So I have been playing around with making a personal website and finally did. Let me know what you think. I haven't Finished it yet but I've got enough done that you can look and see My website It is Html 5 css 3 and I haven't made it compatible with older browsers yet.

Edited February 22, 201214 yr by Garner Designs

Okay I'll go first.

 

Your ribbon/logo is too far over to the left hand side of the screen, looking at your code you have no header wrapper containers or anything. Try adding some in and working to a fixed size 960px, 1020px etc.

 

The bottom of the ribbon also looks very jaggedy (check out the ribbon I drew here) and the drop shadow is too extreme, I'd say only ever use 1px or 2px at the most for the size of the shadow.

 

The rest of the header is filled with way too much negative space although your navigation bar is sleek and works well in my opinion.

 

For some reason I thought the "Welcome to my personal portfolio website" was a Google advert on first viewing and was immediately put off.

 

The cloud moving background thing is cool, I did something similar on a opencart theme once but you have to remember that it has to be simple, I had 2 small clouds visible at any one time where as on your site I can see 11. There is too much going on there and it will distract people from what's important, your content! Also try slowing down the animation a tad.

 

Again lots of negative space in that footer, find something to put in there or just make it smaller.

 

I say this a lot but when using a textured background try adding text-shadow: 0 1px 0 white; to your body content to make it easier to read (looks better too).

 

In the portfolio section your "read more" overlaps with the break at the bottom

 

Try making your text larger in the FAQ section, seems really bare and empty.

 

Oh yeah and that fancy mailbox / drop down contact form really doesn't work, at first I just thought it was part of the background you should at least put the words 'contact' somewhere otherwise you won't be getting many enquiries.

 

Apart from that it's a solid start

Edited February 22, 201214 yr by 4colourprogress

5 years of experience, really? I'm sorry to say this but neither your website or your portfolio reflect that.

 

Your home-link is on the wrong side of the navigation. This is just something users are accustomed to, don't try to fight it as it will only result in a bad user experience.

 

The clouds are kinda cool although badly executed and I don't see a purpose for them other than showing off your jquery skills (which is not a bad idea). But unless you incorporate the moving clouds idea into your design better, they're just another flaming skull.gif

 

Photoshop grass brush, really?

 

Your CSS... you've got your fon't family which is always the same (Arial,sans-serif;) declared like 5 times. On the other hand your navigation has no font-family declaration whatsoever so it uses the system default.

 

Also, put your javascript in your footer.

5 years of experience, really? I'm sorry to say this but neither your website or your portfolio reflect that.

 

Yeah, I don't love it either. The grey and navy clash in my eyes, and there are like 84209 fonts and sizes. Did you do a mock-up beforehand? Might be worth sketching or photoshopping a template...

Yeah, I don't love it either. The grey and navy clash in my eyes, and there are like 84209 fonts and sizes. Did you do a mock-up beforehand? Might be worth sketching or photoshopping a template...

4 years of school and 1 real year, I have unlearned all the crap they taught me in school because It was making websites out of tables and making dreamweaver site. I did not mock this one up because to be honest Its more of a playground but I agree I need to fix the changes in fonts ( I started making one layout and hated so changed directions but kept some elements.) For now its just something fun for me to play with. I want constructive critisim so I can improve on it.

 

4colourprogress Thank you for your input, I will slow down the clouds and cut a few out.. On my homepage I personally want as little content as possible.

Looking at the website, it looks dull and the middle part with the clouds looks out of place, I like the idea of them moving, but it just doesn't fit. Same goes for the logo.

You need to rethink your palette, it simply isn't working and not exactly easy on the eye either.

 

Also you need to polish up that banner/ribbon because it looks amateur.

 

I'd also remove any reference to '5 years experience' because your work thus far doesn't represent 5 years of experience.

 

As it stands there's nothing to like about your design, nothing grabs you and it feels rushed. However with some polish and suitable colour choices you could easily pull it back towards workable.

I agree I rushed Into this website with no real forethought and made a fool of myself. Thats the point of asking others opinion. I am going back to the drawling board... after some sleep. I do have a plan now.

Lay this to rest I won't be checking the thread.

All I can see there is logo in the top-left corner, some clouds moving form left to right and some black text that very difficult to read

Sorry but your Logo is a littelbit to small. The site look a little bit boring and the colors does not fit together in your fonts and background.