Hi there. I found this forum when I had googled "my website is dated". Specifically it was someone seeking feedback for their website and I was impressed with the response and comradery given. I am hoping for the same as I was given the same quote from within the forum that my website builder uses but they did not go into specifics on what needed to be changed. the (short) url is www.IeMS.co

 

Please allow your criticisms to be constructive. If something isn't working please provide info as to how to fix it. Thank you so much.

 

Rob

I think the fixed header is quite intrusive, perhaps that could be made thinner and less in your face.

 

The green is quite bold and I don't think it blends well with the black to grey gradient (which also isn't very subtle; slightly darker grey to light grey might work better).

 

The drop shadows either need to be toned down a lot or removed all together.

 

I recently did a Wordpress theme using green and grey as my colour scheme, maybe that will serve as a better illustration than trying to explain what I mean by subtle? - http://clients.lewishill.net/highbeech

 

They say blue and green should never be seen, at least my Mum does, and always did when I was growing up, but you've kind of locked yourself in with your logo. I reckon the horizontal rules could do with not being blue regardless.

 

I hope this helps in some way.

Too many things happening. The gradients, the shadows, the strong colors, the animation on the links, the fixed header, the puzzle piece icons and yes, the blue and green. Choose one or two of those, and drop the others.

I think you could do with just going through every element and asking yourself how you can tone it down, everything is very in your face, font-sizes, colours, element sizes etc. Also you advertise HTML5 compliant websites but as far as I can see other than the doctype there isn't a HTML5 element in site and the code is generally a poor standard.

Jtuds - I can tone down the drop shadows for the page titles etc. Should I choose a different font for the page titles or simply make the font smaller (20 instead of 24?) which in turn will make that section of the grey header more narrow as well. Colors? Too bold? What alternate tones of the blue and green would you suggest - just a honest question. The HTML5 code is what the site builder spit out and I do get a green light with W3C. I didn't mean to misrepresent myself, just noting that it does pass.

 

Ocorr - I feel trapped between doing too much and too little to impress other website designers / graphic designers. I am doing my best to showcase the tools that are available to me without overdoing it.

 

Lewwy - Again I'll tone down the drop shadows. For the gradient I was going for a blend from dark grey to light grey as opposed to black to white. I think the drop shadow in the header is distorting it. I'll work on it. As you mentioned, without changing the logo, I am locked into the color scheme. Again, what alternate tones of blue / green might still pop on the grey without being overpowering?

 

Thank you for the feedback. Very constructive and useful. I'll make the small changes with the drop shadows / size of page titles and see where we are at. Thank you again. Please continue with your constructive feedback. : - )

If you really wanna give your users the ability to navigate almost all the time (sticky header), maybe you can add your navigation links in your footer as well and removing the header, in that way your users can read more content and still navigate using the footer's navigation.

For the nav you can also consider this http://www.jay-han.com/tutorial/smart-sticky-nav/

Ocorr - that's a cool tool I'll have to consider. Thank you.

 

Joch - I had that once upon a time and figured out how to keep the header at the top, and so I thought it was a good opportunity to showcase that option. Is it the stickie layer that is contributing to it being so overpowering? all the time w/o relief? Again, I can town down the drop shadows and perhaps make the page titles smaller and thus that grey layer more narrow by 10pts. I hope to get that done tonight and will repost when completed.

 

Thanks for the thoughts. Keep it coming - constructively.

I do have a bit of tweeking to do in terms of positioning of the page headers, but the drop shadows have been fixed. I hope it helps a bit. Thoughts?

Rallport - I don't understand your logic. You say my site is "dated" and yet you don't point out specifics. Is it color? Text? Layout? What defines modern in the industry? You knock me down for using a website builder and yet you don't include the countless numbers that use programs such as Dreamweaver, Worpress, Joombla, and Drupal or other web--based website builders. You mention Bespoke webdesign - I am assuming that this is a site where someone can manage it themselves? I clearly offer that, better yet I provide timely updates for those that don't have time. Have you done any homework on the software that I use? If not, "then you need to". The code you see is how the software was designed - absolute positoning. If you don't like then you should take it up with the maker of the program.

