Hey guys, I'm an amateur web designer and I'm looking for tips to bring my skills up to the next level.

 

I usually design pretty basic stuff and the programs I use are as follows:

 

Frontpage (to organize tables and information)

Artisteer (to design the template)

Notepad++ (to fix and little details that artisteer screws up lol)

 

Here is my newest site. I would like your honest opinions. I need feedback in order to get better so don't hold back. Lay it on me!

 

http://www.englishclick.net/

 

I look forward to your comments. Thanks a lot.

Hi.

 

If this is your latest site, you might want to update the copyright information on your page as it's showing 2011. My biggest suggestion would be to make the site responsive initially. My opinion on responsive design gradually gets more opinionated and I currently consider this as a given in modern web design. Maybe you could brush up on HTML5 and CSS3. If you recently created this site, you shouldn't have much of an issue making the transition to the new specifications.

 

You might want to focus on your demographic. Are you targeting corporate learners, students or hobbyists? It's quite broad I know but I've been involved with this first hand. Feedback from clients usually came back with negative feedback about stock images and that the site was 'too wordy' - learning English isn't easy. There are only two instructors listed but stock images of loads of *******. Might be worth getting some images of them instead. Of course, it depends on your demographic and as it appears to be Spanish speaking, I wouldn't know where to start. Again, it also depends on your client and what image they wish to portray and the type of clientele they are looking for.

 

I'm not familiar with Artisteer - FrontPage I used with Web Design yonks ago. You can create some pretty decent stuff with a text editor, so I'm not sure what you need the others for. I used to use Notepad ++ in the past too so maybe try experimenting with HTML5, make the site responsive and pretty after you sort the content.

 

Apologies if this sounds negative - my intentions are the opposite. These are just my opinions and not necessarily the right thing to do, nor what's necessarily right for the site.

 

Good luck with it all!

text is too small and not enough line height.

 

logo is overdone on the bevelling/embossing and click could be in a more positive colour

 

 

the stock photos are horrible - just makes you look like some 1990s business

 

use real html headings for your headings

I must agree with the previous comments regarding the stock photos. Your site needs to reflect some more personality. After all modern marketing is all about creating relations with your customers. Just look at all your social icons in the sidebar. Nobody wants to connect with a stock image. Place some images on the page of real representatives from the organization just as they come. It will make the business looks much more authentic.

Color scheme looks fine but again maybea little conform and impersonal. Does it match your audience’s preferences?

You need to add more text in the website.
Improve the image quality and use bigger images if possitble it will expand your website layout currently it looks congusted.

Customize logo as it looks like a general internet copied picture.

Hi.

 

If this is your latest site, you might want to update the copyright information on your page as it's showing 2011. My biggest suggestion would be to make the site responsive initially. My opinion on responsive design gradually gets more opinionated and I currently consider this as a given in modern web design. Maybe you could brush up on HTML5 and CSS3. If you recently created this site, you shouldn't have much of an issue making the transition to the new specifications.

 

You might want to focus on your demographic. Are you targeting corporate learners, students or hobbyists? It's quite broad I know but I've been involved with this first hand. Feedback from clients usually came back with negative feedback about stock images and that the site was 'too wordy' - learning English isn't easy. There are only two instructors listed but stock images of loads of *******. Might be worth getting some images of them instead. Of course, it depends on your demographic and as it appears to be Spanish speaking, I wouldn't know where to start. Again, it also depends on your client and what image they wish to portray and the type of clientele they are looking for.

 

I'm not familiar with Artisteer - FrontPage I used with Web Design yonks ago. You can create some pretty decent stuff with a text editor, so I'm not sure what you need the others for. I used to use Notepad ++ in the past too so maybe try experimenting with HTML5, make the site responsive and pretty after you sort the content.

 

Apologies if this sounds negative - my intentions are the opposite. These are just my opinions and not necessarily the right thing to do, nor what's necessarily right for the site.

 

Good luck with it all!

