't need to be on every page as well. Just where it makes sense. The testimonials shouldn't display until you actually have some to display.

 

Your portfolio is also really confusing. The line "This website was not created by Dharma Designs, and is only included as an indication of the level of work Dharma Designs is capable of." on every item in the portfolio makes me wonder what they are doing there in the first place and shows that you lack experience (just appears that way)

 

You blog doesn't need a page just for archives. You have a right column just for that. The comment form is so complication with junk. All the social links/buttons/icons in the world won't make a difference unless you are putting out the content that people want to read. Only do the major ones until the readers are up and then I would even just stick to the major ones still. Really don't know why you need "AddThis" and then "AddToAny". It is way too much noise and un-needful crap.

 

A good rule of thumb I usually do, is think about the user experience and what that person wants to see and experience. Endless promoting yourself on your own site will do nothing but push potential clients away. Remember, the page is for your client, not you.

 

Footer - Get rid of the sitemap, really. Your site is not that complex. Your wordpress theme might have the option, but it doesn't mean its a good idea. Use a sitemap xml file for google, it is not necessary for your clients. The black line also needs to go. It's useless (no offense).

 

 

Code:

 

I know it may be a wordpress theme (which are kinda bad in the first place), but the code is really horrible. You need to cut down on your requests. Combine your CSS and JS respectively. Not counting the inline CSS in the head, I counted 12, and really I might have missed some because of all the junk code. Your javascript is out of control as well. I don't even want to count how many js files you are linking too.

 

Your code is hardly semantic using wrong tags for wrong information. It also use incorrect code. For example:

 

<div class="link" id="prices">
 <a href="http://dharmadesigns.nathanbunn.co.uk/products/" rel="productsmenu">
   <div class="linkheader">Products</div>
   <div class="linkdesc">What we offer</div>
 </a>
</div>

 

You can not have block level elements inside an "a" tag. You could either rewrite the code or change the doctype to HTML5 (which it is legal to have block level elements inside a tags). That is just one example.

 

Try to take another look at the code and make sure it is semantic and do not over use the div element. The site has a bad case of divitis (or some call it div soup).

 

 

 

-------

 

Sorry it seems like I just bashed your site, and in reality I did. But I do so in hopes that you can see that there is room for much improvement.

Hey cibgraphics,

Thanks for that detailed critique. I think we are going to go back to the drawing board with the site.

Hi all, With regards to our site, I've put together an alternative. Its still *very* raw, and has lots to sort out, but what do you think of it as a concept?

the URL is dharmadesigns beta

 

Many thanks

Paul

It's heading in a much better direction. A lot less 90's and a lot more up to date.

 

Obviously a lot more work to go in to it but keep us posted as it comes along.

It's better, but how fast this was thrown together makes me concerned about the direction of the rest of the site.

 

I think you guys need to take a more organized approach. Do wireframes, then mockups, and then when you have everything fleshed out, then start the code and integration into Wordpress or whatever you want to use.

 

What you are doing right now is basically throwing a dart at a bullseye blindly.

It's better, but how fast this was thrown together makes me concerned about the direction of the rest of the site.

 

I think you guys need to take a more organized approach. Do wireframes, then mockups, and then when you have everything fleshed out, then start the code and integration into Wordpress or whatever you want to use.

 

What you are doing right now is basically throwing a dart at a bullseye blindly.

To be honest, I was working on this in parallel to the initial site, so it wasn't just "thrown together", it was just side lined. I did mock it up first in PhotoShop (just a rough outline tho)

To be honest, I was working on this in parallel to the initial site, so it wasn't just "thrown together", it was just side lined. I did mock it up first in PhotoShop (just a rough outline tho)

 

I didn't mean two cause offense I'm just stating that if you really take the time to make a good solid wireframe, then flesh everything out in a mockup, your site will look and function vastly better.

Edited August 9, 201115 yr by cibgraphics

I didn't mean two cause offense I'm just stating that if you really take the time to make a good solid wireframe, then flesh everything out in a mockup, your site will look and function vastly better.

You didn't cause offence at all. I'm striving to be the best web designer I can, so I take on all advice I'm given.

I really appreciate all the feed back the guys on this forum have given me.

You didn't cause offence at all. I'm striving to be the best web designer I can, so I take on all advice I'm given.

I really appreciate all the feed back the guys on this forum have given me.

 

Good to see a positive attitude. Receiving criticism / feedback without taking it personally is one of the hardest things to do as a new designer. I've been at the design thing seriously for about a year now and still have to remind my self that critiques aren't personal now and then.

 

I don't think it would be valuable for me to reiterate what CIB had to say, so I think I'm done now