 

To the random points you mention - easing in banners? Which ones?

- Navbar "oddly moves and reappears" You don't like it? Is that a personal preference or is there logic behind your experience?

 

In terms of representing myself, I clearly call myself a website builder, not a designer, not a developer. I understand there is a difference and I feel I do not yet deserver to have iether of the titles, but I can build websites. How can I make that more clear? You're telling me I'm dated and yet offer no words of advise on how to fix it - other than the "banners" and "navbar" - which is specific constructive criticism. Enlighten me on more specifics if you want to be effective or keep your vague insults to yourself.

Iems, I respect what you do, and I really don't think that all websites have to be "well designed", as I also don't think that all business cards, and logos, and restaurant plaques have to be "well designed" (I come from a graphic design background). But, you must be aware that you asked for opinions on a web designers forum, it's on it's name, you can't get it wrong. And as a webdesigner, I must agree with Rallport here, the website looks dated, other people already explained why before, it lacks subtilness, sorry, but it's simply not designed. If this works for you, fine and ,unlike with Rallport, it doesn't even bother me that you offer webdesign service because your website shows clearly what you have to offer, if someone really wants a website that looks dated, they will hire you.

 

The code you see is how the software was designed - absolute positoning. If you don't like then you should take it up with the maker of the program.

You are the one that chooses the tools you work with. Don't blame the one who buit it...

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by ocorreiododiogo

Dude I've got to agree with rallport here, there are so many things wrong about the design that it would take ages to point them all out, (leaving aside the issue of whether you have actually "built it" by using a website builder) you need to read a few books and check out a few site galleries and see what modern web design looks like before you can credibly offer web design as a service.

Rallport - I don't understand your logic. You say my site is "dated" and yet you don't point out specifics. Is it color? Text? Layout? What defines modern in the industry? You knock me down for using a website builder and yet you don't include the countless numbers that use programs such as Dreamweaver, Worpress, Joombla, and Drupal or other web--based website builders. You mention Bespoke webdesign - I am assuming that this is a site where someone can manage it themselves? I clearly offer that, better yet I provide timely updates for those that don't have time. Have you done any homework on the software that I use? If not, "then you need to". The code you see is how the software was designed - absolute positoning. If you don't like then you should take it up with the maker of the program.

 

To the random points you mention - easing in banners? Which ones?

- Navbar "oddly moves and reappears" You don't like it? Is that a personal preference or is there logic behind your experience?

 

In terms of representing myself, I clearly call myself a website builder, not a designer, not a developer. I understand there is a difference and I feel I do not yet deserver to have iether of the titles, but I can build websites. How can I make that more clear? You're telling me I'm dated and yet offer no words of advise on how to fix it - other than the "banners" and "navbar" - which is specific constructive criticism. Enlighten me on more specifics if you want to be effective or keep your vague insults to yourself.

 

I'll wade in on a delicate topic here.

 

By bespoke he means, a site that is designed and coded from the ground up. No templates and no site builders. Dreamweaver can be used as a site builder, however many use it to just do good old fashioned code, no table layouts or anything. wordpress and other CMS platforms are not exactly site biulders. Yes you can install templates and create your own menus and insert your own page content. However for it to be bespoke, it simply means coding the theme yourself. If you do a bespoke website then it is completely unique and is designed for the specific requirements of the client, rather than the requirements fitting a website builder / template. Bespoke is not a site that a user can manage themselves, that is a Content Management System, like Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and many more (though a client will need some training in it)

 

If you are offering web services and will use a website builder to deliver the website to the client, you need to be very clear to them that is what they are paying for, not a bespoke job. Top dollar is paid for websites that are coded from scratch and designed from scratch following a development process.

