Hi All,

 

I've been working with someone to produce a 'Personal Site' for sale at ThemeForest.

I've been working on the design whilst he's been coding it together.

 

So far the response has mainly been good but ThemeForest rejected it on it's design. This is the feedback we had:

 

Overall, this is a clean start. The main issue is that the design of the 'tabs' or the actual content is quite generic and will need improvements in term of design, visual hierarchy, typography, layout and its aesthetic quality but most importantly, its uniqueness and how the design is executed

- Important: Improvements or fixes MUST be made to the above described areas before resubmitting. Resubmitting without making any of the requested changes violates our policy and repeated attempts may result in a temporary or permanent suspension of authorship right

 

 

We're aiming for the $10 mark on TF in the 'Personal Site' category and after researching many of the other products there, realised we could definitely be in with a shot with our design but it just needs tweaking.

 

The project in it's current state can be found here: http://alexball.tv/personal-site/

 

Can i ask for some feedback from you all both on the overall look and feel of it and on the points that TF mentions in the quote above?

 

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

-Jack

the actual content is quite generic and will need improvements in term of design, visual hierarchy, typography, layout and its aesthetic quality but most importantly, its uniqueness and how the design is executed

 

That's more than a few tweaks. That's basically saying you need to go back to the drawing board and start again with the main content areas.

Hi oakleaves,

 

Thanks. Wrong wording then on my part.

Can you provide any positive, constructive criticism with regards to my original request?

It's a clean and simple design so I can't see you need to do too much more work to get it accepted.

 

The navigation needs character as it's indeed very generic/boring. Have you thought about making the content area slightly larger? I noticed on the portfolio section that there is hardly any room for text/case studies underneath the slider.

 

I would drop the social tab and find a way to implement it on every page (maybe a bar down the left hand side or at the bottom) and replace it with a "services" tab so people can go more in depth about what services they offer.

 

Back to navigation I think it would look better centred but that's just imo.

Hi oakleaves,

 

Thanks. Wrong wording then on my part.

Can you provide any positive, constructive criticism with regards to my original request?

 

 

Sure, I think what I was trying to say was not to be too attached to the main content areas - be ruthless with the changes, the current pages seem to be holding you back.

 

1) Maybe make the main content areas a bit larger so that you can add a bit more content?

2) On the homepage think of a more interesting way to display your skills maybe using some kind of jquery hover box

3) Think about adding some kind of header (attention grabbing)

4) On the social media page maybe add a vimeo video or something to liven it all up - doesn't have to be real just use some of themeforest resources

5) On the contact page add some text with a call to action

 

 

These are all starter suggestions just to help you get your creative mojo in gear!

Edited February 13, 201214 yr by oakleaves

It's a clean and simple design so I can't see you need to do too much more work to get it accepted.

 

The navigation needs character as it's indeed very generic/boring. Have you thought about making the content area slightly larger? I noticed on the portfolio section that there is hardly any room for text/case studies underneath the slider.

 

I would drop the social tab and find a way to implement it on every page (maybe a bar down the left hand side or at the bottom) and replace it with a "services" tab so people can go more in depth about what services they offer.

 

Back to navigation I think it would look better centred but that's just imo.

 

Hi 4colourprogress,

 

Thanks for your feedback, that's great.

My idea behind the site is more to be a business card kind of site as opposed to a full-blown mini-site with services page and all.

Do you think this needs re-thinking?

Sure, I think what I was trying to say was not to be too attached to the main content areas - be ruthless with the changes, the current pages seem to be holding you back.

 

1) Maybe make the main content areas a bit larger so that you can add a bit more content?

2) On the homepage think of a more interesting way to display your skills maybe using some kind of jquery hover box

3) Think about adding some kind of header (attention grabbing)

4) On the social media page maybe add a vimeo video or something to liven it all up - doesn't have to be real just use some of themeforest resources

5) On the contact page add some text with a call to action

 

 

These are all starter suggestions just to help you get your creative mojo in gear!

 

Thanks. I agree with your points and they'd all jazz it up but...

I was basing my idea for the site on a smaller style, business card site as opposed to a larger, full-blown website.

Most of the other personal sites on TF are presented in a similar way hence why i thought it was the design that needed tweaking.

Here's a link to the category: http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/personal?sort_by=cost&page=1&categories=site-templates%2Fpersonal

Also, what would be good on the contact page that I have seen done before is to have 2 contact forms (one hidden with jquery)

 

 

 

One is a basic contact - name email message, the other is more more detailed quote request form.

