November 30, 201114 yr Hello all, I am in need of some assistance. First a little about me. I have studied code for awhile, and have always wanted to break out into the freelance realm. I've taught myself the languages needed, but only when the situation required them. Henceforth, I do not have alot of experience with CMS's or Wordpress themeing...ect... I have an online website, that I use as a reference when I am submitting proposals on elance. Of the few responses I've gotten, they have said that the design/style of my website is not what they're looking for. I need some 'outside' help, to see if it is my website that is the issue or if it truly is just not what they are looking for. I designed the site with the thought process that it's outside of the norm of design, yet still functional. I realize that once you get involved in web design that it's easy to lose sight of the big picture, which is why I am turning to outside help. So my question is this. Is my website a flop design-wise (I'm also in the 2nd phase of an interview process for a design job, so I'm hoping that is not the case ((but I'm open to all constructive criticism))) or is it worthy of success, to the right candidate? After all that, without further ado: http://www.jjsitedesigns.com/ Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you for your time! J.
November 30, 201114 yr I'm sorry to say, but it does look a bit amateurish. This is fine if you are just starting out, as it's something you can only really learn with time. Until you get the grasp of design principles its definitely better to stay 'inside the norm' until you are comfortable enough to break them and make them work. Some simple ideas for things which will improve your site: 1 - Don't center your text 2 - Have more padding on your main container - the text goes too close to the edge 3 - Design to a grid - i.e. make elements in your page line-up. Maybe put your 4 'steps' each inside a grey box, and make sure these align to your text, and hr 4 - Make some hover states for your links 5 - Make the portfolio pop-up box center align (I think this would be better on it's own individual page any way) 6 - Whack a favicon on it Good luck! Edited November 30, 201114 yr by mrchristoph
December 3, 201114 yr Author mychristoph, Thank you for your response. It was one of those things where I came to realize afterwards, was just to close to the project myself. I was contemplating redesigning it anyways, was just looking for another opinion. I went ahead and redesigned it. Thank you for taking a look! :tv (2): I'm sorry to say, but it does look a bit amateurish. This is fine if you are just starting out, as it's something you can only really learn with time. Until you get the grasp of design principles its definitely better to stay 'inside the norm' until you are comfortable enough to break them and make them work. Some simple ideas for things which will improve your site: 1 - Don't center your text 2 - Have more padding on your main container - the text goes too close to the edge 3 - Design to a grid - i.e. make elements in your page line-up. Maybe put your 4 'steps' each inside a grey box, and make sure these align to your text, and hr 4 - Make some hover states for your links 5 - Make the portfolio pop-up box center align (I think this would be better on it's own individual page any way) 6 - Whack a favicon on it Good luck!
December 6, 201114 yr Hi, I am by noooo means a designer, I am however an end-user, also a developer. but anyways. I this that any site that is not centered is on the wrong path, start by centering you site then get back to us
December 6, 201114 yr Not a bad effort. I like the porffolio images arrangement but i do recognize it from themeforest, tsk tsk! The HTML 5 / Made on a mac badges give it an un-professional look. this was the done thing a few year4s ago but not so much now. The most you see these days is a 'text' link in the footer. Also, if you ARE going to put that badge on.. it would be nice to see valid code! http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.jjsitedesigns.com&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0 You have no google analytics to monitor traffic etc... That should'' be your first port of call when launching a site. 'The freelancer is in' button means nothing / does nothing.. Not a bad effort but room for improvement in my opinion.
December 7, 201114 yr Hello, Well this is not good, honestly. Instead of pointing out bad things (which is basicaly everything), i'd suggest you do this tutorial: http://www.ourtuts.com/design-a-clean-portfolio-website-layout-in-photoshop/ and then try to do something based out of it! Hope it helps !
December 7, 201114 yr We all have to start somewhere and as first steps go believe me I've seen far worse sites claiming to be web designers (still got retinal burns from one I saw this week lol!). Go hit the tutorials hard, Tizag.com covers everthing from very basic HTML through javascript/Ajax up to PHP and remember there is no shame looking at or even using source code from an existing site template. Some folk do learn CSS quicker that way by playing around with the code rather than building it all from scratch.
December 7, 201114 yr Author I do appreciate the response. I am still going through the motions as I have been more of a back-end coder, and I do know CSS and how to implement it, I guess what I'm still learning is what actually looks good. I do appreciate the helpful guides that have been on here. @greyhat, I actually wanted to incorporate the two jquery plugin's, fancybox with quicksand, and found a tutorial off of stackoverflow, so there was no intentional rips! @malyo, I do like that site, and I am always interested in something that gives inspiration. Personally I am looking to create something that is geared more towards developing err..designing..with HTML5. I plan on exploring the canvas tag more. @geeks, forgot to write back but thanks for the tip, I had adjusted it shortly thereafter
December 7, 201114 yr @greyhat, I actually wanted to incorporate the two jquery plugin's, fancybox with quicksand, and found a tutorial off of stackoverflow, so there was no intentional rips! I suppose i can let it slide... this time! Seriously tho keep it up!
Create an account or sign in to comment