 

My thinking is that you should look at some recent HTML and CSS tutorials, start with the basics, learning how to use DIV's and even HTML. Learn CSS to add style and positioning of elements on your site. Try using an editor like Notepadd++ (free of charge) which will force you to type ever word and line of code (unlike Dreamweaver which anticipates the code for you). It will be tough going to begin with, but with time and hardwork you will know the coding without having to really think about it.

 

In terms of the website being dated, I think that Railport means, websites have moved on quite a bit from the type of design that you have gone for. For some inspiration check out http://www.1stwebdes...ortfolios-2012/

 

Hopefully this helps you. Reactions can seem harsh and personal, but please try and not take them to heart. The web industry is a warm place and there are so many people that are willing to pass on knowledge ( this forum is filled with them). What people on this site, and in the industry do not want though, is people offering inaccurate described services to clients as it distorts the image of what web development companies are about.

 

As I said hope something in this helps and good luck on this fun but never ending road of learning!

 

Stevo!

 

Oh, and I'm not trying to say that you are miss-selling your services, beacuse your not I just wanted to pass on some knowledge about bespoke design over other methods. If your wanting customers to manage their own sites, then a CMS may be the solution for you.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Durden

Ok everyone, let's keep critique quantifiable, actionable and aimed at the design, not the designer.

 

 

You knock me down for using a website builder and yet you don't include the countless numbers that use programs such as Dreamweaver, Worpress, Joombla, and Drupal or other web--based website builders.

 

Let's back up a sec here - Dreamweaver is an IDE, WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are content management systems. They do totally different things, don't lump them all in the same bucket.

 

Edit: I'd also add that I've never found a visual design tool (that includes Dreamweaver's Design View) that produces clean HTML to a professional standard.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Renaissance-Design

Dreamweaver, Worpress

 

The above are not 'website builders'. Dreamweaver is an IDE, essentially a text editor. It's basically just Notepad but it remembers some commands and can help you out by showing you graphical representations in 'real-time' so to speak.

 

Wordpress is not a website builder. It is a CMS on which a site must then be built.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Fran Haselden

Stevo (Durden) - thank you for the clarificaion. I've seen others offer "bespoke" and I took it as part of a CMS. I admit I don't have experience with WP yet but from what I understand it is a CMS program and a website builder right? It is capable of bespoke design? Does drag & drop using a builder (not from a template) constitute bespoke? Just curious.

 

And don't get me wrong I do appreciate the criticisms, but without very specifics, I wont and don't know how to "fix" them. I am just trying to understand what designers and developers alike expect of me as wanting to be a part of this industry. "Dated" is a vague word and required specific clarification. In looking at the examples, is it the stretched header? Bold colors? Lack of throwback / current graphics? The lack of 3 boxed paragraphs across the body? Lack of "at a glance" on the homepage? The footer not current? I was noticing all of these things and I was attempting to NOT layout my page like most designers. Trying to be different in "subtle ways". Perhaps they have this layout for a reason?

 

Thank you for your patience with the new guy. No disrespect intended.

I've been monitoring this thread for a while, but I've stopped myself from replying because I couldn't figure out a way to not seem rude. You seem to want a specific reason as to "what's wrong with your page" and it's difficult because it's a combination of design violations, but I will attempt to shed some light on the matter.

 

Here's a gigantic essay for you. It was actually much longer than this, but I trimmed it

 

 

Typography

 

This website overuses "Arial", which is one of the most generic looking fonts in my opinion. When you view other websites, you'll notice a font palette containing a variety of attractive looking fonts and you'd be surprised how much this can affect the overall "feel" of your page.

 

You should be aware of the fact that "...human beings don't like to do unnecessary reading..." and "...don't like to read long lines of text".. Not many people want to sit down and read those 3 paragraphs you have on your home page. Blogs or "about us" pages would warrant that kind of massive text, but not on your home page where you're trying to capture the viewers attention to your product/company. Essentially, home page design is the art of trying to communicate as much information with the least amount of words. As an example, take a look at the following websites:

 

http://builtwithmomentum.com/

http://www.bluebubblecreative.com/ (this is the website of a WDF member here, but I can't remember which)

 

Notice the layout of the builtwithmomentum page. It's simple and effective. I'm not saying you should design your website to match these two, but they demonstrate the concepts that I'm trying to get across.