Thanks for your suggestions. However to be completely honest I don't really know what you mean by "responsive" Could you please explain a little bit?

text is too small and not enough line height.

 

logo is overdone on the bevelling/embossing and click could be in a more positive colour

 

 

the stock photos are horrible - just makes you look like some 1990s business

 

use real html headings for your headings

I'm actually in the process of getting unique photos. One of my students husband's is a professional photographer so I'm working on that.

 

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "use real html" Could you explain please?

 

Thanks a lot for your critiques.

I must agree with the previous comments regarding the stock photos. Your site needs to reflect some more personality. After all modern marketing is all about creating relations with your customers. Just look at all your social icons in the sidebar. Nobody wants to connect with a stock image. Place some images on the page of real representatives from the organization just as they come. It will make the business looks much more authentic.

Color scheme looks fine but again maybea little conform and impersonal. Does it match your audience’s preferences?

 

 

 

Are you suggesting that instead of using the common facebook, linkedin etc. images I make my own to make it look more unique?

 

Thanks for the ideas.

Edited April 30, 201313 yr by iMaCuLaTe

You need to add more text in the website.

Improve the image quality and use bigger images if possitble it will expand your website layout currently it looks congusted.

Customize logo as it looks like a general internet copied picture.

Do you have any suggestions for improving "image quality"?

 

And as far as the logo goes I was considering taking some pictures of our students and doing something with them in the header. What do you think about that?

 

Thanks a lot for your comments.

To everyone so far:

 

Thanks for your comments so far. I really enjoy hearing what people with more experience than me think about this matter. Hopefully with your feedback I will be able to improve my site and become a better web designer in general. I look forward to your future comments.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Ian

Do you have any suggestions for improving "image quality"?

 

And as far as the logo goes I was considering taking some pictures of our students and doing something with them in the header. What do you think about that?

 

Thanks a lot for your comments.

 

That probably won't add much. Personally I wouldn't attempt to refine parts of the site, id just start again.

 

You need to establish a proper brand, you need a strong logo that represents you, a colour scheme to match. The site is lacking direction, in the sense that as a user I don't know what you do, where you operate from, who you are, or anything. It's all a bit confusing. Try thinking about the core areas of your business and your target audience and how your site can reflect that.

Are you suggesting that instead of using the common facebook, linkedin etc. images I make my own to make it look more unique?

 

Thanks for the ideas.

No I'm not talking about the icons I'm talking about the stock images you use in your content. When I was refering to the social icons I simply was trying to make the point that your goals was to build strong constumer relations. To achieve thath goal you will need the site to reflect the personal profile of the orgnization otherwise people won't connect, share ect. The stock images does not reflect personality replace them with pictures of real representatives of the organization. I was just pointing out that people relate to "real" people and that authenticity and credibility is esential for positioning a brand through social media.

Navigation - you have no "home" link in your top nav (and also make the logo link to the homepage)

 

Style - OK you're just starting out so this website isn't going to look like something from Squarespace in a hurry but there are a few modifications that can help:

 

1 - Google fonts - find out about these and implement a crisp and thin font like Raleway Normal for all of your headings. Make them quite large (18px??) and a darker version of the blue you used in the header. Dap mentioned real html - I think dap means that a website is quicker to code if all of the headings are in <h1>Heading1</h1> or <h2></h2> tags because then you can more easily apply CSS styles to h1 and h2 sitewide without having to style each individual heading

 

2 - 800px wide seems a little cramped compared to modern websites - try 960? This will also give you room to explore sllightly larger photos.

 

3 - Logo - not great - bevelled/embosed is VERY 1980-90s. Look at some on logopond and go from there. DO NOT copy the logos on Logopond - use them instead as a source of direction/inspiration.

I agree with most comments. The logo looks old and try to find better fonts.

 

Do you have any suggestions for improving "image quality"?

 

And as far as the logo goes I was considering taking some pictures of our students and doing something with them in the header. What do you think about that?

 

Thanks a lot for your comments.

 

I think this is better than the stock images. All the best iMaCuLaTe!