From being a complete novice a couple of months ago, i have finally got a site online. Apart from waiting for a bit of content to finish it, its done. The customers very happy with it but any feedback would be greatly welcomed. Cheers

 

www.diversegiftcreations.co.uk

Edited September 23, 201313 yr by russ130380

From being a complete novice a couple of months ago, i have finally got a site online. Apart from waiting for a bit of content to finish it, its done. The customers very happy with it but any feedback would be greatly welcomed. Cheers

 

www.diversegiftcreations.co.uk

 

I remember you signing up, so well down on getting this far

 

I'm not going to give you any feedback however as you mentioned something really important that a lot of people overlook 'The customers very happy with it'. If I started making a critique now, it wouldn't be worth going back and changing things as the client is already satisfied.

 

Looking forward to the next site!

the client may be happy with it but if you see something that *customers' could find better, then it's worth mentioning

 

the text is a touch on the small side - 14 or 16 px would be better, and it coudl do with some more breathing room at the sides. also arial is so damn boring : have you tried georgia or even just a better sans serif font? ( googlefonts, or font squirrel)

 

the welcome to bit looks a bit like another logo - maybe use it as a heading in the text area rather than as another header, or sub header

 

favicon.

 

resize the facebook icon properly in a graphics appplication

 

link the header/logo to the homepage

 

not sure about the grey lines around the present - have you tried white or silver? makes it look a little dirty somehow

 

 

you could compress the background image a lot more - it's in the background and it's a bit heavy at over 200kb

 

 

the space at the very top of the site is too tight - either remove it or make it around 25px

 

move your css into an external style sheet and link to that

 

really avoid using tables for anything that's not tabular data: make yor nav with a list (it is a list of links afterall)

 

 

you dont need this <p align="left">

 

just <p> (text left aligned by default) or control it in your stylesheet if needs be

 

i would consider using a tagline (near/below the logo) that mentions 'hampers' in it so people know straightaway you sell hampers - i assumed it was gifts (like presents= - hampers didn't cross my mind until i dug into the main copy

 

the project images are a bit on the small side - you could take up say 90% of the available width and some of the photos could do with some basic correcting

 

 

terms and conditions link is broken and p&p details check all of them?

 

 

pretty good for a first site - but could use a few tweaks to finalise it

 

the client may be happy with it but if you see something that *customers' could find better, then it's worth mentioning

 

Completely agree with you. From my point of view I would have addressed issues and changes before submitting to the client (that is, if it has been finalised). In the past I've created sites to then go back to the client saying 'we should change this that and the other' and they haven't be too impressed. Either that or created more work for myself when it should have been done from the outset.

 

My other motive for not criticising is that this new member has only recently built the site and signed up to the community. I notice a pattern in a lot of people focusing too much on one project - notably personal portfolio sites - again and again. Sometimes I think there comes a time when you need to move on and perhaps come back to an older project at a later date. Of course, I think we need to meet high standards at all times and it's not a case of 'knocking out site after site without can care for web standards, design principles, etc...

 

Just in case I've given the wrong impression, as I said, I completely agree with your critique. Just justifying myself and why I'm wearing my nice/sitting on the fence cap

Thanks for all the advice! Im going to take it all on board and make a few tweaks.

 

Luckily the customer is a friend of mine so i can make all the changes etc with no worries. Im still waiting on content hence why the terms & conditions etc dont work properly yet. I put it online with only the first few pages working so people could see the work they have done and get in touch with them if needs be.

 

Ill be having a mess about with it this week and ill post any changes i have made once i have done them.

 

Again thanks for the advice, as a novice the tips and changes you have given me are really valuable to me!!

 

I love this forum

 

Russ

"the space at the very top of the site is too tight - either remove it or make it around 25px" - i was trying to get rid of it completely but couldnt figure out how to do it!!

 

"really avoid using tables for anything that's not tabular data: make yor nav with a list (it is a list of links afterall)" - again i was trying to do it as a list but couldnt get it to look right, so i figured a table would be the easier option.