 

 

Layout

 

Your home page is the most important page on your website because it's what needs to capture the viewer's attention otherwise they'll close the tab and move on. Aside from the services you offer (which are in small text), there is nothing on your home page that remotely interests me (I also don't want to read all that text). What kind of website design services do you offer? Do you have samples of your previous work? (This is what could replace that random puzzle piece "thing" you have on your home page), etc etc.

 

From what I could see, all of your pages have the same basic structure and layout; there's nothing really unique about each page unless you want to count the different images. This should not be as it gives your website a serious "Hey, I'm a template" look.

 

One thing your layout does need is "White space" or "room to breathe". It's congested and this is the quickest way to ruin a website.

 

 

Color

 

The color is not very pleasing to the eye. The heavy gradients, the highly saturated green, the pure black foreground on pure white background... it's too much and it doesn't work. Unfortunately, this is not something I can't explain very well. An "art course" would do wonders in your situation. I quoted the words "art course" because there are some who are formally educated in a school and there are others who sit down with a copy of "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" accompanied with an open tab of dribbble.com. I'm the latter

 

Whether you educate yourself or go to school is your choice, but learning the basics of color theory and the fundamentals of design is essential.

 

 

Other Comments

 

I'm afraid I've only touched the basic issues when it comes to your website. Here are just a few more things I've noticed so I can wrap up this essay:

• The bouncing slideshow you have on some pages is very annoying. These effects look cool when you first see them, but when it comes time to actually use them.... no.
  
• I notice you're using "mailto:" on your email link. Unless you've set yourself up to deal with spam, I wouldn't place your email address anywhere on your website or in the visible source code. Instead, use a contact us form that employs mailing on the server side.
  

To be honest, I think you just need to sit down and carefully plan what you want to have on each page, keeping what I've said above in mind. Draw each page of your website (most beginners often undervalue a pencil and paper) and then move from there. Research and discover other web design companies and observe the layouts they have.

 

I really hope I helped.

 

Kind Regards.

 

Edit: Fixed a few grammatical errors

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Pete Prosper

Pete Prosper - Thank you for the essay. Not to take up your time, and I appreciate the longwindedness of your response, but the more detailed the better.

 

Font - I realize Ariel is basic, and not neccessarily modern, but I wanted to be careful to use a font that shows nicely in all browsers. Would you suggest Vernanda, Trebuche, or another?

 

Layout - I suppose I've overdown the standardness of layout but I've been told that not changing things up to much from page to page is a good thing. I'll see what I can do if neccessary.

 

Colors - Bright blue and Green on the gradiant grey - due to logo I am locked into the blue & green without rebranding. What color would you replace the grey with? Before I had a dark grey / light gray basketweave pattern that I liked but was told was to "grainy" and so I attempted to replace it with something "softer". Still a work in progress?

 

Bouncing slideshow - do you mean services page or portfolio? I can certainly calm down the slideshow on the services page if need be. Make it smooth ease instead of bounce? No problem. In that case, should I use a different slideshow type on the portfolio page?

 

Home page - as you said it comes down to first impressions. Again, most designers have either a landing page with very little text (isn't this not so good for seo?) and / or their portfolio on the home page and I was trying to do something different. You really don't like the puzzle piece fade-slideshow?

 

You also mentioned "pure black on pure white" - do you mean the text? What would you change in this case? Make it dark grey?

 

Thank you for your feedback. Very specific and mostly-constructive yet digestable. Much appreciated.

The colours are pretty hard on the eyes. Try using a site like colourlovers.com to find a decent colour pallete maybe use 2 colours to start with then build on that. Add some line height to improve readability and also cut the paragraphs down to 8 words max anymore than that and it becomes difficult to read.

