Hi Guys,

 

I know I have been asking more questions and posting a lot of "social posts" recently rather than being much help myself,

I'm very sorry about this, but I've just been so busy with uni! T-minus 14 days until normal service is resumed!

 

As part of my entrepreneurship project I designed a website. I don't actually do new sites all that often, and this one was done in 2 days, start to finish, first concept to full copy (sorry wizely bro the copy is rubbish I threw it down last minute).

 

I thought I would stick it up here and see what people think of it, it would be nice to know what to do differently next time when I will hopefully have more than 2 days and will be able to create something much more polished!

 

Anyhoo, less talky, more linky: http://www.ecoheatco.co.uk

 

Remember it's fictional and done in 2 days!

 

- Eris

People better like the header CSS that's all I'm saying!

 

My only qualm is that it doesn't validate anymore!

I like it, It has fresh up beat feel to it.

 

Just a couple of things i noticed.

 

- The subheader looks a bit Word-like with the black border. Might be cleaner looking without a border.

 

- Because there are no vertical lines the site kinda floats in mid air when viewed on large resolution (1680*1050) it looks a bit unnatural.

 

Greetz R-J

 

Catchy slogan btw ( Warming the people not the planet )

Hmm, no validation is something I can't stand! I didn't get time to check it last night but have fixed it now.

 

Re the border, you're right. The logo&slogan were both designed at a really large size, and the stroke hasn't gotten smaller when downsizing so now its much thicker than it was at high res (see the poster if you can find it lol)

 

Is the sidebar not enough of a vertical structure to give the site some form? I didn't want it to be too rigid, more of a free flowing spirit, tree hugging hippyness and all of that jazz!

 

Just noticed at some window sizes you get a horizontal scrollbar in Safari.

 

And because of the hight of the screen the menu doesn't really give a vertical structure imo. if you stretch it a bit it might work better.

Hi Eris

 

I think this is a very nicely made site you have, and certainly on my monitor (1024) it looks excellent. I do wonder how 'loose' it would feel on a much wider screen though, and that would be my only point of concern really. I really like your use of colours on this site, and as for being 'more of a coder than a designer', maybe it's time to reconsider that definition?

Its clean and fresh with a nice simplistic easy to use layout Your colour selection is great.

 

 

The only thing I would be tempted to do is give the main content text a little more width so that the ends of the lines lined up with the e of people in the header. It would just make it sit that little bit nicer on the page in my opinion.

black line around the logo is not pleasant to me.

black line around the logo is not pleasant to me.

 

Eris love it great work.

 

I too wonder about the black line round the logo and echo Dizi's point re. text wrapping at end of E of People rather than T of Planet. Or bring the T of Planer under the E of People (right align) and then still run text across.

 

And your always telling us your not much of a designer!!!

 

Re. much wider screens/higher res - interesting one, but I always think optimise for 1024*768 and see how it goes from there. Do many users with 20 - 24 inch screens and higher res ever maximise their window??...I certainly don't and tend to reframe/size the window based on layout of page I'm viewing.

 

I find this can be a catch 22 - i.e. optimise visually for very high res looks squeezed in on 1024*768 and optimise for 1024*768 and can appear somewhat sparse for higher res. Solution compromise and target a set resolution for perfection.

 

And your always telling us your not much of a designer!!!

 

It you to me?

Thanks for all the lovely comments

 

Just noticed at some window sizes you get a horizontal scrollbar in Safari.

Hmm, not sure what is causing that? :S

 

Its clean and fresh with a nice simplistic easy to use layout Your colour selection is great.

The only thing I would be tempted to do is give the main content text a little more width so that the ends of the lines lined up with the e of people in the header. It would just make it sit that little bit nicer on the page in my opinion.

I have given the content area more width, but not sure if its all that obvious :S

 

black line around the logo is not pleasant to me.

I can assure you there are no black lines in this design But I have reduced the stroke on the slogan, the logo I want to keep as is though.

 

 

I think this is a very nicely made site you have, and certainly on my monitor (1024) it looks excellent. I do wonder how 'loose' it would feel on a much wider screen though, and that would be my only point of concern really. I really like your use of colours on this site, and as for being 'more of a coder than a designer', maybe it's time to reconsider that definition?

I too wonder about the black line round the logo and echo Dizi's point re. text wrapping at end of E of People rather than T of Planet. Or bring the T of Planer under the E of People (right align) and then still run text across.

 

And your always telling us your not much of a designer!!!

 

Re. much wider screens/higher res - interesting one, but I always think optimise for 1024*768 and see how it goes from there. Do many users with 20 - 24 inch screens and higher res ever maximise their window??...I certainly don't and tend to reframe/size the window based on layout of page I'm viewing.

 

I find this can be a catch 22 - i.e. optimise visually for very high res looks squeezed in on 1024*768 and optimise for 1024*768 and can appear somewhat sparse for higher res. Solution compromise and target a set resolution for perfection.

 

 

I'm not sure what to do about the vertical structure, I'm wondering how open it looks. If it was a real site, I would expect to have more content for the sidebar which would stretch it out a bit though.

 

As for coding vs design, my design skills are something I am definitely developing. I have always found that I can see what is bad, good, and great design, but can never pull off anything myself that I would consider to be great. This place is really helping me learn how to do that though, which is why I wanted some opinions on this design even though it was just a 2-day project.

 

Thanks again for your time and comments, I feel all warm and fuzzy now

I can assure you there are no black lines in this design But I have reduced the stroke on the slogan, the logo I want to keep as is though.

Ok

#3F3F3F is so my colour

I just love the colors! Very beautiful content and footer part. If i had to pick on anything it would be the header. Maybe reduce the opacity of the border of the sun.

 

Well, I don't know... usually i don't like logos like this, but this is an exeption! You just have so good eye choosing the colors, so the logo looks perfect.

 

Great work, Eris!

Pretty cool. I like it. I know i sound a little dull here but the footer is pretty cool!!

 

Nice work.

I'm disgusted and disappointed in you sis!

Throwing in text as a last minute after-thought? Why didn't you get an experienced copy writer/editor to work late into the night helping you out? I would've but I was working on some really bad copy in a poster for someone!

 

If it's any consolation I only counted a dozen or so outright errors on the front-page and I would only rewrite about half of it!!!!!

 

Oh. and the 'Technology' and 'Product' pages had some copy that was very well written!

 

I'm sorry bro, you know I wouldn't have done it if it was a proper website

I am missing something here... at what point did you and Wizely become siblings? Have your respective parents recently married? Or is this code for something else....? </suspicious>

As I am Wizely's first true disciple, we decided to take a blood oath.

 

We shall forever be as brothers.

Nice colour scheme, nice layout and use of styling. I'd lose the black border on the sun image - maybe even flat colour theshapes rather than using gradients, and possibly think about making a wide header image that made the curves more organic - I don't like the way they flatline at either end. Other than that, nice work!

Very good for two days work, nice colour scheme. If you are going to work on the site any further, I would concentrate on the logo.

 

mwdesign

 

www.mwdesign.me.uk