 

Any assistance to these issues would be greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Russ

Edited September 25, 201313 yr by russ130380

in your css add this to the body so it reads

body {
	background-repeat: no-repeat;
	height: auto;
	width: auto;
	background-color: #FFCCFF;

margin:0;
padding:0;
}

i'll get back to you on the navigation...

thankyou very much dap!! much appreciated

ok i started to play wiht your page but the coded is a bit too here and there

 

rather than using a transitional doctype you should really be using html5

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_doctype.asp

 

and it would be a lot easier for you in the long run if you had used php then you could include the header, nav, footer in the html, but hey that could be for next time

 

move your css into the external stylesheet. in the mystyle.css there's a reference to base.css but i coudln't find it?!

 

for a simple simple list try http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/horizontal01.htm and for explantion on how it works step by step see http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listutorial/horizontal_introduction.htm

 

or http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_navbar.asp

 

it's up to you if you want to mess about with the site structure anymore now it's live - but if you do BACKUP first and try it on a test page to see how you get on - nothing worse than breaking a live site, friend or no friend as a client

 

 

i was going to suggest these changes for the main text

 

.background .wrapper .content .content_text {
	font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 16px;
  line-height:1.4;
	color: #333;
	padding: 25px;
	margin: 5px;
}

but there are heights on the divs so the layout breaks if you increase text size (not very nice for those with poorer eyesight that need at least the browser default 16px text size to read comfortably) you could use the 25px of padding though to line things up and give them a bit more room easy fix

 

to be honest if you start playing around with it too much you might end up breaking it and being angry with me so it may be better to leave it and either use a local copy on your own machine to play with or just bear it in mind for next time.

 

 

how did you build the site ? was it an online sitebuilder? best to stay away from those to be honest if you have a local copy you could make a backup of it then play with it

 

hope i didn't confuse you too much - you've done really well for your first site and you have a happy client which is the main thing at the end of the day

Edited September 26, 201313 yr by dap

Ill deffo try out all you have suggested. the things you have mentioned will no doubt make the whole site better.

 

I am still studying and havent quite got to the php side of things yet. But its something ill look into in the future for sure

 

I think that base.css was from the carousel i used as its one i found online. I have been using dreamweaver as a text editor and i think that puts it as transitional as default so ill change that as well.

 

Ill have a mess around with the site files i have on my laptop and let you know how it looks

 

Again thanks alot for the advice, its much appreciated!!

i do prefer that font for sure, i might have to alter the background image with the scroll work and also the content image with the gradient as when it repeats it dont look too good. Ill have a mess about with the images at some point today

or is there anyway i can get the repeat at the bottom to mirror the top image? so the light area will match up

either extend the image or then simply make it a solid colour behind the background image to match the bottom of the image, if i understand what you mean

Yeah i get ya! , ill have a crack at that later. Nice one!!

i was having a bit of a play ..

http://gekkoweb.com/diverse-gifts/

 

and noticed a typo on the first page "...you're able to give a magical gift"

dap....you are a legend!! That looks so much better, how did you get the background image like that? Did you have to mess about with it in photoshop?

 

I already have a replacement to the 'Welcome to Diverse....' banner sorted which im going to add in.

 

Im thinking about maybe making the nav text a bit more fancy, maybe buttons perhaps?

 

You have given me a lot of really helpful info and ideas which i will definatly implement, even the small details like font choice. I guess that's the difference between a novice and an experienced designer......fingers crossed ill get there myself one day!!

 

Much love for the assistance!!

copied and rotated the background layer and used a large soft brush to delete the edges so it transitioned into the background.

 

i really think some headings (but written better than mine would invite people into that chunk of text and let users scan the subheadings quickly if they're not the extensive reading types

I quite like the headings personally, Ill ask my mate who the site is for if they would like to suggest anything. I sorted the background out by mirroring it, i think it looks ok. I have just started designing a site for myself and could do with some constructive criticism on the design thus far. I personally quite like it

don't underline text that isn't a link unelss the underline goes the whole width of the container...

 

text and elements need more padding

 

it's hard to pull of a monotonous site i.e. only black and white.

 

gradients that go from full colour/black saturation to white look amateurish - when you loko at coloured object with som part in shade and some in the light they are all tones and shades of the same colour - never pure white or black!