Wordpress is not a website builder. It is a CMS on which a site must then be built.

 

I wanted to touch on this earlier but I ran out of time.

 

In my opinion, WordPress is a CMS that a website must be built around. You can build a static website, using just HTML and CSS but to make changes the content you still need to know HTML and CSS.

 

Integrating WordPress into your static design, is far more challenging than setting up a static page, you need to know a little bit about PHP and which chunks of code need to wrap around the functionality that WordPress is giving you.

 

I think what you are referring to, when you say that WordPress is a website builder, is the ability to build pages, posts, links etc and probably in some cases, really good themes allow you to change the design of the page by logging in to the back end and clicking a button.

 

Don't be fooled into thinking WordPress make it easy for website owners to 'build websites', it's the theme developers who add advanced code that grant the users this functionality.

 

Lewis.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Lewwy

Rallport - so from a coding standpoint my mistake is choosing an HTML generator as opposed to something else? From a design standpoint, it does not look like a typical theme generated by WP experts? Got it. No problem.

 

Which leads me to the next point - Lewwy - do some "designers" use WP themes and then customize them to the needs of the customers? Would you say people that do this are looked down upon by real "designers" and "developers" in the industry? Honest question.

 

Lonely Pixle - Much appreciated. : - )

 

Final thought - I don't know what I can do about colors, the header, or the graphics right at the moment. What I can change sooner than later is the font. Suggestions? Thank you again for your time.

Font - I realize Ariel is basic, and not neccessarily modern, but I wanted to be careful to use a font that shows nicely in all browsers. Would you suggest Vernanda, Trebuche, or another?

 

I don't often come across websites that use Microsoft fonts. Most designers have a collection of web optimized and commercially free fonts at their disposal. Off the top of my head, I'd try FreeSans, Aller, MgOpen Moderna, and PTSans. If you're looking for a serif font, you can try Day Roman, or Vollkorn (sexy serif font). Helvetica is another wonderful font and because it is, it's very common. Give it a try, though.

 

Since I gather from your website that you're trying to get into web design, here are some resources for you:

 

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ - this is a godly website. All the fonts there are nice AND commercially free. Bookmark forever.

http://www.google.com/webfonts - same as above.

 

also, go through the following blog posts and download download download.

 

http://webdesignledg...-new-free-fonts

http://www.smashingm...tag/free-fonts/ - there are a massive amount of fonts here. One day, sit down and go through them.

 

and there are more. Just google "Free fonts for web designers" and you should get 1 million blog posts.

 

Layout - I suppose I've overdown the standardness of layout but I've been told that not changing things up to much from page to page is a good thing. I'll see what I can do if neccessary.

 

Who told you this? Your header and footer should remain consistent, but body content should not for the most part. It goes without saying that you should maintain the same color scheme and "feel" across all pages, though.

 

Colors - Bright blue and Green on the gradiant grey - due to logo I am locked into the blue & green without rebranding. What color would you replace the grey with? Before I had a dark grey / light gray basketweave pattern that I liked but was told was to "grainy" and so I attempted to replace it with something "softer". Still a work in progress?

 

Just because you use those colors on your logo does not mean that you have to use the very same colors on your website. Of course you should always aim for a website that matches the look of the logo, but colors can be tweaked. Furthermore...you may not like what I'm about to say, but your logo isn't the best. In fact, I'd even say that it sets you up for failure. I honestly hope that the "integrated e-marketing solutions" text is not part of the brand.

 

If you have time, read "Logo Design Love" by David Airey. Amazing book and will be invaluable if branding is one of the services you offer.

 

Also, have a look at http://creattica.com/ and http://bestwebgallery.com/ for web design inspiration.

 

Bouncing slideshow - do you mean services page or portfolio? I can certainly calm down the slideshow on the services page if need be. Make it smooth ease instead of bounce? No problem. In that case, should I use a different slideshow type on the portfolio page?

