Hey all. I have spent most of my time learning how to develop websites and am fairly confident with it... but now i am trying to learn how to design better sites..

 

I have started with this site in photshop, I wanna try to make professional looking sites but mine always look "amaeturish".

 

any feedback on this to make it look nicer or what things to add to help improve my design skills..

 

-thanks

 

http://postimg.org/image/8osqzkkjl/

 

EDIT:

 

heres an updated version,

 

http://postimg.org/image/x70gy6n07/

Edited June 3, 201313 yr by HighDarren

Hi

I had a look at your design and I like where this is going.

 

It's great that you are looking to improve your design skills.

Design communicates a message to the viewer. Every design has a purpose. Before you start on a design, you need to define who your visitors / clients are (your target audience) and what do you want to tell them, basically, how you want them to perceive you / your idea / your brand.

It's difficult designing just for the purpose of designing.

Maybe read about design theory, colour theory, emotional design elements, psychology of design and it will all come to you in the end.

 

Again, I like where your design is going at the moment, I like the bg pattern, t looks like jeans texture in a way.

Maybe you can combine that with stitching, handwritten fonts, sketched icons and rough edges, to give it a bit of "personal and friendly" feel.

I have always liked this font for that sort of design http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=Sketch+Rockwell

 

Difficult to say without knowing what the design is about

Ah yeah, The target audience thing is somethnig i forgot to think about... Ill remember that when i do a new design tomorrow... I think the biggest issue with this and many of my other designs is that I mix two styles together. In his one the nav/footer dont mix with the content style very much...

 

But anyway.. Here is the 3rd design on this. I wanna get this design as good as I can get it by the end of today so tomorrow I cna start on a new design (I am going to try to design a new page every day to improve design skills)...

 

Im going to look into design/colour theory as well. a big issue with myself is that I dont know what colours to use together...

 

any more reviews on this would be great!

 

http://postimg.org/image/y9ty2fx87/

 

EDIT:

 

forget that last one... this is the updated, changed the silver footer and header + a few little things

 

http://postimg.org/image/qn1061rar/

Edited June 3, 201313 yr by HighDarren

OK, I would say you need to align your elements. Here is an article about alignment in web design http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/webmaster/effective-design-principles-for-web-designers-alignment/1856

 

Also the body font you have used is not very easy to read. Don't use too many fonts - I believe it's best to have two fonts - one for the headlines and one for the body text.

As for colours - I like the orange against the background, great accent, you can use this colour to attract visitor's attention to an element of the design.

Thanks for the extra feedback.

 

I have finished with this design now and am going to give it a rest for the day and start a new design tomorrow, This time I will concentrate on:

 

1) Creating a webstie for a "purpose" and aim it at my target audience

2) be consistent with fonts (only choose 2... like you said, maybe 3 if its needed)

3) going to try to have a consistent colour scheme.

 

I have pritned off that article on alignment and going to give it a read in the next few hours before i go home (from work). I have also printed off some more articles from the same guy that go through Repetiton,proximity and contrast.... all under the "Effective design pinciples for web designers" header. these all look like really valuable reads... if you can think of any more useful articles for web designers... please lemme know! I can print them off while im here at work

 

thanks for the help!

2) be consistent with fonts (only choose 2... like you said, maybe 3 if its needed)

 

Well, you can use more than 2 as long as it works.

Great, glad I could be of help, I do find these articles very interesting, too

nice... but somehow in my laptop not show all the page..

so I have to move the slide bar...

somehow I see you like the unique fonts..

I saw the other site you make, about the pool...

also about the font, is little bit harder to read...

So maybe I think will easier for the reader of you site to read when you have more simple fonts..

too many fonts (that don't fit together) did you try teodora's suggestion for that rough font? the one you have for the site name is nasty the heading fonts are fine but a little thin (try the suggested font there too) and use a far clearer font for the main copy - why use an art deco font anyway? does it fit with the feel of your site? not really

 

have a look too at font squirrel, googlefonts. museo might fit nicely with the idea too

Yo. Just got around to seeing what you've been working on and it has potential. I think Teodora hit the nail on the head with precision:

 

Design communicates a message to the viewer. Every design has a purpose. Before you start on a design, you need to define who your visitors / clients are (your target audience) and what do you want to tell them, basically, how you want them to perceive you / your idea / your brand.