Thanks. I agree with your points and they'd all jazz it up but...

I was basing my idea for the site on a smaller style, business card site as opposed to a larger, full-blown website.

Most of the other personal sites on TF are presented in a similar way hence why i thought it was the design that needed tweaking.

Here's a link to the category: http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/personal?sort_by=cost&page=1&categories=site-templates%2Fpersonal

 

Hey, I don't have any gripes with the design myself. It does what it says on the tin and I am a fan of keeping things simple. Also it makes me laugh when some things get rejected compared to some of the crap that makes it on there.

 

My answer to you is how you can try to get your site past the gatekeepers of themeforest, whoever these mysterious creatures are..

Hey, I don't have any gripes with the design myself. It does what it says on the tin and I am a fan of keeping things simple. Also it makes me laugh when some things get rejected compared to some of the crap that makes it on there.

 

My answer to you is how you can try to get your site past the gatekeepers of themeforest, whoever these mysterious creatures are..

 

I totally agree. I was aiming for the $10 mark and compared my design to others that were similar and then to those that were priced lower and really thought i was in with a shot at getting passed the process first time.

 

Never mind. I def need to work on the nav. What do you think about the choice of typefaces. I'd like to keep it limited to 2 but am having second thoughts about good ol' Helvetica.

Hi Jack,

 

One thing you could add in your style sheet is to set highlighted text to have no text-shadow property as currently it looks very messy when highlighted.

 

If i remember correctly the syntax is

 

selection {
text-shadow: none;
}

moz-selection {
text-shadow: none;
}

 

Oh, and also make the send-button into a sprite, currently there's a flicker when hovering. Also, I believe the white background is a part of the WordPress logo, you propably shouldn't remove that.

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by Renaissance-Design
Please use the code button or tags to format your code.

Here's my few cents.

 

I think your sizing is right. I wouldn't make it any bigger. I totally get what you're trying to do here.

 

I do take issue with the fact that despite being a simple small business card website that it doesn't seem to responsive. It shouldn't be too difficult to adjust it for mobiles. If the slider causes an issue with this, use Flexslider instead of Nivoslider.

 

My problem with the tabs is I think they should be centered. I also don't like the underline. I think they need to be a more obvious tab shape.

 

Further, I think your copy typography is a little.....default. It doesn't look like you've done much with it. It's just boring old Helvetica and whilst Helvetica is good, it's definitely over-used and I think your copy text should use an alternative font which is equally easy to read, and I think it should be a tiny little bit smaller and more refined.

 

You also need to be aware it will show up as Arial on PCs and I'm sick of Arial! It's OK on boring websites - but not this.

 

I also think your skills icons, well, they suck. They don't match up, they don't sit well together. It's the last 4 from Web Design onwards I really don't like.

 

Other than this critique though, I do think you're on the right track and your visual styling is pretty good!

Here's my few cents.

 

I think your sizing is right. I wouldn't make it any bigger. I totally get what you're trying to do here.

 

I do take issue with the fact that despite being a simple small business card website that it doesn't seem to responsive. It shouldn't be too difficult to adjust it for mobiles. If the slider causes an issue with this, use Flexslider instead of Nivoslider.

 

My problem with the tabs is I think they should be centered. I also don't like the underline. I think they need to be a more obvious tab shape.

 

Further, I think your copy typography is a little.....default. It doesn't look like you've done much with it. It's just boring old Helvetica and whilst Helvetica is good, it's definitely over-used and I think your copy text should use an alternative font which is equally easy to read, and I think it should be a tiny little bit smaller and more refined.

 

You also need to be aware it will show up as Arial on PCs and I'm sick of Arial! It's OK on boring websites - but not this.

 

I also think your skills icons, well, they suck. They don't match up, they don't sit well together. It's the last 4 from Web Design onwards I really don't like.

 

Other than this critique though, I do think you're on the right track and your visual styling is pretty good!

 

Thanks, that's spot on!

Totally agree with all of that and will take a good look at it all this week and re-post a few screenshots.

The icons were a free set and these, i felt were the best. I will re-explore though and find a better set.

 

Thanks everyone for all your feedback.

Hi All,

 

Right, after taking everyone's feedback onboard i decided to have another stab at the design.

You can see version 2 here.

 

I feel i've addressed most things but i'm looking for constructive feedback on any changes or anything you think i may have missed.

 

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

-Jack