 

I mean the one on the services page. I simple fade or slide transition slideshow will suffice. Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is the sliding menu items in the header. You may be able to get away with it because it's not as annoying... but if it were me, I'd have a much more subtle highlight effect.

 

Home page - as you said it comes down to first impressions. Again, most designers have either a landing page with very little text (isn't this not so good for seo?) and / or their portfolio on the home page and I was trying to do something different. You really don't like the puzzle piece fade-slideshow?

 

Consider asking yourself why most designers have these kinds of home pages. Statistics show that most website visitors don't even continue to another link on the average website. You need to give readers a reason to want to stay on your website. Displaying a good portfolio is one way to do that. In no way do I advocate being unoriginal, but this is the reason why web designer home pages can look similar. Perhaps you can find something original that will capture the attention of your audience. The puzzle piece slideshow and the essay does not do this.

 

I will openly admit when we reach a topic I don't have a strong education in and SEO happens to be such a topic. For that reason, I'm hoping an expert like Jason Dexter will read this thread, but from what I've read on other topics on this forum, I don't see why it would affect your rank. After all, I'm not saying you should reduce information; I'm just saying you should provide mandatory information on your home page and then provide links to pages that have more in depth coverage of the topic.

 

You also mentioned "pure black on pure white" - do you mean the text? What would you change in this case? Make it dark grey?

 

When it comes to design, pure black and pure white doesn't look so good most of the time unless the design calls for it. Here are some examples.

 

http://builtwithmomentum.com/

http://www.jamesperrett.co.uk/ - credit goes to WDF member Fran Haselden for this one.

 

Looking at the Momentum page again, take notice of the color of the text. The "Who we are" text isn't black, it's a charcoal grey. Also, the text in the body is a lighter shade of grey as well. If any of these were pure black, it wouldn't look so good. The same is with the second website, except when it comes to the color white. The foreground color of the footer may appear to be white at first, but it's not Subtle detail like this creates wonderful design.

 

Thank you for your feedback. Very specific and mostly-constructive yet digestable. Much appreciated.

 

I wouldn't bother if you didn't seem like someone who would actually use the advice. There are some harsh comments here, but I hope we're still helping.

 

Kind Regards

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Pete Prosper

Oh and yes, the use of HTML generators is not really recommended because it leads to broken code. A generator can't compete with someone who has a solid foundation of HTML and CSS.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Pete Prosper

Pete Prosper - For the font, thank you for the step in the right direction. I'll try and pick one. Do you have a favorite that you personally think would go best given the current layout? If I need to stick to a "we-safe" font, which would you suggest - Arial, Bookman Old Style, Comic Sans MS, Courier, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Lucida Console, Lucida Sans Unicode, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, Palatino Linotype, Symbol, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Webdings, Wingdings. I can also certainly change the font to a dark grey as opposed to black. Not a problem.

 

Concerning the logo, it was a "gift" from a fellow WB8 user. The only thing I tweeked was "e-marketing". Changed it from Ariel-Black (same as the other two words) to Ariel. Was this a mistake on my part? Also, does the name generate a negative picture for branding purposes?

 

Concerning the homepge, I guess I was hoping the slideshow would be enough to grab attention without posting the portfolio there. I need more projects to fill it anyway. Perhaps I can take the paragraphs summarized (sales pitch) and make a slideshow out of that instead?

 

I'll definately change the services page slideshow from bounce to ease and perhaps find a nice nivo-slider for the portfolio and I'll consider the suggestion for the nav-bar. Again I was hoping to be a bit different without being annoying.

 

Please don't misread my frustration as anything more than that. I am taking all of your suggestions very seriousely and will do all I can to impliment them.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by iems

Rallport, don't get me wrong I'm a little dense sometimes but I DO see the difference between my site and the examples you (and others) have given. They don't look even remotely close. I just didn't realize that my site was that much gawd awful because of this. Still swallowing that pill but that's ok. By the weekend I'll work on a couple of the little changes and then get a book on WP and choose one of thier themes and go from there. (sigh). It's ok.