 

Creating a design in PS is one thing, the next is coding it up. If you're just focusing on design alone (specifically the visuals) I recommend reading up on layout in general. Look for inspiration not just from the web but from print as well. Look into white space, line height and if you're daring enough - typography on a deeper level. Rule of thumb is 2-3 fonts for a site should be fine (if you're using Google Fonts there is an indicator on page speed on the amount you use. Pretty useful).

 

You could go with the thought of serifs for headers, sans for body but design is about problem solving and taking risks. Try using a serif for body but read up on readability - you don't want something so fancy that no-one can read it on their computer - let alone on a mobile!

 

However... going back to Teodora's quote, think of your target audience, branding etc. Even though these are mock ups, if you get the routine going, it'll become second nature for designing for clients. I wouldn't think blackletter would complement a script font on a site about technology for example

 

One of the most effective methods for designing a site is a pencil and paper. You don't have to be good at drawing, just jot your ideas down, keywords to keep coming back to and in the end, it'll speed up your workflow and make your design a lot tighter. Like a tiger.

 

Look forward to your next daily design

Yo. Just got around to seeing what you've been working on and it has potential. I think Teodora hit the nail on the head with precision:

 

 

Creating a design in PS is one thing, the next is coding it up. If you're just focusing on design alone (specifically the visuals) I recommend reading up on layout in general. Look for inspiration not just from the web but from print as well. Look into white space, line height and if you're daring enough - typography on a deeper level. Rule of thumb is 2-3 fonts for a site should be fine (if you're using Google Fonts there is an indicator on page speed on the amount you use. Pretty useful).

 

You could go with the thought of serifs for headers, sans for body but design is about problem solving and taking risks. Try using a serif for body but read up on readability - you don't want something so fancy that no-one can read it on their computer - let alone on a mobile!

 

However... going back to Teodora's quote, think of your target audience, branding etc. Even though these are mock ups, if you get the routine going, it'll become second nature for designing for clients. I wouldn't think blackletter would complement a script font on a site about technology for example

 

One of the most effective methods for designing a site is a pencil and paper. You don't have to be good at drawing, just jot your ideas down, keywords to keep coming back to and in the end, it'll speed up your workflow and make your design a lot tighter. Like a tiger.

 

Look forward to your next daily design

 

Thanks for the in depth feedback.

 

Yeah, Ive put alot more effort into reading up on theory snice reading teo gave me feedback. I read up on Repeition, Alignment, Contrast and Proximity.They have helped quiet a bit.

 

Id love be able to create a brand image for a site and im sure I will, so I defiantly going to concentrate a lot more on fonts/layout/whitespace/colours etc...

 

I do not know a lot about fonts and such, You mention sans serif and stuff, I didnt think they were that vital to know about, i thought they were just names of fonts. Im going to do my own research on fonts and typography but any suggestions on what sort of information i should be reading up on?

 

I know I have got al ot of different aspects to work on, but font is one of them so I might as well do that as soon as i can so I can start putting it into practice

Edited June 7, 201313 yr by HighDarren

Fonts are hugely important. From my perspective, the most fundamental aspects outside of the actual content. There are tons of things you can read up on. There are heaps you can read up on to get your background on typography. It's an art, so not something you can learn that quickly but will pay off if you learn as much as you can.

 

It can be quite daunting at first if you don't know the difference between a serif and sans-serif, but you'll pick it up. With typography there's so much to learn and (I find) fascinating. You'll always learn something new as well so don't be put off by that (made a schoolboy error myself yesterday in a post related to type!).

 

As for recommendations, one of my favourite sites is http://wdf.co/type. It might be overwhelming if you're new to things, but it's pretty so just look at the pictures for now Try this http://wdf.co/fonts for now. Nice bit of history if you're interested. If all that's too much, might be worth looking at WikiPedia, but give the links a try at least.

Thanks for the resources, Thats 2nd link seems like the sort of thing i could probably follow.

 

I know it isnt an overnight process... I mean this week the only things ive really "learnt" are how important alignment and contrast is. Its okay though because I have been on an apprentiship for 2 months (12month contact all togetheR) and i need to find my own things to do a lot of the time. So I want to spend as much free time at work that I have working on improving my skills in web design.

 

I dont have any specific goals, just want to improve over time. But Id like to be at a level by 2014 where I can confidently make a website for someone and have confidence to make money of my designs. AT the moment I wouldnt charge for my sites becaus they are just not up to standards yet.

 

well... Im gonna get on with reading some of this font stuff. Thanks again!

You're welcome

 

Good luck!

My only critism is the size and too many styles of fonts and the use of the space. Other than that it looks great!!