Hi everybody,

 

I hope you are doing great. After two months of learning, I know enough to produce something I think is acceptable. The content is a dummy content and I still have many things to do ''adding pages, filling out keywords and titles, etc.'' The site is found here http://tinyurl.com/5jo2ug

 

Here are a few things I'd be really grateful if you can address:

 

1) The site has a style changer ''click the numbers to the right''. Which theme do you think I should use as default?

2) IE7 messes up the AJAX functionality when transparent PNGs are used. You can test that here. Im currently using conditional comments to give backgrounds CSS colors instead of PNG backgrounds. What do you think I should do:

 

A- Keep it this way. Make IE7 display CSS colors instead of transparent PNGs?

B- Make IE7 display transparent PNGs and leave the AJAX effect messed up?

C- Remove the JS effects for IE7?

 

Thank you in advance. Any advice or help is really appreciated.

Hi, I haven't had a detailed look at your site but I would suggest that you change the default timing on your slide effect (make it a bit longer) straightforward with mootools.

I would also make it clear that the numbers on the right are style changing links as at the moment that's not very clear.

Last but not least, I tried this on an earlier version of my own site and it put a lot of visitors off (I checked this out through google analytics) so it might be best to have an individual page for each link/navigation instaed of a refresh.

I hope that helps!

Hi, I haven't had a detailed look at your site but I would suggest that you change the default timing on your slide effect (make it a bit longer) straightforward with mootools.

I would also make it clear that the numbers on the right are style changing links as at the moment that's not very clear.

Last but not least, I tried this on an earlier version of my own site and it put a lot of visitors off (I checked this out through google analytics) so it might be best to have an individual page for each link/navigation instaed of a refresh.

I hope that helps!

 

Thanks ElanMan. That does help. Your first point made me think. I have a connection speed of 2200 kbps and the sliding speed is good for me. Not too fast, but it does not take ages to load either. Does it load too fast for you? Is it because of a faster connection?

 

The second point is definitely on my to-do list. I am planning on making small images instead of numbers.

 

''it might be best to have an individual page for each link/navigation instaed of a refresh.''

 

Did you mean a page refresh instead of using JS? I made everything unobtrusive for those who prefer navigating with JS disabled.

 

Thanks again!

Im Loving your site but i find it to dark.

Im Loving your site but i find it to dark.

 

Thanks Kip. I love dark colors, but when making the themes I sometimes felt they're too dark as well. I should probably make a reasonably brighter theme and make it the default.

 

Thanks again.

Lovely concept, and the theme changer is a nice addition.

 

I feel the layout is a bit too dark, though. Maybe raise the brightness of the first background image (the vintage pattern). At the moment it is so dark it's hard to tell if there is a layout, or if the text is just floating — which isn't good because it looks like it lacks structure.

I don't have much to complain about, my only concern is that people may find it hard to see becuase it is very very dark. Try using some brighter colors.

I like the simplicity of it , less is more and all that !! I would agree with other posters though, the dark background is a little too dark ?!? i would go for a nice pastel blue or cream/brown (maybe) maybe a subtle gradient used ??

I love the purple theme and also the use of AJAX. But i think there should be more content.

Thank you all for the reviews and advice. I really appreciate it.

 

It seems like pretty much everybody agrees that it is too dark, so I will have to make new themes with brighter colors.

 

Please keep this coming. It is immensely helpful to me. Let me know if you have any suggestion or if you do not like anything in the site.

 

Thanks again!

Hello Pamplona home of the bull running...

 

Clever and original, nice style.

 

One suggestion from me - lose the centre align, two reasons - one I very rarely like centre align but more importantly - because of the balance of the page it appears to be uncentred, of course it is centred but the WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT creates the illusion of the page being offset to the left, in other words the left margin looks < less than the right. The eye follows the edge of the W in WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT to the left of the screen.

 

Other option is to bring that W under the F of Fabio and keep other columns as they are.

 

good luck

 

I like it. I think it's a neat portfolio site, and the slide effect is done well. One minor usability issue - I think the links should have some kind of hover effect - maybe just changing the colour of the text slightly. The other problem you might encounter having all the content rendered through one HTML page is that you will struggle in the search engines - that might not be an issue though?

 

It's a smart-looking site though. I wish mine looked that good after two months.

Hello Pamplona home of the bull running...

 

Clever and original, nice style.

 

One suggestion from me - lose the centre align, two reasons - one I very rarely like centre align but more importantly - because of the balance of the page it appears to be uncentred, of course it is centred but the WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT creates the illusion of the page being offset to the left, in other words the left margin looks < less than the right. The eye follows the edge of the W in WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT to the left of the screen.

 

Other option is to bring that W under the F of Fabio and keep other columns as they are.

 

good luck

 

 

Hi Londonia home of the Big Ben.