Pete Prosper - For the font, thank you for the step in the right direction. I'll try and pick one. Do you have a favorite that you personally think would go best given the current layout? I can also certainly change the font to a dark grey as opposed to black. Not a problem.

 

Well that's the issue. I could quickly tell you to use a font like FreeSans or Vollkorn, but then I'd also decrease their font size a bit and then decrease the width of the paragraph block (66 character width is generally accepted as a decent text width). If you were to do this, you'd then have to figure out how to balance the space within your website. So you see, it's not as simple as giving a suggestion because by changing one thing, other things will then have to be changed as well.

 

If this were my website, I'd start over.

 

Concerning the logo, it was a "gift" from a fellow WB8 user. The only thing I tweeked was "e-marketing". Changed it from Ariel-Black (same as the other two words) to Ariel. Was this a mistake on my part? Also, does the name generate a negative picture for branding purposes?

 

The real mistake was accepting that as a logo. You don't include text as part of the brand because then you'll be required to have that text everywhere the brand appears and in that awkward placement; "Integrated eMarketing Solutions" should not be there. Take a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ or http://www.apple.com/. Your brand should just be the puzzle piece and the acronyms within it, and even that isn't very creative (not a very good "gift", sorry).

 

Concerning the homepge, I guess I was hoping the slideshow would be enough to grab attention without posting the portfolio there. I need more projects to fill it anyway. Perhaps I can take the paragraphs summarized (sales pitch) and make a slideshow out of that instead?

 

Definitely get rid of the paragraphs and if you do make a slideshow, don't place the paragraphs within them either. For example, I can summarize the first paragraph in one sentence: "Promote your business with quality website design". That's a sentence you can place in a slideshow and perhaps have some design or stock photography to accompany it.

 

http://sxc.hu/

http://www.morguefile.com

 

Both of the above are amazing stock photography websites. SXC has the biggest collection, but I personally find that morguefile's collection are of better quality.

 

 

 

Having said all of that, every serious web designer on this forum will agree that using HTML generators will not get you very far.

 

@Rallport

 

I didn't know about ghosthorses.co.uk. That's really nice.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by Pete Prosper

Which leads me to the next point - Lewwy - do some "designers" use WP themes and then customize them to the needs of the customers? Would you say people that do this are looked down upon by real "designers" and "developers" in the industry? Honest question..

 

Only if they are claiming or implying they designed or developed the website themselves.

Thank you for all the advice. It is appreciated.

Good Luck and if web design is really your passion, then don't give up.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. Just figuring out where I fit. Lol.

Great work iems, it reminds me of the first site I ever built around 1997. I'm presuming you're new to web development and design so all I can really say is keep working on improving.

 

That's the key, keep re-inventing the way you do things and spend time following the top designers and developers in this industry. That really helps loads..

I know I know it's horrible wind taken out of sails. Don't worry, I'll work on a redesign, including pitch & tagline.

for me its the colors. The black and grey gradiant with that green just does not suit.

 

That jigsaw picture does nothing to show you provide a good service. I would change that to something more relevant (like a happy person for example).

 

Too much home page text.

 

I actually like the floating nav, i think the concept is there, just that your new and your execution of the overall site still needs lightening up a bit (or darkening down more).

 

Please dont ever take anything personally when asking for critique - the first rule of design I truely learnt: Dont ever take critique personally. Use it as a tool (much like you would photoshop, or dreamweaver - see it as a skill and use it and harness it to better improve on your next site

 

Good luck

I do appreciate the feedback. Please don't take it personally when I take it personally. I just got the wind knocked out of me thinking it wasn't THAT bad, but I am doing all I can to figure this stuff out. If I can, I'd like to roughly keep the same layout (new multicolored logo on left, social media contact info on right, a text only navbar centered, color-coordinated slideshow summarizing sales pitch front and center with 3 short paragraphs underneath going across) but the background would simply be a light soft grey. In other words, I'll get rid of the gradiant grey and green header / footer that stretch across - right? Should the slideshow section be centered or should it stretch across? I'm seeing WP themes both ways. Are drop shadows on text headers and logo like I have now also outdated? And as suggested earlier, I'd use Open Sans as the font of choice and make it a dark grey. Can you picture it? Thoughts? Am I on the right track? Sort of? Thank you again for all the advice. It IS appreciated.