 

Thank you very much. I am not fond of left-aligned sites, especially now that many people use large screens. However, I will definitely try to address what you pointed what and see how I can ''fix'' it without resorting to left-aligning. Thanks again.

I like it. I think it's a neat portfolio site, and the slide effect is done well. One minor usability issue - I think the links should have some kind of hover effect - maybe just changing the colour of the text slightly. The other problem you might encounter having all the content rendered through one HTML page is that you will struggle in the search engines - that might not be an issue though?

 

It's a smart-looking site though. I wish mine looked that good after two months.

 

Thank you Aaron. Your site is wonderful and I am honored to receive a positive review from you.

 

The usability issue is something I noticed. This needs to be done with JS. Honestly I am still learning and I am not sure how to do it, so I thought I should leave it for later.

 

Search engines will have no problem with the site. I am using unobtrusive AJAX and each menu item has its own normal page, not everything is on one HTML page.

 

Again, thank you Aaron. I appreciate it.

 

 

Everybody else, please keep them coming.

I am using unobtrusive AJAX and each menu item has its own normal page, not everything is on one HTML page.

 

Ah yes, so it is!

I don't have much to complain about, my only concern is that people may find it hard to see becuase it is very very dark. Try using some brighter colors.

 

I tend to agree. You have some good contrast in your text and background colours - but it still doesn't quite do it. The text is a little bit tough to read.

 

I can't really give any other ideas to develop it as I would personally redesign it. I think personally that the background is good (know you were researching that), but maybe add a tradtional container box and add a bold header with some contrasting colours and a nice logo. Then maybe use the dark panels for the content. I think that would work well.

 

Paul.

I tend to agree. You have some good contrast in your text and background colours - but it still doesn't quite do it. The text is a little bit tough to read.

 

I can't really give any other ideas to develop it as I would personally redesign it. I think personally that the background is good (know you were researching that), but maybe add a tradtional container box and add a bold header with some contrasting colours and a nice logo. Then maybe use the dark panels for the content. I think that would work well.

 

Paul.

 

Thank you very much Paul. I will definitely keep your recommendations in mind and try my best to make it better.

I like it, whilst maybe a little dark it is still nice. How did you create the slide transitions?

I like it, it is dark but i think it is OK

I think it's looking pretty good, once I turn the brighness up on my monitor

 

My favourite background is probably #2.

 

Only a couple of potential issues. One is that there's very little there in the way of a recognisable identity. That could be a problem once you start looking at getting promo material (business cards, leaflets, email, mailshots etc). It'd help if you decided on one style instead of having the switcher, or having a more recognisable mark instead of the plain bold text. I like the simplicity, but would worry that it's not enough there to build on.

 

The other thing was... damn, what was it...

 

..ah yeah.. the other thing was that the minimalism may turn out to be quite restricting. It looks good, but doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for future changes. The middle content area is quite narrow, so you could end up adjusting your content to fit in the layout, which is kind've the wrong way around. It's a problem that I'm finding with my own site now (a redesign is in the works).. It worked well for me for some years, but now I'm finding that the original design didn't allow for enough future wiggle room. And it's kind've a pain in the ass to redo the site because of that.

 

But yeah, looks good - well done

this is too dark, but background picture is very good

I like it, whilst maybe a little dark it is still nice. How did you create the slide transitions?

 

Thanks. I got it created with Mootools using the slide function. Mootools has good documentation on their site and it is not that complicated.

 

I like it, it is dark but i think it is OK

 

Thank you. I appreciate your review and opinion.

 

I think it's looking pretty good, once I turn the brighness up on my monitor

 

My favourite background is probably #2.

 

Only a couple of potential issues. One is that there's very little there in the way of a recognisable identity. That could be a problem once you start looking at getting promo material (business cards, leaflets, email, mailshots etc). It'd help if you decided on one style instead of having the switcher, or having a more recognisable mark instead of the plain bold text. I like the simplicity, but would worry that it's not enough there to build on.

 

The other thing was... damn, what was it...

 

..ah yeah.. the other thing was that the minimalism may turn out to be quite restricting. It looks good, but doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for future changes. The middle content area is quite narrow, so you could end up adjusting your content to fit in the layout, which is kind've the wrong way around. It's a problem that I'm finding with my own site now (a redesign is in the works).. It worked well for me for some years, but now I'm finding that the original design didn't allow for enough future wiggle room. And it's kind've a pain in the ass to redo the site because of that.

 

But yeah, looks good - well done

Thank you very much for the very helpful review and advice. I will be working on it and hopefully it will look acceptable even before your turn your monitor's brightness up. Your points are valid and extremely helpful, I really appreciate you spending the time to give such a detailed and to the point review. I think I will redesign it soon, and I will try my best to address your points. Thank you, thank you again.

 

this is too dark, but background picture is very good

I appreciate your review. Almost everybody thinks it is too dark so Ill make sure to redesign with this in mind. Thank you.

like others say it's to dark