If you're really serious about web design, you'll put away the drag and drop editors and learn to write HTML and css.

 

Though it may seem daunting at first, it really isn't at all difficult.

After that you can get to grips with the iniquities of javascript libraries 'joy' of PHP and other server side code.

 

As a site, it's as good as my first website(though I hand coded that), a valiant effort one might say, but still not great for the reasons others have outlined.

 

Don't go looking for wordpress themes to install and use either, that's not learning nor is it benefitting you as a designer at all.

 

Nettuts and lynda.com have great courses, or there's plenty of tutorials out there on google to get you started.

 

Pro-tip - start by learning about different html tags, what they're used for and where to use them, then move on to CSS (learn these both in tandem).

CSS - start by learning about positioning, the absolute most important thing in CSS, after that everything else will fall into place.

I think what Andy's saying is pretty true,,, it happened to all of us at one time.. In the end you have to start learning the hard way without the funky code builders and the shortcuts... (they're not really shortcusts of course, just quick and cheap work arounds).

 

If I was to recommend one thing it would be to get really good at HTML5/CSS3. It's the way forward...

 

We develop mobile apps, but HTML5/CSS3 and the various assigned Javascript libs will in the future take over... Learning those is a Banker!

 

P.S Glad you're taking this in your stride, it's good to get the wind knocked out sometimes, happens to me every few months lol..

Edited October 16, 201213 yr by zeedurrani

iems

 

All of the advice you have been given, especially by Pete and Rallport is spot on. There's no need for me to add anything to that. But I thought I'd just say the following...

 

Do not think you are alone in the position you are in now. Virtually all of us started out in a similar way to you, and at some point we all had to get knocked down and given a reality check. Those that can cope with that, learn from their mistakes, take the advice on board and start doing things properly - those are us who end up lucky enough to work in this industry. Those who can't, end up losing interest due to frustration and give up. I severely doubt a single person on this forum woke up one day and straight away started producing well designed, clean coded websites. We probably all started with "website builders" and tacky software.

 

My first foray into web design was slapping together websites on Yahoo Geocities. They were just as bad as yours - actually they were worse. They had no purpose. They were just a random assortment of images and text and videos.

 

I took it a little more seriously when I was about 15 by putting together pages for school projects using Front Page. Again, not really the correct way to build websites.

 

When I started participating in forums and communities for websites, showing my work, a few years ago I got knocked down too. I had people emailing me telling me to give up, that web design isn't for me, and that I was talentless. Seriously, some people struggle to toe the line between helpful criticism and harsh reality checks - and just being plain bullies. You're lucky because so far as I can tell, nobody on here has sent you abuse like I got.

 

If you can take on board everything you've been told and you can work hard over the next few months, learning HTML/CSS, learning a CMS like WordPress, learning how to work with colour, typography, design skills....then there is no reason why you can't be creating quality, decent websites.

 

This is why I always say tenacity is by far and way the most critical personality trait of a web designer. You have got to be able to take it. I did - and now I'm extremely proud to be able to label myself a Web Designer and that is is my full time career.

 

Good luck. "Good things come to those who wait".

^wow, such a great and informative contribution! You sir, are well on your way to hitting the 25 posts...and a little gift from our fearless leaders.

Edited October 30, 201213 yr by jamesosix

nice

 

Someone's trying to up his post count...

Still working on the redesign of my site, and wanted to get an opinion as to if I am going in the right direction. The link to the old site is iems.co, and the pic below is the new home screen.

 

Initial reactions based on what you see? Constructive feedback appreciated. Thank you.